Another month indoors. I’m good with indoors, but the lack of social events is starting to get to me. Last night I attended a virtual Science Showoff, which reminded me what it’s like to sit in the basement of a pub watching people do standup on a tiny stage. Seeing the same type of acts on a screen is just not quite the same.

But like everyone, I’m hanging in there, and I realise I’m very privileged in having been able to continue my regular work. I’m currently working on a large project that I won’t be able to share until the end of the year, but as usual I do have some recent articles to share (some not at all related to current events), and a book recommendation, and of course five interesting links.

Forbes.com - Images Of Mouse Neurons, Tardigrade And More Win In Microscopy Competition
A slice of mouse brain informing memory research and a waving tardigrade are among the winners of the 2019 Olympus Image of the Year Life Science Light Microscopy Award.

Neste.com - The disruptive mission of Stephan Krueger
One of my recent pieces for a client. This is a profile piece on someone who works in sustainable recycling (after years of working in far less sustainable recycling). I learned a lot about plastic from this conversation!

Forbes.com - Does Science Art Still Matter During A Pandemic?
Even though exhibits are closed and artists-in-residence are working from home, scientists still have an appetite for art that reflects their research, even - or especially - during the current pandemic.

Book recommendation

Ready Player One
Ernest Cline

It’s been a few years since I read the book, but I kept thinking about it lately -- probably because it’s set in 2044 when everyone stays inside all the time and life takes place entirely in a virtual world full of eighties references. I recommend this book but not the film adaptation.

Interesting things

• Lockdown productivity: Spaceship You. CGP Grey tells us how to survive and create during our current solo space journey.

• The Monterey Bay Aquarium has been Twitch streaming Animal Crossing, and had Chicago Field Museum’s Emily Graslie visit their virtual island to talk about the fossils in the game.

• This is one to bookmark: Ed Yong picks apart everything we know (and don’t know) about COVID-19 and the virus that causes it. Everything. It’s a lot.

• Ewen Callaway’s graphical guide to the different ways that researchers are trying to develop a COVID-19 vaccine

• Paleontologists discovered that a mammal the size of a cat coexisted with dinosaurs