Several genes with strong associations to schizophrenia have evolved rapidly due to selection during human evolution, according to researchers who found a higher prevalence of the influence of so-called positive selection on genes or gene regions known to be associated with the disorder than a comparable control set of non-associated genes, functioning in similar neuronal processes.

This is consistent with the theory that positive selection may play a role in the persistence of schizophrenia at a frequency of one per cent in human populations around the world, despite its strong effects on reproductive fitness and its high heritability from generation-to-generation.

It also provides genetic evidence consistent with the long-standing theory that schizophrenia represents, in part, a ma

Both in her recent appearance on KQED’s Forum talk show and in her blog, Stanford University’s Joan Roughgarden continues her campaign to discredit me and my book, The Man Who Would Be Queen.

Roughgarden’s rate of false accusations per utterance is so high that it is tempting to take the time to refute them one by one to the exclusion of getting around to discussing the science. Indeed, I believe that is the intent of Roughgarden and my other chief critics.

Bog mummies are 2000-year-old mummies from the Iron Age that were preserved with amazing detail by the peat bogs of Europe.

Physical anthropologists draw conclusions from the eerily preserved hair, leathery skin and other features in the mummies that emerge from the bogs. In the Iron Age, from approximately 500BC to 500AD, people were often cremated, leading experts to believe that mummies preserved by the bogs were usually those who met their demise through particularly violent means or were used as sacrifices.

By 1763, the world of Cherokee Indians in the Southeastern U.S. was in tatters. The French and Indian War had wracked the sprawling Cherokee settlements that stretched from the headwaters of the Savannah River in South Carolina and Georgia to the Overhills towns in eastern Tennessee.

Though 75 years would pass before the Trail of Tears would banish the remnants of the nation west to Oklahoma, the tribe watched hopelessly as much of its history rapidly faded.

Researchers have long wondered why the Cherokee settled where they did, building clusters of small towns in fertile river valleys in mostly mountainous areas.

Scientists have also studied why the society collapsed with such relative speed as the eighteenth century unfolded.

The Aurigid meteor shower peaked on September 1, originating from C/1911 N1 Kiess, or comet Kiess, a long-period comet that takes about 2000 years to orbit the Sun. It was discovered in 1935 by Carl Kiess.

As Earth passes through the dust comet Kiess left behind 2000 years ago, meteoroids, or shooting stars, rain upon Earth. They burn up in the atmosphere at very high velocities, about 67 km/s, creating the meteor shower.

The Aurigids get their name from the constellation Auriga, because if you look up in the sky, this is where the shooting stars seem to come from. The dust trail of comet Kiess will not be crossed again in this manner for 70 years.

The constellation of Auriga rising above the horizon.

Amihai Mazar, Eleazar L. Sukenik Professor of Archaeology at the Hebrew University, revealed that the first apiary (beehive colony) dating from the Biblical period has been found in excavations he directed this summer at Tel Rehov in Israel’s Beth Shean Valley. This is the earliest apiary to be revealed to date in an archaeological excavation anywhere in the ancient Near East, said Prof. Mazar. It dates from the 10th to early 9th centuries B.C.E.

Tel Rehov is believed to have been one of the most important cities of Israel during the Israelite monarchy. The beehives there were found in the center of a built-up area there that has been excavated since 1997 by Dr. Nava Panitz-Cohen of the Hebrew University. Three rows of beehives were found in the apiary, containing more than 30 hives.

Scientists at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh have discovered a unique population of adult stem cells derived from human muscle that could be used to treat muscle injuries and diseases such as heart attack and muscular dystrophy.

In a study using human muscle tissue, scientists in Children's Stem Cell Research Center - led by Johnny Huard, PhD, and Bruno Péault, PhD - isolated and characterized stem cells taken from blood vessels (known as myoendothelial cells) that are easily isolated using cell-sorting techniques, proliferate rapidly and can be differentiated in the laboratory into muscle, bone and cartilage cells.

American paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope, died on 12 Apr 1897. Cope is best remembered for his rivalry with O.C. Marsh, often referred to as the Great Bone Wars. These two antagonists shared a lot in common: a fierce sense of competition, unbounded arrogance and a deep driving force that led them to unbelievable lengths to outdo each other. Cope led many great expeditions into the American West and was prolific in the naming of dinosaur species. Cope was also an ichthyologist, an evolutionist, and a founder of the Neo-Lamarckian school of thought.

But enough of the boring stuff, here's a story that really reveals the character of good old EDC:

It's unclear if vitamin C supplements reduce cancer risk. They may actually increase it.

Fat in the stomach may cause vitamin C to promote, rather than prevent, the formation of certain cancer causing chemicals, reveals research published ahead of print in the journal Gut.

The researchers analysed the impact of both fat (lipid) and vitamin C (ascorbic acid) on nitrite chemistry in the upper (proximal) stomach, which is especially vulnerable to pre-cancerous changes and tumor growth.

Nitrites, which are present in human saliva, and in certain preserved foodstuffs, may be converted to cancer causing compounds called nitrosamines.