LOL! Indeed. See, this is one of those situations where the public can lose faith in the scientific community: too many resources are spent on proving the self-evident. Seems like every day we see some new groundbreaking announcement like "exercise leads to weight loss." :-( ;-)

Agree. Didn't need a scientific study to deduce the obvious!

This mixes evolution and climate change, but I thought it was an interesting read.

Itxxx8217;s not just the evolution denying Creationists! « Greenfyrexxx8217;s

Now LOLing at the irony of the example I chose:

Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin - TIME

I saw that! Evolution at work. More exertion means more calories are needed. Probably hormonally induced. I have been hitting the gym and running hard lately and I can tell you that I'm more hungry. If one wants to lose weight, one MUST maintain a similar calorie intake or less while increasing the level of exercise. It's admittedly hard to do.

Had to post this.

Kansas School District Bans T-Shirts Depicting Evolution | PEEK | AlterNet

"I was disappointed with the image on the shirt," said Sherry Melby, a band parent who teaches in the district. "I don't think evolution should be associated with our school."

I'm surprised this hasn't shown up here.

Fossils Shed New Light on Human Origins - WSJ.com

Fossils Shed New Light on Human Origins

By ROBERT LEE HOTZ
Researchers in the U.S. and Ethiopia on Thursday made public fossils from a 4.4-million-year-old human forebear they say reveals that the earliest human ancestors were more modern than scholars assumed and deepens the evolutionary gulf separating humankind from today's apes and chimpanzees.

The highlight of the extensive fossil trove is a female skeleton a million years older than the iconic bones of Lucy, the primitive female figure that has long symbolized humankind's beginnings.

What a wonderful discovery. I was going to post it, but really didn't think anyone was reading this thread anymore. The good thing about this find is that it is a very complete set of fossils. It's incredible how meticulous they were with this discovery, taking many years to collect as much as they did. Time magazine has this as a cover story. I'd also like to read some of the journal articles that will be published on this find.

I enjoy this thread! Bring on the science, I could do with some thought-provoking conversation. (y)

Spoken like a true tech person!

The October 2nd issue of the journal Science is dedicated to the new fossil discovery introduced by djm above. Here's a link:

Online Extras: Ardipithecus ramidus

Here's the introduction to this publication. The articles in this issue are all free after registration. Pretty cool. I've got some plane time coming up and plan to read the articles in flight.

In its 2 October 2009 issue, Science presents 11 papers, authored by a diverse international team, describing an early hominid species, Ardipithecus ramidus, and its environment. These 4.4 million year old hominid fossils sit within a critical early part of human evolution, and cast new and sometimes surprising light on the evolution of human limbs and locomotion, the habitats occupied by early hominids, and the nature of our last common ancestor with chimps.

Science is making access to this extraordinary set of materials FREE (non-subscribers require a simple registration). The complete collection, and abridged versions, are available FREE as PDF downloads for AAAS members, or may be purchased as reprints.

This is an extraordinary offer on the part of AAAS; I will certainly be taking advantage of it. It makes me regret that I allowed my AAAS membership to lapse some time ago.

Agreed. 'Some time ago' is more along the lines of 20 years for me..

LOL! 12 for me!

I loved reading Science back in graduate school. Then I graduated, married, got a job and had kids. Haven't had time since!

Im going to go off of this, me being a Christian man who worships regularly. This may get a little fire under someone but oh well, the truth hurts. In Genesis, the Bible tells us that God created man in his own image, now "in his own image" has been translated and reviewed differently from scholars over the years, but, I understand it to be a state of "perfection". This state of "perfection" or "in his own image" would not need to change from monkey's into some completely other species, but, evolve to whatever particular niche or habitat that that creature is in. Whether it be "man" or a parakeet, its going to adapt over time to its natural surroundings to better survive. God wouldnt create man as a monkey, give him a language, writing and reasoning skills. When was the last time you held an intelligent conversation with a chimpanzee? Bottom line, Bible says that God created man as he is today structurally, but we did all evolve intellectually and to our habitats/environments.

I don't think anyone on here has said that we evolved from monkeys. Nor will you find any evolutionary biologist making such a statement. It's a common misconception among non-scientists. The key to the evolution of hominids is that there was a common ancestor that was neither monkey nor human.

At any rate, your post is more philosophy than anything relating to science, so not sure how much more I can comment.

Lol.

TheSpec.com - Local - Women on the pill prefer pretty boys

Just read this. I'm not surprised at all. I have taken the pill on and off myself, throughout my adult life, and it affects all sorts of things.

For instance, there is a noticeable difference in the way things smell to me on the pill, v/s off the pill. Which changes my diet. If it also changed the way men smell to me, even at a level I was not consciously aware of, I could definitely see an issue. The way a guy smells is the first deciding factor, for me, in whether he goes from being attractive to sexy.

Incredible. These reactions are hormonally induced. At probably picograms per liter. So I guess it should not be surprising that supplementing with additional much larger doses hormones would affect ones behavior. And therefore effect direction of human evolution.