Science online, where no one has gone before edition

To the best of my knowledge, Spock never scanned sushi. Image via Frankie's Soapbox.

• Congratulations! To the winners of the first ScienceSeeker Awards.
• It was only logical. How DNA barcoding may be making (one of) the capabilities of Mr. Spock's tricorder a reality.
• I'm shocked. Shocked! Pest control company distributes guide to "USA spiders" including species not found in the U.S., misinformation about toxicity.
• For a given value of "fame." Towards a mechanistic theory of fame in science.
• Perspective. Why barns are traditionally painted red, in the most ultimate sense.
• Cool. Land plants detect attacking aphids on other plants via mycorrhizal fungi.
• Good luck? On the widely-reported Chinese study of genetic variation underlying intelligence.
• Haven't we already decided that's bad? How discussion around that widely-reported Chinese study of genetic variation underlying intelligence is getting worryingly eugenical.
• Skeptically. How to write about science—as well as how to read about it.
• Oy. How really not to write about science—by taking scientists' words completely out of context.

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Equality

The dome of the Minnesota State Capitol. Photo by ckschleg.

Almost exactly six months after the election in which Minnesotans decided they didn't want their state constitution to ban the legal recognition of same-sex relationships, their elected representatives provided that very recognition.

Last Thursday the state House passed a bill allowing the state to recognize same-sex couples in all the same ways it recognizes straight couples; today the Senate passed it, too; and tomorrow Governor Dayton will sign it into law. It's almost exactly two years since another bunch of state legislators passed bills to amend the state constitution with a ban on same-sex marriage—which makes this some kind of record turn-around.

Science online: Opening lab closets everywhere edition

Do we have enough time to teach conservatives about climate science before the storm hits? Photo by oldbilluk.

• In which I take a crack at social science. I'm collaborating on a survey of queer folks working in STEM fields! Have you taken it yet?
• Which history goes back farther than you knew. A historical perspective on colony collapse disorder in bees.
• Chicken, egg? When Republican voters understand climate science, they want someone to do something about climate change.
• Not even the real-world-possible version from 2001. Why the International Space Station doesn't have artificial gravity.
• Holy poop! Scicurious reveals her "real" name.
• It's not going away any time soon. More on political interference with peer review.
• But still not the original human language! Linguists identify 23 words in European, Asian, and Inuit languages that have shared roots in a common ice-age-era language.
• The better to evade bats with, my dear. Drab little moth sets record for sensitive hearing.
• See also Ecclisiastes. Scientific fraud: all of this has happened before.
• It's the little things. On making a lab a nice place to work.
• More sampling = better, as usual. Ground-truthing the data in public databases of plant traits.
• An object lesson in coalescent processes. Why it's not all that impressive to discover you're descended from Charlemagne.

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"This is water," now in convenient filmic format

Via Slate's Brow Beat blog, and just in time for graduation season, David Foster Wallace's perennially apt commencement address has been adapted into a video.¹



And, lest you think that this only applies to all those bright-eyed twenty-year-olds in the silly hats, see also.◼

¹ There are actual, onscreen footnotes, even though I'm pretty sure the original didn't have any, but I guess they're there because, DFW.

Holy poop! Scicurious is pseudonymous no more

Super-blogger Scicurious is taking off the mask. Metaphorically speaking.



Her full statement is over at her Scientific American blog.

I've known Scicurious as an Internet friend for years now, even met her at ScienceOnline, and gone running with her, and I never knew "real" name. She was totally cool about the use of the pseudonym, politely but firmly protective of her other identity. But it's still very nice to meet Bethany Brookshire. It feels, just a little bit, like she's come out of ... well, maybe not the closet. Some sort of smaller-than-necessary, confining space with opaque walls. Er.

Anyway: Congratulations, Bethany! It turns out that I love your work.◼

New project: Surveying LGBTQ folks working in science

Photo by Julio Martinez.

I'm pleased and excited to announce that a project I've been working on for the last few months is finally ready to launch: A new, nationwide survey of queer folks working in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Carl Zimmer on the evolution of feathers, animated

Clever, informative, beautiful.



Via CZ, and many of the more discerning parts of the Internet.◼