There are calls in some quarters that we need to be more like people in the past; war, pestilence, disease, early death, it's all good as long as we use no pesticides.

And clear cutting forests is what ancient man did too.

During the Neolithic Age, 10,000 B.C., early man changed from being hunter-gatherers to farmers - ancient scientists told that the food supply was running low and listening to calls for mitigation and rationing instead invented domesticated livestock and agriculture. As a result, we got larger, permanent settlements with a variety of domesticated animals and plant life. and that transition brought about significant changes in terms of culture, economics, architecture, etc,

Affinium Pharmaceuticals announced today that full recruitment has been achieved in its multi-center Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating oral AFN-1252 in acute bacterial skin&skin structure infections ("ABSSSI"). This Phase 2 trial is the first human efficacy study conducted with a new class of antibiotics designed to specifically inhibit staphylococcal fatty acid biosynthesis via a new drug target, the fatty acid synthase II (FASII) system. Results expected in late 2012 will represent a significant proof-of-concept milestone for this unique, Staphylococcus-specific antibiotic, AFN-1252. 

Everyone knows insects have adhesion on dry surfaces - the liquid surface tension between air, liquids and solids known as the capillary force. In order to stick to dry surfaces insects use  capillary forces with the aid of their oil-covered adhesive setae.  The ability to stay on slippery plants after a rain is a bigger mystery, though.

A face, a remarkably complete lower jaw, and part of a second lower jaw are exciting new fossils discovered east of Lake Turkana which confirm that there were two additional species of our genus living alongside our direct human ancestral species, Homo erectus, almost two million years ago.

The finds were uncovered between 2007 and 2009 by the Koobi Fora Research Project (KFRP), led by Meave and Louise Leakey. 

Husbands and wives express love differently in marriage, according to a new study.

 Looking at survey results collected at four time points over 13 years of marriage, researchers ("Do Men and Women Show Love Differently in Marriage?" Schoenfeld et al., Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, November 2012) found that while both genders were equally likely to show love through affection, wives expressed love by being less antagonistic while husbands showed love by initiating sex or sharing activities together. 

The earthquake that shook Sumatra on on April 11, 2012 is distinct, not just because it was  magnitude-8.6 but also because it was both larger than scientists thought an earthquake of its type could ever be and it was rupturing along multiple faults that lie at nearly right angles to one another.

Like an underwater earthquake in a maze.