This week’s biggest stories
An excitingly space-y week with the launch of Nasa’s Osiris-Rex mission and the discovery of the final resting place of the Rosetta mission’s lost Philae lander. Not only is it something of a comfort to know where poor Philae ended up, but as Stuart Clark points out, now Philae has been found every ounce of science can be wrung out of it. Rather more Earthly concerns were reflected in a study which suggests that older men enjoying frequent sex have increased risk of heart problems. And finally, some fascinating research has come out of this year’s British Science Festival as well, including insights into why breastfeeding rates are so low, the sophisticated - and sometimes alarmingly fast - online grooming techniques sexual predators use and why women use egg freezing technology.
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Straight from the lab - top picks from our experts on the blog network
Can science ‘enrich the understanding but rob the imagination?’ | Notes & Theories
In his 1851 journal, Henry David Thoreau highlighted the tension between science and wonder. One winter sunset, admiring a crimson cloud hovering over the horizon, he wrote ‘You tell me it is a mass of vapor which absorbs all other rays and reflects the red,’ lamenting that ‘by [this] trick of science you … do me no service & explain nothing.’
Can the open hardware revolution help to democratise technology? | Political science
The list of open hardware available to people continues to grow. The Open Source Ecology group is even developing a Global Village Construction Kit of tools for self-sufficiency, from machine tools to housing to tractors and beyond. A ‘global commons’ of accessible tools is emerging.
Did milk and fur evolve before the earliest mammals? | Lost Worlds Revisited
Whiskers are a peculiarity of mammals. Figuring out when they first appeared isn’t easy, as they don’t preserve in the fossil record. Some scientists have proposed that non-mammalian animals from the late Permian and Early Triassic (therapsids and synapsids) possessed facial hair because they had small holes in the bones of their snout, thought to supply nerves for whiskers. However, these holes are also found in several types of lizard and snake – not animals famous for their whiskers.
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Monday Mind Games
This week is all about the phenomenon of change blindness. Our attention mechanism is amazing but no system is ever perfect. Our brain’s computational reserves are large but not infinite, and under the right conditions we can “break it” and peek behind the curtain. So here’s the challenge: mind gamers, put your attentional capacity to the test!
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Science Weekly podcast
A chance to catch up on this week’s podcast,focusing on the fate of Arctic sea ice. The extent of the Arctic sea ice continues to drop, but how accurate are the predictions that measure it? And what could happen if it finally disappears?
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Eye on science - this week’s top pictures
Archaeological excitement this week at the launch of a new website featuring 3D interactive renderings of skulls and artefacts from the sunken Tudor warship Mary Rose was made available for the public and academic researchers alike to explore.
