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.

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.

So here we are then with this month’s selection of links to items you may have missed the first time round. There’s a lot her again this month, and as usual we’ll start with the “harder” science-y stuff and slalom downhill from there.

Science, Technology & Natural World

So are we alone in the universe? Maybe or maybe not. Science doesn’t know. [£££]

The Earth’s tectonic activity might be essential for the evolution of life.

Most of us hate the sound of our own voices when we hear recordings. Here’s why.

A New Yorker article on the obsessive search for the Tasmanian Tiger (aka. Thylacine). [VERY LONG READ]

Balls! The males of all mammals have them, but not all are on display: some species don’t have descended testicles.

Who could have predicted that crows can work a vending machine – and make their own tokens.

That clean swimming pool smell … turns out it isn’t too good for you!

Health & Medicine

There’s this yeast; it’s a strange and deadly superbug.

So just how easy is it to catch germs from a toilet seat?

Women’s healthcare could be normalised by employers understanding the need for menstrual leave.

Low risk of breast cancer? Seems like skipping that mammogram isn’t such a bad idea.

Two items on fish oil and Omega-3 supplements. A study by the Cochrane Institute (who are the gold standard of medical reviews) concludes the supplements give no protection against heart disease and stroke. And what’s more the second article points out that such supplements are doing immense harm to the planet.

There’s a better medicine for the elderly than umpteen pills. It’s called social prescribing, where GPs can signpost people to activities and support – except most don’t know what is actually available.

Sexuality

Do lesbians have better sex than straight women? Seems like they probably do.

Environment

I remember my father talking about this 50+ years ago, so it’s been known for years (and ignored) that we need to look after and repair the soil to grow crops sustainably and with good yields.

Timber! So just how are tree trunks cut to make wood with a range of uses and appearances?

Social Sciences, Business, Law

Now I was suggesting this as a corporate strategy some 12 or more years ago, and it has taken this long for someone to catch on: accountancy giant PwC is making employees use mobile phones and cancelling landlines.

History, Archaeology & Anthropology

Archaeologists have unearthed an unknown Neolithic site near Woodbridge in Suffolk. Ritual is suspected.

IanVisits pays a visit to Avebury Stone circle (above).

Ireland is having a hot, dry summer which is good for revealing crop marks of ancient remains. In one a drone has spotted the outline of a previously unknown henge near Newgrange.

Slightly nearer home, soldiers have found the skeleton of a Saxon warrior on Salisbury Plain.

There’s an unexpected cockatoo in the margins of a 13th-century manuscript in the Vatican. And it’s forcing a rethink of the ancient trade routes.

Meanwhile on the north Kent coast a 16th-century shipwreck is being revealed by the sea, and it too is expected to reveal a lot about trade in Tudor England.

Still on watery archaeology, there is a massive metro construction project in Amsterdam which is necessitating the clearance of some stretches of canal. The astonishing range of finds, right back into pre-history, has been put online.

London

Kew Gardens station has a remarkable concrete bridge. IanVisits goes to see.

The Horniman Museum in south-east London has a new World Display as well as being all-round interesting.

Lifestyle & Personal Development

Are things getting worse – or does it just feel that way?

And are women’s breasts getting bigger – or is it just bras? (Or is it just low levels of hormones in food?)

Some schools are banning girls from wearing skirts supposedly to protect the girls. But skirts aren’t the problem; the problem is boys who think girls are lesser creatures. No, just let girls and boys wear skirts, or trousers, as they please.

A parents’ guide to surviving children’s teen years.

So just why do people believe in superstition and the unbelievable?

People avoid adopting black cats because they’re supposed to be unlucky and because they are hard to photograph. Neither is actually true!

Ah yes, the cashless society. It’s another big con of the banking sector to boost its profits. As Sweden is beginning to realise, if you don’t have cash the whole of society is vulnerable to computer malfunction, attack and power failure. Just think about that for a minute.

Food & Drink

On the history of borscht.

Shock, Horror, Humour

And finally one from Norfolk Police, who stopped a motorist only to find he was driving while sitting on a bucket and steering with pliers!