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.

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

A team of French experts in paleoenvironments has discovered algae and several bits of marine life that are completely encased in amber, a hard substance thought to originate from hardened tree sap. Amber is renowned for preserving exquisitely detailed fossils, often of insects.