Amidst the animal kingdom’s menagerie of sexual practices, those of Corbicula clams stand out.

A common freshwater genus about the size of a half-dollar, nearly all Corbicula species are clones. That’s odd, albeit not extraordinary. They’re also physically hermaphroditic but genetically male — again odd, but not extraordinary.

What’s really strange is that, once in a great while, they hijack fresh DNA from other clams.

“They can steal the eggs of other species,” said David Hillis, a University of Texas at Austin computational biologist whose Corbicula investigations are described May 23 in...

For now, Google is restricting rooted Android devices from using its movie rental service on the Android Market. Photo: Duncan Geere/Wired.co.uk

For many Android enthusiasts, having total control is part of the platform’s attraction. But Google is imposing some annoying new restrictions for those who want to be superusers on their own phones.

Google is blocking access to its new Android Market movie rental service for those using rooted Android devices. If you try to access a movie from the Market using a rooted device, you’ll receive a “failure to fetch license” error message.

Obtaining root...