14th May 2008 : In a major article in the newly released anthology, Secularism & Science in the 21st Century (published by the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture, at Trinity College), I look critically at their writings. I find little evidence for their claim, and put forward my own hypothesis, which I dub The Dawkins Effect.

11th May 2008 :

5th May 2008 : ScienceDaily (May 5, 2008) — Parents of children with autism were roughly twice as likely to have been hospitalized for a mental disorder, such as schizophrenia, than parents of other children, according to an analysis of Swedish birth and hospital records by a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researcher and colleagues in the U.S. and Europe.

4th May 2008 : We are preparing to run another fMRI study of belief and disbelief, and we need volunteers to help us refine our experimental stimuli. This promises to be the first study of religious faith at the level of the brain. By responding to the four surveys I have posted online, you can make an enormous contribution to this work.

29th Apr 2008 :

15th Dec 2007 : Texas' debate over teaching evolution is going to college.

5th Nov 2007 : Washoe, a female chimpanzee said to be the first non-human to acquire human language, has died of natural causes at the research institute where she was kept.

5th Nov 2007 : If the people of Congo save the mountain gorilla, might the gorilla return the favor?

31th Oct 2007 : The theoretical chemist is also widely known for his so-called Second Rule, which states that 'Evolution is cleverer than you are.'

25th Oct 2007 : In January 1955, Homer Jacobson, a chemistry professor at Brooklyn College, published a paper called "Information, Reproduction and the Origin of Life" in American Scientist, the journal of Sigma Xi, the scientific honor society.

21st Oct 2007 : As a vicious cancer ravages Tasmanian devil populations, zoos have launched a worldwide project to save the species. Kathy Marks reports.

21st Oct 2007 : To petition the Prime Minister to make Richard Dawkins a Knight, visit the Web site mentioned in this article ("You must be a British citizen or resident to sign the petition").

7th Oct 2007 : When you think of England, Rupert Redesdale is who you think of. He has a slanting forehead, a nose shaped like an adze and the pink face of an aristocrat from the Georgian era.

27th Sep 2007 : A few months ago, the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins received an e-mail message from a producer at Rampant Films inviting him to be interviewed for a documentary called "Crossroads."

20th Sep 2007 : On Friday, November 2nd The Dawkins Prize will be awarded to Dr Roger Payne.

23rd Aug 2007 : Using virtual reality goggles, a camera and a stick, scientists have induced out-of-body experiences — the sensation of drifting outside of one's own body — in healthy people, according to experiments being published in the journal Science.

22nd Aug 2007 : After turning millions of Internet users into virtual explorers of the world with Google Earth, the Internet search giant is now hoping to turn many of them into virtual stargazers.

14th Aug 2007 : A series of botanical landscapes that go back in evolutionary time are to be built in the desert of Saudi Arabia as part of an ambitious project to design the world's biggest indoor gardens.

2nd Aug 2007 : Wold Book Club interview on The Selfish Gene.

26th Jul 2007 : Texas had the nation's highest birth rate among teenagers ages 15 to 19 in 2004, according to a newly released study of children's health.

20th Jul 2007 : A live Madagascar hissing cockroach; a giant blue nose that sneezes spray at visitors; an I-beam on which visitors precariously perch; chronicles of epidemics; creatures that sting and bite; Imax footage of Hurricane Katrina hitting the bayou: These are the signs of an aggressive and sometimes distressing world that emerge at the ambitious $109 million transformation of the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City.

6th Jul 2007 : Dr. Jon D. Miller of Northwestern says scientific illiteracy undermines citizens' ability to take part in the democratic process.

30th May 2007 : The Great Ape Trust in Des Moines, Iowa, is home to seven bonobos -- a close relative of the chimpanzee -- and three orangutans. But if you think Iowa might be a strange place for them to live, don't say it out loud … these apes understand English.

9th May 2007 : Gov. Deval Patrick on Tuesday unveiled a $1.25 billion proposal intended to help the state maintain its status as a pre-eminent place for stem cell research and other life sciences.

22nd Apr 2007 : Billionaire space tourist Charles Simonyi and two crew from the international space station (ISS) have safely returned to Earth.

9th Apr 2007 : Two Russian cosmonauts and a U.S. billionaire who helped develop Microsoft Word floated into the international space station early Tuesday -- to the earthbound applause of Martha Stewart and others at Mission Control.

5th Apr 2007 : The latest United Nations assessment of the role of humans in global warming has found with "high confidence" that greenhouse gas emissions are at least partly responsible for a host of changes already under way, including longer growing seasons and shrinking glaciers.

2nd Apr 2007 : Growing Up in the Universe 2-Disc DVD Set: Order your copy now!

9th Mar 2007 : WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Polar bears, sea ice and global warming are taboo subjects, at least in public, for some U.S. scientists attending meetings abroad, environmental groups and a top federal wildlife official said on Thursday.

2nd Mar 2007 : LYNCHBURG, Va. The Reverend Jerry Falwell says global warming is "Satan's attempt to redirect the church's primary focus" from evangelism to environmentalism.

12th Feb 2007 : KINGSTON, R.I. — There is nothing much unusual about the 197-page dissertation Marcus R. Ross submitted in December to complete his doctoral degree in geosciences here at the University of Rhode Island.

5th Jan 2007 : UK scientists planning to mix human and animal cells in order to research cures for degenerative diseases fear their work will be halted.

15th Dec 2006 :

14th Dec 2006 :

13th Dec 2006 : The United States government bears great responsibility for keeping our environment clean and Americans healthy and safe.

25th Nov 2006 : Reposted from http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/21/science/21myth.html?ref=science

"This is where we blow stuff up."

Jamie Hyneman — who, to be honest, did not actually use the word "stuff" — stood in front of a two-story, blast-resistant ruin of a building at the back of the former Alameda Point Naval Air Station.

24th Nov 2006 : The scientific journal Nature has issued a clarification of a recent report that human embryonic stem cells can be derived without harm to the embryo, but has affirmed the report's validity.

24th Nov 2006 : Doerr's words reminded me that I once put together a brief extract from Unweaving the Rainbow, with the thought that it might be suitable for reading at funerals - including my own when the time comes.

16th Nov 2006 : For a very long time, Muslim states have scored badly on measures of science and technology. Will things be any better or worse under the new Islamist governments?

1st Oct 2006 : In warfare, public opinion is now prepared to tolerate far less collateral damage than used to be the case, and this is a revealing symptom of a more general and heartening trend.

1st Aug 2006 : George Bush has just vetoed a bill, approved by both Houses of Congress, which would have allowed federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Apparently the President's ethical philosophy places a higher value on American embryos than on Iraqi or Lebanese men, women and children.

16th May 2006 : Science feeds on mystery. As my colleague Matt Ridley has put it, "Most scientists are bored by what they have already discovered.