Global glaciation snowballed into giant change in carbon cycle

New data from geologists suggest that an episode called "snowball Earth," which may have covered the continents and oceans in a thick sheet of ice, produced a dramatic change in the carbon cycle. This change in the carbon cycle, in turn, may have triggered future ice ages.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 2 May 2010 | 3:00 pm

Fighting fungal infections with bacteria

A bacterial pathogen can communicate with yeast to block the development of drug-resistant yeast infections, say scientists. The research could be a step towards new strategies to prevent hospital-acquired infections associated with medical implants.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 2 May 2010 | 3:00 pm

Sleeping well at 100 years of age: Study searches for the secrets to healthy longevity

Sleep issues were examined in a sample of 15,638 adults aged 65 and older, including 3,927 between 90 and 99 years of age, and 2,794 who were 100 years of age and older. The oldest adults aged 100 and above were 70 percent more likely to report good sleep quality than younger participants aged 65 to 79, after controlling for potential confounders. Men were 23 percent more likely than women to report sleeping well.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 2 May 2010 | 3:00 pm

Carbon monoxide exposure can be reduced during routine anesthesia in kids

Doctors have found that carbon monoxide levels in the blood of young children increase during routine general anesthesia. Anesthesiologists have found for the first time that, under certain circumstances, infants and children may be exposed to carbon monoxide during routine anesthesia resulting in a rise in the carbon monoxide levels in the child's blood.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 2 May 2010 | 3:00 pm

Gene therapy sets stage for new treatments for inherited blindness

Veterinary vision scientists have safely and successfully used a viral vector in targeting a class of photoreceptors of the retina called rods, a critical first step in developing gene therapies for inherited blindness caused by rod degeneration.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 2 May 2010 | 3:00 pm

Scientists look beyond diamond for quantum computing

A team of scientists that helped pioneer research into the quantum properties of a small defect found in diamonds has now used cutting-edge computational techniques to produce a road map for studying defects in alternative materials.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 2 May 2010 | 3:00 pm

U.S. could eliminate CO₂ emissions from coal in 20 years, experts say

The United States could completely stop emissions of carbon dioxide from coal-fired electric power plants -- a crucial step for controlling global warming -- within 20 years by using technology that already exists or could be commercially available within a decade. That's the conclusion of an article by a group of scientists, engineers, and architects.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 2 May 2010 | 9:00 am

Fluorescent compounds make tumors glow

A series of novel imaging agents could light up tumors as they begin to form -- before they turn deadly -- and signal their transition to aggressive cancers. The compounds could have broad applications for detecting tumors earlier, monitoring a tumor's transition from pre-malignancy to more aggressive growth, and defining tumor margins during surgical removal.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 2 May 2010 | 9:00 am

Protein loss in the urine harmful for people with high blood pressure, study finds

Healthy people with high blood pressure who excrete a slight excess of protein in the urine raise their risk of developing kidney and heart complications. According to a new study, more attention should focus on the potential health effects of urinary protein excretion in individuals with high blood pressure (hypertension).
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 2 May 2010 | 9:00 am

Tumors promote their own metastasis

Current research suggests that tumor-secreted exosomes inhibit the immune response, enhancing tumor metastasis.
Source: ScienceDaily: Latest Science News | 2 May 2010 | 9:00 am

Ship-breaking exposes Bangladesh to climate change threat (AFP)

AFP - When huge waves hit Bangladesh's sleepy southeastern Sitakundu coastline after a cyclone in 1991, shopkeeper Abul Kalam survived by hanging on to a coconut tree.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 1 May 2010 | 11:46 pm

Coastal La. dilemma: Oil is essential; so is water (AP)

AP - Out where Louisiana ends and the Gulf of Mexico begins, it's hard to know which is king — oil or fishing.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 1 May 2010 | 11:35 pm

Heavy metal dinosaurs rock the kiddie crowd in Finland (AFP)

AFP - The usual heavy metal fan may not be a five-year-old girl in pigtails, but she is typical of hardcore following of Hevisaurus, a metal band that has hooked the kiddie crowd in Finland.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 1 May 2010 | 11:29 pm

US spill 'threatens way of life'

Louisiana's governor warns of the Gulf of Mexico oil slick's impact, as President Obama heads to the disaster zone.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 1 May 2010 | 8:43 pm

Phew! to brew

How cow dung and rotting meat make top cuppa in India
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 1 May 2010 | 5:29 pm

Doctors barred from using new cancer treatment equipment

NHS bosses argue that Mount Vernon hospital's £3m Cyberknife technology may not work

NHS bosses are refusing to let cancer patients be treated with potentially life-saving technology – endorsed by senior doctors – at a hospital which has just spent £3m on it.

