A newborn bonobo is held by keeper Janet Hawes in the nursery at the San Diego Zoo. The baby was born April 22nd, but was neglected by his mother, so zookeepers are taking over his care. This birth is a pretty big deal, as bonobos are highly endangered, and only around 100 are in captivity [...]

Bad Choice, Another Perceptive Psychic Statement, Geniuses Due, and Boring Boring Boring…
Get all the juicy details in this week’s edition of Swift!

Scientific American has a pretty damning editorial up accusing the Bush administration of engaging in Lysenkoism, or bending the truths of science to match their ideological whims. It’s a serious accusation, particularly at a time when we’re facing some potentially mammoth crises that require rational scientific thinking and prompt action.
You know your president is screwing [...]

The Hubble Space Telescope celebrates its fourteenth anniversary this weekend as scientists scramble to find a way to keep the venerable craft alive. Engineers expect Hubble to fail in 2007 or 2008 unless it gets some critical repairs, and in January, NASA cancelled a final maintenance mission, saying it would put astronauts at unnecessary risk.
Space.com [...]

A ten-day old red bellied tamarin clutches a keeper’s finger at the zoo in Wittenberg, Germany. When he’s older, he’ll be around 10 inches long and weigh about a pound. These tamarins are native to a small swath of forest that crosses sections of Brazil, Peru, and Bolivia.

A monkey –looks like a Rhesus Macaque to me– holds the flag of India’s opposition Congress party at an election rally in Kathua, in the northern part of the country.
We’re at a bit of a loss to explain the recent surge in news photos of primate protesters, as well as people’s desire to use monkeys [...]

Our favorite hoax-busting, flame-eating, bullet-catching punk-rock magicians are celebrating their 30th anniversary as a team. And they’ve never been better.
Throughout their careers, Penn and Teller have educated as well as entertained, promoting rational thought and a skeptical view of the world. Their weekly Showtime series, Bullshit!, skewers bad science and paranormal nonsense while remaining [...]

A pair of twin baby golden monkeys were born this week at the Beijing Safari Park. Dabao, their 11-year-old mother, beat the odds with this delivery; the possibility of the birth of twin golden monkeys averages only one in 10,000, and this is first ever golden monkeys twins born in China.

That Remarkable Man, Does It Ever Work?, Claim a Refund, Those Were the Days, More Bullshit!, The Perfect Test, It Doesn’t Really Apply, Another Epiphany, John Edward Is Trembling, The FDA Takes a Timid Step into the 21st Century, Meier’s Evidence Found!, Really Bad News Via Sylvia, and A Junior Skeptic Chimes In

It’s springtime in China, and this monkey at the Beijing zoo is fighting off the heat with a nice popsicle.