SCIENCE

Don’t miss David Quammen’s gorgeous, moving review of George Johnson’s beautiful masterwork, Cancer Chronicles. I read some great stuff this week, but nothing that moved me more than this.

Brendan Borrell with an incredible story about a frog taxonomist who hops back in time to refresh the work of another, quite strange frog taxonomist who was also a spy. I’m not making this up, and neither did Borrell; he dug it up.

This Insect Has Gears In Its Legs by Ed Yong

Obviously. WAIT – whu? Some female squid can paint fake testes on themselves

“You touch the fecal bacteria of strangers ALL THE TIME.” Yes, you do. So does @verogreenwood, who’s big enough to admit it. Get the full scoop here.

How Chris McCandless Died.  John Krakauer on new evidence supporting his 20-year-old hypothesis of what killed the young (un?)hero of Krakauer’s bestseller Into the Wild.

Are your 9/11 memories really your own?  Quite possibly not.

‘Boys Have Deep Emotional Lives’  When we let them.

Looking Beyond the ‘Neuro’ Revolution in Psychological Science  Liz Phelps of NYU, a leader in neuropsych, weighs in.

Long Lives Made Humans Human

Attenborough’s Muddled Thinking Can’t Stop Human Evolution, by Barbara J. King, and another take, The Surprising Ways Humans Continue to Evolve, by Brandon Keim.

Paperscape maps the dazzling universe of scientific research. The source of the lovely graphic at top of this post.

Grass-roots push to expand use of rapid-acting antidepressant.  Paul Raeburn on the push to make ketamine more widely available to fight depression.

 

HEALTHCARE, EDUCATION, & OTHER MATTERS CIVIC

U.S. measles cases in 2013 may be most in 17 years – CNN.com

American Schools Are Failing Nonconformist Kids. Here’s How  A good rowdy rant from Liz Weil.

This is a complete list of Wall Street CEOs prosecuted for their role in the financial crisis. It’s short.

 

WRITING & SUCH

One of the most chilling reads I’ve ever heard: F. Scott Fitzgerald reads John Keats’s “Ode to a Nightingale.” H/t to David Grann

Oh christ these are fun. Twain on Austen? OMG. RT @mental_floss: 9 Famous Writers Ripping Other Famous Writers — bit.ly/18UQT6d

Why a recent journalism school graduate spent her money on a drone  To do good work.

The fabricator who tarnished the reputation of This American Life apparently pays no price for his crime….

 

SORRY

Horrifying facial morph of George W. Bush and Barack Obama on Twitpic

 

For yet more amazing good links, don’t miss Ed Yong’s reliably fantastic “missing link” fest every Saturday at Not Exactly Rocket Science.