Comment: Putting evolutionary theory into practice

Evolution makes sense of life on Earth, but it can be put to practical use too – a new journal aims to promote the science of “applied evolution”

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Shine: Yahoo Unveils Content Portal For Women

“Yahoo unwraps a content-portal targeting women, a step away from sales niches (travel, finance, autos) and concentrating on a social demographic.”

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Our New Look

You will have hopefully already noticed that the BBC Sport website has a new look. I explained in a previous post why we felt we needed to make some changes – and I also promised I’d come back onto the blog to run through in more detail what we’ve done.

The first point to make is that this ‘site refresh’ is being carried out in conjunction with our sister service, BBC News. A quick flick between the News and Sport homepages will soon highlight the fact that, although the two sites have much in common, there are also some fundamental differences in style. Steve Herrmann, the editor of the News site has outlined what the changes mean for News on The Editors’ Blog.

The second key point is that this is not a one-off relaunch. It is the first phase of a work-in-progress, and one that is based on the foundations of extensive audience research. There will be more improvements to come as we build up to what promises to be a superb summer of sporting action.

Read more and comment at the BBC Sport Editors Blog.

Ben Gallop is the Head of BBC Sport Interactive.

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Bad Science Journalism Gets Schooled

TaeKwonDood writes “Biology post-doc Dr. Michael White takes a look at the ‘2007 Best American Science and Nature Writing’ and doesn’t like what he finds in an article called Bad Science Journalism and the Myth of the Oppressed Underdog. Turns out it’s not just political writers who pick a position they want to advocate and then write stories to confirm it. Science journalism gets a scolding and it’s been a long time coming.”Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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NVIDIA Performance On Linux, Solaris, & Vista

AtomBOB suggests a Phoronix review comparing the performance of a Quadro graphics card on Windows Vista Ultimate, Solaris Express Developer, and Ubuntu Linux. The graphics card used was a NVIDIA Quadro FX 1700 mid-range workstation part. The cross-platform benchmark used was SPECViewPerf 9.0 from SPEC. Quoting Phoronix: “Using the Quadro FX1700 512MB and the latest display drivers, Windows Vista wasn’t the decisive winner, but the loser… Ubuntu 8.04 Alpha 5 with the 169.12 driver had overall produced the fastest results within SPECViewPerf. In only three benchmarks had Solaris Express Developer 1/08 outpaced Ubuntu Linux, but with two of these tests the results were almost identical.”"Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Darwin was wrong about (chicken) evolution

The textbook wisdom about the wild origins of the 860 million chickens eaten each year in Britain is overturned today, writes Roger Highfield.

Original post by InfoWorld RSS Feed

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Newswire: ATLAS completes world’s largest jigsaw puzzle

Today the ATLAS collaboration at CERN celebrates the lowering of its last large detector element. The ATLAS detector is the world’s largest general-purpose particle detector, measuring 46 metres long, 25 metres high and 25 metres wide it weighs 7000 tonnes and consists of 100 million sensors that measure particles produced in proton-proton collisions in CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The first piece of ATLAS was installed in 2003 and since then many detector elements have journeyed down the 100 metre shaft into the ATLAS underground cavern. This last piece completes this gigantic puzzle.

Original post by Interactions Webmaster

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Space Sentinels: new ‘tools’ in space to improve European environment and security policies

ESA PR 12-2008. ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain and European Commission Director General for Enterprise & Industry Heinz Zourek today signed in Brussels an agreement which establishes the allocation of an EC budget of €624 million to ESA as a contribution to the implementation of the GMES Space Component (GSC).

Original post by Interactions Webmaster

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Jules Verne ATV atop launcher

Jules Verne, the first Automated Transfer Vehicle, has been encapsulated in its huge fairing on top of the Ariane 5 launcher. With a total mass of about 19 360 kg, Jules Verne is the largest payload ever launched by Ariane 5. This historical mission with the first European space supplier for the ISS is scheduled for a night-time launch on 8 March at 04:23 UT.

Original post by Interactions Webmaster

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Babies faces ‘make us want to care for them’

Humans are hard-wired to care for babies, scientists say.

Original post by InfoWorld RSS Feed

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