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Longreads offers the best science writing for 2016

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Chosen by “Longread”‘s writer and editor friends, it’s a broad range. Readers will doubtless find one piece of candy and another piece of coal in the ol’ Christmas stocking. Here’s a snatch to get you started:

The Case for Leaving City Rats Alone (Becca Cudmore, Nautilus) … (“The rat gut acts as a mixing bowl,” says the scientist overseeing the project.) When you exterminate rats, you scatter their families, pushing them into new turf where they fight with the neighbors, swapping blood and bacteria that might combine to create something new. So maybe, the argument goes, it’s better to leave rats where they are, keeping local germs … well, local. More.

Every ecological decision has strength and weaknesses. It’s the balance that counts

See also: Religion and ET: What’s wrong with science writing today: I have now read about twenty-five iterations of this basic type of article over the last twenty-five years, rehashing the same old nonsense. The science writer is not expected to ask penetrating questions or critique worn-out assumptions. Maybe there is some kind of rule against it now. Union or management?

and

PhysicsWorld: Proxima B in editors’ list of physics breakthroughs of 2016

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Comments
Silver Asiatic at 2, my goodness, you are kind! You may make use of anything you see here at UD; we only ask that readers remember us kindly as a non-profit organization (in all senses of the word). We have fun and are pleased to do any good. Keep watching this space. Note: Being a Canadian is 3/4 of the way to obscurity but we don't tend to care as long as we think we are doing something worthwhile.News
December 21, 2016
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An enterprising soul could extract hundreds of daily snippets and package an O'Leary for News Anthology each year for the most excellent and engaging science writing found anywhere. Ahhh, but she's an IDist so those bright gems of Canadian wit and wisdom are buried forever in the UD archives. It's science's loss and our gain. Christmas cheers to you Miss O'Leary for so many moments of sheer genius, tossed off effortlessly and without any self-involved pomposity of the science-elite. And let me not flatter you too much, but we're blessed to have you with us each and every day. Thanks for keeping it sharp, and real and a lot of fun.Silver Asiatic
December 21, 2016
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