The best science writing online 2012 / Bora Zivkovic, series editor ; Jennifer Ouellette, guest editor.

Includes bibliographical references.

Somata / Aubrey J. Sanders -- Make history, not Vitamin C / Eva Amsen -- Saving Ethiopia's "Church forests" / T. DeLene Beeland -- What it feels like for a sperm / Aatish Bhatia -- Incredible journey / Lee Billings -- In the shadows of greatness / Biochem Belle -- A view to a kill in the morning / Deborah Blum -- It's sedimentary, my dear Watson / David Bressan -- Mentruation is just blood and tissue you ended up not using / Kate Clancy -- Joule's jewel / Stephen Curry -- Unraveling the fear o' the Jolly Roger / Krystal D'Costa -- Free science, one paper at a time / David Dobbs -- Tinea speaks up: a fairy tale / Cindy M. Doran -- Man discovers a new life-form at a South African truck stop / Rob Dunn -- Moon arts: fallen astronaut / Claire L. Evans -- Science metaphors: resonance / Ann Finkbeiner -- Bombardier beetles, bee purple, and the sirens of the night / Jennifer Frazer -- Mpemba's baffling discovery / Greg Gbur -- Romeo: a lone Wolf's tragedy in three acts / Kimberly Gerson -- Rats, bees, and brains: the death of the "Cognitive map" / Jason C. Goldman -- Don't panic: sustainable seafood and the American outlaw / Miriam C. Goldstein -- On beards, biology, and being a real American / Joe Hanson -- I love Gin and Tonics / Matthew Hartings -- Adorers of the good science of rock-breaking / Dana Hunter -- "I feel the percussive roar on the skin of my face" / Karen James -- Freedom to riot / Eric Michael Johnson -- Inside the "Black box" of nuclear power plants / Maggie Koerth-Baker -- This ain't yo momma's muktuk / Rebecca Kreston -- Chessboxing is fighting for good behavior / Andrea Kuszewski -- Mirror images: twins and identity / David Manly -- Did the CIA fake a vaccination campaign? / Maryn McKenna -- Free will and quantum clones / George Musser Jr. -- Dear Emma B / PZ Myers -- Faster than a speeding photon / Chad Orzel -- Sunrise in the garden of dreams / Puff the Mutant Dragon -- Volts and Vespa: buzzing about photoelectric wasps / John Rennie -- How to stop a hurricane / Casey Rentz -- Shakes on a plane: can turbulence kill you? / Alex Reshanov -- How addiction feels: the honest truth / Cassie Rodenberg -- Ten million feet upon the stair / Chris Rowan -- Woof! Living boldly as a "free-range aspergian" / Steve Silberman -- The dodo is dead, long live the dodo! / Brian Switek -- Sex and the married neurotic / Melanie Tannenbaum -- Why do women cry? Obviously it's so they don't get laid / Christie Wilcox -- How to take the real measure of a man / Allie Wilkinson -- The origin and extinction of species / David Winter -- Genome sequencing and assembly, Shakespeare style / Richard F. Wintle -- The intelligent homosexual's guide to natural selection / Jeremy Yoder -- The Renaissance man / Ed Yong -- Fragmented intimacies / Shana Yurkiewicz -- The human lake / Carl Zimmer.