Svend Auken

In memory of the Danish politician Svend Auken

Danish Racism

An Open Letter to Barack Obama:

On Danish Racism

by Jacob Holdt and Rune Engelbreth Larsen

http://www.panhumanism.com/letter_to_obama.php

I am a Dane, and I can confirm, that all the quotations in this video are translated correctly.

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update:
Minister: Danish People's Party in cabinet?

Arctic sea-ice

Large areas of the Arctic sea-ice are only one metre thick this year, equating to an approximate 50 percent thinning as compared to the year 2001. These are the initial results from the latest Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association lead expedition to the North Polar Sea.

more: PhysOrg

Evolution

Nadav Kashtan, Elad Noor and Prof. Uri Alon of the Institute’s Molecular Cell Biology and Physics of Complex Systems Departments create computer simulations that mimic natural evolution, allowing them to investigate processes that, in nature, take place over millions of years.

In these simulations, a population of digital genomes evolves over time towards a given goal: to maximize fitness under certain conditions. Like living organisms, genomes that are better adapted to their environment may survive to the next generation or reproduce more prolifically. But such computer simulations, though sophisticated, don’t yet have all the answers. Achieving even simple goals may take thousands of generations, raising the question of whether the three-or-so billion years since life first appeared on the planet is long enough to evolve the diversity and complexity that exist today,

Evolution takes place under changing environmental conditions, forcing organisms to continually readapt. Intuitively, this would slow things down even further, as successive generations must switch tack again and again in the struggle to survive. But when Kashtan, Noor and Alon created a simulation in which the goals changed repeatedly, they found that its evolution actually speeded up. They even found that the more complex the goal – i.e., the more generations needed reach it under fixed conditions – the faster evolution accelerated in response to changes in that goal.

more: PhysOrg

Basra

A US general has said the security situation in Basra has got worse because of a lack of British troops.

BBC News Player: Basra security 'gets worse'

Giant chimps in Africa

Deep in the Congolese jungle is a band of apes that, according to local legend, kill lions, catch fish and even howl at the moon. Local hunters speak of massive creatures that seem to be some sort of hybrid between a chimp and a gorilla.

Their location at the centre of one of the bloodiest conflicts on the planet, the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has meant that the mystery apes have been little studied by western scientists. Reaching the region means negotiating the shifting fortunes of warring rebel factions, and the heart of the animals' range is deep in impenetrable forest.

more: Guardian Unlimited

Biodiversity and economic inequality

An interdisciplinary team of McGill researchers has uncovered a connection between growing economic inequality and an increase in the number of plant and animal species that are threatened with extinction.

more: PhysOrg.com

The Pope

Indigenous leaders in Brazil are angry at Pope Benedict's comments on their predecessors' conversion to Christianity.

BBC News Player

The delusion confusion

Richard Dawkins insists we rid ourselves of superstitious notions to fulfil our human potential - but he fails to make an important distinction.

Interesting comment by Pete Tobias

Earth-like planet

Astronomers have found the most Earth-like planet outside our Solar System to date, one which could have water on its surface.

BBC News Player