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Woman Tries To Bring Skeleton On Plane

A woman was stopped at Munich airport after baggage control handlers found the skeleton of her brother sealed in a plastic bag in her luggage, police said Wednesday. The 62-year-old woman and her 63-year-old friend, who both live in Italy, were hauled in by airport police Tuesday after a scan of the bag showed a human skull and other bones. The women were traveling to Italy from Brazil. It turned out, however, that the woman was simply trying to fulfill the last wish of her brother _ who died 11 years ago in Sao Paulo, Brazil _ to be buried in Italy. Read the gory details here.

Venezuela seems poised to invade Columbia

Holy crap, where did this come from? Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is sending thousands of troops and tanks to the border with Colombia, marking a sharp escalation in regional tensions. Speaking on his weekly television show, President Chavez also said Venezuela's embassy in Colombia would close. Mr Chavez said he was reacting to the "cowardly murder" of a leading Farc rebel by Colombian forces in a raid just inside Ecuador on Saturday. Later, Ecuador recalled its ambassador to Bogota in protest at the incursion. Raul Reyes and at least 16 other rebels were killed in the operation,…

Utne Blogs Har Mar Home School Creationist Science Fair

Bennett Gordon has a post on the Har Mar Science Fair: ...Every diorama in the Home School Science Fair, which took place inside a shopping mall in Roseville, Minnesota, had a biblical quote attached to it. A young woman whose project involved teaching her dog how to run circles between her legs decorated the words: "If you love me, you will obey what I command." (John 14:15) in pink lace fabric. This quote got to the crux of the science fair, in my opinion: parental commandment. These parents pulled their children out of school, away from their peers, and said, "Now prove that Darwin was…

The Internet is Unraveling in the East

In two apparently independent events, a total of three undersea cables normally carrying a large amount of data, including Internet and Telephone signals, have been cut. The first two cables were in the Eastern Mediterranean offshore from Egypt, and the third cut, apparently a day later, is between Dubai and Muscat There are conflicting reports of how the two Alexandria cables were cut. Oman's largest telecom, Omantel, said a tropical storm caused the damage while ...the United Arab Emirates' second largest telecom, said the cables were cut due to ships dragging their anchors. Iran is said…

One week from today in Montreal...

Well, this looks interesting. It's the 2010 Lorne Trottier Public Science Symposium at McGill University in Montreal. This year, the theme is Confronting Pseudoscience: A Call to Action. A certain "friend of the blog" will be speaking with Ben Goldacre and Michael Shermer on Monday, October 18 from 5 to 7 PM on the Threat of Pseudoscience. He'll also be on Dr. Joe's radio show on CJAD 800. On Tuesday, October 19, the ever-amazing Randi will speak on investigating paranormal claims. If you happen to be in the Montreal area or can get there on October 18 and/or 19, come on over to McGill. It…

Casey Luskin, Attack Mouse of the Discovery Institute

It's a sign of the lowly state to which the DI is descending that their assaults on evolutionary ideas have lately been led by the pathetic Casey Luskin. Luskin is a guy who doesn't understand biology, and whose usual line of attack is to whine about credentials—it isn't a good combination. After all, isn't it a bit sad to have a particularly ignorant lawyer and ideologue complaining about scientists' (or science journalists') understanding of science? Anyway, while taking a break from the futilely but furiously spinning exercise wheel at the Discovery Institute, Casey Luskin is now squeaking…

Mozambique and DDT

Alicia Colon has written the usual rubbish about how Rachel Carson killed millions of people (see DDT ban myth bingo for corrections to the stuff she gets wrong). After claiming that DDT is banned she writes: Within two years of starting DDT programs, South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia, Madagascar, and Swaziland slashed their malaria rates by 75% or more. Apart from contradicting her claim that DDT is banned, this passage contains an interesting mistake. Mozambique has indeed slashed its malaria rate, but it hasn't used DDT. It seems that what is killing people in Africa is not restrictions…

New Banner

Since everyone else here was putting up banners, I created a banner for my blog. The text and figure come from Chapter 8 (The Deltoid) of EH Lockwood's A Book of Curves (1961). It was on sale for $1 at a book sale, so I snapped it up. A deltoid is the concave triangular curve formed when a small circle rolls around the inside of a circle three times as big. Eric Weisstein's Mathworld has a nice animation as well as a description of its properties. If you've ever played with Spirograph you might have drawn a deltoid. Under the fold is a spirograph applet (courtesy of Anu Garg) that…

