This month’s links to items you maybe didn’t want to miss …
Science, Technology, Natural World
It’s fairly superficial, but here are 15 common science myths debunked. [LONG READ]
Robin McKie reflects on over 40 years as the Observer‘s science editor. [LONG READ]
Pharmaceutical chemist Derek Lowe takes issue with the idea that we could kill off all disease within 10 years.
Meanwhile Corey S Powell discusses why it is that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence … [LONG READ]
… And Prof. Seirian Sumner outlines the how we might best create a more nature-literate society.
Somewhere hiding in Britain the government has a collection of deadly fungi.
The tiny and mysterious hominin Paranthropus lived alongside early members of our Homo genus. [££££]
After which it is maybe no great surprise that intelligence evolved at least twice in vertebrates. [LONG READ]
No wonder scientists have recently created the largest mammalian brain map to date. [££££]
Going back down the size scale … just how do insects and the smallest animals survive in Antarctica.
Still with insects, it turns out that flies are masters of migration, travelling huge distances.
Back up in size, a group claims to have de-extincted the Dire Wolf, but have they? Two articles (amongst the many in recent weeks): a blog post from Bethany Brookshire [LONG READ] and an op-ed from Michael Le Page in New Scientist [££££]. Spoiler: No they haven’t.
And now for something completely different … new work is finding that astronomers were wrong about Uranus and it resolves some mysteries.
Much more interestingly, astronomers are trying to work out what’s happening inside Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io.
Health, Medicine
Researchers are now beginning to understand the actual role of carbon dioxide in airborne disease transmission, and this should be a key to safer indoor spaces.
Professor of Mathematical Biology, Kit Yates, asks whether the risks of brain injury in contact sports is being overstated. [LONG READ]
Drinking urine is an ancient practice to improve health, but are the risks worth it?
Sexuality & Relationships
Dani Faith Leonard writes a review of the medical discovery of the clitoris, and takes a sideswipe at DOGE incels in the process.
Here’s a history of (not just pubic) hair removal through the ages. [LONG READ]
And then there’s a pictorial history of the “full bush”. [LONG READ]
Meanwhile a different sex writer talks about her approach to “self-pleasure”.
Now over to you boys … First off, just what is the relation of penis size to monogamy?
And when you’ve got over that shock … apparently you need to wake up to your declining fertility. [££££]
All together now … Here are some thoughts on why some marriages last while others fail.
Which brings us to various ways to improve a sexless marriage.
Social Sciences, Business, Law, Politics
Following which, this seems an opportune time to consider nine ways to spot falsehoods on the loose.
Art, Literature, Language, Music
So from a linguistics point of view apparently “she” is a very weird word. [LONG READ]
History, Archaeology, Anthropology
Archaeologists have uncovered a huge horad of Iron Age metal work; everything from cauldrons to horse harness fittings.
If you’re a Roman, how do you get a lion from Africa to York? Because a skeleton (presumably of a gladiator) in a Roman York cemetery has bite marks made by a lion and is the first physical evidence of gladiators (well people) fighting lions as sport.
History is sometimes hard to understand and interpret, but it seems Christopher Marlowe tackled the problematic Edward II.
Archaeologists in Barcelona have uncovered the remains of a wrecked medieval boat.
Mercury and weasel balls … medieval treatments so often make one doubt the sanity of ancient medicine.
Newly discovered wall paintings show off the tastes of wealthy Tudors.
And finally for this month … there’s a brouhaha over the display of a book bound in the skin of a 19th-century Suffolk murderer.