WWWednesday: October 4, 2023

Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman were awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine for their pioneering and life-saving work on mRNA vaccines. A nice vindication for Kariko, who lost funding and faced a demotion at University of Pennsylvania due to a lack of interest in her work on the concept.

This File 770 article provides a nice overview of the evolution of fandom in Poland.

I’m not endorsing this project but I laughed at the write-up and the title: The Dragon Who Dabbled in Crypto, and I thought maybe you would too.

Fantasy is the default form of fiction, existing for thousands of years through sagas and stories of gods coming to earth. As a viable publishing genre in the USA though, it’s probably about 50 years old, and this article thanks (or blames) Lester del Ray for the genre as we have it now.

Alyssa Hull looks at Tolkien’s work through the lens of climate science, on Tor.com.

One definition of grudge is that of unreasonably holding on to a wrong that was done to you. (Except for me—all my grudges are reasonable.) This Guardian article lists ten world champion grudge-holders. I was not surprised to see several ghosts on the list, since they seem like naturals for the exercise.

In 2016, the Hugos added Best Series to their awards. Here’s a reader who thought it was a bad idea then, and still does. Interesting article.

At Nerds of a Feather, Clara Cohen reviews both books in the Kithamar trilogy together: An interesting approach to an interesting series.

Publishers Weekly shares images from last weekend’s Brooklyn Book Festival.

In your plentiful spare time I’m sure you’ll want to do some baking for fall so here are 30 pumpkin dessert recipes.

Yes, I know it’s autumn, but it’s not too late for julep, at least according to Bar Cart Bookshelf, whose cocktail is inspired by Alix E. Harrow’s newest, Starling House.