Dunk Malaria

Dunk Malaria is organizing a Malaria Action Day on March 19th, to raise awareness of malaria. The idea is that people net a basketball to symbolize the insecticide treated netting that is the best weapon against malaria. Good. Except that number 2 on their list of charities is the execrable Africa Fighting Malaria, who are trying to prevent bednets from being used to fight malaria. I think that we here at Deltoid can, right now, do more to fight malaria than Africa Fighting Malaria has ever done. I will match, up to a total of $300, donations to The Global Fund to Fight AIDS,…

Happy 16th Birthday, Skatje

Look whose birthday it is today: Skatje! You can all go wish her a happy day, although we're not having too much of a celebration, since it is that hectic first week of school for both of us. Anyway, it is a tradition here that I embarrass the kids on their birthdays with ancient snapshots from their childhood. This one, though…you also get to see her funny looking dad! I may have to re-evaluate this tradition. I threw a few more current photos below the fold. She knew I was going to get her. Here's the first response: hiding. Then pouting. Finally, resignation and acceptance. It isn't…

More Lancet Denial

Via William Sjostrom I find that Mike Adams has distilled Lancet denialism down to its essence. He quotes from the New Scientist's description of the Lancet study: "The invasion of Iraq in March 2003 by coalition forces has lead to the death of at least 100,000 civilians, reveals the first scientific study...of almost 1000 households scattered across Iraq." You read that correctly. A scientific study "of almost 1000 households" determined that we killed 100,000 civilians in Iraq before the November election. Believe it or not, Adams is a criminology professor and he can't conceive how…

Ian Plimer 'can not recall' where his graph came from

Adam Morton asked Ian Plimer where his dodgy Figure 3 came from (my emphasis): Some of his critics say they are surprised that a former head of the University of Melbourne geology department, with more than 120 published papers to his name, would include unsourced graphs in his book. Asked where he found one graph showing temperatures across the 20th century differing markedly to the data used by the IPCC or the world's leading climate centres, Plimer says he can not recall. Gee, imagine what Plimer would have said if some climate scientist had been caught out unable to provide a source for…

Bad Science: The Missing Chapter

Ben Goldacre has posted the chapter he was forced to leave out of earlier editions of Bad Science because of a lawsuit from charlatan Matthias Rath: Although the publishers make a slightly melodramatic fuss about this in the promo material, it is a very serious story about the dangers of pseudoscience, as I hope you'll see, and it was also a pretty unpleasant episode, not just for me, but also for the many other people he's tried to sue, including Medecins Sans Frontieres and more. If you're ever looking for a warning sign that you're on the wrong side of an argument, suing Medecins Sans…

Oregon petition warmed over

Last year RealClimate reported that there had been another mass mailing to get more signatures on the notorious Oregon Petition. They are now announcing that they've increased the number of signatures from 19,000 to 31,000. The original objections to the Oregon Petition still apply -- most of the signers do not have PhDs and are not practising scientists. Just 40 of the signers claim to be climatologists, and since they don't tell you their names, it's impossible to check whether they are, in fact, climatologists. Bigcitylib decided to test their quality control by signing using a fake…

It's just that sort of day

Today is just the kind of day when these lyrics speak to me: And you run, you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking Racing around to come up behind you again The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older Shorter of breath and one day closer to death Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way The time is gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say From Time by Pink Floyd

Misleading reporting from Fiona Harvey of the Financial Times

Thingsbreak has produced a graphic illustration of how lazy journalists mislead in the name of "balance". On right is his colour coding of her story on the NOAA report on the State of the Climate in 2009, with red marking coverage of "Climategate" and contrarians and green marking coverage of the report that the story is ostensibly about. This, from the red coverage, quite takes your breath away: David Herro, the financier, who follows climate science as a hobby, said NOAA also "lacks credibility". Tim Lambert, the blogger, who follows climate journalism as a hobby, says Harvey lacks…

Brain death and fundamentalist religion, revisited

Yesterday, I wrote about the sad case of Motl Brody, a 12-year-old Orthodox Jew whose brain tumor had rendered him brain dead and whose parents are fighting the efforts of the hospital to disconnect him from the ventilator and to stop all the powerful cardiac drugs that are keeping his heart beating and his blood pressure high enough because their religion tells them that death is defined by cessation of heartbeat and breathing. They do not accept the concept of brain death, even though they do accept that their child will never recover. Yale neurologist and all-around skeptical guru Steve…

