Lab-Grown Brains, Recycling Cruise Ships, and Crazy-Looking Fish: Lux Recommends #253

Editor
2 min readNov 6, 2020

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By Sam Arbesman, PhD

Welcome to Lux Recommends #253, this week’s edition of what we at Lux are reading and thinking about (want to receive this by email? Sign up here).

Articles

Can lab-grown brains become conscious? “A handful of experiments are raising questions about whether clumps of cells and disembodied brains could be sentient, and how scientists would know if they were.” — Sam

The Messy, Booming Business of Recycling Cruise Ships: “Thanks to the pandemic, the practice of breaking apart ships and selling them for parts is on the rise.” — Peter

A MacArthur ‘genius’ will likely use his grant to support his wife’s work — in the name of science Deena

Colorado is a rectangle? Think again. “The Centennial State has 697 sides‚ not four.” — Sam

Touch and taste? It’s all in the suckers: “Harvard researchers uncover how the sensors in octopus suction cups work” — Deena

I’m The Woman Who Helped Discover Water On The MoonDeena

Why Is There a Full-Scale Replica of the Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee?Sam

Man and dog: Ancient genetics study reveals complex historyAdam K

Voice Technology’s Role in Our Rapidly Changing WorldDeena

And Crazy-looking fish from the deep seaAdam K

Books

The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish Dynasties That Helped Create Modern China by Jonathan Kaufman: “An epic, multigenerational story of two rival dynasties who flourished in Shanghai and Hong Kong as twentieth-century China surged into the modern era” — friend of Lux Bobby D

Videos

Landing in a plane with a wingsuitAdam K

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