Category Archives: links

environment, food+drink, links, medical, natural history, science

Monthly Links

Another month comes to a close so it is time for links to items you may have missed, but which I didn’t and collected for you!

Science, Technology & Natural World

Some elements amongst the physics community are determined that an even bigger particle collider than the current LHC at CERN is an utter waste of money.

Oh dear! It seems that at the end of WW2 the Allies managed to lose a few cubes of uranium from Germany’s failed nuclear programme.

We know that plants’ growth shows a high degree of symmetry, but how many of use realised it was quite this complicated?

Scientists reckon that plants can hear bees buzzing – and they then make their nectar sweeter.

Talking of hearing … it turns out bats can tune their sonar very effectively by constantly wiggling their ears.

When is a cuttlefish like a human? When it has arms. Apparently all creatures’ arms/limbs are built from the same set of genes, regardless of how many there are.

Health & Medicine

This month’s medical column is all about girlie parts, but the boys will want to be educated too …

Women are now asking if it is possible to have a better period (depending on their value of “better”)

According to a couple of old articles in the sacred Cosmopolitan there are nine different types of boobs and seven different types of labia. The good news is that they are all perfectly normal and nothing to be ashamed of.

The story of one survivor who is campaigning against the brutality of FGM.

Environment

It is suggested that urban trees live fast and die young compared with those in rural forests

Social Sciences, Business, Law

The current incumbent seems to get embroiled on controversy, but what really is the role of the Speaker of the House of Commons?

Language

Not everyone agrees that language is a living, evolving entity, so here are 19 of the most contentious linguistic disagreements.

History, Archaeology & Anthropology

I never knew that some of the Lewis Chessmen were missing, but it seems that one of the missing few has recently resurfaced.

High quality viniculture is turning out to be a lot older than expected.

Historians across the ages cannot agree, but it seems that Druids are fairly skilled at metamorphosis – either that or the historians are making it all up as they go along!

Lifestyle & Personal Development

Somewhere, high on the Tibetan plateau, is a matriarchal culture where men are never in charge and where the women don’t know who is the father of their children.

Back in the western world, people are asking what it means to be genetically Jewish, but maybe not culturally so.

There is more accumulating evidence that a long working week really is bad for your health, and that a shorter working week isn’t necessarily less productive.

When might a big earthquake hit Tokyo, and how is Japan preparing itself?

Taxidermy is often seen as a rather unsavoury hobby, but a growing number of women are making their mark as taxidermists.

Brad Warner, our favourite Zen Master, takes a somewhat sideways look at the way all things are connected.

Food & Drink

The public health lobby are worried that too many people are getting home hygiene wrong.

And finally … Master of Wine, Caroline Gilby, looks at how long to keep an opened bottle of wine, and what you can do with it. (No, I know. What is this commodity “spare wine”?)

More in a month. Enjoy the summer.

environment, history, links, medical, science

Monthly Links

OK, so it’s time again for our monthly selection of links to items you may have missed the first time. There’s a lot in this month’s selection so here goes …

Science, Technology & Natural World

The mobile 5G technology is supposed to be the great white wonder but there are fears it could jam weather forecasting satellites (and others?).

Beavers are in the news again. New Scientist ran an article on a secret site in England where beavers control the landscape [£££]. And in Scotland they have been given protected status.

Researchers reckon that (some) wasps are able to reason using logic. If true they would be the first insect known to do so. And in other buzzy news scientists tell us that we really should appreciate wasps.

Health & Medicine

We know we’re all subtly different, but it seems that some of us harbour mysterious variations like extra teeth and extra nipples.

Recent work has suggested that having your appendix removed can make you more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease. The Conversation takes a look and discovers there really is no good evidence one way or the other.

There are medical reasons why some men need to be circumcised, usually in adulthood, but for a few this creates more trauma than beforehand.

Scarleteen is a great Sex Education resource. Here they talk to one woman about her experience of having an abortion. [LONG READ]

Staying on women’s health … Just what does the menopause do to the body? [Includes video]

Sexuality

How one couple rejuvenated their marriage and got out of a “sex rut”.

