Dallas Historical Society finds possible copy of Lincoln's Bixby Letter

Dear Madam,

I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five (5) sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.

Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,

A. Lincoln

From Woolly Mammoth Hair, the Beast’s Genetic Map is Born

Woolly mammoths lumbered for more than 100,000 years across northern North America and Eurasia. By 2,000 BC, the behemoths had vanished, falling to human hunters and changing climate.

Now comes news that scientists have sequenced nearly the entire woolly mammoth genome, using genetic material in hair taken from long-frozen mammoth carcasses unearthed in Siberia. The effort marks the first genome-scale sequencing of an extinct animal's DNA, which carries the basic instructions that determine an organism's type, development, and function.

Bill Frist: Health Sector Must Be Made Into Health System

Senator Bill Frist has an article in Rollcall titled "Health Sector Must Be Made Into Health System." Senator Frist writes that comprehensive health care reform is likely to be shoved to the back burner as other issues, seemingly more pressing, rise to capture the attention of political leaders. He urgest all of us not to let that happen. Senator Frist goes onto say that affordable coverage for every American must be the goal, but it can't be achieved and maintained if we don't bend the cost/spending curve. Read the complete article here.