NCSE on Facebook
A milestone: there are now over 15,000 fans of NCSE’s Facebook page. Why not join them, by visiting the page and becoming a fan by clicking on the “Like” box by NCSE’s name? You’ll receive the latest NCSE news [...]
Books on Science: Fiddling With a Two-Year Gap in the Busy Life of Copernicus
Dava Sobel has long taken a quirky approach to science history. In “Galileo’s Daughter” (1999), for instance, she focused not on the standard biographical material but on the scientist’s love for his illegitimate daughter, consigned [...]
Fossil beetles show true colours
Beetles’ great abundance today and in the fossil record makes them key environmental indicators
At their brilliant best, the colours of beetles can make the insects look like they are made of some precious metal.
But when these beetles [...]
Food makes male flies frisky
Courtship in a classic lab insect is driven by fruity smells
It’s the smell of food that gets male fruit flies in the romantic mood, says a new study exploring the sexual habits of Drosophila melanogaster.
When trying to woo an attractive [...]
News in Brief: Life
Birds’ share of dinosaur extinction, the ‘battle’ between cattle and wildlife and more in this week’s news
An extinction to crow about
Ancient birds took a heavy hit in the global catastrophe that wiped out the dinosaurs, [...]
Hobbits: Our tiny cousins
Skeletal remains of ancient human relatives found in Indonesia are challenging some long-accepted “truths” about human evolution
Anthropologist Peter Brown examines the Hobbit fossils. Credit: Peter Brown
This story starts with a tooth. [...]
Mars Express:Mars Express explores the roots of Martian volcanoes
Recent analysis of radio signals sent back by ESA’s Mars Express orbiter has enabled a team of Belgian and German scientists to probe deep beneath the surface of Mars. The first targeted, high resolution measurements of Martian gravity [...]
DNA tracks ancient Mediterranean farmers to Scandinavia
DIGGING FARMERS Hunter-gatherer skeletons excavated in Sweden, including these remains of a young woman, have provided genetic evidence that these groups mated with nearby farmers who arrived from southern Europe around 5,000 years ago.Goran [...]
Farming ‘spread by migrant wave’
The researchers extracted DNA from 5,000-year-old remains found in southern Sweden
A new study of DNA from ancient remains provides further evidence that farming was first spread to Europe by migrants.
It casts doubt on the alternative theory [...]
Evolution: Education and Outreach for free
Evolution: Education and Outreach — the new journal aspiring to promote accurate understanding and comprehensive teaching of evolutionary theory for a wide audience — will be freely available through December 31, 2011, thanks to the generosity [...]
