Speaking of Science

The powedery impression left by what was probably a young tawny owl on the window of Sally Arnold's Cumbrian home in the UK. The bird apparently flew away unharmed.RSPB / SALLY ARNOLD

—Val Osborne, head of the UK’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds wildlife inquiries team (BBC News, July 11, 2001)

—Biomolecular engineer David Deamer, in the introduction to his new book,First Life: Discovering the Connections between Stars, Cells, and How Life Began

—Biologist Gerald F. Joyce, quoted in a New York Times article about his work creating molecules that can evolve (July 27, 2011)

—Science writer Chris Mooney, in his article “The Science of Why We Don’t Believe Science” (Mother Jones, May/June 2011)

—Oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee, in a New York Times opinion piece on the challenge of patrolling the world for carcinogenic substances (July 17, 2011)

—Former BMJ editor Richard Smith, writing on the journal’s blog about scientific journals going the way of newspapers ...