In the News:

Scientists have gained evidence that revives an older theory of speciation, wherein necessary genes migrate a different chromosome in one of the species.

54 known planetary systems may have earthlike worlds a new computer model finds, the first of its kind to run for a timeframe simulating 20 million years. It predicts that star systems with "hot jupiters", previously thought to sweep up the rocky material needed to form planets, may actually form earthlike planets in a habitable zone. The model predicts that these planets would be true water-worlds, containing far more water than earth... but since it was only run for 20 million years, and our own planet is in excess of 4 billion and at one time we were covered in water too, I kind of have to wonder if they might not be even more earthlike than the model would lead us to predict. Perhaps complete with life?

And Life on Earth has not yet finished surprising us. For the first time, a complex eukaryote species has been found in an environment where there is no oxygen. Their solution: breathing nitrogen. This is also the first time a complex species has been found to play a role in denitrification. So if we're learning that life on earth can exist where we believed it could not... who's to say what we'll find out there among the stars?

And if you're a real geek, you may want to watch live video of scientific events online, using the new service of http://www.sciencelive.org/ It looks like there is going to be quite a selection.

For a dear friend, or several:

"Death stands before me today
like the hope of health for a sick man,
like stepping out into the open air after
a time of suffering.

Death stands before me today
like the aroma of incense,
like sitting under the sail on
the Day of the Great Wind.

Death stands before me today
like the odor of lotos-blossoms,
like the first moments on the
edge of sweet drunkenness.

Death stands before me today
like the end of a long rain,
like the homecoming of a soldier
a long time at war.

Death stands before me today
like the clarity of heaven,
like the answer long-desired
to a heavy riddle.

And Death stands before me today
like the way a man feels about home
after he has spent many years
in bondage."

-------

"Then Almitra spoke, saying, "We would ask now of Death."

And he said:

You would know the secret of death.

But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?

The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light.

If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life.

For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.

In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond;

And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring.

Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.

Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the king whose hand is to be laid upon him in honour.

Is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling, that he shall wear the mark of the king?

Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling?

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?

And what is to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.

And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.

And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance."