Two birds-one post The New York Times has two good science articles. The first article points to some results that indicate there's a biochemical basis for the tit-for-tat behavior that is one of the central themes of evolutionary psychology. Here's the culmination (again-the article acts like you know nothing about this field-so it's good for a skim):

Assuming that the urge to cooperate is to some extent innate among humans and reinforced by the brain's feel-good circuitry, the question of why it arose remains unclear. Anthropologists have speculated that it took teamwork for humanity's ancestors to hunt large game or gather difficult plant foods or rear difficult children. So the capacity to cooperate conferred a survival advantage on our forebears.

The second article tackles cosmology. Interesting to many of us seculars because it does fill that "God-Shaped-Hole" that Carl Sagan liked to talk about. The article is pretty wide-ranging-and the first half of it is mostly of historical interest. The second half, and especially the last quarter, hints at the changes heralded by experimental observations that seem to throwing wrenches into the clean edifices constructed by the theoreticians. For me, cosmology seems one science where the quest is far more important than the answer. Until the far distant future when/if we become cosmic engineers, cosmology will have little practical, but great, shall I say it-spiritual, value. P.S. I found these articles in the "Top 25 Most E-mailed Articles from the New York Times" section. I'd like to think my tastes are more elevated than the typical reader, but the fact that I find this is my clearest guide to what's "hot" news everday indicates I'm middle-brow at best (no snickers please).