The Mount Vernon cancer hospital in London has become the first NHS hospital to buy a CyberKnife machine, which delivers radiotherapy with pinpoint accuracy. It is better at targeting tumours than conventional radiotherapy, less damaging than surgery and can treat some patients whose conditions would otherwise be untreatable, say leading oncologists.

But the east of England strategic health authority's specialised commissioning group (SCG) has banned NHS patients from its region from being treated with CyberKnife at the Mount Vernon because it is not convinced the robotic radiosurgery system works.

As a result, scores of cancer sufferers every year from Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire whose doctors believe they could benefit from CyberKnife treatment will not be able to go there when it becomes operational in September. Only private patients whose insurers agree to pay will have access. The only two CyberKnifes in use in the UK are at private hospitals in Harley Street, London, where patients pay more than £20,000 for a course of treatment.

Dr Peter Dunlop, head of radiotherapy and oncology at James Cook hospital in Middlesbrough, said patients would suffer because of the SCG's stance. "It's sad that Mount Vernon hospital will not be able to offer CyberKnife to NHS patients," he added. "And it's a shame that NHS patients who may benefit from it won't get it… people whose lives could be prolonged will miss out."

The James Cook is among a clutch of NHS hospitals, including the Royal Marsden in London, which are keen to acquire a CyberKnife. Cancer experts believe about 10,000 patients a year could benefit from being treated by it.

Trevor Myers, the SCG's chief operating officer, said its clinical advisory group (CAG) had been given a presentation by some of Mount Vernon's doctors about their Cyberknife machine. However, "the CAG came to the conclusion that there is not enough evidence in regard to both the clinical and cost-effectiveness of the service. Given the limited resources in the NHS, it is vital that we buy services that have been proven to be clinically effective in accordance with national policy."

In January, England's chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, asked the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), which advises the NHS which treatments represent value for money, to assess the potential benefit of the CyberKnife.

Nice pledged to undertake a "fast-track" evaluation of the system and similar technologies. But a Nice spokeswoman admitted that work had not yet begun and would not produce guidance for the NHS until the end of the year at the earliest.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 1 May 2010 | 5:10 pm

Why genius isn't in the genes

The belief that a genius is the product of genetic make-up is as pervasive as it is wrong, according to David Shenk

Talent is like the marksman who hits the target others cannot reach; genius is like the marksman who hits a target others cannot even see. Thus Arthur Schopenhauer defined the concept of genius – as a gift displayed by semi-mystic beings whose innate qualities sets them apart from other mortals. Mozart, Einstein, Newton, George Best: all were blessed by their genes and achieved a greatness that the rest of us cannot hope to possess.

And that would seem to be that. Writer David Shenk, a contributor to the New Yorker and other US publications, begs to differ, however. Every human has the potential to be an Einstein, claims this affable 43-year-old in his latest book The Genius in All of Us (Icon). There is nothing that special about being exceptionally gifted. It is a comforting assertion. But is it justified?

You claim that everything that we have been told about genetics, talent and intelligence is wrong. Why?

My interest was sparked when I stumbled into a body of research called expertise studies. Anders Ericsson [of Florida State University] and other psychologists have examined what processes make certain people so good at some activities. They are trying to determine the ingredients of greatness, in other words.

For example, they looked at how [professional] violists practise. To the untrained eye and ear, it seems obvious: they all do a great deal of practising – hours, hours and hours. But if you look very carefully at those who end up being the best, you discover – by doing intensive tracking of them – that they do practise more, and better, than those in the class below them.

