Fractal Genes, Solutionism, and Alien Megastructures: Lux Recommends #286
Welcome to Lux Recommends #286, this week’s edition of what we at Lux are reading and thinking about (want to receive this by email? Sign up here).
Articles
How Romanesco cauliflower forms its spiraling fractals: “By tweaking just three genes in a common lab plant, scientists have replicated the pattern” — Sam
Can microbes combat neurodegeneration? — Adam G
Why I’m a proud solutionist: “History teaches us how to be brutally honest about a problem and yet optimistic for a technological solution.” — Sam
Jordan Crowley Would Be in Line for a Kidney — if He Were Deemed White Enough: “How an assumption made in a study in 1999 is delaying treatment for thousands of Black Americans.” — Zavain
Barns Are Painted Red Because of the Physics of Dying Stars: “Have you ever noticed that almost every barn you have ever seen is red? Here’s why.” — Adam K
How a Sharp-Eyed Scientist Became Biology’s Image Detective: “Using just her eyes and memory, Elisabeth Bik has single-handedly identified thousands of studies containing potentially doctored scientific images.” — Deena
NASA Is Quietly Funding a Hunt for Alien Megastructures: “Detecting ‘technosignatures’ such as hypothetical Dyson spheres in space could lead us to extraterrestrial life, and now NASA is funding the search.” — Adam K
Who Owns Mike Disfarmer’s Photographs? “Strangers made his small-town portraits famous in the art world. Decades later, his heirs want control of the estate.” — Deena
Tapping into the Brain to Help a Paralyzed Man Speak: “In a once unimagined accomplishment, electrodes implanted in the man’s brain transmit signals to a computer that displays his words.” — Lux friend Nicky Sid
A Study Predicts Record Flooding In The 2030s, And It’s Partly Because Of The Moon — Adam K
Videos
Planes to stock fish in about 200 lakes that are inaccessible by vehicle — Adam K
How To Terraform Venus (Quickly) — Sam
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