This week’s biggest stories
In a week in which Cambridge scientists created first artificial embryo from stem cells, the world’s oldest fossils were found in Canada and a heart tissue cryogenics breakthrough gave hope to transplant patients around the world, what were our readers most interested in? Wee in swimming pools. That’s right, watersports fans: urine luck, because scientists have developed test designed to estimate how much urine has been covertly added to a large volume of water. For the swimmers amongst you not keen to find out how polluted your pool is, console yourself - we did have other stories as well, including the intriguing news that woolly mammoths may have been silky-coated and suffering from a host of genetic mutations that aided their decline. Ok, it’s a bit of a downer, as is the news that being overweight (not just obese) is linked to an increased risk of 11 types of cancer, but don’t despair: we’ve got the answers to some of your questions on orgasm - most enlightening!
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Straight from the lab – top picks from our experts on the blog network
What drives the demand for rhino horns? | The H word
Conserved, inventoried, often micro-chipped and secured in strong rooms and safes, rhino horns are stockpiled largely because of their future market value. That future value rests on an assumption that the current high demand for rhino horn, predominantly for use in Vietnamese medicine, will continue indefinitely, and cannot be overcome or countered. That assumption itself rests in part on characterising the demand for rhino horns as ‘traditional’.
Fresh concerns raised over academic conduct of major US nutrition and behaviour lab | Head quarters
The head of Cornell University’s Food and Brand lab is facing renewed allegations of academic misconduct, including self-plagiarism and potential data misrepresentation. Professor Brian Wansink, who has authored hundreds of scientific papers and is a former agency director in the US Department of Agriculture, is famous for promoting the concepts of ‘mindless eating’ and the idea that people find it easier to control their food intake when eating from smaller plates. However, an investigation by University of Groningen PhD student Nick Brown has apparently revealed repeated cases of duplicate publication in Wansink’s research, as well as unusual data irregularities across two studies.
Galápagos giant tortoises show that in evolution, slow and steady gets you places | Lost Worlds Revisited
The Galápagos giant tortoise species complex (Chelonoidis nigra) forms an example of an adaptive radiation; a rapid diversification of a lineage when a new food source or ecological niche becomes available. The first giant tortoises are thought to have reached the islands two to three million years ago from South America, and subsequently spread through the archipelago as new land emerged from the volcanic sea floor. At one point there were 15 different species. Three of them are now extinct, and scientists are struggling to save the remaining ones.
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Alex Bellos’s Monday puzzle
This week’s riddle about a square piece of wood is a dissection puzzle. Don’t get too cut up if you can’t solve it ... but did you manage it?
Visit Alex Bellos’s Adventures in Numberland blog for more marvellous maths
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Science Weekly podcast
This week Hannah Devlin explores the research behind the recent announcement of the discovery of seven Earth-sized planets and asks how we might probe their nature, including a suitability for life.
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Eye on science – this week’s top video
Stories about buried treasure are my absolute favourite, and this sumptuous iron age discovery made by a pair of amateur detectorists is no exception. Fascinating and beautiful!