That is a theme that extends to all achievements. There is a quantitative and qualitative difference in the practice undertaken by the super-greats – say in basketball – and the mere greats. They work hard at being great. It isn't bestowed at birth.

Most people look at child geniuses like Mozart and conclude that his gifts had to be the result of fortuitous genes. Presumably you disagree?

Every piece of evidence we have about how genes work, how brains work, where musicality actually comes from, are consistent with the idea that there is nothing that mysterious about Mozart. I am not trying to diminish his achievements, of course. But the more you look at his life, or the life of any other genius, you realise that this was a process. He reacted to an environment that was almost uniquely perfect for moulding him into a child star.

The myth of Mozart's innate talent persists because people conflate different things in his life. We know he was interested in composing early on and we know he was a prodigy as a performer. The untrained mind reacts by concluding he was born that way. And that kind of reaction has been going for a century. Every time we are confronted with prodigious talent, we say it must be genes because we cannot think of any other explanation. In fact, in the case of Mozart, it is clear his upbringing was also remarkable in terms of stimulating his abilities.

The trouble is that this problem is getting worse. The more we read about new genes being discovered for human conditions, the more our belief in genetic determinism gets stronger. Yet the vast majority of geneticists would not want that to happen.

You say Mozart's greatness was not innate but due to his drive. He practised at playing and composing better than anyone else. But who is to say that drive was not inherited? The source of his greatness would still lie in genes in that case.

I think there are genes that influence drive. But I do not think that it is a completely innate characteristic. It becomes part of our personality and psychology and all of that is developed. Resilience and motivation can appear at different stages in people's lives and often appear in response to adversity, although I accept it will be more difficult for some people to develop intense drive than others. But, fundamentally, it is a developed trait.

Do you think genetics research is going to provide us with more data that suggests that genius is acquired rather than inherited?

Modern studies are only just beginning to unravel issues about gene expression and epigenetics, the study of how the environment modifies the ways genes are expressed. Genes are constantly activated and deactivated by environmental stimuli: nutrition, hormones, nerve impulses and other genes. There is no golden genetic windfall bestowed at birth, but constant interaction between the outside world and our DNA.

In other words, your genes do not place a limit on your potential in any way?

Yes. That is right. Our genes influence our lives, but equally our lives influence our genes. And I think that that has important implications. Certainly, in the US, we tend to quietly give in to the suspicion that some people are not as capable of being educated as others.

The thing is that if we decide that we need to do a lot more to exploit human talent, then we will all benefit. These things take resources, of course. But the overall message is clear. Our problem is not that we possess inadequate genetic assets but that we are suffering from an inability, so far, to tap into what we already have.

Few of us know our true limits and the vast majority of us have not even come close to tapping what scientists call our "unactualised potential".

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 1 May 2010 | 5:08 pm

The oldest living organisms

Photographer Rachel Sussman has embarked on an epic journey to track down the world's oldest living things

It all began with a trip to Japan. Rachel Sussman, a photographer from New York, had flown over to take pictures of different landscapes, but during her visit she heard the same thing time and again. Go and see Jomon Sugi, people said. The name belonged to a mysterious cedar tree that grew on the island of Yakushima off the southern tip of Kyushu. It was said to be thousands of years old.

And so one trip turned into another. Sussman found the ferry port and made her way to the island, only to hear the tree was a two-day hike into the mountainous interior. A local family took her in, lent her walking gear and even agreed to hike with her. Days later they arrived. The tree, singular and gnarled, was captivating.

When the 35-year-old Sussman returned to the US, the trip to Yakushima took on new meaning. It became the kernel of an arts project that melded photography and science. Since the idea crystallised five years ago, Sussman has been travelling the globe with one aim in mind: to photograph the oldest living things in the world.

Sussman has only two criteria that organisms must meet before they become one of her prized subjects. They must be more than 2,000 years old (an arbitrary figure, she says) and the organism must have lived continuously for the period. So far she has photographed more than 20 life forms, from shrubs and predatory fungi to Siberian bacteria and domed corals that look like giant brains.

The collection offers a rare perspective of life on Earth. Some of the organisms Sussman has captured look alien. Many were alive in the bronze age. Others were eking out an existence long before modern humans rose up and migrated out of Africa.

