17-year cicada, Magicicada septendecim Image: © Ed Reschke-Stone/Getty Images 13-year cicada, Magicada tridecima Billions of cicadas are about to emerge from underground in a rare double-brood convergence If it hasn't happened yet, it will do soon. The largest brood of 13-year locusts is about to emerge simultaneously with the mid-western brood of 17-year locusts - and even that only happens every 221 years. The mathematically-minded will have noticed something about the periodicity of these insects - they are prime numbers (i.e. numbers that are only divisible by themselves and 1) ad ..read more

A Patrilineal Central Asian population Social change may explain decline in genetic diversity of the Y chromosome at the end of the Neolithic period | CNRS The problem with having a childish superstition based on the campfire tales of primitive people who knew nothing of the world outside their own narrow horizons and folk memory is that it can cause you to believe the most ludicrous things that require you to maintain a pristine ignorance in order to retain your superstition. This is especially true if an integral part of your irrational superstition is that there is a mind-reading bogeym ..read more

Selection of lichens symbiosis between cyanobacteria and fungi Symbiotic relationship between clown fish and anemone. Species living closely together in symbiosis is far older and way more common than you might think Biologically, symbiotic relationships are alliances of genes that give the lie to creationist claims that 'selfish' genes are genes for selfishness. In fact, if it's in the interests of genes, and it usually is, genes form alliances that put the two species in the partnership on an evolutionary trajectory in which both species benefit from the evolution of one or the other in ..read more

Clostridium difficile (C. diff) Treatment for Deadly Superbug C. diff May Be Weakening - University of Houston The latest rabbit hole Michael J Behe has driven the creation cult into is the daft notion of 'Genetic Entropy'. This was introduced following the failure of the Discovery Institute to trick the courts in the USA into declaring that 'Intelligent [sic] Design' is real science and so should be foist on impressionable children in science class at taxpayers’ expense. The notion of 'Genetic Entropy' plays on what used to be presented as an anti-evolution argument - the Second Law of T ..read more

Left three images: close-ups of tomato trichomes where acylsugars are produced. These sticky chemicals act as natural flypaper for potential pests. On the right: a close-up of tomato plant roots covered in small hairs. Credit: Rachel Kerwin Uncovering a ‘parallel universe’ in tomato genetics Creationism's intelligent [sic] designer, unlike a normal intelligent designer worthy of the name, seems to have a moto: "If a thing's worth doing, it's worth doing twice, in two different ways". However, even for someone familiar with all the different ways creationism's putative designer has des ..read more

An amoeba cell infected by Naegleriavirus. The fluorescence microscopy image shows the viral factory and newly produced virus particles (in blue) within the amoeba cell (pink). Patrick Arthofer and Florian Panhölzl. Illustration of Naegleriavirus based on electron microscopy. A section through a virus particle with the star-shaped stargate is shown. Credit: Stefan Pommer / photopic.at (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) Giant Viruses Infect Deadly Parasite Judging by the findings of scientists led by Patrick Arthofer and Matthias Horn from the University of Vienna's Center for Microbiology and Environm ..read more

Illustration of the dynamo mechanism that generates the Earth's magnetic field: convection currents of fluid metal in the Earth's outer core, driven by heat flow from the inner core, organized into rolls by the Coriolis force, generate circulating electric currents, which supports the magnetic field. Andrew Z. Colvin via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) Researchers find oldest undisputed evidence of Earth’s magnetic field | University of Oxford The problem with trying to sustain a belief that Earth is just a few thousand years old, is that scientists keep finding evidence that it is very much o ..read more

Archbishop Luis Argüello Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. Cardinal Juan Jose Omella President of the Spanish Conference of Bishops Spain approves plan to compensate victims of Catholic Church sex abuse. Church will be asked to pay | AP News After years of ignoring the issue and long after many other European countries had launched enquiries into the systematic sexual abuse of minors by Spain's Catholic clergy and its cover-up and facilitation by senior figures in the Catholic Church, in 2022, the Spanish government finally caved in and commissioned an enquiry by ombudsman Ángel Gabilondo ..read more

Burkholderia thailandensis (purple) uses cellular components (yellow) to form membrane protrusions from one host cell to another (green). Burkholderia pseudomallei, a Gram-negative rod, straight or slightly curved, with bipolar staining The enemy within: How pathogens spread unrecognized in the body - Biozentrum Here's a conundrum for intelligent [sic] design creationists. Scientists working at Biozentrum, University of Basel, Switzerland with colleagues in the Department of Biochemistry, National University of Singapore, have discovered how the bacterium, Burkholderia pseudomallei that c ..read more

Ornate Bella moth, Utetheisa ornatrix. Photo: Andrei Sourakov. Ornate Bella moth, Utetheisa ornatrix Photo: Laura Gaudette via Wikimedia (CC BY 4.0) Bella moths use poison to attract mates. Scientists are closer to finding out how – Research News Imagine a man in your street who designs a brilliant defensive structure to put around your property to keep intruders out, and then invents a brilliant protective suit the intruder can wear so he or she can get through your defensive structure. He then designs an improvement in the defences that overcome the protection the suit provides, and ..read more