Short Stuff: Roly Poly...Bugs? | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

Have you always wanted to understand the natural world but found science classes tedious and science textbooks difficult to understand? Author Bill Bryson can relate—that was his motivation for researching and writing A Short History of Nearly Everything. The book is an accessible overview of the natural sciences that describes not only the important discoveries but also the unknowns and controversies that still exist in the sciences, like the mystery of missing mass in the universe and the puzzling details of human evolution.

In this guide, we’ve organized key topics from Bryson’s book into a concise chronology covering the origins of the universe, the geologic history of planet Earth, and the history of life on Earth. We’ll also analyze the scientific issues that Bryson brings up in light of recent scientific papers and compare his perspective to that of scientists like Stephen Hawking.

Most features of the human body are just complex versions of those in simpler creatures that, at first glance, seem totally unlike us. As professor and paleontologist Neil Shubin explains in Your Inner Fish, understanding how a shark’s head, a reptile’s brain, and a fish’s fins developed makes sense of complicated and confounding human anatomy. Casting new light on the human family tree, Shubin explains how ancient fossils, embryos, and DNA all provide clues to a story of human development stretching back 3.5 billion years.

Why does life work the way it does? Are life’s features the product of random genetic mutations, or did organisms have to evolve a certain way to overcome specific physical and chemical challenges? In The Vital Question, Nick Lane argues that genetics can’t give us the answer by itself. To explain the origin of life, we have to understand how cells make use of energy and what environmental conditions gave rise to the molecular power plants found in every living thing.

In this guide, we’ll explore the biochemistry of cells and how it may have developed on the very young Earth. We’ll explain why Lane believes all complex life emerged from a single instance of symbiosis between two very different single-celled creatures. We’ll expand on fundamentals of biology and genetics, discuss alternate views to some of Lane’s proposals, and point to the directions research is now taking to gain a fuller understanding of life’s origins.

Although it resembles a common eel, the hagfish has one particularly odd quality that sets it apart—it’s capable of producing enormous amounts of soft, but potentially lethal, slime. The slime isn’t dangerous for humans. Just don’t get it on your hands, or on a Prius.

Scientists have discovered that “glacier mice”—balls of moss—roll around glaciers at the same speeds and in the same directions. They’re not pulled by gravity or pushed by wind, and scientists don’t yet know what’s responsible for their movement.

Most features of the human body are just complex versions of those in simpler creatures that, at first glance, seem totally unlike us. As professor and paleontologist Neil Shubin explains in Your Inner Fish, understanding how a shark’s head, a reptile’s brain, and a fish’s fins developed makes sense of complicated and confounding human anatomy. Casting new light on the human family tree, Shubin explains how ancient fossils, embryos, and DNA all provide clues to a story of human development stretching back 3.5 billion years.

If you’ve ever tried to lose weight, you’re probably aware of all the conflicting advice about what you should eat. Should you go on a low-carb diet, a low-fat one, or a liquid one? Eat one large portion in the morning, smaller portions throughout the day, or practice fasting?

In How Not to Diet, Michael Greger, physician and best-selling author of How Not to Die, adds a much-needed voice of clarity to the world of weight loss. He draws on extensive scientific research to explore the healthiest and most efficient way to lose weight and keep it off.

This guide explores Greger’s advice, covering:

• How eating processed foods and animal products leads to weight gain
• Why eating plant-based foods and legumes reduces the calories your body stores as fat
• What dietary changes will help you shed excess pounds and keep them off

Additionally, we’ll expand on each of Greger’s ideas with research, advice, and actionable ideas from other health practitioners and weight-loss specialists.

According to Giulia Enders, the gut is a system of organs as complex and intricate as the brain. As you go about your day, your gut is hard at work breaking down food, delivering nutrients to your body, and even training your immune system to fight infection.

In Gut, Enders explains how your digestive system works and why it’s important to keep it healthy. In this guide, we’ll cover Enders's ideas on topics like where the food you eat goes, what your appendix actually does, and how tiny organisms in your intestines influence your immune system (and possibly your mood). We’ll fact-check Enders’s claims about the gut and elaborate further on the organs in this system. We’ll also discuss studies that have updated our scientific knowledge of the gut since the book’s publication.

From the low-carb, high-fat keto diet to whole-foods-based paleo diet, there are countless eating programs promising to help you lose weight and be healthier. The Plant Paradox Program (PPP) is an eating and lifestyle program based on the way foods and products affect your body and immune system; it involves eating lots of the right plants, while avoiding others, in order to reach and maintain a healthy weight and live free of chronic and autoimmune diseases. The program is based on the premise that small things can cause big problems and the key to your health is less about what you add to your diet and more about what you remove.

