DISCLAIMER: The following links do not necessarily represent endorsement by the Geoscience Research Institute, but are meant to provide information from a wide range of viewpoints and expertise on scientific issues, religious issues, and the interface between the two, particularly in the area of creation and evolution.

• What compels people to give their money away?

  July 10, 2012 New Scientist, n.2872, p.27

  meet Pamala Wiepking, who studies what makes philanthropists tick, and tells us why women, the elderly and the poor are more generous

• Hominins did not need boats to settle islands

  July 11, 2012 New Scientist, n.2873, p.15

  simulations suggest that relatively distant islands might have been settled by accidental castaways rather than by skilled mariners

• Growth of Earth's core may hint at magnetic reversal

  July 11, 2012 New Scientist, n.2873, p.14

  lopsided growth of the Earth's core could help predict when the planet's geomagnetic field will flip, leaving it exposed to dangerous solar winds

• Americas saw three waves of ancient settlers

  July 11, 2012 New Scientist, n.2873, p.12

  new DNA analysis backs up linguistic evidence that humans reached North America in three initial waves, not one

• Stephen Hawking trials device that reads his mind

  July 12, 2012 New Scientist, n.2873, p.4

  a device that recognises brain activity associated with imagined movements could ultimately let Hawking communicate by thought alone

• Peter Higgs: Boson discovery like being hit by a wave

  July 18, 2012 New Scientist, n.2874, p.28-29

  it has been a week to remember says the man who came up with the idea of the Higgs boson

• Earth's water piggy-backed on asteroids, not comets

  July 18, 2012 New Scientist, n.2874, p.17

  isotopes of hydrogen in meteorites hint that Earth's water did not come from far out in the solar system

• Was America first colonised by two cultures at once?

  July 18, 2012 New Scientist, n.2874, p.10

  tools and stools from a cave in Oregon suggest that there were two societies in America 14,000 years ago

• Are these the brain cells that give us consciousness?

  July 23, 2012 New Scientist, n.2874, p.32-35

  the brainiest creatures share a secret -- an odd kind of brain cell involved in emotions and empathy that may have accidentally made us conscious

• We are all susceptible to delusions

  July 24, 2012 New Scientist, n.2874, p.27

  in his new book, novelist and former psychologist Frank Tallis explores the psychology behind demonic possession

• Neanderthal dental tartar reveals evidence of medicine

  July 25, 2012 New Scientist, n.2875, p.14

  chemical residues trapped in ancient tartar suggests our extinct cousins had knowledge of medicinal plants

• Book

  Phi: A Voyage from the Brain to the Soul

  August 1, 2012 Pantheon

  see also Amazon

• Instant Expert: Fossils

  August 1, 2012 Pat Shipman

• The tales they tell

  palaeontologists can decipher how ancient organisms lived and interacted using taphonomy, the study of how fossils

• Meteorite's left-handed acids are a blow to ET search

  August 1, 2012 New Scientist, n.2876, p.17

  "left-handed" molecules on asteroids might not be a sign of extraterrestrial life after all, complicating the hunt for aliens

• Lost world of dinosaurs threatened by gas industry

  August 1, 2012 New Scientist, n.2876, p.8-9

  the site of 130-million-year-old dinosaur footprints will be lost if plans to build the world's largest liquefied natural gas plant in Australia go ahead

• The price of preserving fossils for the future

  August 1, 2012 New Scientist, n.2876, p.3

  fossils are an invaluable record of the past and source of knowledge -- and our understanding of them is still evolving

• Ghosts in the atom: Unmasking the quantum phantom

  August 2, 2012 New Scientist, n.2875, p.28-31

  the wave function of quantum theory has always been accepted as an abstract mathematical device -- but could this cipher actually be real

• An appeal for fairness in society

  August 2, 2012 New Scientist, n.2875, p.3

  to tackle inequality we must first overcome our own biased belief that people deserve their position on the social ladder

• Chimeric birds could explain how brains get big

  August 8, 2012 New Scientist, n.2877, p.12

  zebra finch brains develop differently if they are transplanted into the bodies of quail, suggesting that brain size is controlled externally

• Brain might not stand in the way of free will

  August 8, 2012 New Scientist, n.2877, p.10

  a classic experiment that suggests the brain is aware of our urge to act spontaneously before we are might have been misinterpreted

• Curiosity might prove we've already found life on Mars

  August 8, 2012 New Scientist, n.2877, p.9

  if the Mars Science Laboratory rover finds organic molecules in the soil, Viking's refuted discovery of microbial life will need to be reviewed

• Higgs certainty boosted by more complete analysis

  August 8, 2012 New Scientist, n.2877, p.5

  The Higgs boson signal in July was certain enough to be classed as a discovery. Now its statistical significance has risen further.

