The rogue proteins behind variant CJD, the human form of mad cow disease, have revealed their benign side. Prions, it seems, lie at the heart of a newly discovered form of near-instant evolution that provides life with a third way to adapt to potentially lethal environments. Crucially, it involves neither genetic nor epigenetic changes to…
Earth started as a violent place, its surface churned by continuous volcanic eruptions and cloaked in an atmosphere that would have been poisonous to today’s life-forms. Furthermore, the thin primeval atmosphere may have provided only scant protection from the young sun’s harsh ultraviolet glare. Given these inhospitable conditions, scientists have long wondered: How did the…
Scientists hunting the Higgs boson, the sub-atomic particle believed to have played a vital role in the creation of the universe, have decided to turn up the power in their Large Hadron Collider to try to prove its existence this year. The CERN research centre near Geneva wants to prove or disprove the existence of…
The president’s 2013 budget asks for modest increases for some federal science agencies but trims funding to NASA. The request takes a deep bite out of Mars and outer-planet science exploration in particular. NASA’s funding would fall to the lowest level in four years, with a total budget of $17.71 billion. The president’s request projects…
Since 1995, astronomers have been hunting in earnest for possible havens for life outside the solar system. So far, they’ve detected more than 550 extrasolar planets, or exoplanets. Another 2,000-plus possible planets are waiting in the wings for confirmation. Researchers are working on ways to identify a “potentially Earth-like” planet – even if it isn’t…
If someone in 2012 wants to criticize Henry Ford because he didn’t know everything about automobiles a century ago, it’s a little silly. He knew what he knew given the science and the technology of his day – he revolutionized his field. Freud got a lot wrong about psychology but he created the only unified…
In state legislatures and on the campaign trail, the debate over evolution is about more than science. Legislatures in several states have introduced or are planning to introduce bills that would mandate the teaching of Bible-based theories of the origin of the world and human beings – such as creationism or intelligent design. Other bills would require teachers to include materials that call evolution into question. Surveys also continue to show that a significant portion of the American public embraces religious or supernatural theories on the origin of man over purely scientific explanations, and those views are also being reinforced in the political arena, especially in the Republican nominating contest. This edition of ReligionLink provides resources and experts for reporters covering these hot-button issues.
Just in time for Charles Darwin’s 203rd birthday, the American Museum of Natural History unveiled the first phase of its online Darwin Manuscripts Project, a collection of more than 15,000 digitized manuscript pages and thousands of other documents drawn from Cambridge University Library, the Biodiversity Heritage Library and other institutions around the world. Among the…
The world’s oldest works of art have been found in a cave on Spain’s Costa del Sol, scientists believe. Six paintings of seals are at least 42,000 years old and are the only known artistic images created by Neanderthal man, experts claim. Professor Jose Luis Sanchidrian, from the University of Cordoba, described the discovery as…
Our Milky Way galaxy’s supermassive black hole is apparently dining on all-you-can-eat asteroids, according to a new study. Dubbed Sagittarius A*, the monster black hole lies 26,000 light-years away in the galactic center. The black hole is surrounded by an accretion disk—a swirling ring of superheated gases—which spews radiation as matter is consumed. But astronomers…