Fear of a bad election

So there's this election tomorrow, and the Republicans have consistently screwed the pooch for years, and people are starting to wake up and get more vocal about the incompetence, corruption, and dumbassery of this administration…but I am not sanguine about our prospects for getting rid of the villains. Tom Tomorrow explains why: even if these people were shown to be literally demons from hell, we'd still have to cope with…the undecided voters. I lost all confidence in the American electorate in 2000 and 2004. I'll be doing my part on Tuesday, voting and helping to turn out the vote, but I…

I Can Haz graff

The guys from I Can Haz Cheezburger? have come up with a new website for all of you to submit random crap to. This one, instead of being based on cats, is based on graphs. According to Wired: Unlike creating lolcats, which requires just a photo and a grasp of the broken English of kitty pidgin, GraphJam requires readers to come up with concepts and create pie charts, histograms and bar graphs. Daunting for sure, but the potential for moments of meme-genius is there. There don't seem to be many funny graphs up yet but I'm sure there will be some to come. Here is one that I almost chuckled…

The sweet life

Next to my unfettered access to the ScienceBlogs Ski-Doo, my favorite SB perk is the weekly newsletter. Now you can live the sweet life, too, by signing up for the "Week in ScienceBlogs" email. It's first class all the way, baby! The newsletter is great for picking up on the highlights of the week, including the best quotes from the week's blogging and other goodies. Bonus: Act now, and you'll get included in the 500,000th Comment Contest drawing for the trip to the world's greatest science city! Which, right now, looks to be an international location! Be a champ, not a chump. Carry on.

Science Art Tuesday: Triune Is Coming

Heather finally printed the follow up to her cellular self portrait (links to the first print), this time using plant cells. I particularly like the difference in movement between the prints. A week from this Friday she's having her senior art show, which we are both looking forward to. She put up her banner yesterday and postcards are being distributed: If you're in the area, feel free to stop by next week, check out some unique, science inspired art, have a cupcake and a cream puff (homemade of course), drink some yummy coffee and BS with me and Heather about art and science. Should be a…

Celebrating One Year of The Voltage Gate

Today is my one year blogiversary and I will be celebrating by helping the Sierra Student Coalition and other conservation groups on campus celebrate Earth Day 2007 a few days early, to coincide with our new president's inauguration. The new pres has promised to sign the Talloires Declaration, declaring his dedication to promoting a sustainable campus. The Bottom Line will have a table at the celebration, handing out our annual Earth Day edition of the paper. I should have pics of the event up later. This also marks the day I will begin occasionally reposting substantial, non-timely posts…

New Banner Art

Heather, my fiance, finally found a few hours between painting, printmaking, throwing pots, writing papers and taking exams to draw up the second biomes banner in the series, this time, as you can see, representing an African savanna. I'll be working on a tabbed page (like contact, about, etc.) to compile her work. Heather is willing to take commissions (for blog art or other media), and can be reached at haravenscroft0 [at] gmail.com. From left to right: A Spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta), a male Greater kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros), Meerkats (Suricata suricatta), an African White-backed…

Any undergrads out there into SEM?

Going through emails, I came across a request from ASPEX to link to a scholarship they're offering. $1,000 and "an opportunity to co-author a poster with ASPEX at Pittcon 2010." If you are an undergrad thinking of applying for this, going to Pittcon might be worth more than the $1,000. You couldn't ask for a better analytical chemistry meeting to attend, and this could be a great place to find a job or grad school advisor. Also, if you have something you'd like to see SEM'd, they'll do it for free (although you have to be OK having it out there for the world to see).

Harold Varmus on Daily Show

There was a nice interview on the Daily Show with former NIH director and Nobel laureate Harold Varmus. Good on Jon Stewart for having him, he got to make the kind of points you wouldn't usually on a book tour. He touches on some interesting points regarding just how science funding works in practice in the States, as well as the broad range of constituencies agencies like NIH have to satisfy. Sorry, the video is from Comedy Central and, likely, US-only. */ The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c Harold Varmus Daily Show Full EpisodesImportant Things With Demetri Martin…

Mary Rosh is really John Lott

Oh, and in amusing side note, Julian Sanchez uncovered evidence that determined Lott defender Mary Rosh is actually John Lott, and Lott actually confessed. Atrios, Roger Ailes, Kevin Drum and Tom Spencer also seem amused. I've had some discussions with "Mary" on Usenet. Her argument style is that if the facts disagree with Lott, then so much the worse for the facts. You can see an example here. You can read her Amazon review of More Guns, Less Crime here. And check this posting out, where "Mary" defends John from a criticism of his 98% brandishing number and rips into…

Tropylium (Our aromatic rings go up to seven!)

