In 1832, the HMS Beagle arrived at Bahia Blanca, Argentina and Charles Darwin disembarked. On his way to Buenos Aires, Darwin collected several fossils of large mammals along with many other living organisms, including several insects.

February 12 is Darwin's birthday scientists and scientists have named after him a long lost but new to science beetle genus and species from his collection.

Since most people don't want to engage in the only weight loss plan guaranteed to work - consuming fewer calories than they burn - options are limited in America's battle of the bulge and are likely to stay limited.

The Federal Drug Administration has approved few drugs for long-term weight loss and some are no longer marketed because of safety issues.

The precautionary principle says when it comes to health, you err on the side of caution, and a well-publicized effort to get annual screening for breast cancer paid off - but it hasn't lowered mortality rates in women aged 40-59. An annual physical examination does just fine, according to a 25-year study.

We may have too much plastic in the environment but creatures that lack a Mother Jones to tell them how awful things are adapt and overcome; two urban bee species have been caught making nests out of plastic waste.

Although lots of research has shown adverse impacts of the material on species and the ecosystem, few scientists have documented insects 'making lemonade out of lemons' and adapting to a plastic-rich environment. It's an important discovery because it shows bees' resourcefulness and flexibility in adapting to a human-dominated world, says lead author Scott MacIvor, a doctoral student at York University. 

When is a smoker not a smoker?

When they live in California and simply choose to self-identify as a non-smoker. Who are we to criticize the self-identify of people in a state where boys can just declare they are female and use a girl's restroom?

Smoking has plummeted in the last few decades- health statistics, rampant sin taxes and billions of dollars in anti-smoking campaigns will do that - but University of California, San Diego School of Medicine scholars wonder about people who say they use cigarettes but didn't consider themselves to be "smokers" in  the 2011 California Longitudinal Smokers Survey.

People who gravitate toward the latest technology regard themselves as progressives mavericks on the cutting edge - and then they stand in a line outside the Apple store.

Apple products don't look good, and they aren't particularly original - having to jailbreak your phone to use it the way you want and being told you can only use their power supply is more Soviet gulag than 21st century technological freedom but a lot of people still consider them cool. And perception matters most. If a product appears to be losing its coolness, it's over, Friendster.

Who better to know what cool is than a big university academic? Like with business, they can create trends from past data even if they can't create a product themselves.