Slurrrrrrp!

Elephant Crossing Dmitri Markine

Doesn't it always happen like this? You're parched, haven't had a drink in two days, and then you come to a stagnant waterhole full of scummy water. Enter: the trunk! Here's how elephants elegantly skim off just the good stuff. It's pretty cute.

Also in today's links: creationists take a field trip to the temple of evolution, and an anaesthesiologist with nonexistent patients.

• A group of advanced creationism students from Liberty University take a field trip to the Smithsonian, and no, there's no vandalism. Only some incredulity, loud voices, fudging of numbers and genuine appreciation.
• If there's any kind of researcher I'd like to have be honest, it's an anesthesiologist. That's just not an area to be messing around with. But a well known Massachusetts researcher who has had wide influence on the treatment of pain has been accused of making up results, and even patients.
• Quick thinking is more related to genetics than previously known, according to an analysis of myelin integrity, which relates to the speed of nerve impulses in the brain. Check out the graphic, too.
• You know those ads for yogurt with fiber -- that you can't even taste! -- and how gross that sounds? It's not, obviously, a mysterious naturally-occuring fiber found in cow's milk, because that doesn't exist. It's synthetic fiber, which does not have all the proven benefits of, say, wheat bran. The t.v. ads would be better off telling you to eat some yogurt, then some prunes, but that probably wouldn't make them nearly so much money.