It has been 25 years since a team led by Allan Wilson extracted mitochondrial DNA from a museum specimen of the now-extinct quagga. On Science 's…
Read moreIn this week's issue of Science I report on a possible sighting of the oldest known woven fibers, from a cave in the Republic of Georgia (see p…
Read moreHave you been wondering why so many American rightwingers have gone ballistic over President Obama addressing the nation's schoolchildren and urg…
Read moreThe California Nurses Association has published a study showing the astronomically high claim rejection rate among the state's insurance compani…
Read moreIn this week's issue of Science , I write about an ancient DNA study ( also published in the journal) which concludes that farming was brought …
Read moreWhy was there such a long gap between when humans started looking anatomically modern--as early as 200,000 years ago--and when they started acting be…
Read moreThe peak on the right is Hasan Dağ, a volcano once important to the prehistoric peoples who lived in Central Anatolia for its high-quality obsidian. …
Read moreGreetings from Istanbul, on my way to visit the 9500 year old Neolithic (early farming) site of Çatalhöyük, which was the subject of my book "Th…
Read moreI've just returned from two weeks in England, and I can report that the British press is full of stories about the amazing lies being told in the…
Read moreThe Times reports today that Carolyn Maloney has decided not to challenge Kirsten Gillibrand in the Democratic primary for Hillary Clinton's fo…
Read moreThe view from Brantwood House, John Ruskin's home for 28 years, looking out over Coniston Water in the English Lake District. Photo: Michael Balt…
Read moreOn Science 's Origins blog, I write about a new study that might shed new light on the differences between chimp and human brains in a region cl…
Read moreToday on Science 's Origins blog, I write about an exhibit at the prehistory museum of the Pech-Merle Cave, in France's Lot Valley, that tra…
Read moreI'm going to put this as simply as I can: Americans will not have serious health care reform until there is a major mass movement behind it. Sinc…
Read moreFirst of all, for those who have never seen it, let's start off by watching one of the greatest, most brilliant, most successful, and most well d…
Read moreI wonder if it might not turn out to be a good thing in the end that Congress will not come up with a health care plan before its summer recess. Perh…
Read moreToday's New York Times reports that federal Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle has given the U.S. government until Friday to put up or shut up in the ca…
Read moreA few years ago one of my best friends, a single mother of two sons, was driving near her home in New York state when another woman ran a red light a…
Read moreI blogged sometime back about this thriller by my friend and colleague David Downie, and now it is out. Here is my Amazon review: "Okay, this bo…
Read moreI hate to be a spoilsport, but is anybody else as ready to scream as I am if I hear this phrase one more time? (Oh, the BBC just did it again--aaaaaa…
Read moreThe Israeli group Breaking the Silence today publishes the testimony of 26 Israeli soldiers deployed in Gaza. The BBC has details here , including t…
Read moreLast week I blogged my article in Science about the paleoartists who recreate hominins for museums and magazine covers; today, on Science 's Or…
Read morePhysicians for Human Rights Statement July 10, 2009 For Immediate Release Statement by Physicians for Human Rights in Response to Comments by…
Read moreToday's issue of Science features a four-page article by yours truly about the "paleoartists" who create lifelike, three-dimensional …
Read moreIf Karadzic really thought all these years that he had been promised immunity from war crimes prosecution in The Hague if he left politics, as he now…
Read moreLeonard Cohen is on the European stretch of his world tour , and of course Balter's Blog was on the scene when he played at Bercy in Paris last n…
Read moreI was down in the Lot Valley (southern France) the past few days, so lagging behind--as this blog often does--the 24 hour news cycle. But I have been…
Read moreA friend of mine in Los Angeles has just brought to my attention a scurrilous column published in the L.A. Weekly late last month, authored by Mich…
Read moreThis drawing accompanies an article in today's issue of Le Monde (dated 3 July) relating how employers in the U.S. are lowering salaries to dea…
Read moreA couple of days ago, Times science writer Gina Kolata, who was filling in for John Tierney on his blog TiernyLab, linked to a report by the organ…
Read moreThose old enough to remember the original "Saturday Night Live" show from the 1970s will remember this signature line from Franken. But you…
Read moreThat's the conclusion of the International Committee of the Red Cross in a new report released today . You can read a summary and download the pd…
Read moreThe Obama administration is considering issuing an executive order that would allow so-called "preventive detention" of terrorism suspects…
Read moreNewsweek science writer Sharon Begley pens an often wickedly funny critique of evolutionary psychology this week, and I blog about it briefly on Sc…
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