I've got your missing links right here (30 June 2012)

Top picks "Despite appearances, this isn't [a] cruelly bisected alien stone organism or a tomato thunderegg." Amazing post from Bec Crew about a really unusual animal. Incredible post from Craig McClain on how presidential elections are affected by a 100 million year old coastline This scientist may be about to rewrite the mammal family tree, but doesn't really care. Really good Nature feature from Elie Dolgin. Science: it's a people thing. Alice Bell is spot on about “Science: it’s a girl thing” fiasco. Plus: three actual ways of getting kids into science A Tale of Two Robots – a very interesting piece by Andrew Wilson on what “embodied cognition” actually means. Longread on EteRNA, a videogame that lets citizen scientists mess w/ RNA. By Brendan Koerner. The lede is wonderful, as is the rest. Why isn't there more coal? Because 300 million years ago, fungi evolved the ability to decompose ...