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• If you’re not yet sick of beautiful microscopy images, FEI/National Geographic also held a recent microphotography competition. Many of these are at a much higher magnification than most from the Nikon competition I posted the other day
• Gelatin with excellent properties can be made using human DNA, but we may be too squeamish. I don’t think I would have a problem with this, but if any of my readers would I’d love to know why
• Fairy wrens teach their embryonic chicks a password to use when they hatch, so they’ll know if the small chick in their nest begging for food is a cuckoo
• Electron microscope vs food
• The U.S. National Wildlife Federation also had a photo competition. Great photos, this time on a macro scale
• Arachnid teddybears (with big teeth)
• A great blog post on the analysis of the complex belly button microbiome
• Adhesive from carnivorous sundew plant may help with human wound-healing
• Science is formalised humility
• James Watson’s evolving views (see what I did there?) on Rosalind Franklin

I’ve been thinking about the themes I tend to touch on in my links posts. I don’t post even a tenth of the science I come across, but sometimes I struggle to work out if a particular article or post is appropriate. I try to stick to the things I think are most relevant to this blog, which means microbiology and arthropods, with maybe a bit of stats. Going back through old links posts, it’s clear that I also love molecular biology, interesting or unusual evolutionary adaptations, science communication/education (what’s the difference?), ecosystems, and interesting accounts of research and technology. That’s pretty broad!

But, well, my interests in science are broad. I have an applied maths background, I’m researching in microbiology and statistics, and I work on communicating all kinds of science to kids. When I meet other statisticians I quiz them not on the models they use but on the scientific mechanisms behind what they’re modelling. As I become a more experienced statistician I expect to also want to talk to them about their models, but I don’t think I’ll ever not want to talk to them about the science that underlies their data.

Restricting myself to one type of science would reduce the fun of curating the links, for me. So for the moment I’ll keep posting this eclectic series, because I think they are worth keeping and sharing.