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Moooove over: How single-celled yeasts are doing the work of 1,500-pound cows "Dozens of companies have sprouted up in recent months to develop milk proteins made by yeasts or fungi. ... The companies’ products are already on store shelves in the form of yogurt, cheese and ice cream, often labeled 'animal-free.' The burgeoning industry, which calls itself 'precision fermentation,' has its own trade organization, and big-name food manufacturers such as Nestlé, Starbucks and General Mills have already signed on as customers." [more inside]
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 11:53 PM PST - 53 comments

The thorny devil is older than the Australian deserts. Scientists hope genetics can tell us why. Citizen scientists are being called upon to help unlock the mysteries of the thorny devil and better understand the desert dweller's evolution.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 6:59 PM PST - 14 comments

A few very different wish-fulfillment pieces of speculative fiction. Stories by lyricwritesprose and by dalekteaservice give us alien points of view on what humans could offer to a troubled universe. And in "Burning Men" by Maria Farrell, certain people start spontaneously combusting. (Author's commentary: it's "about a world where the cost of sexual violence is born by the perpetrators and how that changes everything" as well as "the mood music of brexit and covid.") [more inside]
posted by brainwane at 5:37 PM PST - 18 comments

From Sangeeta Singh-Kurtz at The Cut, a profile of Replika and the unsettling ways it makes its users feel: “The Man of Your Dreams” [more inside]
posted by Going To Maine at 12:21 PM PST - 47 comments

McSweeney’s: “Dear Fat-Headed Roald Dahl-Censoring Fuckers, You’re censors. You’re not editors, and you’re not readers. You’re censors. You are exactly what Orwell warned us about. So fuck you.”
posted by beesbees at 4:16 AM PST - 268 comments