Number Crunch

33% is the proportion of Americans following science and technology news “very closely” during 1986–89, according to the snappily titled Pew News Interest Index.

16% is the corresponding figure for 2000–06.

17% is the number of news junkies with a keen interest in celebrity scandals, showing that the world of science is now measurably less popular than Paris Hilton, though perhaps not as much as Sidelines might have thought.

Credit: J. INGLIS/ALAMY

Zoo news

Bridge birds

A build-up of corrosive pigeon guano on the support struts of the bridge in Minneapolis that collapsed on 1 August might have played a role in the disaster. Some experts think that ammonia in the droppings could have weakened the steel beams.

Wordwatch

Slime-Snake-Monkey-People

Evangelist Robert Bowie Johnson has coined this term for darwinists. He suggests that Christians should use it to 'shame' those who accept evolution over Genesis. Talk us through the snake-to-monkey step, would you, Bob?

Scorecard

Chewing gum

Archaeologists at Harvard University have obtained 2,000-year-old DNA from wads of plant matter that Native Americans apparently used as chewing gum.

Chewing gum

Meanwhile, the oldest-ever 'chewing gum' has been found in Finland. The 5,000-year-old morsel, complete with toothmarks, was a distinctly unappetizing lump of birch bark tar.

Sources: Pew Research Center, Associated Press, Christian News Wire, Science, The Guardian