On the Record

“Unprotected sex with an infected individual is high risk regardless of whether the act is intended for procreation or recreation.”

Robert May, outgoing president of London's Royal Society, explains why the Vatican's ban on condom use encourages the spread of HIV.

“We are biologists and computer scientists, and what we do is just math. Math can't hurt you.”

Michele DeHart, head of the Fish Passage Center which, until recently, monitored salmon migration. Congress cut the centre's funding amid accusations that that the institute was using data to promote an environmental agenda.

Sources: The Age, Washington Post

Scorecard

Little penguins

A Tasmanian conservation group has collected 15,000 tiny sweaters to help protect the world's smallest penguins from future oil spills.

Toucan beaks

A study at the University of California, San Diego, has found that the bird's beaks are remarkably well designed and could be used as models for stronger, safer car components.

Intelligent design class

The University of Kansas has cancelled a course on intelligent design after the professor teaching it made disparaging comments about Christian conservatives, calling them “fundies”.

Number Crunch

114 deaths per million people occurred in road crashes in 29 countries in the developed world during 2001.

0.293 deaths per million people were caused by terrorism each year in the same countries in 1994–2003.

390:1 is the ratio of road deaths to deaths from terrorism.

Source: N. Wilson and G. Thomson Injury Prevention 11, 332–333 (2005).