A Superbug Hops from Hospitals to Rabbits; Beam Me Up, Science
Discovered: A drug-resistant bug's life; a tiny tractor beam; the genetic mutations underlying brain cancer; how kids get hit by cars.
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Discovered: Video games can help dyslexic kids read; pregnancy increases foot size; around 100 million sharks are killed annually; mammalian sperm swims upstream.
Discovered: A drug-resistant bug's life; a tiny tractor beam; the genetic mutations underlying brain cancer; how kids get hit by cars.
Discovered: Stanford research encampment fueled solely by sun; Japanese lake key to updated carbon dating; expiring tax credit could stall wind power; global warming changes sea acoustics.
Like Todd "legitimate rape" Akin, Illinois Republican Joe Walsh seems to have mixed up his facts about abortion. "With modern technology and science, you can’t find one instance" of a woman being saved by a terminated pregnancy, he said in a debate.
Today in books and fiction: Twitter to celebrate very short stories; The Mo Yan-iest Place on Earth; Chris Ware's new graphic novel shuns e-reading; it's too early for 2013 Nobel odds.
Clinton told a Marie Claire reporter, "Some women are not comfortable working at the pace and intensity you have to work at in these jobs." One of our commenters thinks she'd be right if she changed one word.
Discovered: Mapping the genetics of barley; intelligence linked with anorexia and bulimia; UV light could prevent nasty hospital infections; dolphins sleep with one eye open.
Today in books and publishing: Herman Melville has his day online; a Colombian prostitute hired by the Secret Service has a book deal; Amazon coming after our children; the Asian Literary Prize loses its Man.
Discovered: We were so close to eradicating TB; a spider with a foot-long legspan; this ancient fish had teeth first; more evidence suggests the moon was formed through a massive Earth collision.
Today in books and publishing: Schwarzenegger fails to pump up his sales figures; Murakami fans feel he was cheated; R.I.P. Larry Sloan, Mad Libs publisher; the most comfortable of book clubs.
Late last night, Adam Clark Estes drew our attention to this tragedy for the ages: BlackBerry owners regretting their choice of smartphone. Woe is the poor BlackBerry scroller, laments one commenter.
Discovered: Saturn's moon has a damp, spongey surface; creativity strongly correlates with mental illness; the neurons engaged in eye contact; the moon is wetter than we thought.
Hilary Mantel has taken this year's Man Booker prize for her novel Bring Up the Bodies, making her the first Brit—and the first female author—to win two Bookers.
Being rich is full of horrible, unbearable contradictions. At least that's the takeaway from this Quora thread in which a user complains of being torn apart by his crippling $20 million net worth.
Announcements about halftime performers do not usually come this early in the football season, but an unnamed source has leaked word that Beyonce will play Super Bowl XLVII's halftime show.
Today in books and publishing: Depp to publish "authentic" books; a female version of Holden Caulfield; the First Amendment protects phone books; a Chinese writer receives a prestigious German prize.
Today, Serena Dai drew our attention to Glenn Beck's new line of jeans, which only come in classic or straight fits. One commenter says that without a skinny version, hipsters won't wear them. Not even ironically.
Discovered: Amateur astronomers find fascinating new planet; mapping Antarctica before it melts away; bigger brains correlate with greater cancer risk; shocking pants prevent bedsores.
Today in books and publishing: E-book buyers notified about refunds; de Sade ban struck down in South Korea; California high school bans Stephen King; Ian McEwan likes his books short and sweet.
In her post on Peter Berg asking Mitt Romney to stop using the iconic slogan from his show Friday Night Lights, Esther Zuckerman noted that musicians have also told him to stay away from their songs. What do politicians have left?, one commenter wonders.
Discovered: Martian rock has cousins on Earth; history of rejection brings increased attention to research; X-raying illuminated manuscripts; upsetting news affects men and women differently.
Today in books and publishing: Bezos confirms Kindles are a loss-leader; critics and publishers respond to Yan's Nobel; Ferlinghetti turns down Hungarian prize; Rich Dad author bankrupt.
In her post on Reddit's decision to ban Gawker in defense of child porn, Rebecca Greenfield quoted a Redditor with a graphic username. "What a world," says one of our commenters.
Discovered: There's an app for keeping tabs on the spread of malaria; strange extracts from a Martian meteorite; tomatoes reduce stroke risk; stem cells fight deadly brain condition.
Today in books and publishing: A primer on the newly minted Nobel laureate; Google's in the clear for scanning books; J.K. Rowling's reading life; scaling Book Mountain.
