The Claim: A lab-concocted strain of ferret flu could become a doomsday weapon or bioterrorist threat.

The Contrarian: Wendy Orent, author of Plague , says the much-hyped fears are unfounded: The new strain presents no danger to humans but reveals a great deal about the transmission of flu.

Ferrets with the flu sneeze and cough like humans.

Deadly H5N1 avian flu, long entrenched in Asian poultry, has terrified public health experts ever since it killed a Hong Kong boy in 1997. The diseas...

Continue reading ...

Rise of the Planet of the Apes may have just unseated Captain America: The First Avenger as my favorite pro-enhancement film. Andy Serkis and John Lithgow render the sapient mind a character and drama unto itself – growing, evolving, and dying before our eyes. As a summer blockbuster, the film offers gorillas smashing helicopters, orangutan sign language humor, and a one-two punch apocalyptic virus to sate ...

Continue reading ...

First, it’s important to know that the big bang wasn’t an explosion of matter into empty space—it was the rapid expansion of space itself. This means that every single point in the universe appears to be at the center. Think of the universe as an empty balloon with dots on it. Those dots represent clusters of galaxies. As the balloon inflates, every dot moves farther away from every other dot. The space between clusters of galaxies expands,...

Continue reading ...

Fossils of Archaeopteryx include well-preserved feathers, but it was not until the early 1990’s that clearly nonavian dinosaur fossils were discovered with preserved feathers.

Today there are more than a dozen genera of dinosaurs with fossil feathers, all of which are theropods.

Most are from the Yixian formation in China.

The fossil feathers of one specimen, Shuvuuia deserti, have even tested positiv...

Continue reading ...

Sleep is the state of natural rest observed throughout the animal kingdom, in all mammals and birds, and in many reptiles, amphibians, and fish. In humans, other mammals, and many other animals that have been studied — such as fish, birds, ants, and fruit-flies regular sleep is necessary for survival.

The capability for arousal from sleep is a protective mechanism and also necessary for health and survival. In mammals, the measurement of eye movement during sleep is used to divide sl...

Continue reading ...