Richard III (Nature, New Scientist, Science Daily)
"Now is the winter of our disinterment." Richard III, act 1, scene 1, sorta.
The bones found under a parking lot in England (and therefore a "car park") turn out to be those of King Richard III, the last of the Plantagenet dynasty, famously portrayed as a villain by Shakespeare. The bones show that, yes, just as legend says, he had a back deformity. (There used to be a church where the parking lot now is.)
Neanderthal dating (Science Daily, Science News)
This is "dating" as in figuring out the date of something, not as in dinner and a movie. Some of the most recent Neanderthal bones have been re-dated; if the new findings stand, these Neanderthals lived longer ago than we thought. There aren't that many Neanderthal skeletons to go around, so re-dating just a couple is significant. It may mean that modern humans and Neanderthals did not overlap in time as long as we thought.
Dognition (Scientific American, Dognition.com)
"Dognition" is a project and web site run by neuroscientists Brian Hare, all about canine intelligence, which Hare claims is even higher than most people think. Dogs are extremely good at reading us - after all, they've been bred for it for thousands of years. This site helps us read them.
Gold bug (Science News)
Here's a handy microbe - a bacterium that concentrates gold out of its food, into a convenient solid form.
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