Chad Clark's Open Journal : 2010-02-26

1) Human genome sequencing for $5000 per person.

New Scientist reports a company named Complete Genomics claims to be able
to sequence a human genome for $5000.

2) Lost / stolen letter from Descartes found and returned.

The New York Times is reporting a letter from Descartes "shows that at a
very late stage in the printing process, Descartes changed the outlook of
the Meditations dramatically".

  thousands of treasured documents that vanished from the Institut de
  France in the mid-1800s, stolen by an Italian mathematician. Among them
  were 72 letters by Rene Descartes
  
  ...
  
  one of those purloined letters has turned up at a small private college
  in eastern Pennsylvania, providing scholars with another keyhole into one
  of the Western world’s greatest minds.
  
  The letter, dated May 27, 1641, concerns the publication of "Meditations
  on First Philosophy,"

If you haven't read Descartes "Meditations" you can find free online copies.
For example public domain copies at Google Books.

3) South Dakota says global warming is a theory and astrology affects weather.

Carl Zimmer wrote at Discover Magazine that South Dakota resolved that
global warming is theory rather a fact.  The state noted astrological
factors affect global warming.

  instruction in the public schools relating to global warming include the
  following: (1) That global warming is a scientific theory rather than a
  proven fact; (2) That there are a variety of climatological,
  meteorological, astrological, thermological, cosmological, and ecological
  dynamics that can effect [sic] world weather phenomena and that the
  significance and interrelativity of these factors is largely speculative

Excerpts from the bill (that has passed) include:

  Erik the Red settled Greenland where they farmed and raised dairy
  cattle. Today, ninety percent of Greenland is covered by massive ice
  sheets, in many places more than two miles thick
  
  ...
  
  carbon dioxide is not a pollutant but rather a highly beneficial
  ingredient for all plant life on earth. Many scientists refer to carbon
  dioxide as "the gas of life";
  
  ...
  
  more than 31,000 American scientists collectively signed a petition to
  President Obama stating: "There is no convincing scientific evidence that
  human release of carbon dioxide, or methane, or other greenhouse gasses
  is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating
  of the earth's atmosphere and disruption of the earth's
  climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that
  increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide will produce many beneficial
  effects on the natural plant and animal environments of the earth"

Carl Zimmer also wrote a book titled "Microcosm: E. Coli and the New
Science of Life" that I really enjoyed.