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cientists have been scratching their heads for some time on how echinoderms—ie, starfish, sea urchins, and other creatures with bodies split into five equal sections—evolved from the "bilaterally symmetric" body shapes, which feature two mirrored sides, that most other animals have. Adding to the confusion is that starfish begin life as larvae with twofold symmetry, then morph into their grown-up versions. Researchers found that genes switched on in the outermost layers of one particular type of starfish, known as Patiria miniata, matched genes in acorn worms and vertebrates that are activated in those creatures' heads. Thurston Lacalli of British Columbia's...

Palaeontologist Tim Ewin is standing in a quarry, recalling the calamity that's written in the rocks under his mud-caked boots.... ...The misfortune that struck this place 167 million years ago has delivered to him an extraordinary collection of fossil animals in what is unquestionably one of the most important Jurassic dig sites ever discovered in the UK.... ...The quantities involved are astonishing. Not hundreds, not thousands, but perhaps tens of thousands of these animals that scientists collectively call "the echinoderms". It's a great name, derived from the Greek for "hedgehog", or "spiny", "skin". What is a sea urchin, if not...

In the ongoing battle to nominate experienced, capable, and, dare we say, diverse candidates to the judiciary that will interpret the Constitution and not attempt to re-write it, the Bush administration and Republicans in the Senate have gone only half way to completing the process. Democrats led by Charles Schumer and Ted Kennedy blocked and filibustered the nomination of Miguel Estrada (an Hispanic American) over a 22 month span, to the point where he removed himself from the nomination. Now, a similar battle is looming for the nomination of Janice Rogers Brown (an African American). President Bush should be commended...