Researchers working with fruit flies–the ubiquitous lab animal–have discovered the flies are able to undergo an amazing ocular process called microsaccades (involuntary microscopic jittering of their eyes).

In 1950 the famed Italian physicist Enrico Fermi asked his coworkers at the lunch table the simple metaphysical question in regard to possible aliens in the universe, “Where is everybody?” Since then his question has become the Fermi Paradox: the supposed high estimates for intelligent extraterrestrial life conflicting with cold, interstellar silence.

The evolution of mammals from non-mammals, like the evolution of all other animal groups, has been, and will always be, problematic. English paleontologist Michael Benton stated, “The origin of the Placentalia, the crown group including modern placental mammals and their ancestors, is a much-discussed question.”¹

Butterflies have made science news again, this time in regard to a master gene called WntA: “a combined team of researchers from Cornell University and The George Washington University, has characterized the cis-regulatory evolution of the gene WntA in nymphalid butterflies.”¹