Science Briefs: Darwin Bobbleheads, Pluto Saved, And Princess Leia as Hot Slave Babe

Darwin
Scientists from the United States, Belgium and France identified 49 “human accelerated regions” which show a lot of genetic activity and are believe to possibly be “the missing links of human genetic evolution.” If this convinces you that Darwin was right, you can now order your very own Darwin Bobble Head here.

Pluto has been saved. After discussion to remove Pluto’s status as a planet, the International Astronomical Union decided instead to maintain Pluto’s status but add three more planets. The Boston Globe summarizes the decision. The three new planets are Ceres, currently considered a large asteroid, Charon, now considered a moon of Pluto, and Xena, a recently discovered object that is larger than Pluto. There is no mention as to whether any of these new planets have internet access or WMD.

Several blogs have followed the lead of Bitch Ph.D. and are questioning if the scenes of Princess Leia as a slave are the reason so fewer women than men went into science and engineering.

If there is any validity to this argument, the harm may have been done well before Star Wars:

2 Comments

  1. 1
    kj says:

    LOL JBK and I both salute Dr. Ron for his awesome (and may I add, inspiring) reporting of the news of science. Off to order the Darwin bobblehead. @;-)

    (And I’m not moving to Xena unless someone finds WMD.)

  2. 2
    No Nym says:

    Arguably, Xena (the show) wouldn’t have been such a big hit if Leia et al. had not been so subservient. QED.

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