• Plume power: Deep engines of earthquakes and volcanoes

  August 15, 2012 New Scientist, n.2878, p.38-41

  Plate tectonics can't explain all the earthquakes, volcanoes and landscapes of Earth, so what else is shaping its surface?

• Questions over human and Neanderthal interbreeding

  August 15, 2012 New Scientist, n.2878, p.12

  the genes that many humans share in common with Neanderthals do not reflect interspecies breeding

• Stone Age skull-smashers spark a cultural mystery

  August 16, 2012 New Scientist, n.2878, p.10

  A cache of Neolithic skulls unearthed in Syria had been exhumed, separated from their bodies, had their faces smashed in and been reburied. But why?

• They never forget: The strange gift of perfect memory

  August 20, 2012 New Scientist, n.2878, p.34-37

  Some people can recall what happened on almost every day of their lives. Unlocking their secrets could shed light on the way all our memories work.

• Book

  Prize Fight: The Race and the Rivalry to be the First in Science

  October 1, 2012 Palgrave Macmillan

  an examination of the battles behind the prestige of top awards; see also Table of Contents (pdf) and Book

  Reports of the National Center for Science Education

  October 1, 2012 v.32, n.3

• Triumph of the Titans: How Sauropods Flourished

  April 30, 2012 Scientific American

  the long-necked dinosaurs known as sauropods, once seen as icons of extinction, thrived for millions of years all around the world

• Antimatter-Powered Supernovae

  May 29, 2012 Scientific American

  the largest stars die in explosions more powerful than anyone thought possible--some triggered in part by the production of antimatter

• The Right Way to Get It Wrong

  May 29, 2012 Scientific American

  Most errors are quickly forgotten. Others end up remaking the face of science.

• Book

  Homo Mysterious: Evolutionary Puzzles of Human Nature

  June 1, 2012 Oxford University Press

  see also Amazon

• How Critical Thinkers Lose Their Faith in God

  June 1, 2012 Daisy Grewal Scientific American

  faith and intuition are intimately related

• Why We Help: The Evolution of Cooperation

  June 19, 2012 Scientific American

  far from being a nagging exception to the rule of evolution, cooperation has been one of its primary architects

• Rats Laugh, but Not Like Humans

  June 22, 2012 Scientific American

  Do animals other than humans have a sense of humor? Maybe so

• What Happens to Consciousness When We Die

  June 27, 2012 Scientific American

  the death of the brain means subjective experiences are neurochemistry

• Book

  When Can You Trust the Experts?: How to Tell Good Science from Bad in Education

  July 1, 2012 Wiley (Jossey-Bass)

  see also Amazon

• Why Extramarital Sex Can Kill

  July 2, 2012 Scientific American

  affairs increase the risk of sudden death, with distressing guilt potentially playing a role in cardiovascular disease

• Ancient DNA Research Revolutionizes Scientists’ Understanding of Extinct Animals

  July 20, 2012 Scientific American

  biotechnology reveals how the woolly mammoth survived the cold and other mysteries of extinct creatures

• Planetary science: The time machine

  July 25, 2012 Nature News & Comment

  Dating features on the Moon and Mars is guesswork. Scott Anderson is building a tool to change that.

• How Free Will Collides with Unconscious Impulses

  July 26, 2012 Scientific American

  volition as self-control exerts veto power over impulses

• News Update/Commentary

  Dutchman builds replica Noah's Ark after flood dream

  July 30, 2012 Tim Hume CNN

• Book

  Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False

  August 1, 2012 Oxford University Press

  see also Amazon

• Evidence of very rapid reef accretion and reef growth under high turbidity and terrigenous sedimentation

  August 1, 2012 C. T. Perry, S. G. Smithers, P. Gulliver, and N. K. Browne Geology, v.40, n.8, p.719-722

• In a Fly's Eye: My, Oh My, What Evolution -- er, Design

  August 10, 2012 Evolution News & Views

• Unguided or Not? How Do Darwinian Evolutionists Define Their Theory?

  August 11, 2012 Casey Luskin Evolution News & Views

• A Big Bang Theory of Homo

  August 13, 2012 Casey Luskin Evolution News & Views

• News Update/Commentary

  Aliens in the oceans -- searching for life on the moons of Jupiter

  August 14, 2012 Kevin Peter Hand CNN

• Missouri 'Right to Pray' Law Could Limit Teaching Evolution

  August 14, 2012 Krystnell A. Storr Science Insider

• Paper Rebuffs Assumption that Pseudogenes Are Genetic "Junk," Claims Function Is "Widespread"

  August 14, 2012 Casey Luskin Evolution News & Views