Top picks

Every Shuttle mission, in order, set to music. Adam Rutherford’s incredible tribute to the Shuttle is moving, uplifting, at times heartbreaking, and unmissable.

Amos Zeeberg chimes in on the Shuttle with a no-holds barred take on the programme as an objective failure

A “beautiful study” on placebo and asthma shows the difference between placebos and real treatments. Great write-up by Pal MD

Jonah Lehrer riffs off one of my pieces and creates a hypothesis on why beauty exists, And David Dobbs riffs of Lehrer, with a beautiful tribute to London

“We saved a humpback whale! WOOOO!” Absolutely wonderful video.

Right under our noses, dolphins have been evolving their own healing factors. Phase 2 now complete

The US Army wants soldiers to communicate just by thinking. Synthetic telepathy could make that happen

Read Imperial College’s new analysis of the BBC’s science reporting (the actual paper and not the news reports of it, natch).

When fish fail – a wonderful blooper reel of suction-feeding fish screwing up their attacks

Tomorrow’s role models. These girls who won Google Science Fair are amazing. It started when she was 8 & tried to make blue spinach…

The Kiki/Bouba effect, or why ...