Author: john

Legalizing conception: on Astrue v. Capato

Guest post by Susan L. Crockin, J.D. The U.S. Supreme Court's unanimous May 21 decision, Astrue v. Capato, should not come as a surprise to those following legal issues involving posthumously conceived children. The court was asked by a widow, Karen Capato, to grant Social Security benefits to twins she conceived after her husband Robert's death…

Legalizing conception: on Astrue v. Capato

Guest post by Susan L. Crockin, J.D. The U.S. Supreme Court's unanimous May 21 decision, Astrue v. Capato, should not come as a surprise to those following legal issues involving posthumously conceived children. The court was asked by a widow, Karen Capato, to grant Social Security benefits to twins she conceived after her husband Robert's death…

A family album of evolutionary trees

Guest post by Theodore W. Pietsch When most people think of trees, they envision the leafy-green, growing, photosynthesizing kind, but there’s a vast forest out there made up of an entirely different kind of tree—branching diagrams and related iconography that attempt to reveal the relationships of plants and animals. For at least the past 500 years, …