Critics of evolution cite scientific debates to undercut Darwin’s credibility. That strategy fails when research clears up some of the issues. Results from two separate research projects announced this week make that point. They deal with Darwin’s controversial suggestion that new species can arise within an ancestral population even when there is no way to separate the diverging groups geographically. There’s plenty of evidence that new species arise when segments of a single population become geographically separated, as Darwin also theorized. His other suggestion has lacked such evidence. It has remained what Axel Meyer and his colleagues at the University of Konstanz in Germany call “one of the most controversial concepts in evolutionary biology.” They present in the journal Nature what they consider “a convincing case” that Darwin was right. They found their proof in Nicaragua’s isolated volcanic crater Lake Apoyo. There, two species of cichlid fish – Midas cichlid and Arrow cichlid – live together. Detailed genetic, morphological, and ecological study confirms their relationship as separate species that evolved from a common ancestor. They live separate lives in the same geographical space. Misas feeds along the bottom. Arrow exploits the open water. The two do […]
Altruism may breed better marriages, a new study suggests. Or, the data might mean that good marriages make people more altruistic. Whatever, altruism and happiness seem to go together in the realm of love. “Altruistic love was associated with greater happiness in general and especially with more marital happiness,” Tom Smith of the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago concludes in a report released Thursday. Study participants were asked whether they agreed with statements that define altruism, such as, “I’d rather suffer myself than let the one I love suffer,” and “I’m willing to sacrifice my own wishes to let the one I love achieve his or hers.” Those who agreed with the statements tended to also report happiness with their spouses. Among the more altruistic, 67 percent rated their own marriage as “very happy.” Among those who were profiled as the least altruistic, only 50 percent said they were very happy in marriage. And here’s one for those of you who are still waiting for your partner to commit: Forty percent of the married people ranked near the top for altruistic responses, while only 20 percent of those who had […]
When Hamas called for the Muslim world to calm down last week, European officials hoped they’d turned a corner. They’d been looking frantically for a way out of the clash of civilizations sparked by the publication of cartoons caricaturing the Prophet Muhammad. Danish Embassies were burned in Damascus and Beirut. Afghan riots led to at least 11 deaths. Another protester was shot in Kenya. Any voice of moderation was welcome. But there was not, in fact, much optimism in Brussels. “The situation is very, very complicated,” says an EU official close to the negotiations with Muslim leaders, who asked not to be named because of the talks’ sensitivity. “The cosmological problem will have to be solved bit by bit.” Cosmological indeed. The cartoon crisis has shown just how hard it is going to be for European and American leaders to straddle what Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi last week called the “huge chasm between the West and Islam.” The strategy taking shape in Washington and Europe includes some tough, targeted talk. Troublemakers (including certain governments) are to be isolated. “Iran and Syria have gone out of their way to inflame sentiments and to use this to their own purposes,” […]
TOKYO — Japan has enticed children with whale burger school lunches, sung the praises of the red meat in colorful pamphlets, and declared whale hunting a national heritage. But Tokyo has a dilemma: by rapidly expanding its whale hunt, Japan now kills more of the giant mammals than its consumers care to eat. The result is an unprecedented glut of whale meat. Prices once about $15 a pound are plunging, inventories are bursting, and promoters are scrambling to get Japanese to eat more whale. It’s a tough sell. To put it simply, whale meat tastes horrible, said 30-year-old Kosuke Nakamura, one of the diners at a Hana No Mai restaurant in Tokyo who turned their noses up at whale meat. Young people are put off by the tough, pungent meat, Nakamura said, while older Japanese are reminded of the lean years after the country’s defeat in World War II. And while few Japanese voice environmental concerns over hunting whales, some younger people say it has brought the country unfavorable publicity. Whaling’s so bad for Japan’s image. I don’t know why we still hunt, Nakamura said. Some 1,035 tons of whale […]
ROME — Greece and Italy said on Saturday they had found swans with the H5N1 bird flu virus, the first known cases in the European Union of wild birds with the deadly strain of the disease. As the slow creep of the virus around the globe continued, Romania said more infections were suspected in birds in the Danube delta and Bulgaria said the lethal strain had been confirmed among swans in wetlands close to the Romanian border. The region is a haven and transit point for migrating birds. Nigeria started testing people who have fallen ill close to where the virus has been found among birds, in the first outbreak in African of a disease that has spread seemingly inexorably across the Eurasian landmass from China and Vietnam. Finance ministers of the Group of Eight (G8), meeting in Moscow, discussed the risk of a worldwide pandemic and issued a new call for wealthy countries to help poor ones fight bird flu. “We acknowledge the risk of a possible avian flu pandemic and its potential economic and financial impacts,” they said. Italy said wild swans found in the southern island of Sicily and the mainland regions […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
