News Round-up

Too many stories, too little time...

1. maybe there isn't life on mars. (science daily)
2. first real-time movie of protein formation from RNA. the lab (Xie) has a paper each in nature and science this week. (science daily)
3. a sorry excuse for yet another review of Dennett's Breaking the Spell. I was particularly disappointed with this author's assumptions about political stance and religious belief. Plus (and this is one of the few times you'll see me supporting Dennett), he didn't really assess the book according to what it's trying to accomplish.
4. panspermia in reverse: life didn't come from outerspace... it went there. (nature)
5. sharks side with the US in war on terror, thanks to implants in their brains. if only convincing humans were so simple... (vnunet, new scientist)
6. review of a new book about a cool 20th c. scientist i hadn't heard of before: J.D. Bernal (nature)
7. neon light as art. (nature)
8. a GFP-tree glows when it's thirsty! (reuters)
9. Mark Noll leaves Wheaton to replace a retiring George Marsden at Notre Dame. for those outside Christian circles, Noll is an essential academic who's helped to reinvigorate the evangelical intellect, especially with his book 'The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind'. to demonstrate his mainstream acceptanceL "His book America's God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln was named "the most significant work of American historical scholarship" in 2002 by The Atlantic." (christianity today)
10. and more to come...