It's February and I haven't checked in this year until now. Sorry! Here's the beginning of a piece of mine in Monday's North County Times about the meaning of Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution by natural selection.



ESSAY: Darwin's 200th birthday worth celebrating

Englishman brought biology into the full light of science



By BRADLEY J. FIKES - Staff Writer



Next week, scientists around the world will mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of… Continue

UCSD researcher Bing Ren has been granted $16.6 million from the National Institutes of Health to study how human genes are activated or inactivated.

The five-year grant supports research at the San Diego Epigenome Center, located at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at UCSD. The center is studying changes in gene function unrelated to changes in a gene's DNA sequence, with the goal of gaining new insights into diseases.

The complete set of these epigenetic changes is called… Continue

Connect is gratified: Nearly 800 people showed up Friday for its Most Innovative New Products Awards on Friday. That's a sign that interest in innovation -- and supporting Connect -- hasn't waned despited the recession.



The list of winners is here.



Connect is a remarkable organization that now appears to be in its second life. The first, long-timers will remember, was under the direction of its late… Continue

Science reporters are the intermediary between the experts and the general public. In most cases, our task is clear: Learn what the experts say about a particular topic or discovery and accurately explain it to the public in plain English.



But that mission becomes a lot more tricky when the experts themselves disagree on an issue. We're then faced with the difficult job of umpire -- and umpires at least are trained experts in baseball. Science reporters are not, cannot, be experts in… Continue

Genes involved in embryonic heart development are also integral to adult heart function, according to a study led by Rolf Bodmer of the Burnham Institute for Medical Research.



The findings in humans and the fruit fly Drosophila point the way toward using fruit fly genetics to shed light on human heart disease, according to the study, published in Proceedings of National Academy of… Continue