CAE 58 is out with the most interesting things I read in December, as well some end-of-year lists that I thought were great:

My featured artist this month is Rebecca Lee, whose lovely image of villi from the small intestines of mice is glowing below. Her photo was an honorable mention in the 2025 Photomicrography Competition from Nikon Small World (also featured in CAE 58), and I chose it among all the other wondrous images because the villi are a part of the body I know well since they are damaged by gluten when someone has celiac disease. It caught my eye, and I wrote to Rebecca asking if I could feature her.

Substacks in this edition:

• Caitlin Dewey’s best links roundup for 2025

• Henry Oliver for Works in Progress on why English has become easier to read (hint: it’s not because sentences are shorter)

• The Honest Sorcerer on copper’s resource limits (and how we’re hurtling toward them)

• Erin Nystrom on chronic illness, “Instagram face” and managing aging when also managing comorbidities

Also in CAE 58: the 2025 Agar Art Award Winners, the 2025 Nikon Comedy Wildlife Award Finalists, a great history of the tonka bean, and an incredibly-written piece about how contaminated water causes Parkinson’s Disease.