Scientists have discovered that a single yeast cell gene (FLO1) expresses a protein that causes individual cells to stick to one another for protection. The cells flocculate, or form clumps “consisting of thousands of cells,”¹ with the outside cells sacrificing themselves to protect the inner cells from possible harmful chemicals.

The upcoming battle over what public science textbooks should teach promises to be no less contentious than the battles of the past. The Texas State Board of Education held a public hearing Wednesday, November 19, 2008, about the state’s science standards, which Board members will vote on early next year.

by Christine Dao and Beth Mull*

On November 18, 2008, publicly-funded PBS stations aired a two-hour NOVA special titled “The Bible’s Buried Secrets” that attempted to find the “true” history of the origins of the Israelites, their sacred Scripture, and their revolutionary belief in a single God.

The Natural History Museum in London recently opened a new exhibit that features mockingbirds that Charles Darwin collected during his travels around the Galapagos Islands in 1835. He observed they were unlike the mockingbirds in other South American regions.

Among many possible environmental factors, scientists have long suspected that certain combinations of nanoparticles contribute to cell damage, aging, and eventually death. That hypothesis has been confirmed in a recent study that observed these ultrafine molecules, some of which can penetrate cell membranes and wreak havoc.¹