Sussman, who grew up in Baltimore, has travelled to the high Andes to photograph the 3,000-year-old llareta plant, an extraordinary relative of parsley that looks like moss growing on smooth, round boulders. The shrub is a dense mass of thousands of tiny branches, each ending in a bud with tiny green leaves. It is so hard you can stand on top of it.

On a road trip from Cape Town to Namibia, she tracked down a 2,000-year-old welwitschia plant, a variety of conifer that grows only two leaves, which get shredded into a mass of ribbons in sand storms. At the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, she photographed 500,000-year-old actinobacteria gathered from the Siberian permafrost.

Sussman says the project has a twofold message. First, there is a humble, existential aspect in which the entirety of human history feels dwarfed by the longevity of life around us. Second is an environmental caution. "We have these organisms that have quietly persevered for an unfathomable amount of time but which are now in jeopardy," she tells me. "The Siberian actinobacteria are half a million years old and live in the permafrost. If the permafrost isn't permanent, the oldest living things on the planet will die."

Sussman has worked closely with biologists throughout the project. Behind each trip is an exhaustive search of academic journals to identify groups who are studying aged organisms. In most cases, she makes contact and arranges to visit the scientists in the field.

Things don't always go to plan. Sussman ended up stranded in southern Greenland without any means of calling for help when her arrangements to meet researchers in a shack near a fjord went awry. "For the first time in my life I knew what it meant to be completely disconnected. I'm glad I had the experience, but I'm also glad it wasn't any more dramatic," she says.

For her latest shots, Sussman had to overcome her fear of open water. She began diving lessons in a swimming pool in New York and flew to Tobago to get her scuba licence and learn how to wield her camera underwater. She came home with some rare shots of an 18ft-wide, 2,000-year-old brain coral taken off the shore on the east coast of the island. "Every time I saw it, I caught my breath. There's something about the size of it," says Sussman.

The project is expected to take two more years to complete. In that time, Sussman plans to photograph 5,000-year-old moss in Antarctica; a 10,000-year-old shrub in Tasmania and a 2,300-year-old fig tree in Sri Lanka. To finance her work, she has signed up with a microfinancing website, Kickstarter, which collects donations from anyone interested in funding such projects. Pledge $10 for a "thank you" on her website, $50 to receive an Oldest Living Things in the World keychain and sticker or $1,000 to get a signed, limited edition print and an invitation to a cocktail reception at her Brooklyn studio.

Her hope is to bring her pictures together in a book that covers the project in its entirety. "By the time I'm finished, I should have been to every continent on the planet. But this will probably be an ongoing thing for me. I'll do it for the rest of my life," she says.

Rachel Sussman's website

SOME OF THE PLANET'S LONGEST-LIVED ORGANISMS

NAMIBIA: Welwitschia mirabilis The 2,000-year-old welwitschia plant found in the Namib-Naukluft desert is an unlikely-looking conifer that produces only two leaves in its lifetime – the longest in the plant kingdom. Over its long life, these leaves are shredded by sandstorms into a tangled mass of ribbons.

SIBERIA: Actinobacteria At 500,000 years old, and long predating modern humans, these bacteria embody the existential philosophy behind Sussman's project, and the environmental caution that her work sounds. This specimen had been gathered from the permafrost and was being kept in Copenhagen, where she photographed it. "The Siberian actinobacteria are half a million years old and live in the permafrost. If the permafrost isn't permanent, the oldest living things on the planet will die," she says.

TOBAGO: Brain coral This 18ft-wide brain coral off the shore of Speyside on the east coast of Tobago in the Caribbean is 2,000 years old. To take the shot, Sussman had to overcome her fear of open water, take diving lessons and learn how to use her camera underwater. The result is a rare shot of unique marine life in Tobago's fragile reef, which is among the world's most diverse ecosystems. "Every time I saw it, I caught my breath. There's something about the size of it," says Sussman.

SOUTH AFRICA: Underground forest Botanists believe the 13,000-year-old underground forest in Pretoria evolved to survive forest fires. All that is visible are the tips of the branches poking out of the soil. But beneath the ground is a mass of branches and roots. "If a fire roars through, only the tips are burnt. It's the equivalent of getting your eyebrows singed." says Sussman.

