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Dinosaurs

Hadrosaur Skin Flick
December 3, 2007
The press is abuzz with the story of a mummified hadrosaur found in North Dakota with skin and fossilized soft parts; see PhysOrg, Science Daily, Associated Press and BBC News.  Since the fully-articulated, uncollapsed, mummified fossil named “Dakota” was discovered in 1999, though, it appears that the announcement is being made now primarily as publicity […]
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Amazing Facts

Cell Gatekeepers: Diverse, Complex, Accurate
December 2, 2007
Cargo moves around rapidly and ceaselessly in every cell.  Some moves in and out of the external membrane, and some moves in and out of organelles and the nucleus.  In a system of protected domains surrounded by impermeable membranes, how does the cell control what should pass?  Details of the amazing gatekeeping mechanisms embedded in […]
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Darwin and Evolution

Flowering Plants Do Big Bang in Darwin’s Face
December 1, 2007
There’s a big bang in botany.  The flowering plants, reported Science Daily, “evolved very quickly into five groups.”     The claim is based on the investigation of plant genes by scientists in Florida.  Their work “showed that a stunning diversification of flowering plants they are referring to as the ‘Big Bang’ took place in […]
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Darwin and Evolution

Wilson Duo Resurrects Darwin’s Taboo
December 1, 2007
Group selection (sociobiology) has long been a taboo subject, but now its time has come.  This is what an article on EurekAlert claims.  E. O. Wilson and David Sloan Wilson are on a new campaign to promote group selection.     The two Wilsons called for a new consensus on sociobiology in The Quarterly Review […]
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Uncategorized

Who Knows the Age of Grand Canyon?
November 30, 2007
“In spite of over a century of work on the Grand Canyon, there are still fundamental questions about the age of the canyon and the processes that have formed it.”  Thus begins a paper in the November GSA Bulletin of the Geological Society of America.1  To re-evaluate the date of Grand Canyon, a team dated […]
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Dinosaurs

New Dinosaur Finds Astonish Paleontologists
November 30, 2007
Some recent dinosaur discoveries on different sides of the world have produced amazement among scientists and the public as well. Tire tracks uncover dino tracks:  ATVs and dirt bikes have ridden for years over a place that is now found to be loaded with dinosaur tracks.  Near Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park in Utah, […]
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Bible and Theology

Nehemiah’s Wall Found
November 30, 2007
Earlier this month, archaeologist Eilat Mazar found remnants of an ancient wall on the old city of David she believes is a remnant of the wall built by Nehemiah in 445 BC (see Nehemiah 3-6 that describes the project in detail).  This was reported on the Bible Places blog, with a link to The Trumpet […]
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Dumb Ideas

Magicians through the Looking Glass
November 29, 2007
A leading origin-of-life researcher passed away last month: Leslie Orgel.  Gerald Joyce paid him tribute in Nature.1  Orgel worked closely with other famous origin-of-life people like Stanley Miller, and was a leader in the “RNA world” scenario for the origin of life.  Joyce appreciated his rigid empiricism: Although Orgel was a theoretician, he always demanded […]
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Amazing Facts

Dealing with Light at the Extremes
November 28, 2007
“Light is the most important variable in our environment,” wrote Edith Widder, a marine biologist.  The inhabitants of two different ecosystems have to deal with either too little or too much.  Let your light so shine:  A thousand meters below the sea surface, all sunlight is extinguished.  Yet for thousands of meters more, creatures live […]
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Fossils

Early Platypus Stuns Evolutionists
November 27, 2007
With the possible exception of a monotreme tooth assumed to be 62 million years old, the oldest known platypus fossil was dated 15 million years old.  Now, a fossil from Australia reported in Science sets a new record: 112 million years old.1     “It’s really, really old for a monotreme,” Timothy Rowe of the […]
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Physics

Moon Dust Can Kill
November 27, 2007
Future astronauts preparing to operate on the moon, beware.  High-speed dust is deadly, reports PhysOrg.  With no atmosphere on the moon to slow its path, dust flying from rocket engines can blast anything in its path.  “Small grit can travel enormous distances at high speeds, scouring everything in its path,” the article says – at […]
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Physics

Pangea Stuck at Square One
November 26, 2007
Students in their physical science classes learn all about Pangea, the supercontinent that broke up 200 million years ago and ended up with today’s familiar continents after millions of years of continental drift.  What they don’t often learn is how scientists come up with these ideas, and how they pull their hair out when observations […]
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Astronomy

The Stars That Shouldn’t Exist
November 25, 2007
Theories in astronomy are fun to model on paper with equations, but once in awhile they need to stand up to observations.  Phil Berardelli wrote for Science Now: It seems as though every time astronomers point their telescopes at the night sky, some weird new finding forces them to revamp their theories.  And so it […]
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Dinosaurs

Multiple Dinosaurs Reclassified as One Species
November 24, 2007
It’s tough sometimes to draw the line between species – especially when dealing with fossils.  A report in Science suggests that three bone-headed dinosaurs are probably just different stages of one species.1  These had been named Pachycephalosaurus, Stygimoloch and Dracorex.     Erik Stokstad, reporting on activities at the meeting of the Society of Vertebrate […]
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Origin of Life

No Salt, Please: Europa Life Needs It Bland
November 23, 2007
Salt may taste good on human food, but for life trying to emerge in the sea, it is toxic.  Astrobiologists have long wondered if life could exist at Jupiter’s moon Europa, where an ocean is believed to exist miles deep under the icy crust.  They must have been presuming the water is pure, but an […]
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