Even though they had the ability to evolve and survive for hundreds of millions of years - since before the time of the dinosaurs and through many climatic regimes - the massive, worldwide decline of amphibians can best be understood by their inability to keep pace with the current rate of global change, a new study suggests.

What would be the opening chapter of the Kamasutra of plant sex?

A good pick would be a description of the numerous ways in which plants arrange their sexual organs: from both sexes in the same flower to sexes separated in different flowers or individuals.

One widespread sexual strategy that remains an evolutionary enigma is the production of both male and bisexual flowers in the same plant, which occurs in approximately 4000 species.

Climate – and not modern humans – was the cause of the Neanderthal extinction in the Iberian Peninsula. Such is the conclusion of the University of Granada research group RNM 179 - Mineralogy and Geochemistry of sedimentary and metamorphic environments, headed by professor Miguel Ortega Huertas and whose members Francisco José Jiménez Espejo, Francisca Martínez Ruiz and David Gallego Torres work jointly at the department of Mineralogy and Petrology of the University of Granada and the Andalusian Regional Institute of Earth Sciences (CSIC-UGR).

Last fall I had a chance to hear a presentation by Doug Berg, a microbiologist here at Washington University. Berg's work is a great combination of new technology, genomics and evolution, and it happens to also have potential medical relevance. He's studying the evolution of drug resistance in Helicobacter pylori, a usually benign bacterium that is responsible for stomach ulcers. (Recall that the Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded in 2005 to Barry Marshall and Robin Warren for their discovery of the link between H.

A team of biologists at Yale University and the University of Sheffield discovered anatomical details about the female reproductive tract in waterfowl that indicate that male and female anatomy have co-evolved in a "sexual arms race."

Sleep remains one of the big mysteries in biology. All animals sleep, and people who are deprived of sleep suffer physically, emotionally and intellectually. But nobody knows how sleep restores the brain.

Now, Giulio Tononi, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, has discovered how to stimulate brain waves that characterize the deepest stage of sleep. The discovery could open a new window into the role of sleep in keeping humans healthy, happy and able to learn.

Personally I have very little interest in the paranormal or parapsychology, but I have to commend Alex Tsakiris of the Skeptiko podcast for presenting interviews from both sides of the debate. Alex clearly does believe that parapsychology is a valid science, but his podcast is surprisingly balanced. I think it is very valuable to listen to what those with different viewpoints have to say, and there are a surprising number of scientists devoted to trying to find replicable data in the field.

Arctic sea ice is melting at a significantly faster rate than projected by even the most advanced computer models, a new study concludes. The research, by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University of Colorado's National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), shows that the Arctic's ice cover is retreating more rapidly than estimated by any of the 18 computer models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in preparing its 2007 assessments.

Companies selling food products may need to worry about their goods catching "cooties" by coming in contact with certain other products, such as lard and feminine napkins, in shoppers' carts or on store shelves.

Based on their findings, researchers at Duke University and Arizona State University suggest companies may want to reconsider their packaging and shelf positioning strategies in order to safeguard their brands from offending products.

Of all the things companies worry about when selling food products, catching "cooties" is probably not high on the list. But new research suggests it should be.

 What is it about keeping lab mice that continually seems to conjure images of World War II? Is it the obvious:that, in the case of lab mice, we are all Col. Klink, the hapless commandante of Stalag 17, doomed to dominance ohne respect? Or is it domething else in the increasingly murky relationship between the muridae and you and I?