Free Republic

Fun with cutie-pie newts Uni & Ikura. Video, 4 minutes & 15 seconds

Amphibian's unique proteins cast doubt on existence of latent potential for regeneration. The ability of some animals to regenerate tissue is generally considered to be an ancient quality of all multicellular animals. A genetic analysis of newts, however, now suggests that it evolved much more recently. Tiny and delicate it may be, but the red spotted newt (Notophthalmus viridescens) has tissue-engineering skills that far surpass the most advanced biotechnology labs. The newt can regenerate lost tissue, including heart muscle, components of its central nervous system and even the lens of its eye. Doctors hope that this skill relies on a...

As I reported yesterday, at least a few former Reagan administration officials say that, in his campaign comments, Newt Gingrich has rewritten the history of his relationship with Ronald Reagan. Today, a number of counterbalancing voices say those officials — and not Gingrich – are the ones who are shading the facts. On Fox News, for example, Ed Rollins, Ronald Reagan’s national campaign manager, described Gingrich as one of “the most important players and most loyal to Ronald Reagan”:

The year-and-a-half-old ABC “scoop”, in which Newt Gingrich’s ex boasts her one interview could end her one time hubby’s political career, is more about the contemporary media than it is about a presidential candidate. The Daily Beast’s Howard Kurtz said a mouthful when he posited that Marianne Gingrich does not say anything in the new interview that she hasn’t said in the past.The Esquire already ran with the same story in September 2010, if anyone cares. Notice how quickly the story of another election-year smear has morphed over to WHEN ABC will air it.

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich was asked yesterday whether he would support a Muslim for president. His answer may have been one of the most important teaching moments of the long and difficult campaign season. Speaker Gingrich responding by saying it depends on whether the candidate was “a modern person who happens to worship Allah.” Or “a person who belonged to any kind of belief in sharia, any kind of effort to impose that on the rest of us.” He rightly concluded by saying that the former would not be a

NEW HAVEN, Vt. – The black salamander with yellow spots sat on the roadside in the dark, ready to make a go of it. But it was not on its own. It got help from an escort — one of 45 people who volunteered on a recent night to carry salamanders, frogs and newts across the road during their annual migration to mate. ... From rural Vermont to urban centers like Philadelphia, human escorts, called bucket brigades in some places, help amphibians make it to their mating areas without getting squashed by cars. It's part education, part conservation, and part...