It took years of mismanagement, printing Monopoly money by the federal government, and runaway unemployment to get groups claiming to represent 99% of Americans protesting progressive fiscal policy on Wall Street and in other cities.

You may disagree on the purity of that movement, since the Teamsters and the education unions are funding this stuff and are not exactly friends of the little guy (try to get a job in NYC without being in their union) but one thing no one will disagree with; if you take away coffee, 100% of Americans will riot.

Males of many species guard the females they have mated with, a behavior generally interpreted as a tactic to reduce the likelihood that rival males will mate with the female. This, of course, can lead to a conflict between the sexes: where females might want to mate with other males, males will try to prevent this. In this case, the male-female association is based on conflict.

A new study on crickets (Gryllus campestris, see figure 1), however, suggests that the foundation of the couple’s association might be based on cooperation. By continuously monitoring natural cricket populations with marked individuals, the researchers were able to observe behaviors and predation. 

In which context did life arise? A problem yet unsolved. Several plausible ideas and hypotheses have been put forward: shallow seas, meteorites (see DNA, Made In Space?), and even much more extreme habitats, such as hydrothermal vents. Perhaps pumice should be added to the list?

Pumice (see figure 1), a volcanic rock formed by solidified frothy lava, is known to be porous and, once upon a time in its history, gas-rich. Now, a new study, published in Astrobiology, poses that extensive rafts of pumice have four properties that would actually make them a suitable candidate for the location where life arose.