Links for Jan 22/05

Cretaceous duck ruffles feathers (BBC)
Some scientists believe many modern bird lineages existed as long as 100 million years ago.

An Interview with Robert Nozick
Nozick (1938-2002) was a professor of philosophy at Harvard University until his death. His first book, Anarchy, State and Utopia astonished the philosophical world and made the discussion of liberty and property rights respectable again in scholarly circles. A former radical leftist, Nozick was converted to the libertarian perspective as a graduate student, mostly through reading the works of F.A. Hayek and Milton Friedman. Below is an interview with Nozick from 2001.

Intelligence in men and women is a gray and white matter (Today@ICU)
Men and women use different brain areas to achieve similar IQ results, UCI study finds. William Saletan of Slate comments on gender differences.

More from Michio Kaku on escaping the Universe (Prospect Magazine). See my earlier post.

Asteroid collisions may explain star's odd appearance (University of Florida)
The recent collision of two huge asteroids or tiny planets may be the cause of the mysterious lopsided appearance of the most famous of the universe's planet-forming stars, a team of astronomers says.