Science done right

Some excellent hauls from the latest Tangled Bank. I've chosen two to share.

• Circadiana has a gentle, but extremely perceptive, assessment of a paper that, as he put it, “got some traction” because it deals with the sexy subject of circadian rhythms. Except that it doesn’t, as he explains so well. This kind of expertise, so well applied, is a joy to experience.
• Island of Doubt discusses the brouhaha about climate change making poison ivy “grow faster and nastier”. I just wonder how many people who have never been to North America have any real appreciation of poison ivy (or poison oak, or poison sumach)? For the longest time it was, for me, just a great song. Then I visited Vermont. And now I also know that it is a member of the Anacardiaceae, like mango and cashew.

Later ... Not from Tangled bank, but fine reading nevertheless, who could resist this headline:

Experts applaud massive fish kill

Seems some mysterious thing afflicted the Asian carp of the Illinois river last week, killing many, many of the fish.

Wayne Herndon, a state biologist who discovered the fish kill, told the Chicago Sun-Times: “The impressive thing was the large size of the individuals -- up to 50 pounds apiece. That number of carcasses floating around on the river kind of gained your attention.”

And the biologists are delighted because the Asian carp “would threaten commercial and sport fishing”. No need then for a bounty sport-reward program.