Are Helping and Cooperation Innate?
The somewhat surprising answer at which some biologists have arrived is that babies are innately sociable and helpful to others. Of course every animal must to some extent be selfish to survive. But the biologists also see in humans a natural willingness to help. (Nicholas Wade, The New York Times)

Many Americans See Obama as Friendly Toward Religion
President Obama’s administration is seen as more friendly toward religion than the Democratic Party as a whole, a new Pew poll has found. Thirty-seven percent of Americans said they view Obama as religion-friendly, while only 29 percent said they see the Democratic Party that way, according to the poll. (Kate Linthicum, Los Angeles Times)

The Drama of Life and Evolution
John Haught: I propose that religious thought can make significant contact with Darwin’s science if instead of focusing on design it turns its attention to the drama of life. The typically design-obsessed frame of mind through which so many devout theists, as well as staunch atheists, are looking at the question of God and evolution is a dead end both scientifically and theologically. (Georgetown/On Faith, Newsweek/The Washington Post)

The Case of Rifqa Bary
A runaway Christian convert and her Muslim family must listen to each other’s views about religion if they are to reunite, a possibility that appears in jeopardy since the girl continues to refuse any contact with her parents or siblings, a caseworker says. (Andrew Welsh-Huggins, Associated Press)

EXHIBIT
Traces
Brian Knep, an artist-in-residence at Harvard Medical School, is exhibiting digital prints and videos of colonies of Caenorhabditis elegans, a transparent worm that has about a thousand cells. Using a technology that makes silicone chips, Knep creates tiny mazes and other forms for the worms to interact with. Offering the worms choices about where to go, he raises questions about free will, individuality, community, and even life and death. (Cate McQuaid, The Boston Globe)