Environment

New York is banning glass-clad skyscrapers and iconic architect Le Corbusier warned against them. Now it seems academics are also coming to the conclusion that glass skyscrapers are an environmental folly.

So who would have guessed that urban greening can save species, cool warming cities, and make us happy.

Art & Literature

The genius of Leonardo da Vinci came up with ideas for things like helicopters. Some of them aren’t as far-fetched as it seems.

History, Archaeology & Anthropology

A fossilised bone found years ago in a Tibetan cave turns out to be from a Denisovan, showing they were widespread across Asia. Which would account for the fact that Tibetan people carry a genetic mutation from Denisovans which allows them to function at high altitude.

New Scientist tells the story of the Yamnaya who conquered Europe about 5000 years ago in what seems to have been a fairly bloody era. [LONG READ] [£££]

Here we go again … Yet another academic thinks he has uncovered the secret of the Voynich manuscript. I wonder.

Somewhat echoing my sentiments, Oxford Historian Amanda Power sets out a case for not restoring Notre Dame but keeping it as a symbol of our flawed lifestyle(s). Oh and, I believe, as a teaching aid for historians and architects.

London

London is in danger of flooding and the Thames Barrier is coming to the end of its design life. So what can be done?

London is full of statues. Diamond Geezer looks at a selection of royal ones.

In North London there is a botanical garden that’s home to a variety of bits of London no-one else wanted. It sounds worth a visit.

We all know about the ravens at the Tower of London, but now they have their first raven chicks for 30 years.

Lifestyle & Personal Development

One Guardian journalist took a lot of tests to try to find out if she was being poisoned by modern life.

So you really need five reasons to be naked in your garden! OK, here they are.

Food & Drink

Finally, one to gladden the hearts of many of my friends … Belgian monks have resurrected a 220-year-old beer after deciphering the recipe. And they’re brewing it!

More goodies next month! Cheers! Hic!

history, links, medical, science, sexuality

Monthly Links

It’s that time again! Time for our monthly round-up of items you may have missed the first time. Let’s go …

Science, Technology & Natural World

DNA isn’t the only intricate code used by life. There’s a really subtle and intricate coding of sugars coating every cell (diagram below). [£££]
Here’s another look from The Conversation.

DNA continues to shine light on the domestication of dogs.

From dogs to cats … apparently cats can recognise their own names. They just take no notice!

A “missing link” four-legged fossil shows how walking whales learned to swim. [£££]

Meanwhile the Antarctic Icefish expands our surprise at the variety of colours of blood.

Asian hornets (above) predate honeybees and are an invasive, alien, pest as they have no natural controls in Europe. Much as it grieves me to see anything destroyed (and especially given my defence of wasps) we are being asked to report any sightings. London’s Natural History Museum provides the low-down, identification guidance, and links for reporting sightings.

And now to the physical sciences …

Some brilliant science has led to the first picture of a black hole.

It has long been known, but often disputed, that the Northern Lights make a noise. Now scientists have worked out how this might happen. [£££]

Clouds of hot volcanic gas, rocks etc. (pyroclastic flow) can move at deadly speed. It seems the speed of pyroclastic flow is is due to a “hovercraft effect”.

Health & Medicine

It seems we’re getting our calorie counting all wrong.

Which brings us nicely to the understanding that our microbiomes need fibre to flourish and not the oft believed fermented foods.

This American woman lived to be almost 100 despite having almost all her organs in the wrong places.

The story of one young lady with an unusually obstinate hymen.

Sexuality

Well, yes, as you might expect, sex therapists really do hear it all.

So then, girls, how do you perk up your breasts? Spolier: you can’t. [£££]

Laura Dodsworth muses on vulvas, vaginas and the stigma of talking about them.

Environment

We know the Chernobyl disaster was caused by errors, but it was also followed by cover-ups.

Social Sciences, Business, Law

Article 13 is the EU’s new rules on online copyright enforcement. So what is it all about? [£££]

Art & Literature

There has been dispute over the authorship of Beowulf for many years. Now the latest research suggests it was the work of a single author.

