The OneGeology project aims to develop an internet-based map of our naked world - Earth stripped of flora and man-made additions to reveal its underlying geology. It looks as if New Zealand's GNS Science is involved so we may get to explore naked NZ. The launch, in Oslo, is imminent.

New species are always interesting. They've found a new micro snake in Barbados and possibly the world's ugliest dolphin off Western Australia.

Houseproud bees have stymied the fight agains the varroa mite. But Hortresearch scientists have an answer.

Rumours of life on Mars lack subtlety. apparently.

Booming Jellyfish populations could be a sign of coastal decline.

Life on Mars (which screens at 8.30pm on Mondays on TV One) is a great TV series. It's about a about a gentleman who falls asleep and wakes up in 1973 (the year David Bowie’s Life on Mars was released).

While the concept of taking a trip back to the early seventies is pure science fiction, the idea of life on the red planet is getting closer to reality, according to NASA. That doesn't mean Martians are about to be discovered, though: NASA is talking here about humans colonising the planet. The notion of finding indigenous life on the freezing, thin-atmosphered fourth stop from the sun is still in the realm of sci-fi.

The moon isn't waterless, either.

Neanderthals may have been quite chatty.

One of the biggest arguments against evolution continues to fall apart: how the eye evolves.

A third of coral species are in danger.

This article, on a project to sequence the cocoa genome, attracted my immediate attention. Anything that protects the supply of chocolate has my full support.

And, speaking of genomes, this article about how ours change during our lifetimes reminded me of a podcast I listened to recently.

The BBC's In Our Time show recently did a segment of the Soviet science charlatan Trofim Lysenko, who led the country down a weird path that denied emerging genetic science and Darwinian evolution. He basically argued that plants could inherited from their environments and therefore could be, in a manner, trained to grow in difficult conditions - that their capabilities are not determined by their DNA. What's interesting about this podcast is that it, in part, argues that he was not totally wrong.

More recent research has shown that the environment can affect your genome and that these effects can be passed on through generations. So, Lysenko was only 99% wrong.

In other news:

The centre for adventure is in your brain

Sit near the front of the plane

Now there's a hormone for it:
Shyness is nice, and
Shyness can stop you
From doing all the things in life
You'd like to
- The Smiths

The world's media explored every aspect of New Zealand's giant squid defrosting, and some of these angles are quite enlightening or amusing.

First up, Salon draws a vital distinction between a giant squid and a collosal squid. Then there was the famous calamari tasting (that's a Stuff link so it will probably break in about five minutes).

but my favourite squid story, and intro, wasn't from NZ at all, but from those competitive Canadians trying to cash in on our fame.

Nightmarish packs of rapacious giant devil squid are hunting off the B.C. coast -- and as their numbers increase, scientists are worrying about an attack on fish stocks.

Humboldt squid, called diablos rojos or red devils in Mexico, have been known to attack scuba divers, and were once a rarity in B.C. waters. But a changing ocean environment has brought them northward, and they may now be permanently establishing themselves off the B.C. coast.

Meanwhile, proving that science reporting is full of traps for the unwary or credulous, the "Pixie dust" story is debunked. Who carried it? The Times, The UK Telegraph, Australian ABC, BBC, News.com.au and, more fogiveably, The Sun - among others.

In other news:
Secrets of the Platypus revealed

New ideas in mortuary science

And our own PGG Wrightson is growing burpless gas - presumably it's fartless too, they're just too polite to say.

Here's a good round-up of the biofuels debate. There's been a lot on this recently and I've also read good things about Times' opinionated coverage "The clean energy scam", which I haven't read yet.

Mars is even weirder than we thought, with scientists suggesting climate has changed on the planet in relatively recent times.

The US military plans to grow spare body parts, while alligators could be our friends, as 'gator blood has antibiotic properties. That just goes to reinfoce this argument for protecting biodiversity.

So losing pollinators is bad news on several fronts:

Wild bee decline 'catastrophic'

UK butterflies need good summer

The annual Canadian seal hunt polarises opinions and raises many issues.

Whatever your view of the bloody spectacle, the fact that it is even taking place this year is interesting in one incidental way - thick ice has caused it to get off to a slow start.

That’s a change from last year, when the annual cull was affected by a lack of ice.

As the link to National Geographic above says, the absence of ice a year ago was ascribed by some to man-made global warming. The fact the ice had been thin for most of this decade bolstered that view.
What to make of the situation this year? It doesn’t mean global warming isn’t happening, but the return of the ice in the waters off Canada’s eastern coast is an interesting phenomenon.

Yes, you can. On eBay.

There's a pH shift going on in our oceans due to rising levels of atmospheric CO2. New data suggests the rate of glacier shrinkage appears to be increasing quickly. The sun's radiation may play only a minor, and decreasing, role in climate change. And, last in our global warming special, Rocky Mountain flowers are having trouble reproducing.

Okay, on to news reptilian:

Turtles are younger than you think

Alligators have clever lungs

You may recall the discovery of the "Hobbit" humans in indonesia a few years ago that set of an international science storm. The discovery was made by some Aussies and then the remains 'disappeared' in Indonesia for a while.

First the Hobbits were a news species of human, then they weren't and now they aren't again. Latest theory: iodine deficiency. It looks as if new, uncontaminated, samples will be needed and DNA tests to sort it out.

We heard recenrtly that short women often live longer, and so do some Ashkenazi Jews, prompting a bit of intense gene research.

Finally, we could have a home away from home.

in the words of the song, "Are just the same as you and I", except for short women, who may get to live longer. For the rest of us, this might help - a cancer fighting molecule.

That wouldn't have helped the Neanderthals if they had Mad Cows' disease due to cannibalism. Elsewhere, we may now know why there is a flu season and why flu viruses appear to like the cold.

And, scientists may be closer to understanding the origins of life, thanks to amino acids found in meteors.

that'll do for now, i have to get on with my incredibly fulfilling social life.

I've become a podcast fanatic and one of my favourites is Melvyn Bragg's In Our Time, from the BBC, which is also available on iTunes. One recent episode on plate tectonics made me sit up and pay attention.

It was about the emergence of the idea of continental plates and continental drift. One of the panelists mentioned the South Island plates. She said tension on these plates is now so great, the odds of a sudden movement are higher for, say, tomorrow than they are for the day after.

The plates under NZ are interesting as they swap roles from the North to the South Island. In the north, the Pacific plate is moving under the Australian plate while in the south it's the other way around. Twisted.

In Our Time offers an eclectic mix of science and culture, with each episode homing in on a single subject.

From "Plate Tectonics" and "The Multiverse" to "King Lear" and "Greek and Roman Love Poetry", the topics get outlined, analysed and pulled apart in about 40 minutes.

I'll post some other worthy science podcasts soon.