💡 The Ocean Is Getting Sicker

What’s popular and new this week in Nautilus. [View in browser](| [Join Nautilus]( EDITORS' CHOICE Together with Did a friend forward this? [Subscribe here.]( Hello there Nautilus readers, and thanks for being here. Today we extend our sympathies to the ocean, which is getting sicker. Plus, we go tanning with the stars, and meet the conservationist’s new best friend. Our popular story this week reveals how curiosity depends on what you already know. Another compelling range of responses, this time on being stranded. I’m glad to hear many of you look back on those times fondly. Be sure to check out today’s question (on getting ill) and free story (on what neuroscience is doing to art) below. Happy Sunday! —Brian Gallagher The latest in Nautilus ENVIRONMENT The Ocean Is Getting Sicker Pathogens are surging and new diseases are emerging. BY MARYN MCKENNA At the end of January, Christina Pettan-Brewer’s WhatsApp chats started blowing up. [Continue reading →]( More from Nautilus ARTS Tanning With the Stars Since we can’t travel to the stars, philosophical trickster Jonathon Keats brings them to us. BY CHARLES DIGGES [Continue reading →]( ENVIRONMENT The Conservationist’s New Best Friend With their astounding sense of smell, dogs are helping to sniff out ecological trouble. BY SOPHIE HARTLEY [Continue reading →]( ADVERTISEMENT This Portable Cooler Is the Ultimate Beach Companion The hands-free [IceMule Classic Portable Cooler]( is the ultimate beach companion. With its ultra-tough Muleskin Exterior plus PolarLayer insulation, the [IceMule Classic]( ensures strength and superior ice retention. It’s also guaranteed to keep your favorite beverages frosty for over 24 hours. And because the [IceMule]( is completely collapsible, you can stow it anywhere when you’re done using it. Get yours today and find out why the IceMule is a Popular Science top pick. [Buy on Amazon]( Popular This Week PSYCHOLOGY Curiosity Depends on What You Already Know We seek novelty, but not too much. BY ZACH ST. GEORGE Humans have a drive to eat. We have a drive to drink. We have a drive to reproduce. [Continue reading →]( WE ARE CURIOUS TO KNOW... What do you remember most from a time when you got really sick? Let us know! Reply to this newsletter with your response, briefly explaining your choice, and we’ll reveal the top answers. (This question was inspired by “[The Ocean Is Getting Sicker](.”) Top Answer to Our Previous Question (On a Memorable Experience of Being Stranded) • I was in Jamaica for my daughter’s wedding. A group of us rented motorcycles and, with the help of a guide, trekked up one of Jamaica’s highest mountains. On our way down, the front tire of my motorcycle started leaking. My son-in-law’s father saw a dump truck parked along the road and went looking for the owner, who let us tap into the air brake system to inflate the tire. Down the mountain, we picked up a bicycle pump for $5, then stopped in each little town on our descent to have a cold beer, mingle, and inflate the tire. So what would have been a disappointing situation got turned into a positive, memorable experience for all of us. – Mark W. • I was on the island of Antigua for a business seminar. The next day, the airport closed. Hurricane Lenny, record-setting by its late date and easterly track, was nearby. Lenny hovered, dumping enough rain on our leaky hotel that my room was two inches deep in water for two days. Luckily the hotel was in town rather than on the beach where people were grouped in ballrooms. I wrote a screenplay while sitting on my island bed. When the storm subsided, a couple I had met in the dining room left to drive around the island. Seems Antigua was in the eye of the hurricane. The couple managed to return safely but were eyewitnesses to trees and structures blowing over. The people who had hired me got me out on the first plane when the airport opened. I was there five nights instead of two. About the screenplay—it still hasn’t sold. – Parrish N.H. • While returning from an astronomical research trip to Australia, I arranged to spend a few days on a small cruise boat exploring the Fiji Islands. The entire passenger list included half a dozen honeymooning couples, and me. Early one morning, as we passed a small 100-meter wide uninhabited island, on a whim I asked the captain if he could drop me there for the day. Armed with a snorkel, a towel, and some food and drink, I was transported in a bathing suit by a small craft to the island’s beach. I explored the reef life, climbed to the highest point of the island (50 feet), and felt magnificently isolated. – Bob P. Summer deal: Get two magazines in one bundle! 340 Pages of positive stories, awe-inspiring images, and thought-provoking interviews, for [only €40 plus shipping](. [Get the bundle here]( QUOTE OF THE DAY “By pursuing an amalgam of visual art, meticulously researched science, and performance, he pushes his audiences to ask philosophically knotty questions framed in cheeky, absurdist terms.” [Charles Digges writes about Jonathan Keats’ latest philosophical experiment—democratizing space travel.]( Your free story this Sunday! ARTS Gustav Klimt in the Brain Lab What is neuroscience doing to art? BY KEVIN BERGER The neuroscientist was in the art gallery and there were many things to learn. [Continue reading for free→]( VIVE LES SCIENCES! The Tour de France is here and the perfect companion to cycling's biggest event is a print edition of Nautilus. [Issue 51]( features "Winning By a Hair," a story about the science and history behind cyclists shaving their legs, along with much more of our signature science storytelling. [Get your copy for only $15]( (Nautilus members get 15% off). [Get Issue 51 for only $15]( P.S. The Austrian painter Gustav Klimt was born on this day in 1862. Woman in Gold, Klimt’s 1907 portrait of maverick Vienna socialite Adele Bloch-Bauer, has her in a lavish gold gown, filigreed with ovoid shapes—eyes, eggs, fish—blended into a golden background of circles, spirals, and squares. “The gown is extremely unusual because it’s decorated in all kinds of symbols,” neuroscientist Eric Kandel, who studies the brain’s response to art, told Nautilus. “[Klimt was fascinated with science](. He began to look in a microscope and became fascinated with cells, with sperm and eggs, and incorporated them into his paintings. We’re attracted to the painting because of the symbols, the gold, but it’s Adele’s face that really draws us into it.” Today’s newsletter was written by Brian Gallagher Thanks for reading. [Tell us](mailto:brian.gallagher@nautil.us?subject=&body=) your thoughts on today’s note. 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