Bias in science academia is a big topic, but it's selective.  If there are fewer women, it is regarded as a hostile environment but if there are no Republicans that is their choice.  

Penn State researchers have added something new into the mix - hormones.  If you are a woman who wanted to be a physicist, you may have been fighting your own sex hormones to do it, they say.  They did it by looking at people's interest in occupations that exhibit sex differences in the general population and are relevant to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers.

Much depends on the Arctic weather, but it looks likely that the September ice minimum will be amongst the three lowest.  If the melt in July and August proceeds as it has done on average over the last decade, then the 2007 record minimum may well be beaten.

As the genome sequencing technologies progress, and the costs per genome sequenced go down, the number of genomes sequenced increases. So far, several hundreds of genomes have been sequenced, with many more on their way. Now, the first lizard genome has been sequenced. The genome of the green anole (Anolis carolinensis) is the first non-bird reptile genome sequenced, and, as such, an important ‘gap’ in the vertebrate genome record is beginning to be filled.

Already, some interesting observations have been made.