Aromatic rings have 4n+2 pi electrons, where n is any integer. You don't see odd numbers of carbons in aromatic rings too often because the pattern of alternating double bonds is disrupted - if you have a cation or anion, though, odd-numbered aromatics are possible. Tropylium cation is one such aromatic ring - same pi electron count as benzene, but one extra carbon. The ion is so stable you can actually isolate tropylium fluoborate (not sure about other counterions). It is also an ubiquitous peak in EI mass spec from alkylbenzenes. Analogously, complexes of cyclopentadienyl anion are known (…

Well I never...

PalMD has a great post about vaginas. More specifically, about the wonderful commensal bacteria that help keep a vagina at the proper pH, and what happens when they get booted out: From time to time, this normal balance of bacteria is disrupted. When this happens, the normally dominant Lactobacilli are outgrown by various anaerobic bacteria. These bacteria break down proteins in the vagina and create various malodorous compounds that are discharged in a thin, grey discharge. It is this symptom that normally drives a woman to the doctor where she is diagnosed with bacterial vaginosis (BV).…

Essential cold-weather tips for idiots

I'm from California, but this is my third New England winter (though last year doesn't really count since Washington DC and New York stole al our snow). Even I know, this is a really important message: And the tips for idiots (mentioned at 0:57) are especially important: - Do not attempt to mow lawn - Do not eat de-icing salt - Do not start fires indoors - If you pee on yourself, change pants immediately [it may start off feeling warmer, but wet cotton = hypothermia - kb] - Wear mittens - Snow is cold - A garbage bag does not make a "great coat" - Keep icicles out of eyes Be safe out there…

More on Stuff

I remember back in my teenage years unpacking the car during a vacation and singing a little tune I made up and envisioned turning into an entire Broadway musical (unfortunately, you cannot hear the catchy tune that went along with it): Stuff. We have too much of it: stuff. We still want more of it: stuff. It's tough to have so much stuff. And, as the ever-resourceful Mike Hirshfield of Oceana pointed out to me at the recent IMCC meeting when we were talking about the post on The Story of Stuff, George Carlin did the original Stuff Story in this stand-up comedy routine from 1986:

Yet another -ome

From a recent paper in Nature Reviews Microbiology, it's probiogenomics! The human body is colonized by an enormous population of bacteria (microbiota) that provides the host with coding capacity and metabolic activities. Among the human gut microbiota are health-promoting indigenous species (probiotic bacteria) that are commonly consumed as live dietary supplements. Recent genomics-based studies (probiogenomics) are starting to provide insights into how probiotic bacteria sense and adapt to the gastrointestinal tract environment. In this Review, we discuss the application of probiogenomics…

Now You Too Can Be a "Skeptic"... of Anything!

If we learned anything from the Atlas of Creation, it's that we can refute any evidence, regardless of how scientifically sound it is, just by putting a red X across it and writing "FALSE". Jeremiah McNichols reflects on this at his blog Think In Pictures... and then he takes it one step further. McNichols is selling merchandise to give you the same powers of refutation as the Atlas's own Harun Yahya. Check it out here. All proceeds go to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), so it's for a good cause. Besides, who wouldn't want to be able to do this? Evolution…

3 Quarks Daily Sciblogging Prize: Voting Open

Voting for the 3QD science blogging prize has opened. Eighty posts have made the initial nominations list, including 3 of my own: The Thoughtful Animal: Does oral sex confer an evolutionary advantage? Evidence from bats The Thoughtful Animal: Path Integration in the Desert Ant The Thoughtful Animal: The Russian Fox Study The ultimate winners will be picked by Richard Dawkins, but YOU can help determine the small group of finalists which will be sent to him for judgement. So, go here to check out the nominees. Then click the link on that page to vote. I would be very grateful for your votes…

