Friday's links today:
–I don't have any bromide for Thanksgiving overeating, but I can pass along the interesting history of the word "bromide" from drrubidium.
–Some science writers are auto and tech enthusiasts, and others are not. Popular Science has always tried to interest both, and it does so once again in its 25th annual Best of What's New yearend story. You'll find the Tesla Model S and the 2013 Ferrari F12 Berlinetta here, along with the MIT Solarclave, which sterilizes medical instruments off the grid. You can also see PS's Innovation of the Year, which Apple will not be happy about, and a lot of things you might not have read about elsewhere.
—Joan Lowy of the AP says some transportation planners are afraid to bring up climate change when discussing improvements to infrastructure. A planners' organization recently renamed its "Climate Change Steering Committee." It is now known as the "Sustainable Transportation, Energy Infrastructure and Climate Solutions Steering Committee." Catchy, isn't it? And the Obama administration, Lowy reports, has shown similar spinelessness on this issue.
—Scicurious reports the discovery of nematocin, an oxytocin-like molecule in nematodes. The existence of nematocin does not mean that nematodes "have deep, passionate, trusting, and communicative one-night worm stands…" she writes. On the contrary, it suggests that the evolution of oxytocin is far more complicated than we might have suspected.
—Joan Didion needs an hour before dinner with a drink to go over what she's written that day. Hemingway liked to start at first light, when it was cool or cold, so he would warm as he wrote. "A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word on paper," says E.B. White. These tidbits are from a nice complication of writers' routines, which you can find at brainpickings.org.
—Gary Schwitzer calls out The New York Times for a story that praises robotic surgery without providing evidence to back up the claims that are made for it.
—Kirsten Stewart writes at The Salt Lake Tribune about a family that has pushed scientists to diagnose and find a treatment for one of their children, who has a rare genetic abnormality.
—Ron Cowen delights us at Nature with a story that talks about space at the "Planck length," or 1.6 x 10-35 meters, where distance "ceases to have meaning" and space-time begins "to resemble a foamy sea." Cool!
–Paul Raeburn
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