2007 – Page 6

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Fall Colors Have a Function

October 27, 2007

Deciduous trees have an investment decision to make when fall chill sets in: do they send their sunlight-produced nutrients to the roots early, and so risk damage to the leaves from autumn sunlight, or should they spend more energy creating a sunscreen that allows them to produce nutrients longer, and thereby increase food storage in […]

Amazing Facts

Cilia Are Antennas for Human Senses and Development

October 26, 2007

The little hair-like projections on cells, called cilia, have more functions than previously believed. A press release from Johns Hopkins University said that researchers found cilia are important for the sense of touch – particularly, for heat sensation. In fact, cilia are implicated in at least three of the five traditional senses. The […]

Early Man

Neanderthals Have Become Like Us

October 25, 2007

The change in attitude about Neanderthals is almost complete. The formerly brutish missing links were pretty modern after all. DNA sequencing of Neanderthal remains, along with new fossil discoveries, have made this subgroup of Homo sapiens for all intents and purposes the equivalents of us. For example: Talk to me bro: Neanderthals probably spoke languages […]

Intelligent Design

Evolutionary Science Reporting Battles Creationists

October 24, 2007

If creationism is so discredited as to not warrant any further discussion, some science writers are sure going out of their way to refute it. Some recent examples: Eye of the Hydra: Little sea creatures known as hydrae have light-sensitive molecules called opsins, reported Science Daily. Scientists think the opsin proteins, which exist all over […]

Bible and Theology

Jewish First Temple Period Uncovered

October 23, 2007

Artifacts dating from the First Temple period have been found in trenches illegally dug by Muslims on the Temple Mount: for the story, see the Jerusalem Post, the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Bible Places. Dr. Leen Ritmeyer has diagrams of where the artifacts relate to the Temple position in his Ritmeyer Blog. […]

Origin of Life

Is Adenine Additive?

October 22, 2007

A paper in PNAS argues that adenine can form in plausible prebiotic conditions.1 Does this add to the story of chemical evolution leading to life on Earth? Some chemists at the University of Georgia explored the chemical steps necessary to form adenine (one of the bases used in DNA). Adenine has been found […]

Genetics

Searching for Natural Selection in a Wildflower

October 19, 2007

Evening snow (Linanthus) is an amazing little wildflower that adorns desert areas of southern California. Its blossoms open in the evening, spreading fragrance across a harsh landscape. Two varieties have been noticed; one with white flowers, and one with blue flowers. Scientists noticed that the white ones sometimes grow on one side of a ravine, […]

Amazing Facts

Mega-Dinosaur Found in Argentina

October 18, 2007

Check out this dinosaur: 105 feet long, 43 feet tall, having a neck 56 feet long. The spinal column alone probably weighed 9 tons. That’s Futalognkosaurus dukei, one of the largest dinosaurs ever found, recently reported from Argentina (see BBC News and PhysOrg). A single vertebral bone was nearly 3 feet long. National Geographic called […]

Early Man

Prominent Biologist Espouses Darwinian Racist Views

October 17, 2007

The history of evolutionary thought includes many aspects modern evolutionists would rather forget, such as racism and eugenics. Old ideas that blacks are evolutionarily inferior have cropped up again, though, not from some redneck schoolhouse but from the co-discoverer of the DNA structure. James Watson, outspoken secular humanist, let loose with some comments about racial […]

Bible and Theology

Sweden Bans Creationism

October 16, 2007

Creationism and intelligent design are being banned in Swedish schools, reported the English version of the Swedish news source, The Local. Intelligent design (ID) makes no claim about the Creator, but only the detectability of design; nevertheless, both were banned equally. This may not be unexpected after the Council of Europe resolution last […]

Solar System

Cassini Celebrates 10 Years in Space

October 16, 2007

The Cassini team is reveling in the outpouring of public praise for the mission. Launched on October 15, 1997, Cassini-Huygens has spent ten years in space and is over three fourths the way through its prime mission, to explore the Saturn system, its rings, moons, magnetic field and the large moon Titan (see ESA and […]

Solar System

New Horizons at Jupiter

October 15, 2007

New Horizons, a spaceship bound for Pluto, took a good look at the Jupiter system on Feb 28, 2007.

Dumb Ideas

Walking Upright Was a Birth Defect

October 14, 2007

What’s so big about walking upright? A single birth defect in a human ancestor 21 million years ago could have made it all possible, according to Dr. Aaron Filler (Cedars Sinai Medical Center), a specialist in the spine. According to EurekAlert, he proposes that in the “hominiform hominoid” Morotopithecus, a sibling was born […]

Amazing Facts

Inner Ear More Complex than Thought

October 13, 2007

Another level of complexity has been added to the mystery of hearing. Scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found that another membrane in the cochlea of the inner ear, once thought to be passive, is actively involved in transmitting sound waves to the hair cell receptors. Their work was published in PNAS.1 […]

Education

Microsoft Billionaire Puts His Money Where His Darwinism Is

October 12, 2007

Paul Allen is spending millions on humanitarian causes: not the cure of disease or the end of poverty, but on helping humans recognize that they evolved from space dust (see next entry). This, presumably, brings enlightenment. Shortly after 9/11, the PBS series Evolution made its debut, thanks to a large endowment from Allen, […]

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