nongenetic selection and evolution: flies use bacteria to adapt to parasitic worms. more.

the Pew Forum has released a 75 page report on how Americans change religious affiliations. Luke at Common Sense Atheist has a summary of the findings. spoiler alert: Catholicism is taking a beating!

this is cool: by using familial DNA knowledge, for the first time police nabbed a serial killer by stumbling across his son's DNA.

new hope for an HIV vaccine- researchers identify natural antibodies that thwart the virus.

Ben Goldacre points out the absurdity of the supplements industry. as a commenter to his article says, their argument boils to "we KNOW our products don’t do anything, but you can’t let that kill an industry!”

potentially huge news in physics this week- physicists have found that the mass of the proton has been overestimated by 4%. and while 4% doesn't sound like a big deal, when you're talking about fundamental forces that determine how the universe functions, 3 x 10^ -14 millimeters is huge. more.

genetic switch makes female mice try to mate with other females.

on the evolution of multicellular life- what does it take to become multicellular?

PZ Myers took Jon Stewart of The Daily Show to task for his stupid comments on the use science has for faith.

Massimo Pigliucci on "spiritual, but not religious"

creationists often point to appendicitis and say that if evolution is true, because appendicitis makes us horribly ill and can kill us, then evolution should have done away with the appendix. that evolution has not, they argue, is evidence against evolution. except, as usual, they're missing a major component.

robins can literally see magnetic fields, but only if their vision is sharp.

Chris Mooney's accomodationist stance has blown up in his face and the drama llama has come riding into town. last year, Mooney highlighted the story of one Tom Johnson who said that he had been to a scientific conference and found atheists commonly bashing religion and religious people. instead of checking into Johnson's story as a journalist should (Mooney's a journalist by trade) he let his cognitive biases rule him and just went with Johnson's story. turns it was all fake.
several commentators have weighed in and provided links.

anxiety may be at the root of religious extremism.

last week i linked to a story that said that genetics had shown that you could predict who would live to old age based on a person's genes. scientists are crying foul now, claiming that the research is flawed in serious ways that undermine the central claims.

a Massachusetts federal district court has struck down the Defense of Marriage Act as unconstitutional.

2 weeks in a row now TA's Gregory Scott makes Sunday School. he posted this list of common responses to the problem of evil along with a short takedown of each.

the first Brits settled the English seashore 800,000 years ago.

liberal creationists are not very smart.

recently, it looked as if the Vatican was going to begin dealing with abuse cases openly and forthrightly but after the recent police raids in Belgium the Vatican has demonstrated the contrary.

what evidence would convince you that god exists?

tradition has its place, but not where factual knowledge is concerned.

so it does seem as if Japan's Hayabusa probe brought something back but is it asteroid dust?

John Loftus at DC has been posting these short form critiques of Christianity by pointing out what must be the case if Christianity is true. now he's posted all 30 of them together.

the Plank Telescope has revealed the universe's ancient cosmic energy.

Robert at Making My Way is engaged in a debate with a Christian over the contents of Lee Strobel's The Case for Christ. he's got a great post critiquing some of Strobel's claims. (check out the comments there for an informative post from "DagoodS")

the human edge: finding out inner fish.

do Christians really believe what they say they do?

Coyne on the problem of the evolution of warning coloration.

BioLogos dives deeper into stupidity.

Matt McCormick on denialism.

a paper in Science highlights research into the power of our unconscious mind -- and how easy it is to influence it.

the perils of false belief.