Anniversary of the Scopes Trial
Exactly 85 years ago today, a Dayton, Tennessee, schoolteacher named John C. Scopes went on trial, accused of violating a state law prohibiting the teaching of the theory of evolution. (Charles Cooper, Tech Talk, CBS News)

Faith Leaders Tour the Gulf Oil Spill Zone
On board the boats were a dozen high-profile American religious leaders, representing the Christian, Jewish, and Islamic faiths. Their mission: to see firsthand the devastation wrought by the spilled BP oil to the marshlands of Barataria Bay, just west of Port Sulphur, Louisiana. (Tristan Smith, Belief Blog, CNN)

New Mechanism for Evolution?
Fruit flies across North America are evolving at breakneck pace—and it has nothing to do with their genes. Instead they’ve acquired a bacterial infection that protects against the sterilizing ravages of a common parasite. The infection’s spread is much like the spread of a genetic mutation, only much faster. (Brandon Keim, Wired Science, Wired.com)

GodBlock
“GodBlock is a Web filter that blocks religious content,” says the download page. “It is targeted at parents and schools who wish to protect their kids from the often violent, sexual, and psychologically harmful material in many holy texts, and from being indoctrinated into any religion before they are of the age to make such decisions.” GodBlock, of course, may turn out to be a well-executed hoax. (Helen Popkin, Technotica, msnbc.com)

“Peak Shift”
Ever wonder why you find some minimalist or abstract art so appealing? There could be some science to it. (Niraj Chokshi, The Atlantic)

Czechs’ Magical Thinking
Even though church attendance is low (as many as 81 percent of Czechs feel religion was not important), Czechs are reaching beyond the material world and practicing forms of religion outside of the monotheist traditions. (Julia Belluz, Maclean’s)

Q&A
Francis Collins
KCUR’s Elana Gordon caught up with Francis Collins to discuss how science has been impacted by an increased knowledge of the human genome since it was first sequenced a decade ago.