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Dear World: The Gist is pleased to introduce two new bloggers.

Virginia Hughes holds a master’s in science writing from Johns Hopkins University and is an editorial assistant at ScienceBlogs. She has written for several science publications, including Discover and Nature.

Not to be outdone, Hugh Powell has his own master’s, in avian ecology. He has written for New Scientist, served as a writer at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and blogged at surf.bird.scribble. In late 2007 Hugh will be posting for The Gist from Antarctica about International Polar Year research.

We hope you welcome them into your computer monitors as you have so graciously put up with welcomed those who came before them.

One of the first headlines I ever wrote was for a letter-to-the-editor on a story about rhesus monkeys. I called it Rhesus Pieces, and have been disrespecting the man who invented the word “pun” ever since.

Fast-forward to today: I give you the above title and image, which scientists are calling a “graceful dance of interacting galaxies.” Hubble captured the merging of this pair of galaxies, known as Arp 87, named for astronomer Halton Arp who discovered it in the 1960s. (No relation to “Faust Arp,” a track on the new Radiohead album that’s also twisting the universe by being offered for free–yet still selling well.)

Gas, stars and other particles from the galaxy on the right have drifted outward and been caught in the gravitational pull of the galaxy on the left, creating that spiral effect. To me it looks rather like the cosmic version of God touching Adam’s hand in the Sistine Chapel. Or perhaps the galaxy on the right is full of E.T.’s, reaching for that bright orange star at the top that looks fittingly like an orange Reese’s Pieces.

(Courtesy NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team)

Last week, Science published a paper reporting the creation of an adhesive based on the sticky foot of the tree frog. These fascinating feet are made of tiny pads separated by channels that flush away liquid to help the critters grip wet surfaces. Similarly, the new adhesive contains grooves that keep tape sticky even when it’s re-used several times.

I guess you could say the paper had traction, because today Science published yet another report on a new superglue–this time based on mussels.

I’ve written about tree frogs but not mussels (unless you count signing the bill at some seafood restaurant), so I don’t understand the process that well. The basic idea seems to be that proteins help these gooey creatures stick to any surface. A trio of scientists from Northwestern have mimicked these proteins then added some bits of metal, polymer and ceramic to create a thin gluey film.

Now that’s what I call a sticky situation.

(Courtesy of Haeshin Lee and Phillip Messersmith, Northwestern University)

This week the MacArthur Foundation announced plans to convene a group of scientists, law makers and some really good thinkers for a discussion on the ethics of using neurotechnology in the legal system. Presiding over the $10 million effort, called the Law and Neuroscience Project, is honorary chair Sandra Day O’Connor.

A couple months ago I wrote that the perfect lie detector remains elusive. Unless something’s changed since then, lie detectors of any sort–from the polygraph to brain scans–are virtually inadmissible in court.

Some believe lie detection could one day be as important in trials as DNA is. But a court-ready lie detector has been “ten years away” for half a century, and the general feeling I got from reporting the story was that it might forever be a decade beyond the present.

Neuroscience could impact the courtroom beyond lying, though, says the project’s director, Mike Gazzaniga. So it’s not too early for jurists and scientists to start a dialogue on the topic, especially since the first party deals necessarily in absolutes and the other in shades of gray. Compromise and mutual understand will take some time.

But for now, at least, your secret love for “Melrose Place” is safe from the jury.

Four score and, oh, say, half a score years ago, Yellowstone National Park lost its grey wolves, and with them a major cog in Nature’s biological wheel. No wolves meant more elk meant less plant life, which in time meant trouble for aspen trees. (No trouble, though, for Scooter Libby’s cryptic poetry.)

But scientists reintroduced wolves to Yellowstone in the mid-1990s, and a new paper in Biological Conservation reports that order is being restored. The elk, fearful of becoming Wolf Fare, avoid munching low brush in certain areas of the park. As a result, many young aspens have grown too tall–reaching seven feet–for elk to eat.  (More…)