The Unique Merger that Made You
Not many people can make cellular biology exciting, but Ed Yong’s wonderful lesson on eukaryotes in Nautilus manages to inspire awe and achieve attention to detail: “Every flower and fungus, spider and sparrow, man and woman—descended from a sudden and breathtakingly improbable merger between two microbes.”
A Valuable Reputation
Tyrone Hayes dedicated nearly two decades of his life to studying the popular herbicide atrazine. But when he discovered it may have devastating side effects, the big ag company funding his research, Sygenta, tried to ruin his career, reputation, and life. The New Yorker reports.
Sorry, guy: I won’t come work for Buzzfeed
Man hacks OKCupid. Gets date. Gets relationship. Gets nice publicity. Gets job offer! Gets nasty publicity. Boo. Declines job offer. Hurrah! The end. By Chris McKinley on Medium.
How Iran’s explosive expansion warns us about our overpopulated future—and shows us how to fix it.
Fuelled by politics and propaganda, Iran experienced the craziest population growth ever—going from 19 million people to 77 million in 50 years. And then they brought it to a halt. How? Find out with this deep look from Alan Weisman, taken from his book Countdown.
How do you answer the most important questions on earth?
In Countdown, Alan Weisman tackles the most pressing questions about our existence on this earth: How many humans can the planet hold without capsizing? How robust must the Earth’s ecosystem be to assure our continued existence? And, how might we actually arrive at a stable, optimum population, and design an economy to allow genuine prosperity without endless growth? In this follow up interview, he explains the answers.
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