My picks from ScienceDaily

World's Hottest Chile Pepper Discovered:

Researchers at New Mexico State University recently discovered the world's hottest chile pepper. Bhut Jolokia, a variety of chile pepper originating in Assam, India, has earned Guiness World Records' recognition as the world's hottest chile pepper by blasting past the previous champion Red Savina.

Decoding Effects Of Toxins On Embryo Development Apparent:

Changes in gene expression patterns in zebrafish embryos resulting from exposure to environmental toxins can identify the individual toxins at work, according to research published in the online open access journal Genome Biology. The genetic response of zebrafish to each toxin can be read like a barcode, offering researchers a potential method for identifying the effects of the toxin on developing vertebrate embryos.

'Nervous' Birds Take More Risks:

Scientists have shown that birds with higher stress levels adopt bolder behaviour than their normally more relaxed peers in stressful situations. A University of Exeter research team studied zebra finches, which had been selectively bred to produce three distinct types -- 'laid-back', 'normal' and 'stressed' -- based on their levels of stress hormone. The group was surprised to find that the 'stressed' birds were bolder and took more risks in a new environment than the group that was usually more laid-back.

More like this

This little devil gets a rating of over one million href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoville_scale" rel="tag">Scoville heat units.   It's the Bhut Jolokia (ghost chile), also called the href="http://www.fiery-foods.com/dave/sagajolokia.asp" rel="tag">Naga Jolokia.  According to…
I've href="http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/2007/08/it_wont_be_the_bhut_of_many_jo.php">written href="http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/2007/08/bhut_jolokia_update.php">before about the world's hotter chle pepper: the bhut jolokia, rated at over 1 million scoville units. ( href="…
src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_VbG-d6SeGuA/RePVVb_nxrI/AAAAAAAAAD8/6QbLROwzDEk/s400/anandita-tamuly-eats-bhut-jolokia.jpg" align="left" height="344" width="238"> face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">I had not seen this when I first posted about the href="http://spectre.nmsu.edu/dept/…
The NYTimes has a excellent summary of the progress in the study of evolution of development (evo-devo). Scientists have been surprised to discover over the years that a relatively small number of closely-related genes control the body plan of animal species, even when those species' body plans…