I think there is some truth to this. I seldom see drop-dead gorgeous female engineers or scientists. On the other hand, female cheerleaders make me cringe and despair. You don't think there is a strong correlation between attractiveness and personal qualities/careers/etc.?

Some people would rather be single than date someone who is considered an even match, which is a perfectly fair decision. Also, consider hypergamy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypergamy), which is already quite common.

Another way to put this, and an observation I constantly make as a biologist, is that there are many people who claim to "believe in" or "follow" evolution, but if pressed to define what it is, are completely off the mark. Evolution, like so many things, has gained a following (or not) largely due to inertia and cultural fads, not because the scientific principles behind it have impressed everyone.

It's not really possible to live an entire (average, full-length) life without discrimination, but it is sometimes possible to overcome discrimination.

If it remains upright for more than 4 hours, we'd better call Kim Jong Un's doctor. Hopefully he didn't disconnect -all- of the phone lines to the U.S./allies.

"If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the A-Team."

Except that in the case of the atomic bomb, the materials for the bomb itself are scarce and require refinement. The materials for a weaponized virus or pathogen are ubiquitous, require no sophisticated means of delivery, and will evade all types of detection currently used to screen against threats.

You have to remember that -all- of cell biology and biochemistry is rapidly advancing, not just synthetic biology. Even though we are rapidly approaching the point at which anyone can develop a flu-like weapon with relatively basic tools, we are also rapidly developing the knowledge base and tools that will enable us to neutralize threats at will.

HR drones not having the slightest clue

Government-sponsored programs like Stuxnet and Flame are all the craze these days

Keep in mind this is a venom. What makes you think that constitutively expressing a venom in a foreign species will not kill it immediately, even if you can put the correct machinery in place?

The article points to: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7294117 It's a 30 year old study that showed the composition of "emotional" tears differs from the composition of tears produced in response to an irritant.