Blogging really only became a communications whirlwind when President George W. Bush was in the White House so, for the most part, science blogger outrage focused on his actions as President, and those of the Republican Congress.

Criticisms of Bush were so prevalent it seemed like Republicans must be anti-science because so many Democratic science bloggers said so (and there were no Republicans in science blogging to dispute it), with charges of reports being edited and various unpopular (and later, it turned out, not evidence-based) restrictions on areas like human embryonic stem cell research.

Let's be honest; life began on land.  I know, I know, that is blasphemy and Neil Shubin will stand on high and strike me down with my inner fish for saying such a thing, but while life began in water, life began on land.   

And that took land plants.  Thanks, embryophytes!

Generally, I have never cared much about plants.  I am kind of an anti-vegetarian in the sense that I don't eat plants, instead I regard plants as those things food eats in order to become bigger food.  I get the importance of plants scientifically, though.

Conservation scientists from London's Natural History Museum (NHM) are traveling to Paraguay to record biodiversity.   The problem?  The Dry Chaco region they want to visit is home to the indigenous Ayoreo Indians, who are being put at risk by the trip, according to an indigenous peoples' advocacy group.

The Dry Chaco is a dry section that also covers parts of Argentina, Bolivia and Brazil and some of the Ayoreo people have never had contact with the outside world.

"Far from being conservative, the Republican stance on global warming shows a stunning appetite for risk", writes Bracken Hendricks in the Washington Post.