Timelapse video: artist paints 30 foot high mural on a CERN control room

This three-story-tall mural was painted by international artist Josef Kristofoletti on the side of the ATLAS control room directly above the detector: This project was inspired by the same questions that physicists are trying to answer; where did we come from, what does it mean to be human, and what is our place in the universe? The artist worked closely with physicists at CERN over the course of a year to create the mural. It depicts the artist's interpretation of what the Higgs boson might look like. This short, time-lapse video was finished June 2012, using photos that were taken during…

Researchers install window on shark egg

Treehugger reports on the work of marine scientists at Brazil's Guaruja Aquarium, who have added a plastic window onto a shark egg so they can watch the fish develop. In the photo above you can see the fetal bamboo shark attached to a large yolk sac. The video below gives a better view. After noting that the unborn shark was unaffected by the window on its neonatal world, researchers removed the entire animal from its purse and allowed it to grow inside a perspex container. The work will help shed more light on how young sharks develop, an understanding of which is crucial to the…

Friday Flash Fun: Spermrider

Remember all the fun you had with the Great Sperm Race game a while back? Well, now you can step it up a level with Sperm Rider. In this game you play a delighted little guy in a cowboy hat, riding on a giant spermatozoa through a city drawn crudely in crayons. Using your "seed of destruction", set about squishing the local populace, and fend off attacks from tanks, helicopters and jet planes by deflecting their missiles with your long tail. It's all set to brilliant music and has very little to do with any kind of science, but I like it anyway. Just make sure you don't "ruin everything…

Editor's Selections: Coffee, Auditory Cheesecake, Chimpanzee Conflict, Genes and IQ

Here are my Research Blogging Editor's Selections for this week: Christian Jarrett of BPS Research Digest starts us off with a big cup of coffee. Coffee helps women cope with stressful meetings but has the opposite effect on men. What's the point of music? Steven Pinker once famously remarked that music is "...auditory cheesecake, an exquisite confection crafted to tickle the sensitive spots of...our mental faculties." Henkjan Honing of the Music Matters blog asks, Was Steven Pinker right after all? From a relatively new blog, Smells Like Science, an interesting take on chimpanzee warfare.…

From the Arctic to Hades

If all has gone well, this post should appear as I'm on my way across the country to John Lynch's neck of the woods. The warmth of the desert should cause quite a shock to my system coming from the frigid north east. I may not have much access to the internets until next week, and I haven't scheduled any other posts. Evolgen is going dark for the next few days. If you have the urge to post a comment (on one of the old posts, I guess), log in with Type Key so that it can appear without my moderation. While I'm gone, make sure the Frinkers don't steal any of my my jokes.

When Medical Doctors Take All of the Fun Out of Genetics

According to Ken Maclean in a letter to Nature, patients don't like it when clever geneticists name genes after cartoon characters, video game characters, and Monty Python characters (see here if you don't follow). I'm not sure if I can reproduce the letter or if it's under copyright protection (now that I'm working for the man, I don't wanna be breaking no laws), but it's available here. The gist of it is, if you're ill (not like the Beastie Boys, but like dying from cancer), you don't wanna be told that your Pokemon or Sonic hedgehog gene is all fucked up. Update: Here is some more on…

Who said this?

Someone was asked something along these lines by a member of some legislative body: How will your research help protect this country? That someone replied with something like this: It won't, but it will keep this country worth protecting. The exact wording in those quotes probably differ from what was actually said. This isn't a rhetorical question, nor is it an exercise in trivia. I don't know who said it, what the exact context of the quote was, or whether this was actually said by anyone, anytime, anywhere. So, if you know of the exact quote, who said it, and where it was said, please…

Is Auburn the new Birmingham?

So, I missed the three year anniversary of evolgen (it was last Wednesday for those of you keeping score). What does that have to do with police dogs and civil rights protesters in Alabama in the 1960s? Absolutely nothing. But I'm combining two unrelated topics into a single post -- neither of which have anything to do with the American civil rights movement. Or do they? Police dogs attacking black people are as big a part of Alabama culture as nooses hanging from trees in Louisiana. Too soon? Whether it's at a protest march or on a football field, there's not denying it. Anyway, here's a…

Unintended Consequences

We need to pay closer attention to how hunting and fishing regulations are set or we may end up with unintended negative consequences for the species we are trying to protect. This according to new research reported in The New York Times. We know that target species can react to increased predation by humans (which is far different from the type of predation that occurs in the wild, where predators prefer the young and dying). We saw this in the cod fishery when cod evolved to reproduce at younger ages and smaller sizes. Daniel Pauly, the father of shifting baselines, is also quoted in…

Friday Cephalopod: Squid in Spaaaaace!

