Teen birth rates in the US have it a record low! In 2010 a mere 34.3 births were reported for every 1000 girls age 15 – 19. Even more amazing is that this is down from 9% when compared with 2009. Let’s keep up comprehensive sex ed and improve the availability of contraceptives and we can see this number go down even more. (Scientific American)

Arctic seals have developed an unidentified illness that’s already killed 200 Arctic ringed seals in Alaska since July. “The animals’ hair falls out, they develop ulcers on their flippers and skin, and they have lesions in their lungs, livers, hearts and brains.” It also possible that the same disease is impacting other species of seals, walruses, and populations in Canada and Russia. (New Scientist

SpaceX will be docking with the ISS in February. This will be the first commercial mission. (Slash Gear)

Walking may have first evolved in the water. An African lungfish with lobed fins similar to what our ancestors would have had has been observed walking in the water, and you can see the video here:
(New Scientist)

Researches have finally figured out how ostriches and other flightless birds get erections. They’ve not for quite a while that they aren’t pumped up with blood and a recent dissection found that it’s actually lymphatic fluids that get it done. What’s also interesting is that all flightless birds in the ratites family, ducks, and a few other species are the only birds to have penises. The rest just bump cloacals (the hole they excrete waste out of) and pass the sperm across. (Scientific American)