Evoutionary Pothole
So NOVA had this great show about a huge cavern in Australia that had a tiny pothole opening; and it's been around for a *really* long time. (watch the preview here) So a wild creature is running around and then falls in and that's that. And it happens over and over again. Then today, millions of year later, the thing is a treasure trove of perfectly preserved skeletons of all kinds of crazy things including a funky evolutionary creature that was a marsupial carnivorous lion - with a tail like a kangaroo. I mean, how amazing is that? You can't make this stuff up.
While I'm rambling about odd things, check this (gigantic) recent picture of the combined Atlantis and space station crews. Sorry - couldn't find a good link to a more manageable picture. Just a few days ago, there were ten people up there - in the same place. Have we ever done that before? That's amazing. There are towns in america smaller than that (ok, not many - but I think I've made my point).
Finally, since I'm all over the place tonite and I think mainstream news outlets do a lousy job of science reporting, here's an interesting story on a small step forward in developing treatments for Parkinson's disease by gene therapy.