The Squid Scientists take a photo of their baby animals, and unwittingly reveal what they're actually doing. Look behind the squid -- I know it's hard, why would you want to look past cephalopods? -- and what do you see? That blurry poster in the background? It's a space shuttle launch. And now you know. This is a top secret program to train Euprymna scolopes to pilot spacecraft. They'd probably be better at 3-dimensional thinking than us, so it's only natural. Quick, reboot Star Trek with a more appropriate cast! Oh, I think it's been done--the Thermians from the Klaatu Nebula in Galaxy…

Testicles

There is a funny yet interesting article over at Discover magazine about the positioning of the testicles and why they aren't protected a wee bit more. Here's a little sampler: The site of human testicles seems a bizarre anomaly from an evolutionary point of view, like positioning the driver of an armored vehicle in a sack strapped to the bumper. If the whole point of the human organism is to pass on genes, why put the repository of those precious genes out front, in harm's way? Why not protect them the way the brain and the heart are protected, with thick bone vaults and, in the brain's case…

Deutsch speaks!

…and makes a total ass of himself. In the interview, Mr. Deutsch said that Dr. Hansen had partisan ties "all the way up to the top of the Democratic Party," and that he was "using those ties and using his media connections to push an agenda, a worst-case-scenario agenda of global warming." He said that anyone who disagrees with Dr. Hansen "is labeled a censor and is demonized and vilified in the media — and the media of course is a willing accomplice here." And how does he know Hansen was a mere partisan flack peddling bad science? Because Deutsch almost has a bachelor's degree in journalism…

Awfully vague article about Dave Eaton

Eaton was the Minnetonka school board member and advocate of Intelligent Design creationism who abruptly resigned, shortly after his attempts to weaken his school district's science standards were quashed. You wouldn't know anything about that bit of backstory from this puff piece on Eaton, which has little but praise for the man and explains his departure by quoting him as saying he is "not leaving for any health, family or career reasons." C'mon, Strib. Come clean and say it. We know why he left: it's because his brand of creationism was decisively crushed in Minnetonka, and he knew he was…

Poster Child for Gun Law Reform Convicted

In 1998, 13 year old Mitchell Johnson and his 11 year old buddy Andrew Golden gunned down four students aged 11 and 12 and English Teacher Shannon Wright, and wounded 10 other people, at Jonesboro Westside Middle School. They had pulled the fire alarm to bring their victims into this trap. Johnson was released from prison at the age of 21, and his record was adjudicated, thus restoring his right to own firearms. Two days ago, a federal jury convicted Johnson, now 23, of a weapons charge in connection with his possession of a 9 mm hand gun and a shotgun. I think it is time for a change. […

Home Schooling = Lower Taxes

This is the first time I've seen this argument made, in a letter to the editor in LJWorld of Lawrence, Kansas: Senior citizens are concerned about rising property taxes due to education and a needless golf course. With more private schools [and] more home schooling ... , why is additional funding needed? The enrollment for public schools only went up by 169 students this year. Why do we keep ... closed schools used for storage? Sell them. The "1 percent for the arts" should be deleted from the budget as well as the Sister City program, if it is dependent on taxes. ... ... Mary Ann Kieffer…

Institute for Creation Research: a New Argument Supporting Texas Certification for Masters in Science Education

From the Texas Citizens for Science: In an email message to its friends, the Institute for Creation Research proposes The Disjunctive Duality of Science Distinction, a new argument to support its effort to obtain Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board approval for its masters degree program in science education. The argument is actually an old one. It posits that two types of science exist, "experimental" science and "forensic, historical, or orgins" science. Only the first is real science, while the second--which, needless to say, includes evolutionary biology--is not a reliable science…

Jane Goodall: What separates us from the apes?

Traveling from Ecuador to Africa, Jane Goodall takes the audience on an ecological journey, discussing highlights and low points of her experiences in the jungle. She shows how progress is helping research (DNA analysis) and hurting the environment (clear-cutting). And she draws a dozen parallels between primate and human behavior, making the point that we really aren't all that different. Our big advantage, she says, is the ability to communicate with sophisticated spoken language -- yet, sadly, we are abusing this power and destroying the planet. She urges the TED audience to behave…