The Search For Hidden Dimensions

I'm so glad there are these clever people in the world. This is simply amazing.

Brian Greene explains how extra dimensions may solve several problems in physics, and gives his stance on the possibility of a "multi-verse".

To learn more about String Theory, watch Brian Greene's "The Elegant Universe" on NOVA

Can Monkeys Talk?

Robert Seyfarth describes how monkey calls used by Vervet Monkeys might be precursors to language.

To read more about language in monkeys (and chimps), see the NY Times article: "Deciphering the chatter of monkeys and chimps"

'World's biggest' forest protection deal for Canada

Timber companies and environment groups have unveiled an agreement aimed at protecting two-thirds of Canada's vast forests from unsustainable logging.

Over 72 million hectares are included in what will become the world's largest commercial forest conservation deal.

Logging will be totally banned on some of the land, in the hope of sustaining endangered caribou populations.

Timber companies hope the deal will bring commercial gains, as timber buyers seek higher ethical standards.

The total protected area is about twice the size of Germany, and equals the area of forest lost globally between 1990 and 2005.

"The importance of this agreement cannot be overstated," said Avrim Lazar, president and CEO of the Forest Products Association of Canada (FPAC).

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FACT: Darwin's theory of Universal Common Ancestry

More than 150 years ago, Darwin proposed the theory of universal common ancestry (UCA), linking all forms of life by a shared genetic heritage from single-celled microorganisms to humans. Until now, the theory that makes ladybugs, oak trees, champagne yeast and humans distant relatives has remained beyond the scope of a formal test. This week, a Brandeis biochemist reports in Nature the results of the first large scale, quantitative test of the famous theory that underpins modern evolutionary biology.

The results of the study confirm that Darwin had it right all along. In his 1859 book, On the Origin of Species, the British naturalist proposed that, "all the organic beings which have ever lived on this earth have descended from some one primordial form." Over the last century and a half, qualitative evidence for this theory has steadily grown, in the numerous, surprising transitional forms found in the fossil record, for example, and in the identification of sweeping fundamental biological similarities at the molecular level.

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