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By Paul Rincon Scientists have uncovered the first evidence of live births in the group of animals that includes dinosaurs, crocodiles and birds. All examples of this group, known as the Archosauromorpha, lay eggs. This led some scientists to wonder whether there was something in their biology that prevented live births. But examination of the …
By Jugal K. Patel A rapidly advancing crack in Antarcticaâs fourth-largest ice shelf has scientists concerned that it is getting close to a full break. The rift has accelerated this year in an area already vulnerable to warming temperatures. Since December, the crack has grown by the length of about five football fields each day. …
By Danae King It might seem like any other wedding â vows, an aisle, a dress, love in the air. Sometimes, guests even come up to August Brunsman IV and tell him what a lovely ceremony it was, saying, “Thank you, minister.” But he’s not a minister. He’s a humanist celebrant. And though humanism is …
By Emma Green Earlier this month, Jonathan Martin jotted off a sad tweet. âIâve lost count of the number of people who say theyâve had ministry jobs threatened/been fired for speaking out in some way in this season,â the Christian author and speaker wrote. Confirmation rolled in: one story from a church planter in California, …
By Kavya Balaraman Coral reefs, kelp forests and other marine ecosystems may be tougher than we give them credit for, a new study suggests. While countless scientific reports have documented the ravages of climate change on oceanic life, a survey of the researchers who wrote them provides a silver lining: An overwhelming majority noticed examples …
By Michelle Z. Donahue In a rare find, scientists have examined guts, legs, and gills from an animal that was preserved for nearly 500 million years. The ancient soft parts are offering new insights into the behavior of trilobites, the insect-like creatures that ruled Earthâs early seas for hundreds of millions of years. Paleontologists have …
By Sean O’Kane One hour into a loud, contentious town hall meeting in his home state of Utah, Congressman Jason Chaffetz was asked two simple questions by a young girl named Hannah Bradshaw. The first was about the environment: âWhat are you doing to help protect our water and air for our generations and my …
By Jeremy W. Peters WASHINGTON â The people who filled the pews of St. Johnâs Episcopal Church for a private service on the morning of the inauguration were a testament to the ascendancy of the religious right in Donald J. Trumpâs Washington: James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family; Tony Perkins, the president …
By Eric Stokstad Paul Cairney, a political scientist at the University of Stirling in the United Kingdom, has a message for those who want facts and research findings to guide policy. “âEvidence based policy makingâ is a good political slogan, but not a good description of the policy process,” he writes on his blog, which has …
By Hemant Mehta What is it with Oklahoma legislators and their obsession with the Ten Commandments? After a years-long battle â which they lost â over a monument outside the Capitol building, State Rep. John Bennett has now proposed House Bill 2177, which would allow the posting of the Commandments in all public buildings including …
By Chelsea Harvey A former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientist has reopened a contentious debate over the validity of a key agency climate change study, asserting that procedures for archiving its data were not properly followed by its authors. The claims by John Bates, first published in the Mail on Sunday and later amplified in a …
By Julia Rosen As the Arctic slipped into the half-darkness of autumn last year, it seemed to enter the Twilight Zone. In the span of a few months, all manner of strange things happened. The cap of sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean started to shrink when it should have been growing. Temperatures at the …