History, Archaeology & Anthropology

One day, long, long ago, a humongous meteor crashed into Earth causing the death of the dinosaurs. Now one maverick palaeontologist believes he’s found a fossil site encapsulating the instant of the disaster. [LONG READ] [£££]
And here are two somewhat shorter summary articles: the first from New York Times [£££], the second from National Geographic.

Slightly more up to date, palaeontologists have discovered what they believe is another “human” species in a Philippine island cave.

So did Homo sapiens inter-breed with Denisovans more recently than we previously thought? [£££]

It seems that the Ancient Egyptians mummified mice (above)!

Experts now tell us that the Romans brought rabbits to Britain. Did we not already know this?

Dutch marine salvage teams, looking for lost shipping containers, have found the remains of ship wrecked in 1540 complete with its cargo of copper plates.

London

Although this is 18 months old, it is worth highlighting the disgraceful decay of the Houses of Parliament.

The Victoria & Albert Museum has a cast of Trajan’s Column. Now you can stand inside it.

Lifestyle & Personal Development

And finally … Japan is entering a new era wth the abdication of Emperor Akihito on 1 May 2019. The reign of each Emperor is given a name (gengo), which is used in the Japanese calender (alongside the Western calender). Emperor Akihito’s current gengo, Heisei, which means “achieving peace”. The era of the new Emperor, Naruhito, will be called Reiwa (right), signifying order and harmony.

history, links, medical, people, science

Monthly Links

Here we go again with this month’s pointers to curiosities you missed earlier. Not so much science this month!

Science, Technology & Natural World

Scientists are resurrecting some old, apparently safer and greener, nuclear technology.

Mice sing. They sing in ultrasound which we can’t hear (but apparently cats can). And they sing politely to each other!

Health & Medicine

Medics have discovered only the second ever known pair of semi-identical (or sesquizygotic) twins. It’s a weirdness we were always told couldn’t happen; obviously it can but very, very rarely.

Many of us know someone who has panic attacks; some of us even suffer ourselves. Here are seven ways in which you can help someone through a panic attack.

Social Sciences, Business, Law

So many top leaders seem to be totally incompetent. So just how do incompetent men rise to the top?

It was hard to decide where best to put this next item … Researchers are suggesting that “big religion” may be being given too much credit for the evolution of modern society. But how will we ever know?

History, Archaeology & Anthropology

Palaeontologists have discovered an enormous haul of very well preserved, 500 million year old, fossil species in China.

Recently unearthed archaeological evidence suggests that humans have been living in Australia since about 120,000 years ago – that’s twice as long as previously thought.

Somewhat nearer our times, archaeologists have found the wreck of a ship in the Nile which shows that Herodotus was right about Ancient Egyptian shipbuilding almost 2500 years ago.

And coming almost up to date, DNA testing has shown that the crew of Henry VIII’s ship Mary Rose was from the Mediterranean and North Africa.

Lifestyle & Personal Development

Excellence is something we all strive for. But the thought now is that excellence is overrated, even destructive, and we should be cultivating “good enough”.

The world is getting more and more extrovert, so us introverts are feeling more and more guilty at declining invitations or struggling through social obligations. Here’s how one young woman learnt to accept her introversion.

Food & Drink

A company called Garçon Wines is proposing to make flat, rectangular wine bottles from PET plastic. Maybe they’re not as elegant as round bottles but they apparently save huge amounts on shipping and are recyclable.

People

Many of us have small, insignificant birthmarks, but congenital melanocytic naevus (CMN), where birthmarks cover a large area of the skin, is quite rare. It can also be very emotionally disturbing. Now 30 people with CMN have been photographed almost nude for an international exhibition by Brock Elbank. The aim is to make everyone, sufferers and the public, more comfortable with CMN.

More next month …

history, links, medical, science, sexuality

Monthly Links

So here goes with this month’s selection of items you may have missed the first time round. And there is quite a lot in this month!

Science, Technology & Natural World

Death-Cap Mushrooms are spreading across North America. But why? [LONG READ]

If you don’t like stinging things, look away now … The world’s largest bee has been found in Indonesia, after having not been seen for almost 40 years. And as stinging things go, it is huge!

One from the “I didn’t know that” box … Apparently (and I’ve not yet tried this) grapes can ignite in the microwave. And now scientists have worked out why.

After a long period of relative stagnation, scientists are now trying to work out why the magnetic north pole is moving fast towards Russia.

Health & Medicine

There are male and female brains, right? Wrong; there aren’t; just brains which are moulded slightly differently by our sexist culture.

The hormone testosterone is the thing which makes boys, well boys. Well not entirely: there’s also androsterone which is not produced in the testes. Also it seems that boys also go through several periods of “puberty”.

It seems that there are molecules in ginger which can remodel our microbiome (the flora & fauna that live in our guts).

Sexuality

Book Review: 100 women reveal their vulvas in words and pictures.

The clitoris is a gift, and we need to get over this if we are to really tackle FGM.

The Crown Prosecution Service has decided that pornographic adult consensual sex is no longer taboo. “In principle, anything which is legal to consent to doing is now legal to consent to distribute images of, providing the likely audience is over the age of 18.”

Apparently the female human body blocks weak sperm. Well who would have guessed?

Social Sciences, Business, Law

Ocado, the grocery supplier, recently lost a huge warehouse to a major fire. BBC reporter Zoe Kleinman visited one of their warehouses to see how their leading edge automation in action.

Art & Literature

After far too many years, the British Library are finally making their collection of obscene writing more generally available online – through accredited institutions and in their reading rooms.

London’s National Portrait Gallery has an exhibition of Elizabethan miniatures by Hilliard and Oliver, including one of Sir Walter Ralegh (right).

History, Archaeology & Anthropology

There is a cave, in Siberia’s Altai Mountains, where Neandertals and Denisovans set up home – and it’s challenging our view of cultural evolution.

The first evidence of beer brewing in Britain has been found in Cambridgeshire.

At the other end, the remains of a three person, 12th-century, loo seat is going on display at the Museum of London Docklands.

A guy called John Harding has spent the last 20 years tracking down and cataloguing carvings of naked women showing off their genitals (aka. Sheela-na-gigs) on Britain’s churches.

After which we can only go to the gateway to Hell! A cave in Nottinghamshire has been found to contain a huge number of anti-witch graffiti.

HMS Victory – taht’s the one before the famous one – is an abandoned shipwreck in the English Channel. And now there’s an argument over whether it should be raped by archaeologists or left to decay in peace.

London

Ianvisits goes to London’s newest cathedral.

Lifestyle & Personal Development

In Sweden there’s a “stylish” shopping mall where everything is recycled, reused or upcycled.

There are people around who have decided to make not buying new closthes a lifestyle and a business.

Women across the world stopped depilating for Januhairy. Here four of them talk about what they learnt.

There’s a new emoji for menstruation. But it seems to me, and many others, to be a bit too weak.

Fed up with being positive all the time? Then don’t. Take note of what makes you annoyed and feel negative; and just see the benefits!

Food & Drink

So do you eat mouldy jam? The Prime Minister says she does, but should you? The experts consider.

Shock, Horror, Humour

And finally … There’s a woman in Glasgow who can taste your name. I feel for all the jacks and Johns out there.

Toodle Pip.

environment, history, links, medical, science

Monthly Links

So here we are for our last post of 2018, and this month’s links to items you may have missed before. As usual we’ll start with the scientific and get easier as we go along – so hang in there!

Science, Technology & Natural World

Forty-one years ago (that’s 1977) NASA launched the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes to investigate the outer planets. Voyager 1 left the solar system and entered interstellar space some six years ago. And it has now been confirmed that Voyager 2 passed the same landmark on 5 November 2018. Amazingly both probes are still alive and beaming information back to us using their tiny 20w transmitters, although their plutonium power sources will eventually run out and the probes will be dead on arrival at a nearby star in about 40,000 years time. What an incredible achievement! It is feats like this that make me proud to be a scientist.

We know earthquakes mostly happen along the boundaries of tectonic plates. But not all do; some happen far from plate boundaries. Seismologists are now beginning to think that (some of) these “remote” earthquakes may be caused by rivers moving huge amounts of material over the millennia.