In this summary, learn why whole grains and mouthwash are making you sick and fat, and why almost everything you think you know about healthy food is wrong.

After publishing Entangled Life in 2020, biologist Merlin Sheldrake made a meal out of two copies of the book. He dampened the pages of the first copy, inoculated it with fungal spores, and feasted on the mushrooms that burst from its pages. He then macerated the pages of the second copy and fermented them into a beer he drank.

Sheldrake’s process of transforming these copies of his book embodies the themes he explores throughout its chapters. He examines what we know and don’t yet know about fungi, these mysterious organisms that transform their surroundings—and us. He argues that fungi are an understudied group of organisms that expand our imaginations and offer promising solutions to modern-day problems such as mental illness and environmental destruction. In our guide, we’ll present Sheldrake’s insights into fungal biology and why fungi matter. Throughout our guide, we’ll supplement Sheldrake’s insights with recent research on fungi and offer steps you can take to contribute to our scientific understanding of fungi.

From the low-carb, high-fat keto diet to whole-foods-based paleo diet, there are countless eating programs promising to help you lose weight and be healthier. The Plant Paradox Program (PPP) is an eating and lifestyle program based on the way foods and products affect your body and immune system; it involves eating lots of the right plants, while avoiding others, in order to reach and maintain a healthy weight and live free of chronic and autoimmune diseases. The program is based on the premise that small things can cause big problems and the key to your health is less about what you add to your diet and more about what you remove.

In this summary, learn why whole grains and mouthwash are making you sick and fat, and why almost everything you think you know about healthy food is wrong.

When most people think of microbes, the first things that come to mind are disease-causing germs or healthy probiotic yogurts. We go about our lives largely unaware of the trillions of microbes on every surface and throughout our bodies. In his debut book, science journalist Ed Yong explores the mysterious and fascinating world of microbes: microscopic organisms with the ability to make sea creatures glow, eradicate diseases, and nudge ecosystems into disarray.

He argues that not only are microbes ubiquitous, but they’re also integral to animal bodies (including humans)—although we often think of ourselves as individuals, we’re essentially walking ecosystems containing countless species of microbes living in symbiotic partnership with us. He contends that by understanding the ways that we’re interdependent with microbes, we can then explore opportunities to use microbes to improve our health. And since our understanding of microbes is constantly shifting, our guide will also update Yong’s examples and dive deeper into the health implications of microbial phenomena.

Plastic doesn’t naturally decompose, so it ends up in the soil, ocean, atmosphere, and the bodies of animals including humans—we ingest the amount of plastic in a credit card every week. Learn how to clean up plastic pollution and reduce it in the future.

In Silent Spring, biologist Rachel Carson condemns the widespread use of pesticides in the 20th century, arguing that these chemicals threaten to devastate the natural environment and poison animals and humans alike. Carson advocates stricter regulation of pesticides by the US government, limited spraying, and the use of biological (rather than chemical) controls. Though Carson’s book was controversial and widely condemned by chemical companies, it’s been credited as an inspiration for the environmentalist movement of the 1970s, the formation of the US Environmental Protection Agency, and the banning of the pesticide DDT.

This guide will explore Carson’s criticisms of pesticides and proposals for change, including discussions of what pesticides do, how they’re used, and what alternatives exist for pest control. We’ll also discuss evolutions in science since the book was published in 1962, backlash to and criticism of Carson’s findings, and the book’s influence on American environmental policy.

In Estrogeneration, Dr. Anthony G. Jay argues that chemicals called estrogenics are causing a rise in health problems such as obesity, infertility, and cancer in the US. Estrogenics mimic our body’s natural hormone estrogen and disrupt our hormone system. According to Jay, we’re exposed to them every day through the food we eat, the water we drink, and the products we use. But there’s hope: You can minimize their effects on your health by following Jay’s practical tips on how to avoid estrogenics and how to detoxify your body and fortify your health with simple lifestyle changes.

In this guide, we’ll explain what estrogenics are, the common ways we encounter them, and the health risks they pose to humans and the environment. We’ll also provide some practical prevention tips to minimize your exposure. In commentary, we’ll provide scientific evidence that supports or contradicts the author’s arguments, and we’ll present additional tips for avoiding these chemicals.