Old Weblog - October 2005

How an insect avoids sex with its ex (New Scientist: 01-Oct-05)
Sex with your ex can often be a mistake. So too, it seems, for female crickets, who may actually mark conquests with their scent just to avoid mating with them again.
"Devastating" early drafts of a controversial book recommended as reading at a US high school reveal how the word "creationism" had been later swapped for "intelligent design", a landmark US trial scrutinising the teaching of ID heard on Wednesday. The early drafts of the book Of Pandas and People, were used as evidence to link the book to creationism, which it is illegal to teach in government-funded US schools.
The long-necked marine reptiles of the dinosaur age had a taste for shellfish, two Australian fossils reveal. Palaeontologists had thought elasmosaurs used their exceptionally long necks simply to catch fish.
Scientists have discovered more remains of the strange, small people that once lived on Flores island, Indonesia.
A rooster-sized dinosaur with a long, slender snout and wing-like limbs is forcing a rethink on bird evolution. The 90 million-year-old reptile belongs to the same sickle-clawed group of dinosaurs as Velociraptor and feathered dinosaurs from China. Buitreraptor gonzalezorum, from the Neuquen Basin in central Argentina may provide tantalising evidence that powered flight evolved twice.
The team behind the "Hobbit" finds have been widening their search for remains of the strange little humans on Flores island - with tantalising results. Since last year, the remains of at least nine individuals have been found in a cave on the Indonesian island.
Ambitious plan evolves to put Darwin online (Cambridge Evening News: 14-Oct-05)
In a room in India, two people sit carefully typing the same passage of text by Charles Darwin into a central computer. Sophisticated software monitors their progress and, if either of them enters so much as a single letter or comma different to the other, they are met with a flashing warning sign. This process is called Double Blind Key Transcription, and it's just one element of an ambitious Cambridge University project to the put the complete works of the father of evolutionary biology onto the internet.
Great project!
Theory on how Darwin evolved (Cambridge Evening News: 19-Oct-05)
DARWIN began to form his theories on evolution far earlier than was previously thought - and right here in Cambridge, according to new research. The ingenious naturalist was inspired by Prof John Henslow, the founder of the Cambridge University Botanic Garden, who sparked his interest through his lectures and teaching before Darwin took his famous trip on the HMS Beagle in 1831, it has been claimed.
Both Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein relied on pen, paper, and the postal service to communicate with correspondents around the world. But researchers have now found the pattern of their replies is the same as that of computer users answering email today, with both following the same mathematical formula.