Black Dog Blog

Experts who clean National Trust buildings show how it's done.

Lack of sleep mucks up old people's proteins.

Note that "Sleep in mice is characterized by short periods of inactivity". Wow, science!

This is awesome, not because they kept the poor mice awake with brushes(!), but because the complex systems that keep proteins properly folded are easier to baffle if you're old. Understanding them is the first step to keeping them in good nick, which will lead to immortality. And mice with death rays.

Surgeons list their top inventions of the last 60 years.

Hey, kids! You can get two marks in your English exam simply for writing "F##k off" – even if you don't use punctuation.

A comparative study of canine teeth in primates.

This is awesome because they don't know why we monkeys have such strong fangs. Were they for fighting? Mating displays? Particularly hard Pleistocene toffees?

They have also discovered that if our teeth were too big, they wouldn't fit into our jaws. Wow, science!

I miss the Neanderthals. Neanderthals were awesome because they existed alongside us. They were clever and sophisticated, not flint-waving savages, but they still bit the dust. Losers.

Battery hens get new life as pets.

Hens are underrated. They are descended from tropical pheasants. They can also grow teeth. STEALTH TEETH. How scary are hens, huh?

Biblical text-writing may have poisoned monks. This is awesome because "cinnabar" is a pretty word.

Relatedly, link found between brain damage and people who underline a lot of things in red ink.

Hospital doctors are working in short sleeves for reasons of Hygiene

A baby potoroo, a little rodent-looking marsup (cute), is out and about after mum hints that he's getting a bit big for her pouch these days.

Gilbert's Potoroos are awesome because they eat root-dwelling fungi (symbiosis is naturally awesome) and weigh a friggin' kilogram – and look at those talons.

Children with guns. The clip is well worth watching.

And finally. Architect designs rotating building (embedded video)

OK, granted, obligatory "OMFGcoolz" from me. Still, though, why?

I bet it's noisy, too…

Not news: funny b3ta-originated parody of British policemen and children's books.