Benjamin Franklin is well known for many things, one of them being his experiments with kites and lightning which led to his development of the lightning conductor. But he had another great electrical discovery to his credit: turkey tenderisation – in the process of which he nearly killed himself.

I wonder if anyone can tell us what glitter is, and how it’s made?

Apparently the Leaning Tower of Pisa is leaning a little less.

Wasps. And why we might miss them.

Where grows the mistletoe?

Health & Medicine

1918 saw the destructive Influenza Pandemic. What progress has been made since then?

Meanwhile we have few clues about Disease X, the next pandemic to hit London – as one surely will sooner or later.

Researchers reckon they’ve discovered a genetic cause that links erectile dysfunction and Type-2 diabetes.

Are you shitting comfortably? Actually, probably not. [LONG READ]

So why are more boys born than girls – especially when there are more adult women than men?

Sexuality

The Going Medieval blog dissects the very idea of No Nut November. [LONG READ]

Environment

The Guardian suggests 24 ways in which we can embrace an anti-capitalist life in a capitalist world.

And then here are four actions would help tackle the global plastic crisis.

History, Archaeology & Anthropology

Researchers reckon they’ve found stone tools which suggest that human ancestors spread into north Africa much earlier than previously thought.

Analysis of various records has highlighted London’s murder hotspots.

Meanwhile in the River Thames there is the mystery of the skeleton still wearing his thigh boots.

When and where were the first traffic lights? Answer: Parliament Square in 1868 – long before the motor car.

Lifestyle & Personal Development

Some thoughts on how to be a better spouse from Scientific American.

And finally for this year …

Since 1904, King William’s College on the Isle of Man has set an annual general knowledge test. In the past pupils sat the test twice: once unseen on the day before the Christmas holidays, and again when they returned to school in the New Year, after spending the holiday researching the answers. The test (now voluntary) is highly difficult, a common score being just two correct answers from the 180 questions, with best scores of 40 to 50 for the unseen test. The quiz has been published in the Guardian since 1951 – and you can find the 2018 test in the Guardian or on the King William’s College website. Good luck!

That’s all for this year, so here’s wishing everyone a peaceful and successful 2019. The Kindly Ones permitting we’ll be back after the fireworks.

history, links, medical, science, sexuality

Monthly Links

WTF happened there? Where has this year gone? It’s already the end of November and we’re deep into SAD season. But let’s not despair ‘cos here’s our monthly selection of links to items you might have missed the first time round.

Science, Technology & Natural World

If you’re an AI designer the Law of Unintended Consequences is never far away. Such systems are well known for gaming the system with a solution that satisfies the stated objective but fails to solve the problem according to the human designer’s intent. There’ll be some examples at the end of this post.

A violent storm on the Sun could cripple communications on Earth and cause huge economic damage, but why are solar storms such a threat?

Health & Medicine

Here are six surprising drug interactions which often fly under the radar but which you should know about. Even I knew about only two of them.

This one is definitely straight out of the “I Don’t Believe It” drawer … apparently llama blood may provide clues to beating the flu.

Researchers at the University of Portsmouth are investigating how the proportion of fat and glandular tissue affects the perkiness of boobs, and why one bra design doesn’t fit all.

Our favourite OB/GYN, Dr Jen Gunter, takes a look at the menopause, and her personal experience in deciding how to manage it.

GPs in England are being encouraged to prescribe social activities to their patients as part of the government’s strategy to combat loneliness. But this is raising some ethical questions: are the consequences acceptable and does the initiative respect people as people?

As so often, the ancient Chinese had an inventive way of doing things: pay your doctor as long as you’re healthy; when you’re sick they’ve failed and don’t get paid.

Sexuality

Here’s one good example of why we must not be too scared to talk about teenagers having sex.

Labour MP Jess Phillips is campaigning to ensure girls are taught about their sexuality from a young age so they form healthy sexual relationships as adults and not just “how to handle and dispose of men’s pleasure safely”. Read her views here and here.

On the other side of the coin, a survey confirms that stress damages many people’s sex lives.

So now relax ‘cos you’re unlikely to be masturbating too much.

