Round-up: Dinos on display, soldiers at play, stereotypes at work, pharma ghosts, Iraqi snakes

Much much much ado on the web this week, on the too-many fronts I try to visit. From my list of notables:

Carl Zimmer, who clearly doesn't sleep, writes up a nice post about a Nature paper announcing Limusaurus, a newly discovered fossil that is, Zimmer notes, is "not -- I repeat NOT -- the missing link between anything"-- but nevertheless sheds some light on how dinos may have turned into birds (more or less). Bonus: Great pictures of Carl holding up three fingers.

Ed Yong, who seems to be drinking the same strength coffee as Carl Zimmer lately, looks at an interesting correlation: Hidden beliefs in science stereotypes predict size of gender gap across 34 countries. That is, if you think "man" when you think scientist, you probably live in a country that has large gender gaps of other types. Read the post -- and take the little gender bias/stereotype test yourself online.

As if it needed more problems, a drought-stricken Iraq is confronting lots of snakes moving into town from dry riverbeds, reports SciAm.

The indefatigable Dawdy relates how New Zyprexa Documents Show Lilly Ghostwrote Zyprexa Studies. The embarrassments of Big Pharma are nearly impossible to keep up with these days, but Dawdy does his best.

If, like me, you have a taste for the history of science, check out this nice essay by Jeremy John on the challenge of preserving science's historical documentation now that letters, diaries, and lab notebooks have been replaced by digital tools and media.

Some amusing photos of and by our troops overseas.