Links for 2010-09-15

"I won't be the first food writer to note that McDonald's makes terrific fries. I've read interviews with chefs who try to emulate that crispy exterior and moist interior, that perfectly pleasing balance of salty, savory and sweet. These fries are prevalent around the world for a reason: food scientists engineered the formula and the formula works. There's no real arguing with that.

It's how you feel afterwards that's the problem."

"At Wired Science we are always looking for new ways to deliver you more science and more awesome. Starting today, we are bringing on a group of hand-picked, superstar science bloggers to help us do just that.

The new Wired Science Blogs network will complement our news stories with more insight, opinion and geeky science details brought to you by people who are extremely knowledgeable and deeply embedded in their fields of interest, which range from infectious diseases to physics."

"Older than the stars is a book about Big Bang cosmology, solar system formation, and human evolution for young children. It's hard to imagine that such a thing could succeed, but it does. The main text is a repetitive, singsongy, catchy rhyme in the spirit of the traditional "house that Jack built" poem:"