Happy (almost) Darwin Day!

Tomorrow, February 12th, is a big day in the world of biology – it’s Darwin’s 200th birthday! Charles Darwin, the father of the theory of evolution was born on February 12, 1809, and published his famous book “On the Origin of Species” about 50 years later. Scientists around the globe are planning events to celebrate Darwin’s discovery, as well as scientific innovation generally. There are a variety of talks and events aimed at the public.

To find out about Darwin Day and events near you, check out http://www.darwinday.org

Photo courtesy of lofaesofa

Wasps, like children, say no to strangers

Scientists have long thought that social awareness and cognition was a trait that was limited to large animals with complex brains. Turns out that it doesn’t require as much brain power as they originally thought – the simple paper wasp is able to recognize and remember other individuals and act on those memories accordingly.

I want more candy!
You’re lying, right?
My brain hurts!

This Week’s BioBites: Good News at Last!

Well, while Wall Street falls apart, scientists have been busy figuring out everything from why we all want to punish those Wall Street brokers to better ways to detect Down’s syndrome. Hope these help take your mind off the economy!

This week’s BioBites!

This Week’s BioBites: KoalaMatch.com, armed fungus, and more

Though grad students are great procrastinators, we still have a finite amount of free time and science is moving pretty quickly these days. Consequently, we come across a whole lot of interesting stories during the week that we don’t have time to write about on our blog. So from now on we’ll be posting a list of links to cool articles in the media on a whole variety of topics that we think you’d enjoy. Starting with this week…
Read this week’s BioBites!