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There Is No ?Healthy? Microbiome. LONDON ? In the late 17th century, the Dutch naturalist Anton van Leeuwenhoek looked at his own dental plaque through a microscope and saw a world of tiny cells ?very prettily a-moving.? He could not have predicted that a few centuries later, the trillions of microbes that share our lives ? collectively known as the microbiome ? would rank among the hottest areas of biology... http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/02/opinion/sunday/there-is-no-healthy-microbiome.html?_r=1

Follow this link for Jonathan Jones' brilliant Guardian ?Long Read? piece on Picasso?s legacy, and the troubles at the Picasso museum: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/oct/16/-sp-nightmare-picasso-museum-paris

The new series of 'Trust Me I'm a Doctor' starts on BBC Two tonight at 8 p.m.. Surgeon and writer Gabriel Weston is one of the presenters, talking this evening about new medical procedures that are helping those with spinal injuries regain movement. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04m0bt4

BBC Africa Correspondent and author of the forthcoming Mayor of Mogadishu has won an Emmy for ?outstanding feature story in a regular newscast? for his coverage of the conflict in the Central African Republic, broadcast on 6 December 2013. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-29440572

Alec Ash is a writer and journalist in Beijing currently writing a book about young Chinese society. Here he discusses young people's historic role in Chinese protest movements.

Guo Xiaolu, author of I am China, recently visited New York for an event at Asia Society sponsored by Pen America. Follow this link for a full write-up and videos of her reading and performing.

The second book in M.J. Arlidge?s DI Helen Grace series has gone straight in at number 9 on the Sunday Times Bestseller List following its first week of sales. A huge marketing campaign supports publication of Pop Goes the Weasel with Helen returning to the backstreets of Southampton chasing a serial-killing prostitute. This is the second time this year Arlidge has hit the bestseller list. The third in the series, The Doll's House, is out February 2015.

"White Crocodile certainly has plenty of teeth for a debut novel... It is a mightily impressive effort to combine a fine, taut story with so many topical issues. Here we find the evils of modern day slavery, sexual tourism, child abuse, and domestic violence alongside the lingering legacy of the Khmer Rouge ordnance (even Jeremy Clarkson gets a mention). It sounds like a tall order but it?s not clunky and you rarely feel preached at. You may sometimes feel you want to put the book down, but that is a testament to the unflinching strength of Medina?s story. And you will pick it up again." - Independent "Colourful descriptions of Cambodia transport the reader to a land full of mystery and primitive superstition, while Medina's Territorial Army background feeds into an accurately detailed novel full of suspense and drama with a powerful female protagonist." - The Sunday Express "The killing fields of Cambodia provide an unsettling, evocative setting for KT Medina's impressive debut, White Crocodile. It's a powerful, angry book, affected by Medina's personal experience there, in a previous job." - The Times "It's Medina's Cambodia that truly transports the reader, almost becoming a character in itself and giving the crimes of White Crocodile an original and intriguing context." - Stylist "'Few crime novels deserve to be called operatic - in the sense of being larger than life, with emotions etched in the most striking of colours - but K T Medina's remarkable debut certainly qualifies for the adjective...Painted on the most ambitious of canvases, White Crocodile takes the reader into a Cambodia that suggests the fraught psychological territory of Joseph Conrad's Africa in Heart of Darkness." - Barry Forshaw, Independent

Zeitgeist talks give perspectives on global issues from the leading thinkers of our time - from business leaders to statespeople, renowned writers and bloggers, professors and publishers, inventors and humanitarians, activists and musicians.Follow this link to watch Bradley Garrett in action. Bradley L. Garrett is a researcher at the University of Oxford with a passion for photography of off-limits places. Brad worked as an archaeologist for five years, and during his time at the United States Bureau of Land Management, he became interested in the politics of designating and controlling access to sites of popular heritage. Soon after he started sneaking into ?closed? locations in London, taking photographs, and sharing them with the public. His first book, Explore Everything: Place-Hacking the City (Verso Books 2013), is an account of his adventures trespassing into ruins, tunnels and skyscrapers in eight different countries. His second book, Subterranean London: Cracking the Capital (Prestel 2014), is a photographic dissection of what lies underneath the streets of London, layer by layer.

Elly Griffiths is among ten authors longlisted for the CWA 2014 Dagger in the Library award, sponsored by Dead Good and honouring an author's body of work. For the first time, the list has been compiled by readers - 1,384 crime fans voted for 636 authors, a 60% increase from 2013. Here is the complete longlist: MC Beaton (Constable & Robinson) Tony Black (Black and White Publishing) Sharon Bolton (Transworld) Elly Griffiths (Quercus) Mari Hannah (Pan) James Oswald (Michael Joseph) Phil Rickman (Corvus) Leigh Russell (No Exit) Mel Sherratt (Thomas & Mercer) Neil White (Sphere) The shortlist will be decided by a panel of judges including previous winner Steve Mosby, CWA Director Lucy Santos, and a group of UK librarians. Judge Steve Mosby said: "Winning the Dagger in the Library in 2012 meant the world to me. Not only is it an award for a body of work, it's voted on by librarians, so to win was a huge honour. It's an equal honour to be invited back as one of the judges, and I can't wait to read this year's longlist." The shortlist will be revealed on Monday 3 November, with the winner announced at an event in Foyles, Charing Cross Road in late November.

Janklow & Nesbit are looking to employ a general Admin Assistant who will take responsibility for some of the routine office tasks including: ? Maintaining databases ? Processing royalty statements ? Office filing ? Managing e-book & audio addenda ? Compiling rights reports ? Preparing & sending review round-ups The ideal candidate would be someone organised and efficient, who?s confident working with figures, systems and numerical data. 12-16 hours per week, would suit someone with existing commitments. Salary to be negotiated. Please e-mail cv & covering letter to Kirsty Gordon kgordon@janklow.co.uk

Author of Explore Everything Bradley Garrett gave a fascinating talk in Sydney last weekend about his research into Urban Exploration and his resulting legal battles. What is public space, and who should have access to it? The podcast is available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_VDYrvnvLk&feature=youtu.be

Follow this link for the first in a 5 part BBC4 series, The Beauty of Anatomy, in which Dr Adam Rutherford investigates the close relationship between discoveries in anatomy and the works of art that illustrate them. Adam Rutherford begins his series by looking at the work of the 2nd century Roman anatomist Claudius Galen and the artist and part-time dissector Leonardo da Vinci. The next episode will air next Wednesday at 8.30pm.

Olivia Laing, author of The Trip to Echo Spring, has been nominated for the 2014 Gordon Burn Prize. The prize, awarding books that capture the spirit of Burns's electic works and style, was launched last year, with Ben Myers?s Pig Iron awarded the inaugural prize. Laing's exploration of the drinking habits of famous authors throughout history has been shortlisted alongside a range of fiction and non-fiction titles, including Richard House?s 2013 Man Booker Prize longlisted The Kills. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookprizes/11028548/Gordon-Burn-Prize-2014-Super-Furry-Animals-frontman-nominated.html