Battle of the bones Who is leading the charge for the repatriation of the bones of indigenous peoples? It often appears that the battle for the bones was launched by indigenous groups themselves. In the past, while white graves were deemed sacred, those of indigenous groups were often looted by collectors. Native peoples finally seem to be gaining the ability to determine the fate of their ancestors. Native representatives argue that their emotional and spiritual link to the bones outweighs the interests of science, and that repatriation means recognising some of the damage done to Native societies, and attempting to …
LRB | John Sutherland : The Fight for Eyeballs An early attempt to describe what Matt Drudge is doing as “blogging” but without that term. Neat turn of phrase here: The Drudge report takes the form of his latest ‘scoop’, accompanied by a gateway-link service to a hundred or so other proprietary news services and syndicated columnists. What most visitors do is click their Drudge bookmark, scan his text of the day, and then go off to their regular supplier. What the Drudge Report offers is ‘hot news, right on the edge’. With this hot news still tingling in your …
Other origins of life theories: A survey of the major theories Sulphur compounds: The chemical evolution leading to cellular life on earth almost four billion years ago likely passed through a stage where RNA alone performed all of the functions of the modern macromolecules RNA, DNA and protein. However the so-called RNA world was itself too complex to evolve directly from organic molecules found on the prebiotic earth. More likely, the RNA world emerged from and was supported by a primitive sort of metabolism fueled by the bonds in sulfur-containing compounds called thioesters. Watson-Crick pairs and RNA: Whether RNA arose …