SWEDEN: Gran Picea This spruce, photographed by Sussman near Fulufjället mountain in Sweden, is 9,500 years old. It survives in a landscape dominated by lichen, bare mountains and valleys with dense, ancient forests. It was in such a northern environment that the photographer had one of her hairiest experiences. Sussman ended up stranded in southern Greenland without any means of calling for help when arrangements to meet researchers near a fjord went wrong.

CHILE: Llareta plant The extraordinary 3,000-year-old relative of parsley that looks like moss but is a shrub grows in the Atacama desert in the high Andes at an altitude of 15,000ft. Measuring 8-10ft across, it inhabits the surface of smooth, round boulders. It is a dense mass of thousands of tiny branches, each ending in a bud with tiny green leaves, and is so tough you can stand on top of it.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 1 May 2010 | 5:07 pm

La. gov: Still no detailed plans on spill cleanup (AP)

AP - Louisiana's governor says he still has not received detailed plans from oil giant BP PLC and the Coast Guard on protecting the state's coast from a massive oil spill.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 1 May 2010 | 5:06 pm

'Green' exercise 'boosts health'

Just five minutes of exercise in a "green space" such as a park can boost mental health, say researchers.
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 1 May 2010 | 5:01 pm

BP subcontractor hiring fishermen for cleanup (AP)

AP - SHELL BEACH, La. (AP — A subcontractor for BP PLC is hiring unemployed fishermen for a boom deployment off the Louisiana coast.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 1 May 2010 | 4:22 pm

New And Old Observations Bolster Asteroid Worries

Unsettling clues that underscore our lack of knowledge about the asteroid threat can be found as far as 500 million miles away, and a few centuries back in time.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 1 May 2010 | 3:30 pm

Russian resupply ship docks at space station with sweets (AFP)

AFP - A Russian cargo spaceship on Saturday docked at the International Space Station, authorities said, three days after launching from Kazakhstan with supplies that included sweets and chocolate.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 1 May 2010 | 2:29 pm

Russian Cargo Ship Docks at Space Station Despite Malfunction (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com - A new unmanned cargo ship loaded with tons of supplies successfully docked at the International Space Station Saturday despite a last-minute failure that forced a Russian cosmonaut to take control and guide the robotic freighter in manually.
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 1 May 2010 | 2:00 pm

Play as Mega Man in New 'Super Mario Brothers' Mashup (LiveScience.com)

LiveScience.com - A new, unofficial recreation of the original "Super Mario Brothers" video game now allows gamers to play as characters from other iconic titles, including Mega Man and Link from "The Legend of Zelda."
Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 1 May 2010 | 8:40 am

Rough Seas Again Thwart Cleanup of Oil Catastrophe

Boats and workers sit idle as the oil slick grows.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 1 May 2010 | 8:12 am

A Short History of Noah's Ark Discoveries

Last week an organization called Noah's Ark Ministries called a press conference in Hong Kong to announce that they had made one of the most significant archaeological discoveries in history. Yeung Wing-Cheung claims he and his research team located the ...
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 1 May 2010 | 7:00 am

The nation's weather (AP)

AP - The chance for severe weather was expected to continue through very early Saturday morning as the Storm Prediction Center predicted a high chance of tornadic development in Arkansas and a moderate risk into Missouri.

Source: Yahoo! News: Science News | 1 May 2010 | 4:36 am

Move Over, C3PO

This humanoid robot's abilities will duplicate the same dexterity astronauts have in their suits.
Source: Discovery News - Top Stories | 1 May 2010 | 4:14 am

Myth, heaven and Galileo | Andrew Brown

What we can see in the stars depends on our instruments and on our expectations. The instruments are easier to improve

Some months back, I wrote a piece about Galileo's science, and how the discoveries of his telescope ought to have led him to conclude that Copernicus was wrong. This morning I had a letter – an actual posted, folded, paper letter – from Kentucky. It came from Christopher Graney, the science teacher whose work lay behind the Nature article, and contained a copy of his original paper setting out the full reasoning in terms that even high school students and national newspaper journalists can understand.

