Antibiotic-resistance in bacteria is becoming more common at the same time that new antibiotics are becoming scarcer. Researchers at the University of New South Wales in Australia have discovered compounds called furanones that prevent certain kinds of bacteria from switching on disease-causing mechanisms. The most exciting thing about this discovery is that the furanones don’t kill the bacteria, and so don’t exert the same kind of evolutionary pressure to develop resistance to the compounds.

Steven Johnson proposes that the current balkanized world of MMORPG’s will soon converge into the long-awaited metaverse, and points to the convergence of operating systems and email standards as past evidence.

I want a Picoflyer remote controlled helicopter, and then I want a cat to torment with it. Here’s Popular Science’s explanation of how it works.

The Literature Map is an interesting concept that needs a better implementation. Enter the name of an author to see a cluster of related authors with your selected author in the center. The farther a related author is from the center, the less in common the author has with your choice. Implementation problems include no indication of what the cardinal position of related authors mean, plus some bizarre floating effect that just makes it hard to read.

I remember the first time I read The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins I felt almost physically illuminated. It has had the single greatest influence on my thinking of any nonfiction book I’ve read. It’s hard to believe that it’s been 30 years since it was published, but it has and Edge has the transcript (and audio) of the celebration: a conversation with Daniel C. Dennett, Matt Ridley, Sir John Krebs, Ian McEwan, Richard Dawkins, Melvyn Bragg and Helena Cronin at The Old Theatre in London. A caveat: although my usual practice is to post no link until I’ve read it myself, I haven’t yet had the opportunity to read the transcript of this event. I can’t promise it’s worth your while, but with that suite of luminaries it’s got to be interesting.