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Welcome to Signal Boost, our weekly roundup of blog posts over the past week.
A tiny hamster in a tiny mansion. Grrlscientist treats us to a video chronicling a day in the life of Chicken, a dwarf hamster.
Go Higgs or go home. When the LHC was first planned, it was guaranteed to find at least one groundbreaking discovery. Jon Butterworth looks at the reasoning behind this ‘no lose’ theorem.
Horton spears a few (historians of medicine). The Lancet’s Editor in Chief, Richard Horton, has this week denounced historians of medicine “invisible, inaudible, and ... inconsequential.” Carsten Timmermann responds at the H Word.
In space, no one can hear you scheme. Zahaan Bharmal provides an overview of the competitors with plans to put humans on Mars.
Back to the Lancet, and a controversial open letter to the people of Gaza that was published there recently. Steve Caplan takes it apart, arguing that the letter was misguided and full of omissions.
On Wednesday, Rosetta rendezvoused with target comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Stu Clarke explains the point of one of the most audacious space missions in decades.
The current Ebola outbreak in West Africa is the worst in recorded history, and it’s spawned a deluge of media hype and scaremongering. Dean Burnett skewers the recent coverage, and provides some suggestions for ‘facts’ that the media might use in the future.
“Since the stabbing incident, I have spent the vast majority of my life obsessing about materials”. Grrlscientist reviews the excellent ‘Stuff Matters’ by Mark Miodownik.
Could closing stroke units actually improve survival rates? Richard P Grant reports on a recent paper arguing just that , published in the BMJ.
A new Royal Society advertisement for a professorship in public engagement with science is precisely not what science communication needs. Alice Bell rounds on the new position, and explains better ways for improving science’s relationship with the public.
Every year, Jack Stilgoe teaches a course for UCL undergrads on Governing emerging technologies. As part of their coursework, the students have to write blogposts. Jack reflects on some of the best of the crop from this year.
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