VIEW HEADLINES ONLY
Early Man

More Scientists Claim “Hobbit Man” Was Fully Human
October 11, 2006
It was not a primitive form of Homo erectus that shrunk to a small stature because of being isolated on an island: it was one of us.  That’s what more scientists are saying about Homo floresiensis, the small-skulled pygmy skeletons found in Liang Bua cave on the island of Flores in Indonesia (10/27/2004)  The new […]
CONTINUE READING
Astronomy

Nature Potpourri
October 11, 2006
Articles of interest from Nature have been piling up in the CEH queues.  Perhaps a brief mention is better than nothing, before they fall into archive oblivion. Carbon 14:  In the Sept 14 issue, there was a give & take between critics of a carbon-14-dated study and the author.  The critics pointed out, “We appreciate […]
CONTINUE READING
Dumb Ideas

Early Hunters Evolved Into Marathoners
October 11, 2006
Why are humans so good at endurance running?  According to Dan Lieberman of Harvard, “our body shape evolved to allow our ancestors to run long distances, and reach animal carcasses before other scavengers.”  He figured that “chasing animals until they collapse from exhaustion yields more meat per hunt than hunting with spears or a bow […]
CONTINUE READING
Intelligent Design

Lee Strobel’s The Case for a Creator Debuts on Film
October 10, 2006
A film version of Lee Strobel’s book The Case for a Creator has been released by Illustra Media.  The book, third in a series of best-sellers by Lee Strobel (The Case for Christ, The Case for Faith) describes Strobel’s own journey from atheism to Christianity and how Darwinian had evolution played a big part in […]
CONTINUE READING
Amazing Facts

Archer Fish Shoot Efficiently
October 10, 2006
Archer fish, the sharpshooters of the underwater world, have another trick in their blowguns: energy efficiency.  Three German scientists were curious how they knew how hard to shoot at targets of differing mass.  Publishing in Current Biology,1 the team first determined that the prey’s ability to cling to its leaf or stem is proportional to […]
CONTINUE READING
Intelligent Design

Intelligent Design Detected on Mars
October 9, 2006
Astronomy Picture of the Day used design detection reasoning to infer the presence of intelligent agents at work on another world.  “An unusual spot has been found on Mars that scientists believe is not natural in origin,” the caption says of a photo taken from orbit by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.  “The spot appears mobile […]
CONTINUE READING
Genetics

Punc Eq Happens
October 8, 2006
A controversial study in Science found evidence for punctuated equilibria.1  A long-standing debate in evolutionary biology concerns whether species diverge gradually through time or by punctuational episodes at the time of speciation.  We found that approximately 22% of substitutional changes at the DNA level can be attributed to punctuational evolution, and the remainder accumulates from […]
CONTINUE READING
Amazing Facts

Biological Nanomachines Inspire Nanotechnology
October 7, 2006
Nano, nano; we’re hearing that morkish prefix a lot these days.  It means 10-9 of something: most often, of meters (see powers of ten).  A nanometer is a billionth of a meter.  This gets down into the range of protein molecules and small cellular components.  A DNA molecule, for instance, is about 20 nanometers across; […]
CONTINUE READING
Dinosaurs

Sea Monster Fossils Found in Arctic
October 6, 2006
The BBC News reported the discovery of over two dozen plesiosaurs, pliosaurs and ichthyosaurs (see 04/20/2005) north of Norway.  Skeletons of the large marine reptiles, completely assembled, were found buried in fine-grained sedimentary layers of black shale.  “Everything we’re finding is articulated,” said Jorn Harald Hurum, co-director of the dig.  “It’s not single bones here […]
CONTINUE READING
Dumb Ideas

More Reasons Why DNA Is Perfect for Coding
October 5, 2006
Scientists at Vanderbilt University may have been trying to explain chemical evolution, but hit on another reason DNA is the ideal molecule for carrying genetic information (see also Science Daily).  They tweaked the sugar molecule on the DNA backbone and got an unwieldy, haphazard, writhing ribbon of a molecule, unsuitable for bonding genetic code or […]
CONTINUE READING
Amazing Facts

Whiskers Inspire Technology
October 4, 2006
The latest gadget on robots or Mars rovers could be whiskers.  These tactile sensors provide ways to see in 3D, says a report on National Geographic News.  Information about latitude, longitude and elevation can be gleaned from whiskers.  Rodents continually rotate their whiskers to gather information, but seals and sea lions let the ocean currents […]
CONTINUE READING
Education

ID Draws Crowds, to Evolutionists’ Dismay
October 4, 2006
Reactions in the news and evolution-centered scientific societies to the rise of intelligent design is mixed.  Some ignore it, printing Darwinism-as-fact articles as usual.  Others seek harmony and understanding.  Still others rise up in holy horror, demanding organized counter-reformation.  One thing Darwinists cannot do is deny that a widespread, international sea change in thinking about […]
CONTINUE READING
Intelligent Design

New Media Challenges Darwinism
October 4, 2006
Websites and resources challenging Darwinian dominance are springing up all over the place.  Uncensored by scientific societies, they may be having more of an effect than evolutionary biologists wish to consider.  Many are aimed at students and young adults. Overwhelming Evidence is an ID website aimed at high school students.  It has blogs, forums and […]
CONTINUE READING
Amazing Facts

Japanese Man Sets Memory Record
October 4, 2006
Item: a Japanese man, Akira Haraguchi (age 60), quoted pi to 100,000 decimal places, reported Live Science.  It took 16 hours to say the digits from memory.  This broke his personal best of 83,431 set in 1995, and the Guinness record of 42,195, also set in 1995. Incredible feats like this hint at the innate […]
CONTINUE READING
Politics and Ethics

Peer Review Goes Public
October 3, 2006
A scientific revolution for the internet age is taking place: peer review is coming out of its secrecy into public light.  Tired of the dominance of big-name journals and their editorial policies, independent-minded researchers are taking their publications to the web.  The revolution is explained by AP reporter Alicia Chang (see Yahoo News), and by […]
CONTINUE READING
All Posts by Date
[archives type="yearly" cat_id=""]