Single-Cell Proteomics, Whale Communication, and Why Dogs Tilt Their Heads: Lux Recommends #302

Editor
2 min readNov 5, 2021

By Sam Arbesman, PhD

Welcome to Lux Recommends #302, this week’s edition of what we at Lux are reading and thinking about (want to receive this by email? Sign up here).

Articles

Individual cells’ proteins vary. Single-cell proteomics can now show how: “Advances in mass spectrometry and sample processing allow researchers to see cell-to-cell differences that are critical to biology or disease” — Adam G

America Needs a New Scientific Revolution: “A repurposed antidepressant might help treat COVID-19, a remarkable study found. The way this research was funded highlights a big problem — and bigger opportunity — in American science.” — Sam

Women May Be Better Investors Than Men. Let Me Mansplain Why: “Overconfidence is bad, and women are less likely to fall victim to it.” — Deena

A glint in the eye: photographic plate archive searches for alien visitationsSam

Why do dogs tilt their heads? New study offers clues: ‘“Gifted” dogs often make the gesture before correctly identifying a toy’ — Adam K

Combinatorial innovation and technological progress in the very long run: “Taking a stab at some psychohistory” — Sam

US Army backs ‘sleeping cap’ to help brains take out the trash — friend of Lux Craig Beach

The Search for Intelligent Life Heads Underwater: “Researchers are using AI to try to communicate with whales.” — Sam

Books

Natural Obsessions: Striving to Unlock the Deepest Secrets of the Cancer Cell by Natalie Angier: “explores the advanced reaches of molecular biology, the nature of the human cell, and the genes that control cancer. It unforgettably portrays some of the best young scientists in the world, the rewards and discouragements of scientific research, and the very process of scientific inquiry.” — Ankeeta

100 Things We’ve Lost to the Internet by Pamela Paul: “a nostalgic tour of the pre-Internet age, offering powerful insights into both the profound and the seemingly trivial things we’ve lost.” — Sam

Blockchain Chicken Farm: And Other Stories of Tech in China’s Countryside by Xiaowei Wang: “the technologist and writer Xiaowei Wang explores the political and social entanglements of technology in rural China. Their discoveries force them to challenge the standard idea that rural culture and people are backward, conservative, and intolerant. Instead, they find that rural China has not only adapted to rapid globalization but has actually innovated the technology we all use today.” — Ankeeta

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