4D toys look like a lot of fun. Something something raising a child in 4D VR something something ethics something.
Colour and language. Although not all languages have the same colours, languages appear to develop names for colours in the same order. Red, green, yellow, blue, orange.
Do you program with tabs or spaces? Apparently those who use spaces make more money. I guess I'll have to switch. (But they line up so nicely...)
Ribosomal regulation of translation. This is big news, given that we assumed ribosomes translated without preference to mRNA. The paper seems to indicate that it's due to specificity to the 5'UTR, which is where the ribosome binds. Ribosomal sigma factors?
So...apparently a female-only species of salamander mates with males of other species...and uses an equal mix of the DNA of up to three different males in their offspring. Apparently the terminology is called kleptogenesis, which seems fitting.
How to starve a cancer. Step one: hit with doxycycline, to shut down the mitochondria, to make the cancer dependent on glycolysis. Step two: add Vitamin C, to inhibit glycolysis. Apparently Vitamin C does everything.
Bird song differentiation is genetic. Which I like, because it reinforces the concept of Fisherian runaway.
E-cigarettes are still pretty bad for your health, independent of nicotine. But at least they're less addictive.
Jupiter has another two moons. Sooner or later we're going to have to add the classification of "dwarf moons".
Parts of the brain generate less activity when unconscious, which is evidence against consciousness being a full-brain emergent behaviour. At least in ferrets.
Another great picture: mosquito-killing fungus. A genetically engineered, part spider, part scorpion, part fungus. Well, mostly fungus. But still. And it glows.
Chemical-induced tanning in cultured human skin. Without the DNA damage, but probably using the same pathway.
Art makes you happy, colouring makes you sad. Which says nothing about the evolution benefit about the appreciation of art. Chalk it up to Fisherian runaway again.
This frustrates me. None of these words are the colour they're supposed to be.
Hansel & Gretel, by Ai Weiwei (and others).
Nearly all stars are born in pairs. Including our own.
More paintable solar panels, this time producing hydrogen instead of electricity. Paintable solar panels will a huge innovation, along with paintable screens and other such inventions.
Pupil dilation changes in response to words. Specifically, words associated with light and darkness. I would like to see this test done with second languages and unknown languages, just to see how they compare, or if there's a greater delay in processing.
To test how a current, non-pandemic bird flu can become pandemic, scientists mutated parts of bird flu to make it infect humans. Really, you could have stopped at the computer models, and even so, you published so now anyone can go out and make their own pandemic bird flu.
A case of gonadal mosaicism. Just your reminder that your body probably has multiple genomes, so single genome sequencing won't solve everything. Nothing solves everything.
All antibiotics (and antibiotic resistance) come from the soil. Or, soil bacteria. Actinomyces, also the cause of petrichor.
A formal proof for the Kepler conjecture, for the best possible packing of spheres in a container. Apparently the author wrote the proof in 1998, but it took until now for a rewrite and a computer to double check to make sure it's correct. On the topic of impossible to prove mathematical proofs, the ABC conjecture has a proof that nobody understands. Although in this case, the author is quite unhelpful, not wanting to discuss his work.