Discovered: DNA half-life makes Jurassic Park impossible; legalizing assisted suicide doesn't make everyone want to die; look at this venomous blue-ringed octopus; cellular findings earn Nobel.
Today in books and publishing: The woman at the center of the Polanski trial has a book deal; National Book Award finalists are announced; Dennis Lehane corrects a reviewer on a character's race; Amazon ranks authors.
Today Rebecca Greenfield posted what appear to be leaked images of the highly anticipated iPad Mini, which prompted one of our Apple-phobic commenters to roll his eyes in comment form.
Discovered: The quantum study that upset the Higgs; computing by waving a gloveless hand; crash dummies that better represent women; how music tastes are formed.
Today in books and publishing: Leon Black purchases preeminent art book publisher; R.L. Stine writes Goosebumps for adults; Orange Prize saved; Anthony Burgess finally gets a blue plaque.
Discovered: A shot that reduces double chins; sleeping brains act like they're trying to remember something; research à la carte; a dizzying earthquake simulation machine.
Friday Night Lights author Buzz Bissinger endorsed Mitt Romney for president today. Channeling Tami Taylor, one of our commenters says that even with clear eyes, full hearts, and Bissinger's vote, Romney's still got a heck of a game ahead.
Researchers have found that eggs laid by chickens raised in New York City contain scary amounts of lead, adding to mounting evidence about the dangers of urban homesteading.
Today in books and publishing: Girls creator has inked a huge deal; Wikileaks founder has a book deal; and uncertainty over Penguin's future ownership.
Discovered: Caltech tops research university ranking again; coffee's connection to glaucoma; Curiosity scoops Martian sand; methadone reduces needle transmission of HIV.
In her race for a seat in Maine's State Senate, Colleen Lachowicz has had to defend her double life as a level 85 orc on World of Warcraft. One commenter says that any WoW character she played would've been used against her by her opponents.
Today in books and publishing: Silicon Valley exec will tackle gender in the workplace; Google and publishers make peace; Kakutani hatchets Helprin; an all-female issue of Armchair/Shotgun.
Discovered: A whole new type of lab mouse; black mamba venom dulls pain better than morphine; drilling deep into the Earth; microbial diversity turned into jazz.
Today in books and publishing: Figures keep climbing in Dunham deal speculation; Fifty Shades spoof targeted; McNally Robinson stores change hands; Amazon keeps adaptations in-house.
Today, Esther Zuckerman listed all the condescending terms reporters have come up with to describe undecided female voters. One of our commenters was inspired to coin a few more categories of mom.
Discovered: Vitamin D supplements won't prevent infections; desire to be skinny could be hardwired; a virus that makes you fat but staves off diabetes; and new dinosaur!
Today in books and publishing: Sikhs divided on a character in The Casual Vacancy; get ready for an interstellar Moby Dick; Lois Lowry revisits The Giver; the best book covers of 2011.
Discovered: Nice baboons outlive mean ones; teens still drinking, but more responsibly; undecided voters 20 percent less likely to vote for Obama due to race; toddlers and the scientific method.
Creed frontman Scott Stapp appeared on Fox News today to inform everyone that he won't be voting for Obama again. Could he be planning a bid for the White House? One commenter welcomes the thought, with arms wide open.
Today in books and publishing: Laura Ingalls Wilder books slated for adaptation; Thurber prize winners; Bill O'Reilly's book on JFK's assassination; four new hunting memoirs.
Glengarry Glen Ross first hit movies theaters 20 years ago today, spawning countless parodies of Alec Baldwin's "Always Be Closing" speech. To mark the occasion we've rounded up the best ones.
Today, Elspeth Reeve noted that even the campaigns are treating the upcoming presidential debates as little more than a reality show. Why can't we just watch kittens instead, asks one commenter.
Discovered: Botox lifts faces and moods; papers retracted due to fraud more often than error; climate change could decimate fish; African salmonella outbreak connected to HIV.
Today in books and publishing: Total Recall doesn't recall scandals; Amazon-affiliated book appears on B&N shelves; Günter Grass angers Israel again; the year's most challenged books.
The Onion made a joke about rural white voters preferring Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Barack Obama, and the Iranian news agency FARS ran with it. What a "farce," says one of our commenters.
Discovered: The smoking maggot; closing the 405 freeway in Los Angeles reduced pollution; measuring the edge of a black hole; benzodiazepines connected with dementia.
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