Biology

T for Textbooks

A new doc explores the Texas Board of Education's fight against science, history.

Amazing Spider-Man

The spider becomes a man and a joy.

The Amazing Spider-Man

The spider becomes a man - and a joy.

Prize Poets

Creationism Group Backs Out of Upcoming Textbook Battle

Filthy, stinking apes​The always entertaining State Board of Education is scheduled to take up biology textbooks this year, which usually means someone will be pushing to get a whole lot of creationism/intelligent design in there instead of actual science. One of the big boys in the creationi ... More >>

Female Teachers Sexing Students: The Seven Types Of Internet Commenters

Heather Merritt: The inevitable hittability debate ensues​Heather Dawn Merritt, a biology teacher in Paris, Texas, has been sentenced to three years for having sex with an underaged student. It's not exactly news these days, but such stories seem irresistible to the Web. And although the Pari ... More >>

M.D. Anderson Making Mice Babies WITHOUT MOTHERS. That's Gotta Be Gay, Right?

Who needs Mommy?​Researchers at M.D. Anderson have created mice from two fathers, the Wall Street Journal reports. That has to be the gayest thing we've heard since sing-along Project Runway. Which we actually haven't heard of, but we can dream, right? The scientists "first engineered a fema ... More >>

Brew Blog: Le Petit Saison Ale from Twisted Pine Brewing Co. of Boulder, Colorado

​Regular watchers of Brew Blog will know that we're big fans of Belgian beers. Now, given that it's such a small country, you'd be forgiven for assuming that Belgium has about five beers. But during a visit there a few years back, we were told that the country lays claim to 692 styles, a numbe ... More >>

Richard Dawkins In Houston: Taking On the 40 Percent

Trust me, I have a large number of leather-bound books.​It's hard to argue with Richard Dawkins. A zoologist, atheist and Charles Darwin's biggest supporter, he presents and proves controversial concepts with ease, and in such convincing fashion, that it really makes you second-guess the intellige ... More >>

“Roberto Del Rio: Bacilli Dreams”

The Mexican artist remembers his childhood through imagery

Brain Toniq

​Advertised as the "clean and intelligent think drink," Brain Toniq at first reminded me of those cure-all potions sold by itinerant quacks in the early nineteenth century. I spotted it on the shelves of a local health food store and, feeling a bit fuzzy-brained from reading too much Bruno LaT ... More >>

Brain Toniq

​Advertised as the "clean and intelligent think drink," Brain Toniq at first reminded me of those cure-all potions sold by itinerant quacks in the early nineteenth century. I spotted it on the shelves of a local health food store and, feeling a bit fuzzy-brained myself from reading too much Br ... More >>

Inherit the Wind

There's a little monkey business going on at Playhouse 1960

Random Ingredient: Dried Kelp

​What is it? Kelp is a type of brown seaweed used extensively in Asian cooking. This packaged, dried kelp is a Korean product known as dashima, but in Japan is known as kombu and in China hai dai. The actual seaweed, when rehydrated, is intensely slimy, and not surprisingly, smells like the be ... More >>

Game Time: At That Moment, Jerry....I Tell You, The Texans WERE A Playoff Team!

"So I started to walk into the water. I won't lie to you boys, I was terrified! But I pressed on and as I made my way past the breakers a strange calm came over me. I don't know if it was divine intervention or the kinship of all living things but I tell you Jerry at that moment I was a marine bio ... More >>

Aaron Elkins

Web exclusive

Three Nights of Family Films

Web exclusive

The Latest ACT Scores: Not Much Improvement In Texas

​The ACT scores are just out for the 2009 graduating seniors who took the tests as sophomores, juniors or seniors and it is not great news across the land, and certainly not in Texas. As far as biology goes, we're not exactly wowing the galaxy with our knowledge.And the ethnicity gap remains stark ... More >>

Jamie Freveletti: Running from the Devil

Web exclusive!

Capsule Stage Reviews: Antigone, Awake and Sing!, Rock 'N' Roll, The Third Side

Capsule Stage Reviews: Awake and Sing!, Antigone, Dangerous Corner, Rock 'N' Roll, The Third Side

Jurassic Jackpot: Massive Dinosaur Graveyards

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Calorie Restrictors Stay Hungry in Hopes of Living Longer

An SMU biologist searches to unlock the secrets to the fountain of youth

Paleontology Field Trip

Web exclusive!

Warren Hood

The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution

Web exclusive!

Sunday Sunday Sunday: Zechs Marquise at the Mink

A natural talent for psychedelia must be as common as Y chromosomes in the Rodriguez-Lopez family DNA. That gene pool has produced a trio of rockers - Omar, Marcel and Marfred - that has proved its mastery of the genre in more than one incarnation. The most notable, of course, is Omar, co-masterm ... More >>

Wild Winks Overnight

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Dino-Bone-Anza

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TAKS Test Made Slightly Less Non-Sensical, Teachers Say

Rice Biology Students: Making Beer Better

Hank III

Creationism and the Dumbing Down of Texas

Care to Dance, Dino?

Make Mine Moldy

Dharma Cafe

System Failure

Tropical Storm Allison destroyed houses that never quite got fixed, thanks to bureaucratic bungling and cheaters

Clay McClinton

Tuesday, September 20, at the Last Concert Cafe, 1403 Nance, 713-226-8563.

Wretched Excess

Sludge, spread across the land, makes some people vomit and others very rich

Bones of Contention

Scientists fear that Lucy might be a crack exhibit for Houston

Best Renovation Project

Liz Ward

Through January 4

Gary Stewart

Friday, November 29

Best Church for Atheists

Houston Church of Freethought

Friends Forever

Michael West and his benefactor clash over the first human clone

The Weed Eater

Prickly pears. Pepper grass. Cattail stems. It's all snack food to T.R. Zimmermann.

Miller's Crossing

Frozen, cloned or retooled, Miller Quarles plans to live forever. But time is running out.

Testing the Truth

How does a Rice grad go global with DNA analyses? It's all in the marketing.

Cloning for Cash

A&M's pet project spawns a company to mix DNA with possible IPOs

Weird Science

Richard Willett's Triptych,

Biological Disaster

Zonagen Inc. took its name from Bonnie Dunbar's groundbreaking research into contraceptive vaccines. Then, when she wasn't looking, the company took her research.