Given the resolution of early telescopes, and the assumption of all early astronomers that what they saw through them were the stars themselves, and not the apparently much larger "Airy disks" produced by diffraction, Galileo's telescope showed that the earth must rotate (so the mediaeval picture was wrong), but could not have gone round the sun, as Copernicus believed.

What Galileo should have believed, according to this reconstruction, was the system put forward by Tycho Brahe, which had the earth at the centre, and the moon and sun orbiting us, while all the other planets orbit the sun. This piece was based on a short note in Nature and provoked a fairly lively debate about science and judgement here.

It's still complicated, of course. There is a reason why Galileo and Kepler are remembered as geniuses. But two facts are important. The first is that there is no way to decide from the measurements of planetary orbits available in the seventeenth century whether Tycho was right and all the planets orbit the sun except the earth, around which the sun revolves, or whether Copernicus was right and all the planets, including the earth, revolve around the sun. An evidence dalek would have been stuck on the staircase here, because the evidence of planetary observations gave no ground to choose between the two theories. What mattered in making the decision were the observations of the stars.

The second fact is that these measurements did not suggest Copernicus was right.

Because the stars in a Galilean telescope appear much larger than they are, they also appear much nearer. By comparing their observed diameters with that of the sun, Galileo and his contemporaries concluded that they were several thousand times closer to the earth than in fact they are: so much closer, in fact, that if the earth did orbit the sun, our perspective on pairs of stars that appear close together should shift with the earth's seasons just as things close to us jump about when we shut one eye and then the other. But no such shift can be detected by a Galilean astronomer. The real explanation is that the stars are almost infinitely far away, and the shift in perspective caused the earth's movement is therefore infinitesimal. But if the stars were where Galileo thought they were, the explanation must be that the earth does not in fact move, and that Tycho, not Copernicus, was right.

In the mediaeval, or Aristotelian universe, the stars had been all the same distance away from the earth, held in the outermost sphere. What the telescope suggested was that there was no outer bound to the stars. They varied hugely in their distance from the earth. In one of the illustrations to Graney's paper, he reproduces a page from a sixteenth century English Copernican astronomer, Thomas Digges, which is labelled in a way that shows how the old patterns of meaning, where the earth was full of change and corruption, and the heavens were in fact heavenly, could persist right across the shift to a Copernican universe.

In Digges' picture earth's orbit is

"The great orbe carrying this globe of mortality, His circular period determineth our year."

Outside Saturn, where the solar system then ended, we come to

"This orbe of stars fixed infinitely up extendeth itself in altitude spherically and therefore immovable; the palace of felicity garnished with perpetual shining glorious lights invulnerable, far excelling our sun both in quantity and quality; the very court of celestial angels devoid of grief and replenished with perfect endless joy: the habitacle of the elect".

The interesting question about myth which all this raises is a simple one. We look at Digges description of the stars – "the palace of felicity garnished with perpetual shining glorious lights invulnerable ... the very court of celestial angels devoid of grief and replenished with perfect endless joy: the habitacle of the elect" – and say without hesitation or evidence that this isn't true. Nowadays people see the same sky, but they see it composed almost entirely of darkness: the interstellar deeps, the uncaring and indifferent universe, and so on and so forth.

Both of these visions are quite clearly human. They are co-options of the natural world into our dramas about meaning and significance. For anyone who stands outside them, they are obviously imaginative constructs which gain their power because the observed facts are subordinate to a greater and emotionally harmonious picture. This is just as much true of the modern nihilistic version as of Digges. But what we cannot actually do is to stand outside any such picture. We can stand outside any particular one. But we can't stand outside all of them. We're always watching from one, and it always appears to us as fact, not myth at all. Atheism, taken as an organising imaginative principle, is just as much a myth as any other. I don't think it's reasonable to demand that we live without such things; but it's only sane to remember that we can't.

Source: Science news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk | 1 May 2010 | 4:09 am

Right to privacy

Why the needs of animals must be taken seriously
Source: BBC News | Science & Environment | UK Edition | 1 May 2010 | 3:51 am