2005 – Page 19

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Mars Dry Areas More Extensive than Thought

June 1, 2005

If Mars had oceans or lakes, it wasn’t for long, at least in the Syrtis Major region. Results of observations of the thermal emission imaging system (THEMIS) aboard the 2001 Mars Odyssey reveal about four times as much olivine as previously recognized in the Nili Fossae adjacent to the Syrtis volcanic shield. Olivine quickly degrades […]

Media

SETI Researcher Joins NG Imagination Fest

May 31, 2005

Space.Com writer Tariq Malik reviewed the National Geographic TV series Extraterrestrial that envisions flying whales, giraffe-like predators and flesh-eating tadpoles on a mythical world undergoing its own evolution. “Using computer models and armed with basic evolutionary theory, the scientists imagined not only what conditions might exist on their theoretical planets,” writes Malik, “but also how […]

Astronomy

Stars: Born of Violence, or Doing Violence to Theories?

May 31, 2005

Two stunning images from the giant orbiting telescopes are breeding tales of violence, but the reader can decide if the trauma is building stars and planets, or pummeling theories. Space.com tells about the new Spitzer infrared photo of Eta Carina, announcing, “As they destroy the huge cloud that is their home, wildly energetic stars may […]

Health

Health Beliefs Re-examined

May 30, 2005

Scientists continue to find new things that undermine commonly-held beliefs about health and the environment. For example, Shower power: Drinking more and showering less may not help conserve water, say Australian scientists reported by EurekAlert. Sun bath: We were always warned to keep out of the midday sun to avoid cancer, right? Science Daily talks […]

Education

Can the Courts Define Science?

May 27, 2005

Last December, the ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed a lawsuit in Pennsylvania against the Dover Area School District that was considering adding intelligent design material to the curriculum. The lawsuit attempts to define intelligent design as “inherently religious” and therefore unacceptable in science classrooms. The move appears aimed at […]

Uncategorized

Darwinists Excuse Prejudice as a Hard-wired, Common-Sense Evolutionary Adaptation

May 27, 2005

This week’s Stupid Evolution Quote of the Week comes from an Arizona State evo-psych press release echoed on News-Medical.net and EurekAlert: “Contrary to what most people believe, the tendency to be prejudiced is a form of common sense, hard-wired into the human brain through evolution as an adaptive response to protect our prehistoric ancestors from […]

Terrestrial Zoology

All You Wanted to Know About Spider Webs, Except Their Evolution

May 25, 2005

Each issue of Current Biology contains a Primer on some interesting subject. The May 24 issue had one about spider webs.1 Fritz Vollrath shared some amazing details about this unique product of the lowly spider, but gave a strange explanation for how the capability to spin strong-as-steel nets evolved. First, the factoids: Structure: …the… common […]

Education

Battlefield Dispatches

May 24, 2005

Reports from the evolution wars continue to come in. Here are more recent stories about the conflicts over the teaching of evolution and intelligent design: The race card: Fiona Morgan on Salon.com trashes those who try to link Darwin to racism. The cartoon shows Darwin with a dunce cap sitting in the corner, but Morgan […]

Cell Biology

Stem Cell Headlines

May 23, 2005

Research on embryonic stem cells is proceeding apace without an ethical anchor, and no clue where it will lead. News coverage of the debate accelerated with an announcement from South Korea. Match point: The BBC News and many other news sources published South Korea’s announcement that stem cells matched to the individual have been tailored […]

Intelligent Design

Nature Prints Anti-ID Letters

May 19, 2005

The May 19 issue of Nature1 printed seven letters responding to its editorial about the intelligent design movement (see 04/27/2005 entry). They were all critical of ID. Not one even tolerated Nature’s suggestion that scientists try to help students integrate their faith with science. Apparently, last month’s editorial was not sufficiently vicious against ID, says […]

Uncategorized

Christian Woman to Rebuild Iraqi Science

May 19, 2005

According to the Christian apologetics ministry Answers in Action, a woman – a Christian woman – will help rebuild Iraqi science from the ruins of Saddam Hussein’s evil empire: Ibrahim Jaafari, the prime minister of Iraq, has appointed Bassima Yousef Boutros, a 44 year old biochemist at Salah Eldin University in Erbil, Iraq as the […]

Early Man

Neanderthals and Modern Humans May Have Interbred

May 19, 2005

They lived together, they morphed into one another, so were members of Homo neanderthalensis really a separate species from Homo sapiens? Findings announced in Nature1 show a mixture of Neanderthal-like characteristics in modern human skeletons from Romania that led Science Now to state, “Oldest Europeans were swingers.” Because new radiocarbon dates of these skeletons put […]

Origin of Life

Mars Radiation Dosage Makes Life Improbable, Even with Global Flooding

May 18, 2005

An upcoming (June) paper in Icarus1 states, “ The biologically damaging solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation (quantified by the DNA-weighted dose) reaches the martian surface in extremely high levels.” Earth has an ozone layer and global magnetic field to shield out the damaging rays, but Mars has no known atmospheric filter. “Therefore, the existence of life […]

Dinosaurs

Stegosaur Plates Were for Decoration

May 18, 2005

Berkeley scientists are disputing the notion that the rows of plates on the backs of stegosaurs served as heat exchangers. Instead, they were for show. EurekAlert and Science Daily explain that this was probably true of other dinosaur decorations: “The team’s analysis of stegosaur plates lends support to a growing consensus among paleontologists that the […]

Cell Biology

Design Language Gushes Out of Article Describing Cell Quality Control

May 18, 2005

Here are the design words found in a press release from Michigan State describing the editing mechanisms of the cell DNA-to-RNA transcription process: high fidelity, quality control, inner workings, genetic coding, exquisite nanotechnology in living systems, genetic control, blueprint for life, industrial assembly line, conveyor belt, preloading, criteria, backs up to correct the error, sensed […]

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