Leslie Orgel - October 31, 2007
Leslie Orgel, head of the Chemical Evolution Laboratory at the Salk Institute, has died. Orgel pioneered the theory that RNA preceded DNA as a replicating molecule. At the time of his death his work was focused on searching for a precursor to RNA
He was also one of the first to suggest that life on Earth might have been seeded by extraterrestrials. His name is attached to Orgel’s rules:
“Whenever a spontaneous process is too slow or too inefficient a protein will evolve to speed it up or make it more efficient.”
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“Evolution is cleverer than you are.”
LA Times obituary
Salk Institute statement
The Scientist obituary
Wooooooooh. It’s Halloween!
It’s a good day for tiger news, less good for the tigers themselves. Here’s the run down...
Following the news that a vital joint on one of its solar power arrays appears to be gently tearing itself apart, a rip has been found in a new panel being installed on the international space station. This leaves just one set of panels problem free on the power hungry station (
The internal organs of a 53 million year old spider have been imaged by researchers from Belgium and the UK. After being trapped in amber the spider fell into the clutches of David Penney from Manchester University, who subjected it to ‘Very High Resolution X-Ray Computed Tomography’.
Coverage of this really quite cool story has been hampered by the fact that Penney is now in the African jungle for an indefinite period and therefore unable to get to a phone (stories have made it on to the 
Organic food advocates have been celebrating today after a major new study appeared to show their choice is better than non-organic food. Previously there has been little or no evidence that pricier organic options had any health benefits for consumers. Now a 
SEE ALSO – 
Full fathom five thy father lies;
Scientists have created ‘lesbian worms’ in a new development that some are suggesting could shed light on the nature vs nurture debate over sexuality, according to a number of licentious news sources (
Some people have a gift for the arresting figure: exhibit a) the report from international conservation experts which points out that every member of the 25 most endangered primate species on the planet could fit into a single football stadium (though they don’t let on as to whether you need a superdome or just a set of high school bleachers). Exhibit b) is the UN’s latest environmental audit, which reveals that the most numerous primate may be degrading its environment past the point where recovery is possible. 
In an interplanetary attempt to keep up with the Joneses, Saturn has, with the help of some University of Colorado astronomers, revealed more moonlets in its rings. 
Climate change could cause a mass extinction in the near future, UK scientists are warning. Their research found global biodiversity was relatively low during warm greenhouse periods and that in these periods extinctions have been relatively high. Of five previous mass extinctions, four correlated with increased temperatures.
Why bother exercising when you can just stand on a vibrating platform? This is potentially the question raised by a paper published this week in 
The UK government’s chief scientist stands accused of allowing political expediency to overrule good science after recommending the culling of badgers (
California has finally got bored of waiting for permission to enforce higher environmental standards on car manufacturers. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is now moving to sue the Environmental Protection Agency, who have to issue a waiver to national laws so he can limit greenhouse gas emissions from new cars. This is getting massive play in the local press (for example: 
Fishermen may have been rejoicing last week to see headlines proclaiming a ‘slight recovery’ for cod stocks in the North Sea (
An environmentally friendly version of wacky races has kicked off in Australia, as 38 solar powered cars speed across the continent. The World Solar Challenge set off at the weekend, with teams competing to complete the 3,000 kilometres between Darwin in the north and Adelaide in the south (
The latest victim of climate change is apparently emerging in Vermont – the colour of Autumn. Warmer temperatures are preventing “New England’s richest colours” from coming forth, according to a widely syndicated 
Cracks in the Space Shuttle’s heat shield appear to be worrying some NASA staff ahead of tomorrow’s launch. Engineers at the space agency have been overruled by managers according to various news outlets. The NASA Engineering and Safety Center said the launch should be put back to December so at least three heat-resistant panels on the leading edge of the craft’s wings can be replaced, according to the 
DNA pioneer James Watson has been busily lighting fires while touring to promote his latest book. So far he had ignited conflagrations over race, sex, and fellow scientists, to name but a few.
Even when we know the truth, gossip still seems to influence us, according to a study in PNAS. Researchers from Germany and Austria set students a game in which they had choose whether or not to pass money between each other. To do this they were given true information on other players’ past ‘gifts’ but also gossip on their generosity or lack of it. Crucially, some of this gossip was fake.
Chimpanzees have been exposed as big cry-babies by researchers from Scotland. When chimps are attacked they scream based on the severity of the attack. However Katie Slocombe and Klaus Zuberbuhler found that some of the sneaky animals lie about how bad the attacks actually are.