Environment

Scientific American looks at why we really do need innovative nuclear power.

History, Archaeology & Anthropology

Researchers have been taking an in depth look at Neanderthal teeth, and discovering some surprisingly intimate details of their daily life.

Meanwhile others have been dating the oldest known animal painting which has been found in a cave in Borneo. I’m glad they know it’s an animal.

Still with animals but much closer to home, archaeologists at the Vindolanda fort have uncovered a Roman dog with fur intact. Well they say it’s Roman, but they also say it is 2000 years old: both cannot be true!

Yet another group, this time at the British Museum, have been delving into Egyptian fashion and examining a 1700-year-old child’s left sock.

Since Ancient Roman times, and right up to Hollywood, witches have been seen as figures of fun as well as malevolence.

From at least 1000 years ago the Peruvians were into making holes in their heads.

Finally in this section, and coming almost up to date, a dredging project at Blenheim Palace has uncovered over 30 rooms flooded when Capability Brown created the estates lakes.

Food & Drink

The Marine Conservation Society has been looking at the humble fish finger and found that they are surprisingly sustainable and some of the best products to buy are also the cheapest.

Shock, Horror, Humour

Finally, we promised some more on the unintended consequences of AI. There are quite a few examples in a Google document, including these two:

A self-driving car which was rewarded for speed learnt to spin in circles.

In an artificial life simulation where survival required energy but giving birth had no energy cost, one species evolved a sedentary lifestyle that consisted mostly of mating in order to produce new children which could be eaten (or used as mates to produce more edible children).

Remember: If a system can be gamed, someone or something will game it.

Enjoy your Christmas turkey!

environment, history, links, medical, science

Monthly Links

So here’s our monthly selection of links to items you may have missed, but will wish you hadn’t. As usual we’ll start with the science-y stuff and go downhill from there.

Science, Technology & Natural World

Astronomers are still on the hunt for “Planet 9” which they think lies way beyond Pluto. And they’ve found a strange, but small, object – nicknamed “The Goblin” – which may provide more clues on where they should be looking.

At home, researchers are looking at the effects of climate change and rising sea levels, and asking which cities will sink into the sea first. The answer may not be what one would intuitively expect.

Talking of the sea, it’s long been thought that few things predated jellyfish, but this turns out to be wrong.

Meanwhile on land it is being suggested that cats are pretty useless at catching rats and prefer smaller prey. Well they had better not tell our felines that!

However the ability of crows to make tools is giving some insights into how the brain generally works.

I wasn’t sure whether this next item belongs here or under “Environment” but it is sufficiently technical I left it here … It is being suggested that we could store unpredictable energy, like solar and wind, using compressed air. It sounds crazy, but might work.

Health & Medicine

There’s a muscle-weakening disease popping up in America which affects children and looks a lot like polio (but isn’t). And weirdly it seems to have a two-year cycle.

Are you like me and have problems with sleep? If so it may be that you’re over-tired.

Still thinking bout sleep, a researcher seems to have worked out why it is that we take so long to wake up and get going in the mornings. And that caffeine doesn’t actually help.

But then it is being recognised that people sometimes just give up and die.

At the other end of the spectrum, there are women who suffer from tokophobia: an extreme fear of pregnancy and childbirth.

Finally in this section, here’s a piece about the medicinal leech and how to farm it. They’re strange beasties with 10 stomachs, 32 brains and 18 testicles!

Art & Literature

No good adventure story, and many others, would be complete without a good map. Here a few writers tell of their favourite literary maps.

History, Archaeology & Anthropology

There’s a puzzle in ancient historical research: how do we know which historical accounts are true? And as one professional demonstrates it isn’t as simple as all oral history is make-believe.

Opium has been known and used for more than 7,000 years. There’s a new book Milk of Paradise: A History of Opium by Lucy Inglis, reviewed in History Today.

King Henry I is said to have died of a surfeit of lampreys, and now archaeologists in London have found lamprey teeth in a medieval layer near the Mansion House. Although lampreys were a medieval delicacy, their teeth are rare (these are the first found in London, and only the second in the UK) as they are made of keratin (like nails and hooves) rather than dental enamel.

