We were recently in Texas for Whitley’s uncle’s 90th birthday party. My birthday came around while we were there, and MY celebration was MUCH MORE staid than his!
read more

After years spent hunting for prehistoric fossils, a paleontologist now plans to manipulate the DNA in chicken embryos to create a flying dinosaur.

The Breitbart website quotes researcher Hans Larsson as saying, “It’s a demonstration of evolution. If I can demonstrate clearly that the potential for dinosaur anatomical development exists in birds, then it again proves that birds are direct descendants of dinosaurs.”

There are a lot of websites out there, but the truth is, most of them are for the birds: They don’t bring you the great edge news and incredible radio shows that we do. But if you want us to keep being able to do this, more of you need to subscribe today!

Art credit: Dreamstime.com

read more

While most Americans think climate change is an important issue, they don’t see it as an immediate threat (even though it’s affecting people’s lives RIGHT NOW in many places) so getting people to “go green” requires policymakers, scientists and marketers to look at our psychological barriers to change. What will lead people to take the action that is needed?

A national Pew Research Center poll shows that 75-80% of respondents think climate change is an important issue. But respondents ranked it last in a list of 20 compelling issues, such as the economy or terrorism. Despite warnings from scientists and environmental experts that limiting the effects of climate change means humans need to make some severe changes now, people don’t feel a sense of urgency.
read more

Birds are doing it, now trees are too.

All over the world, trees are moving to new places to escape warmer temperatures. They are taking root at higher elevations as well. But this isn’t happening in response to hot summer temperatures: warmer WINTER temperatures are the cause.

In BBC News, Matt Walker quotes biologist Melanie Harsch as saying, “We expected growing season warming to be the dominant driver, but we found that it was not, winter temperature was.”

Walking outdoors in the fall in Europe, you can enjoy the lovely yellow leaves, while the US and East Asia, the turning leaves are mostly red. What causes the differences in autumn leaves around the world? The answer goes back 35 million years.
read more