See also: 
Authorities in Florida are finally banning the burying alive of cute burrowing tortoises. State officials have previously granted permits to builders, allowing them to build over the burrows of gopher tortoises and callously ‘entomb’ them under concrete in their extensive lairs. No more! The state is no longer issuing permits allowing ‘entombment’ (
Our brains respond faster to fear than to smiles, according to researchers in the United States. David Zald and colleagues found if they slowed down facial recognition, there was a noticeable difference in the time it took to perceive happy faces and the time it took to perceive scared faces. This probably all evolved as a ‘threat radar’ millions of years ago (see for example the 
The International Space Station’s new crew arrived on Friday aboard a Russian Soyuz spaceship (
Reproducing asexually means losing much of the ability to adapt to environmental changes that comes from combining the genes of two parents. So it had been thought that asexual animals would be disadvantaged over serious timescales. However the hard-to pronounce bdelloid rotifer has been around for 80 million years and Cambridge scientists say that its sex-free life is part of its robustness (
Lightning, ammonia clouds, volcanic moons – there’s enough to see at Jupiter that you’d think a long stay was called for, not a flying visit. However a flying visit was all that was on the cards for NASA’s New Horizons probe as it used the planet’s gravity to throw itself off towards its ultimate destination, Pluto and ithe icy wastes beyond. Still, the brief encounter was worth it, according to those involved.
If there is anyone out there astronomers are one step closer to finding them. A new array of 42 radio dishes designed to search for ETs has been unveiled. Eventually the Allen Telescope Array will boast a whopping 350 dishes.
Schools in the UK should be allowed to show 
An ultra-rare T. Rex footprint may have been found in the Badlands of Montana. Phil Manning, from the Manchester Museum, University of Manchester, claims a metre-square track he found in rocks called the Hell Creek Formation was left by that most iconic of dinosaurs around 65 million years ago. “It could only be made by one of the two species known from Hell Creek - either the Nanotyrannus or its bigger relative, Tyrannosaurus rex. The size of the footprint at 76cm in length suggests it is more likely to be the latter,” he told a 
The strange and slightly disturbing symbiotic relationship between ants and aphids has been made even more unsettling by a new discovery. It has previously been shown that the ants – which ‘milk’ the aphids for a sugary liquid – will chew off and chemically retard development of aphid wings to keep them nearby. Now it seems that they also dope them up so even if they try to run away they don’t get far (
OK, I was hoping the 
You might think a 10 ton elephant wouldn’t give a second thought to a tiny bee. You’d be wrong. To the glee of headline writers, researchers from Kenya and the UK have found that playing the sound of angry bees to African elephants makes them scarper, and fast.
Those who enjoyed Nature’s recent feature on the 
Last week saw the welcome return of the Ig Nobels – the annual prizes for silly sounding, salacious or just plain strange science. The 
Every day is something’s day. However the Great Beyond cannot resist noting that today is the unofficial 
According to some journalists who must have been particularly bored “scientists” have invented a new currency for “inter-planetary travelers” (
Like an uncouth lothario, plants have been found to attract pollinating insects with perfume and then kick them out when they’ve had their way with them (
Intact rock samples pulled from two miles below the surface of the San Andreas Fault could answer fundamental questions about the zone. “Now we can hold the San Andreas Fault in our hands. We know what it's made of. We can study how it works,” said Mark Zoback of Stanford, one of the principal investigators on the 
From our Washington office...
They may not be as cute as koala, as iconic as kangaroos, or as just-plain-weird as the platypus but Australia would still be a poorer place without the 
A “monster” dinosaur has been unveiled by Utah scientists. However, although its duck bill contained 300 teeth ready to chew and another 500 in reserve, Gryposaurus monumentensis was a confirmed herbivore (
What better way to mark Sputnik’s 50th birthday than to warn of a new space arms race? “We do not want to fight in space, but on the other hand, we will not allow any other country to [be the] boss in space,” Colonel-General Vladimir Popovkin, Russia’s Space Forces Commander, apparently said (
You can say “public was never at risk” till the cows come home, but if labs handling “the world’s deadliest germs and toxins” have suffered over 100 accidents and losses since 2003 people are going to worry. An investigation by the 
Call me old fashioned, but I’ve always thought live rock music should involve feedback, distortion, frequent changes of guitar and the opportunity for witty stage banter provided by the need for the lead guitarist to tune up. Not so axe manufacturer Gibson. Fresh from inventing a 
This year's record lows in arctic sea ice have been matched by record highs in media coverage of things arctic. Records for ice area have been 
Over a thousand unwanted subway cars are being dumped into the ocean in the United States. But worry not environmentalists; these are going to form artificial reefs. Over at 