Weekend Reading June 28

For those of you who think dinosaurs are less cool and scary since they have feathers - meet the deadly cassowary!

http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/nature/Ways-to-Die-in-the-Wild-Cassowary-Bird.html

Father's Genetic Quest to find out what was wrong with his daughter - what the human genome project makes possible - now with at home sequencing!

http://www.nature.com/news/father-s-genetic-quest-pays-off-1.13269

Sometimes even scientists are fooled by "everyone knows."  Someone finally checked and found out that  Komodo Dragons are venomous.

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/06/27/the-myth-of-the-komodo-dragons-dirty-mouth/

Most psychological studies are done on WEIRD people - Western, educated, from industrialized rich democratic countries.  Why this is a problem.

http://io9.com/rich-educated-westerners-could-be-skewing-social-scien-589231140

CSI:  Real Life.  Unlike on television most forensic scientists cannot look at plant samples and help the police find the location where a person or car picked up trace evidence. It takes a specialist to do that and most police departments (even the FBI!) don't have the kind of funding to hire a professional plant bit identifier (that's the technical job title).  In this link the botanists from the Field Museum help police narrow down the location where a murder suspect might have buried a body.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/sneed/20987878-452/field-museum-scientists-search-for-baby-kate.html