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Editor’s Selections: Evil Cats, Parenting, and Confiding in Your Computer

Here are my Research Blogging Editor’s Selections for this week: DJ Busby of the Astronasty blog writes, “2 to 3 billion people, about half the world’s population, have a brain parasite called Toxoplasma gondii, which causes a disease called toxoplasmosis…The parasite’s main host are cats, but infects many warm blooded animals.” I always knew cats [...]

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Here are my Research Blogging Editor's Selections for this week:

  • DJ Busby of the Astronasty blog writes, "2 to 3 billion people, about half the world's population, have a brain parasite called Toxoplasma gondii, which causes a disease called toxoplasmosis...The parasite's main host are cats, but infects many warm blooded animals." I always knew cats were evil. Half the world's population is infected by cats!

  • A new (to me) blog has recently come to my attention: Notes on Parenting. In this post, Brandon writes, "As parents, we are almost constantly comparing our child to someone else's child (or even to our own children who have already gone through that phase of life), and there always seems to be something to fret about. Are you worried that your child isn't saying enough words yet, or isn't walking and he's already a year old?" Is My Child Behind in His Development?

  • What if your computer could share its innermost thoughts with you? According to Dan Simons of The Invisible Gorilla, "if the computer revealed something 'personal' about itself, people were more likely to do the same." What you'll reveal to a computer.

Jason G. Goldman is a science journalist based in Los Angeles. He has written about animal behavior, wildlife biology, conservation, and ecology for Scientific American, Los Angeles magazine, the Washington Post, the Guardian, the BBC, Conservation magazine, and elsewhere. He contributes to Scientific American's "60-Second Science" podcast, and is co-editor of Science Blogging: The Essential Guide (Yale University Press). He enjoys sharing his wildlife knowledge on television and on the radio, and often speaks to the public about wildlife and science communication.

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