Here are links to other studies, with tidbits to whet your appetite:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060120/hl_nm/birdflu_alaska_dc_2
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Alaska, the resting spot for many migratory birds from Asia, will be the target of expanded tests to detect whether bird flu has reached North America, a government official said on Thursday.
Alaska is considered North America's most likely point of entry for the deadly H5N1 avian influenza, because it stands at a crossroads of wild waterfowl and shorebird migration to and from Asia.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/19/AR2006011900484.html?referrer=email
Mission to Retrieve Comet Samples Is Proclaimed a Success
By Guy Gugliotta
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 20, 2006; Page A07
Exultant scientists said yesterday that NASA's seven-year voyage to collect dust from a comet and bring it home had ended in complete success, with perhaps 1 million of the primordial particles gently entrapped in collection trays filled with gossamer spun glass.
"We thought maybe the collectors wouldn't open properly, or maybe they would be covered with gunk from the spacecraft," said NASA's Michael E. Zolensky, curator of the samples now ensconced at Houston's Johnson Space Center. "But we opened the tray, and everything went exactly right. It's fabulous."
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-01/nsf-icf011906.php
Increased competition for pollen may lead to plant extinctions
Loss of birds, bees and other pollinators places plants at risk
The decline of birds, bees and other pollinators in the world's most diverse ecosystems may be putting plants in those areas at risk, according to new research. The finding raises concern that more may have to be done to protect Earth's most biologically rich areas, scientists say in an article appearing in the Jan. 17 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
The analysis shows that ecosystems with the largest number of different species, including the jungles of South America and Southeast Asia and the rich shrubland of South Africa, have bigger deficits in pollination compared to the less-diverse ecosystems of North America, Europe and Australia.
"The global pattern we observed suggests that plants in species-rich regions exhibit a greater reduction in fruit production due to insufficient pollination than plant species in regions of lower biodiversity," said Susan Mazer, a co-author of the article and a biologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She and her colleagues believe such biodiversity "hotspots" are characterized by stronger competition among plant species for pollinators, such that many plant species simply don't receive enough pollen to achieve maximum fruit and seed production.
"Many plants rely on insects and other pollen vectors to reproduce," said Jana Vamosi, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Calgary and co-author of the paper. "We've found that in areas where there is a lot of competition between individuals and between species, many plants aren't getting enough pollen to successfully reproduce. If plants can't survive, neither can animals. These biodiversity hotspots are important because they are where we most often find new sources of drugs and other important substances. They are also the areas where habitat is being destroyed the fastest."
The study analyzes 482 field experiments on 241 flowering plant species conducted since 1981. The research took several years to complete; all continents except Antarctica are represented.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=36305&nfid=rssfeeds
Study Finds Evolution Doesn't Always Favor Bigger Animals
Category: Biology/Biochemistry News
Article Date: 19 Jan 2006 - 4am (UK)
Biologists have long believed that bigger is better when it comes to body size, since many lineages of animals, from horses to dinosaurs, have evolved into larger species over time.
But a study published this week by two biologists at the University of California, San Diego in an early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that maxim, known as "Cope's Rule," may be only partly true.
The scientists found that populations of tiny crustaceans retrieved from deep-sea sediments over the past 40 million years grew bigger and evolved into larger species, as might be predicted from Cope's Rule. However, the changes in the sizes of these clam-like crustaceans commonly known as ostracodes --from the genus Poseidonamicus -- increased only when the global ocean temperature cooled. When temperatures remained stable, not much happened to body size.
"These data show a very nice correlation between temperature and body size," said Kaustuv Roy, a professor of biology at UCSD and a coauthor of the paper.
I had posted a photo of a newborn monkey who's mom had died during childbirth, then mentioned the breed of monkey used for unnecessary animal experimentation. 
