24 – 28 September In which Cameron informs us that gull poop carries drug resistant bacteria that infests beaches, lakes and even dumps. Delightful stories abound of the falcons and dogs that have been dispatched to chase them off. But that makes me wonder: after they’re chased off, where do they take their pestilent cargo? […]
The Last Word
17 -21 September The forbidden crystal sounds like an Indiana Jones sequel, but it’s real. Ann tells you about an expedition “to find something nature made that we didn’t know it could make.” Heather explains honey guides, honey badgers, and why honey was likely the fuel that gave us our big brains. Three-time guest posting […]
September 10 – 14 Virginia says drinking to forget doesn’t work. What does work is pot. Maybe good cooks are really, sneakily good scientists, says Cameron. Whether city living makes you itchy and cranky, Science is not sure. Cassandra is. Autumn is so lovely, says Christie, but what with global warming you might not […]
September 3 – 7 Sometimes new technology gives you a person who can only compare the moon to a tart. And sometimes it gives you Galileo, or the Beatles. This week, Richard pondered the connection. For labor day, Ann brought back her famous account of scientists being withering. Tom got irritated about the science lies […]
August 27 -31 This week, guest poster Anne Casselman reported on a fascinating group of new experiments that indicate that a real solution to climate change won’t come from engineering better biofuels as much as it will come from engineering better ways to exploit our own psychological trap doors. After all, social pressure is our […]
August 13 – 17 In his second guest post, Erik Vance tells us that, with regard to end-of-the-world prophecies, we’re doing it wrong. Christie wonders how sincere repentant dopers really are. Abstruse Goose considers the success rate of astrobiology. Guest poster Nicholas Sunzeff wonders if cosmology is a meaningful endeavour in a world filled with […]
July 30 – August 3 I was wrong. It looks like you can expect a penis every Friday, thanks to the wild popularity of LWON’s Penis Fridays. This week, guest poster Erik Vance tackled dolphin penises. No, he didn’t. But he explained them to us. Ginny and Michelle reopened the case of whether it’s ever […]
July 23 – 27 Penis Friday got violent this week with Brooke Borel‘s guest post about the bedbug penis, whose shape makes me freeze in terror. They use this thing to engage in what researchers call “traumatic insemination“. Aw, and bedbugs used to be so cute, too. Speaking of dicks, turns out Walt Whitman was […]
