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Study shows dementia patients recognize ‘elderspeak’: They may not be as sharp as they once were. Their memory may be failing. But people with Alzheimer’s can still sense when someone is talking down to them. (Via McClatchy.) When I was a teenager, I worked at a nursing home with an Alzheimer’s care wing. Quit a [...]

T he Austin Chronicle: News: Texas Fiction Science: The State Board of Education does its part to fantasize biology: There’s nothing the evil overlords of the fictional future like more than a nice, healthy round of brainwashing. Whether it’s George Orwell’s totalitarian government of Oceania thwarting rebellious citizens in 1984, the “conditioning” of children in [...]

newsobserver.com | HIV strikes fast, study finds: “HIV infects and attacks the body within days — much faster than previously thought — drastically narrowing the window of time when intervention is possible, Duke University researchers have found.” Not good news, especially given this: “We can narrow that window down, but we’re never going to be [...]

Girls’ math skills now equal boys’ – Education- msnbc.com: “Sixteen years after Barbie dolls declared, ‘Math class is tough!’ girls are proving that when it comes to math they are just as tough as boys.” (Via Scott-386550 @ Newsvine.) I know when I was recently in school for my mathematics degree, the number of women [...]

Seeded at Newsvine: Patsy Jindal [John Derbyshire]What do I have to say about Louisiana Governor Jindal signing the Louisiana Science Education Act? Very little more than I said here back on June 20.

Seeded at Newsvine: These worms, or helminths, have a paradoxical effect on the host. Rather than induce inflammation, which is the body’s typical response to invasion, the intruders calm the host immune system.

Seeded at Newsvine: As we noted last month, a number of states have been considering laws that, under the guise of “academic freedom,” single out evolution for special criticism. Most of them haven’t made it out of the state legislatures, and one that did was promptly vetoed.

Seeded at Newsvine: WHY was the big bang so very big? It has been a struggle to explain why the infant universe expanded so rapidly.

Seeded at Newsvine: New evidence deep beneath the Arctic ice suggests that a series of underwater volcanoes have erupted in violent explosions in the past decade.

Seeded at Newsvine: Say that you are in charge of developing a state-wide high-school curriculum in French-language studies, and that you need the advice of a group of experts on how to put together the ideal programme.

Seeded at Newsvine: A record 36 percent of the U.S. commercial bee colonies have been lost so far to mysterious causes this year and the worse may be yet to come, experts told a congressional panel Thursday.

Seeded at Newsvine: Some have feared that when the collider reaches full power, sometime next year, it might create microscopic black holes or other exotic phenomena that could endanger Earth. The new report, like earlier safety studies, rules out the possibility of global danger.

Seeded at Newsvine: Scientists have pinned down the return of Greek hero Odysseus to April 16, 1178 B.C., close to noon local time.

Seeded at Newsvine: The intelligent design case in Dover, Penn., was the stuff of tabloid dreams: a community divided when a school board led by religious fundamentalists tried to bring creationism into the local biology curriculum.

It’s a house cat! It’s a tiger! Meet the Toyger, America’s next superpet By Kenneth Miller In an oak-shaded backyard 30 miles outside of L.A., Judy Sugden is conducting a tour of her secret genetics lab. The well-kept facility consists of several cabins built of plywood and fencing in which dozens of domestic cats nap, [...]

Stem Cells Without Embryo Loss – New York Times: Nevertheless, religious conservatives have already denounced the technique, and the President’s Council on Bioethics, in a white paper evaluating alternative ways to produce stem cells, declared this approach “ethically unacceptable.” The technique would seem to sidestep the council’s main objection, that it is unethical to put [...]

Newsvine – Receding Texas Lake Reveals Old Skeleton: Associated Press – AUSTIN – Archeologists say a prehistoric skeleton and campsite discovered on the muddy shore of Lake Travis could be between 700 and 2,000 years old. An archaeology crew excavated the nearly intact skeleton on Sunday so that it can be donated to the University [...]

‘Clear’ human impact on climate: A report funded by the US government finds “clear evidence” of human-induced climate change. (Via BBC News | Science/Nature | World Edition.) How many times can he demand more study in this area? How many times can the part of industry and the body politic that Bush represents claim that [...]

Electron Band Structure In Germanium, My Ass: Abstract: The exponential dependence of resistivity on temperature in germanium is found to be a great big lie. My careful theoretical modeling and painstaking experimentation reveal 1) that my equipment is crap, as are all the available texts on the subject and 2) that this whole exercise was [...]

Since I seem to be in a metaphorical mood, it’s only fitting that I run across someone else of the same mind today. PZ Myers, [tag]biologist[/tag]-blogger extraordinaire, has a nice extended metaphor up on his blog. Go read: Doors: Here’s an entirely hypothetical scenario. You’re in a room with two exits, marked Door A and [...]

How the Bush administration muzzles the…: How the Bush administration muzzles the world’s top global warming scientist: “In my more than three decades in the government, I’ve never witnessed such restrictions on the ability of scientists to communicate with the public.” (Via towleroad.) A couple excerpts from the linked article at Think Progress: CICERONE: I [...]

Every once in a while you run across something online that makes you come up short. I’m sure someone else has made this insight somewhere else in the past, but it was the first time I had seen it: God hates squid: From the comments, here’s something bizarre: creationists (at least the ones at Answers [...]

Crocodile blood shows anti-HIV activity: SCIENTISTS in Australia’s tropical north are collecting blood from crocodiles in the hope of developing a powerful antibiotic for humans, after tests showed that the reptile’s immune system kills the HIV virus. (Via mongabay.com.) And from the same site: Frogs may help in fight against HIV: A new weapon in [...]

On the one hand, I’m glad to see this piece done; I think there are still many, many people in this country who will benefit from seeing perspectives that emphasize the biological nature of homosexuality (whether genetic or in utero hormone levels or a combination). And the article does offer some of that: In case [...]

What’s this? Could there truly be a worldwide shift in the attitudes of clergy? Are we seeing the beginnings of a return the ethics of social gospel? Another story: Kenya church in Aids apology: Kenya’s Anglican Church issues a public apology for previously shunning those with HIV/Aids. (Via BBC News Front Page.) Again, this is [...]