Someone has found an old red velvet bag (right) in a Tudor house once occupied by Walter Raleigh’s son and widow. They think it may have been used to carry around Raleigh’s mummified head. It looks more like a 1970s girl’s gym kit bag to me!

London

Have you ever wondered just how much stuff any city transport system actually owns. Here Diamond Geezer looks at Transport for London’s assets, and the scale is somewhat frightening!

Lifestyle & Personal Development

One scientist is annoyed that the likes of the media won’t recognise that her doctorate confers the title “Dr” – because she’s not medic. I find the medical profession are the worst offenders in this regard.

We all doodle, at least sometimes. It turns out your doodles could be important and meaningful.

The ability to do simple, “order of magnitude”, calculations on the back of an envelope is important for learning, verifying your answers and demystifying things like geological time. It is something I was taught, at school as a teenager, to check if answers to science/maths exam questions were likely to be right – and it has turned out to be an invaluable skill.

And finally this month … A Buddhist look at trigger warnings and fixing the world. TL;DR: don’t.

history, links, medical, natural history, science

Monthly Links

So here goes with this month’s outsized collection of links to items you may have missed.

Science, Technology & Natural World

Issus coleoptratusA few days ago I had a strange little bug in the house. It turned out to be the planthopper Issus coleoptratus. And I found out the nymphs of this insect are incredible as they have the only known mechanical gears ever found in nature. Here’s a piece about these gears.
[That’s my photo on the right.]

While we’re on strangenesses … What happens when octopus are give MDMA? Does it affect their distributed brain the same way it does ours? Well naturally scientists had to find out!

Many people don’t like termites (and for good reason) but they’re incredible insects which can actually teach us a lot. [VERY LONG READ]

Scientists have realised that they can mine twitter for observations of nature.

Fungi are another of the fascinating orders of nature.

Leaving the natural world behind, scientists have developed artificial genes which demonstrate that life does not have to be based on DNA. [£££££]

But then again, if there are dead civilisations out there in the cosmos, how are we going to conduct cosmic archaeology to search for them?

Health & Medicine

It seems that we dream even when under general anaesthetic. [£££££]

We all know that 98.6°F (37°C) is our normal body temperature. Except when it isn’t, of course.

So what is going on in our guts? And do probiotics actually make any difference?

The vagina is self-cleaning – so why does the ‘feminine hygiene’ industry exist?

100 years on from the Spanish flu and the disease still stalks us.

Many older people have been advised to take an aspirin a day, even if they don’t have symptoms of cardiovascular disease. Medics now think this is risky.

Men and women experience migraine attacks differently due to both physiology and sociology.

A new UK study of depression is recruiting 40,000 volunteers to find if there are genetic markers for the disease.

Sexuality

So what are the secrets to fulfilling sex in a long-term relationship? Seems like there’s no really special magic but lots of being.

Environment

Beavers are amazing creatures and it appears that they could have a role in combating climate change. (But you don’t ever want to have to sex one!)

How would you like a wolf living near you? Personally I’d rather like to have a wolf living in my area. How about you?

The National Trust in South Wales are experimenting with a return to medieval strip farming, and it sounds like an environmental win.

Finally someone has had the courage to call out what I’ve been suggesting for a long time: abandoning nuclear power could increase carbon emissions.

Art & Literature

Apparently the male nude is back in fashion in art circles.

History, Archaeology & Anthropology

Archaeologists were initially puzzled by the skeleton of a 3,000 year old ancient Greek female. But it turns out she was a master ceramicist.

A couple of years ago IanVisits went to Broughton Castle near Banbury. I went there recently during a conference in Oxford, and it is every bit as spectacular as IanVisits says.

In his late 17th century journal sailor Edward Barlow confessed to a rape. But he then covered it over and the evidence lay hidden until modern conservators got to work uncovering an intriguing tale.

Christopher Kissane in the Irish Times blows the lid on the historical nonsense which underpins UK’s Brexit floundering.

Lifestyle & Personal Development

From the annals of the unexpected … Many of us lack a degree of self-control, but researchers have shown that having a simple ritual can help.

