I picked up a Wired magazine for the plane and it was one of their best issues in months.  A few of the Must Read pieces, in order:

• What We Don’t Know: Want to know all the cool things that scientists are still trying to figure out?  Wired collected dozens of questions, along with descriptions, that show where science is looking but not finding the answers they want.  Alongside are John Hodgmans hysterical expert opinions.  If you think learning stuff about the universe is cool, start reading this article now.
• How Yahoo Blew It: Yahoo had all the advantages when Google started to emerge: a full product suite, enormous user base, and existing relationships with advertisers.  So how did they screw it up?  This article points the finger indirectly at CEO Terry Semel, who came in to make it a content creator when it needed to serve ads better.  As an aside, I’ve noticed lately that a lot of the Yahoo! products that I left for Google are now better than their rivals.  I also owe Yahoo for helping me find my Wii.
• The Invisible Enemy: Soldiers from Iraq started getting sick with drug-resistant bacteria that started to spread through the evacuation chain.  Was it coming from desert soil? Unsanitary field hospitals? Coating the IEDs?  This article explores the making of an epidemic in the hospital system, and how the military is starting to combat it.

Two other articles, on MTV creating virtual worlds and the growing acceptance of manufactured diamonds, deserve nods, but not the lengthy descriptions.  I normally don’t highlight a whole magazine, but Wired this month deserves a trip to the newsstand.

Categories: Distribution, Science, Social Software