Seed's Daily Zeitgeist

1. Tasting Fat (source: Cosmos)
   Sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami are the known flavors that human palates recognize. But new research, published in the British Journal of Nutrition, suggests that fat might be a sixth sense.
2. Einstein's oeuvre on display (source: New York Times)
   Nearly half a century ago, Albert Einstein rewrote the laws of physics. The resulting manuscript, which Times' writer Ethan Bronner describes as "profoundly human and surprisingly moving," is on display now at the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
3. Google your bike path (source: Mother Nature Network)
   Tired of steering your Schwinn accidentally down a one-way street? Or into the unexpected chaos of a traffic circle? Starting on Wednesday, Google's uber-popular online mapping tools feature bicycle directions for pedaling commuters.
4. Where lab benches go to die (source: re-nest)
   Ever wondered what happens to retired lab benches? The ever creative and crunchy folk over at Re-Nest spotted some benches put to new purpose in this Melbourne kitchen.
5. "Columbus didn’t wait for a 747" (source: Eureka)
   Astrobiologist Jill Tarter dishes on nanobots, Shakespeare, and why SETI's extraterrestrial search—despite slim odds—is better than doing nothing.

Thinking spring? Ramble through the lush floral landscapes of The Art of Plant Evolution, where modern science and the tradition of botanical painting meet.

Seed's Daily Zeitgeist

1. A trip to the Exploratorium (source: Mind Hacks)
   Check out Mind Hacks blogger Tom Stafford’s short video of his visit to the Exploratorium’s “distorted room.” The clip is a great illustration of Emmert’s Law, which states that big things far away look the same as small things nearby.
2. TV…in 3-D (source: LiveScience)
   This summer DirecTV will begin offering the first channels designed explicitly for the new 3-D TVs that began hitting the market this month.
3. Snapshots of a hopeful Kenya (source: The Big Picture )
   In the face of recent political conflict and severe drought, Kenya has been struggling to regain its stability. These stunning photographs showcase the troubles, beauty, and accomplishments of one of Africa’s most developed countries.
4. A study in science blogging (source: Christina’s LIS Rant)
   Christina Pikas, a ScienceBlogger and doctoral student in information studies, publishes her qualitative study of why and how scientists blog.
5. Can optometry be used to treat children with learning difficulties? (source: NY Times Magazine)
   Times Magazine explores an emerging subspecialty of optometry that claims vision therapy can be used to treat problems associated with learning, attention, hyperactivity, and coordination.

Science is developing new insights into how religious beliefs may have evolved, but often the research brings up more questions than it answers.

Seed's Daily Zeitgeist

1. Advertising for infinity, and beyond (source: New York Times)
   Between 1957 and 1962, as the Space Race blasted off, so too did public-relations budgets of aerospace companies. As a new book shows, the resulting advertisements made an enduring imprint on the psyches of an entire generation with promises of transcendence that, to this day, remain unfulfilled.
2. Who is to blame for China's carbon emissions? (source: The Great Beyond)
   According to a new study that maps the "outsourcing" of carbon, more than one-fifth of the carbon dioxide emitted in China can be attributed to the manufacture and distribution of consumer goods bought and sold in western Europe, the United States, and Japan.
3. At last, great white sharks versus giant squids! (source: Los Angeles Times)
   A series of tracking studies is revealing unexpected new behavior in the most feared denizens of the deep, great white sharks, including an apparent proclivity for dining on giant squid. Somebody needs to tell David Attenborough about this.
4. The data-preservation pickle (source: Symmetry Magazine)
   In the search for a reliable method to preserve priceless data from decades of high-grade science experiments, physicists are finding there are no easy or cheap solutions.
5. Introducing your very own scanning electron microscope (source: ASPEX Corporation)
   f you've ever wondered what something (anything that will fit within a standard envelope, that is) looks like under extreme magnification, you can now easily find out thanks to a new program offering public access to a scanning electron microscope.

In this week's Findings Log, we examine new research on Earth’s magnetic fields, confusion about what constitutes “sex,” frogs that change sex, and more.

Amy Cannon, green chemist and non-profit director, answers our 10 questions, discussing low-energy solar cells, training scientists to weed out toxicity, and what makes benign chemistry such a good business proposition.

With New York City about to let bloggers qualify for press passes, a look at what breaking down the walls between old and new media means for science reporting.

Inspired by scientific research, Katie Paterson creates art based on data from faraway melting glaciers, long-dead stars, and the initial moments of the universe.

Alcohol is an important part of life in many cultures throughout the world, but there are many misperceptions about this common social lubricant.