We in Britain are losing our shared spaces (pubs, clubs, libraries, churches) and becoming more isolated and cliquey.

So how do you win friends and then keep them for years? Emma Beddington has some ideas.

Food & Drink

Britain’s Food Standards Agency has been testing meat products, and worrying they find 20% contain the DNA of animals they aren’t supposed to, and that it appears to be deliberate.

Shock, Horror, Humour

Finally this years Ig Nobel Prize winners were announced a week or so ago. DIY colonoscopy anyone? Or just the need to use a voodoo doll to get revenge on your boss?

environment, links, medical, natural history, science

Monthly Links

Herewith are the usual monthly collection of links to items you may have missed. It’s holiday season, so there’s not been so much of interest this month.

Science, Technology & Natural World

This year’s Royal Institution Christmas Lectures should be good. They’re titled “Who are You?” and will apparently be all about evolution and the rise of Homo sapiens. And who better to present them than the ever excellent Prof. Alice Roberts. But I bet there will only be three lectures again this year, rather than the original six.

Talking of human evolution, the latest research suggests that one of the last traits of our primate origins to disappear was our prehensile big toes.

More prosaically, it seems that the UK has this month been plagued by social wasps. I can’t say I’ve noticed, but here anyway are five reasons we should celebrate them. Oh and there’s another reason: our beloved honey bees are descended from ancient wasps.

I’ve seen it suggested that this is old news, but there are recent reports of Pine Marten recolonising the Kielder Forest for the first time in 90 years.

Health & Medicine

There’s a brilliant plan afoot to map the location of every publicly accessible defibrillator in the UK.

And a tragic story: how smallpox claimed it’s very last known victim here in the UK.

There’s new evidence that the HPV vaccine has been responsible for a huge reduction in the rate of cervical cancer. Even better is the news from last month that HPV vaccination is to be offered to teenage boys in England.

Apparently the idea that millions of sperm are in an Olympian race to reach the egg is yet another male fantasy about human reproduction. This Aeon piece has news of what actually seems to happen. [LONG READ]

I wasn’t sure whether to put this item under science or medicine, but here’s a piece of the chemistry of foxgloves, from which we still get the heart drug digoxin.

And here’s a strange phenomenon: aphantasia – the inability to picture things in one’s mind’s eye. It sounds as if there is a spectrum of aphantasia from very lucid to nothing; I suspect I’m somewhere in the lower half as the only pictures I have of events (even significant events like our wedding) are a few “snapshot” images, whereas other people I know can run everything in full HD video in their brains. It’s very curious.

Environment

Here’s another potentially disastrous new vanity project which George Monbiot has got his knife into: the Oxford-Cambridge Expressway. The article contains links to some of the official documentation, and it doesn’t look very pretty!

History, Archaeology & Anthropology

Researchers have made a very interesting discovery of an ancient hominid girl whose mother was a Neanderthal and father was a Denisovan. It suggests that hybridisation between hominid species, and especially our close relatives, was a lot more common than was suspected.

An interesting alternative theory about the development of major monuments like Stonehenge and Easter Island. [£££]

Yet more laboratory research has led investigators to unravel the recipe for Egyptian mummification.

It been a hot summer (although writing this over bank holiday weekend it doesn’t feel that way) and the lack of rain has been a great result for archaeologists as many hitherto unknown sites have become visible in crop marks. And the use of drones has made finding them so much easier than hitherto. [Mostly images]

London

One of our favourite London bloggers has undertaken an epic journey: across London on the 51½°N line of latitude. It is documented in a series of 12 posts of which this is the first – or you can have the whole 51½°N journey in a single post. [LONG READ]

Lifestyle & Personal Development

So what is it really like being an artist’s model? A handful off London’s life models give us a few insights.

Food & Drink

Gluten is getting a bad name. Are problems with gluten in the diet a fad? Or are they a real medical issue? Joanna Blythman in the Guardian looks at some of what seems to be happening. I think the jury is still out.

Despite many people’s dislike, we all know cabbage is good for you and now researchers are suggesting it may contain anti-cancer chemicals. Well if was good enough for Diogenes …

That’s all for this month; more at the end of September.