The Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize is a global competition offering $10 million in prizes to teams that can develop commercially viable cars able to travel 100 miles on one gallon of petrol, or the equivalent energy in another form.

However they are powered, the vehicles must also emit less than 200 grams of carbon dioxide per mile. That is around half that of a typical passenger vehicle, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.

The recent medical controversy over whether vaccinations cause autism reveals a habit of human cognition—thinking anecdotally comes naturally, whereas thinking scientifically does not.

On Memorial Day, President Bush paid tribute to the troops and their families at Arlington National Cemetery. Of the men and women buried there, President Bush declared, "They're an awesome bunch of people, and the United States is blessed to have such citizens."

What else is awesome? Just about everything. "Thank you, Your Holiness," the president publicly said to Pope Benedict XVI in mid-April when he became only the second pope in history to visit the White House. "Awesome speech."

Not that it wasn't, but really. Awesome speech, Mr. Pope? It's one thing to hear Ellen Page, the young and radiant star of "Juno," saying, as she did in a December New York Times piece: "I always want to dress up like an animal or something really obscure, like a carrot or a wrench. That would be awesome." But it's quite another to hear the president of the United States use the word. With the freaking pope.

The banality and sense of entitlement of rich students at Harvard left John H. Summers feeling his teaching had been degraded to little more than a service to prepare clients for monied careers

A report by scientists from The Netherlands identifies a compound in human saliva that greatly speeds wound healing. This research may offer hope to people suffering from chronic wounds related to diabetes and other disorders, as well as traumatic injuries and burns. In addition, because the compounds can be mass produced, they have the potential to become as common as antibiotic creams and rubbing alcohol.

Last week, I discussed how evolutionary biology has changed since 1859, the year Darwin first published “On the Origin of Species.” But the subject of evolution isn’t the only thing that’s changed since then. There’s been plenty of actual evolution, too. For although we tend to think of evolutionary change as being something that only takes place over the course of millions of years, it isn’t. It’s going on here, now, all around us. So, this week, I thought I’d round up some examples of recent evolutionary change in nature. (What do I mean by recent? Within the last 40 years.)