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Early cultures separated into tribes (something many countries still do) in order to keep themselves safe. But they needed to mix with other tribes as well–in order to spread their DNA around, as well as to make friends.

In the March 17th edition of the New York Times, Jeffrey P. Kahn writes: "These lifesaving social instincts didn’t’ readily lend themselves to exploration, artistic expression, romance, inventiveness and experimentation–the human drives that make for a vibrant civilization."

For that, Keller says, "We needed beer." It’s thought that beer brewing started 10,000 years ago.
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Scientists are trying to bring extinct species back from the dead. Will they recreate something dangerous?

In the March 19th edition of the New York Times, Gina Kolata quotes geneticist George Church as saying, "Maybe we can no longer delay death, but we can reverse it."

So far only one extinct species has been brought back: A goat-like creature that went extinct in 1999. In 2003, it was cloned from frozen cells, but it lived only a few minutes. Cloning needs an intact cell, which, in an extinct species, may not exist. If it works, the embryo must be implanted in a closely related species.
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In a world where water is running short, we need to find an affordable way to remove the salt from seawater. The UN reports that about 780 million people around the world do not have access to clean drinking water.

A defense contractor may have found a way to solve this problem without building expensive desalinization plants.

Officials and engineers at Lockheed Martin have invented a filter made of an incredibly thin sheet of graphene, a substance similar to the lead in pencils, with holes about a nanometer in size (a nanometer is a billionth of a meter) that allow water to pass through but block molecules of salt.
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Conservative billionaires used a secretive funding route to channel nearly 120 million dollars to more than 100 groups casting doubt about the science behind climate change. The funds, given out between 2002 and 2010, helped build a vast network of think tanks and activist groups working to a single purpose: to redefine climate change from neutral scientific fact to a highly polarizing "wedge issue" for hardcore conservatives.

The money was routed through two trusts, Donors Trust and the Donors Capital Fund, both operating out of the same town house in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington DC.
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