Topics

Listen very carefully in the rainforests of Brazil and you might hear a series of quiet, high-pitched squeaks. These are the alarm calls of the black-fronted titi (Callicebus nigrifrons), a monkey with a rusty-brown tail that lives in small family units. The cries are loaded with information. Cristiane Cäsar, a biologist at the University of …

Four Bangladeshi bloggers are facing up to seven years in jail after they were charged in court Sunday with defaming Islam, a prosecutor told AFP. The four men, who deny the charges, were arrested earlier this year in the wake of nationwide protests in which Islamic groups demanded the execution of atheist online commentators. Judge …

A mother accused of starving her adopted daughter and leaving her outside in the cold was convicted of manslaughter and homicide by abuse in Washington state on Monday. Carri Williams and her husband Larry Williams were accused in 2011 of causing their Ethiopian teenage daughter’s death. Carri Williams has maintained her innocence throughout the trial, …

Farmer ants can recruit parasites to battle for them, much like medieval cities sometimes kept expensive contingents of mercenary soldiers to ward off invaders, researchers say. The finding, illustrated in a video of the mercenary ants, highlights that parasites might not always be a bad thing, underscoring the complex relationships between species in nature, investigators added. …

The French Education Minister Vincent Peillon has unveiled the controversial secularism charter which is to be displayed in a prominent position in every school to remind pupils and teachers of the country's secular, Republican principles. The Minister says the charter is designed to promote "absolute respect for freedom of conscience". The charter's 15 principles have …

The Public Health Agency of Canada recently issued a notice regarding a surge in cases of measles in many parts of the country. At the time of the notice, 30 cases had already been reported, five times as many as in the previous year. Why is a disease that was so well controlled for many years slowly …

It’s been four years since I left my family, my friends, my community the only world I had ever known the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC). For most of my adolescence and early adult life, my life’s purpose was to protest homosexuality in God’s name. I really believed, to my very core, that gay people were …

Europe has reached another milestone in its contribution to Hubble's successor – the James Webb Space Telescope. An industrial team led from Astrium in Germany has completed the build of the Near-Infrared spectrometer, one of four instruments that will go in JWST. NirSpec's job will be to determine the age, composition, movement and distance of …

An eight year old child bride died in Yemen on her wedding night after suffering internal injuries due to sexual trauma. Human rights organizations are calling for the arrest of her husband who was five times her age.   The death occurred in the tribal area of Hardh in northwestern Yemen, which borders Saudi Arabia. …

Andrew Hamblin handles poisonous snakes every Sunday in the name of Jesus. At just 22, he leads Tabernacle Church of God in LaFollette, Tenn., a Pentecostal church that practices a rare, century-old Christian tradition of worshipping God with venomous snakes like timber rattlers, cottonmouths, and copperheads. He plays mandolin, loves zombie movies, receives food stamps, …

Read the rest of Laura Helmuth's series on longevity. The fundamental structure of human populations has changed exactly twice in evolutionary history. The second time was in the past 150 years, when the average lifespan doubled in most parts of the world. The first time was in the Paleolithic, probably around 30,000 years ago. That’s when old …

Miss World began amid tight security on the Indonesian resort island of Bali on Sunday after days of Muslim hardline protests that forced the venue for the beauty pageant to be moved. As contestants put on dance performances at a glittering opening ceremony, around 100 police, including some armed with rifles, patrolled around the building …