Archive: Motors, Teens, Geology Mysteries, Mars Flood, Pluto, Stem Cells, More

Here are some of the stories we were reporting in early December 2001, restored from archives.

Note: some embedded links may no longer work.

Cellular Motor Vehicles Souped Up for Speed   12/06/2001
The awe is palpable in Susan Gilbert’s News and Views entry in the Dec. 6 issue of Nature, “Cell biology: High-performance fungal motors.” Reviewing recent findings, she introduces the subject matter:

Motor proteins are tiny vehicles that move molecular cargoes around inside cells. These minute cellular machines come in three broad families, the kinesins, the myosins and the dyneins. There are over 250 kinesin-like proteins, and they are involved in processes as diverse as the movement of chromosomes and the dynamics of cell membranes. They all have a similar catalytic portion, known as the motor domain, but beyond this they are astonishingly varied – in their location within cells, their structural organization, and the movement they generate.

She spends time especially on the “Ferrari” of these motor vehicles, a kinesin from the fungus Neurospora crassa, that can move along its microtubule tracks at 2.5 microns per second, five times faster than other similar kinesins (if this molecule were the size of a car, it would top 1200 mph). Describing three possible means of achieving such speeds, she suggests ways microbiologists might learn more about “these splendid molecular machines.”

Two other papers (1), (2) in the same issue discuss ATPase or ATP synthase, the molecular motor of exquisite precision and function discussed earlier in Creation-Evolution Headlines. The second describes how it is involved in helping stomata (openings) in a plant leaf open and close to exchange gases. Apparently ATPase creates an electrical potential that works with other proteins that are responsive to blue light.

These motor vehicles (80 times smaller than a wavelength of light) and the microtubule tracks they run on have been likened to a nanotrain or intracellular railroad system in the cell.

Molecular motors in all living cells: think of it! And there are not just one or two, but hundreds of them, each finely crafted, each enormously more efficient than any motors man has ever produced (ATP synthase approaches 100% efficiency). This is all recent discovery; it is big news; it’s one of the hottest areas of research right now, and engineers are actively studying molecular motors as models for nanotechnology. But who is asking the obvious question of how these motors could originate, without a Designer? The motor Gibson describes operates in a fungus! Do you know any engineering fungus among us, any mushrooms that are masters of nanotechnology?

The science of biochemical motors fits intelligent design theory to a T, but is a major headache for evolution. It is not necessary to mention God, Genesis, creation, or the identity of the Creator to observe the obvious, that these are wonderfully crafted machines. You don’t have to know the manufacturer to look at a Ferrari and conclude it was designed, and designed well. Just do good observation, measurement, and reporting, and leave the obvious conclusion to the reader instead of stretching credibility to come up with a story about how they designed themselves.

Overheard from Nature, Dec 6:

• Genesis: In an angry letter to the editor, Robert C. Fleck argues that the Genesis dominion mandate is a step backward. Responding to a story about the Vatican approving animal experimentation to benefit humans, Fleck thinks, “This smacks of a return to pre-darwinian human arrogance and egotism. Didn’t humanity long ago abdicate its monarchy over creation, giving up at last the notion of ‘special creation’ and human ‘dominion over all things’? …. I can think of few more dangerous attitudes than that promulgated in Genesis 1:28 and now by the Vatican, exhorting humanity, as the crown of creation, to ‘have dominion … over every living thing.’”
  Thus he whacks down a straw man. Genesis teaches benevolent management under God, not human monarchy. God is the Monarch (His right as Creator, wouldn’t you say); we are just the stewards, who should be good caretakers of His workmanship.
• Eugenics: Nick Martin, reviewing books by Carlson and Lynn on the dark history of eugenics, tries to put the eu- (good) back in the word. He admits it has a “horrific” record and left “disastrous wreckage,” (i.e. Nazi Germany), but thinks rational debate can bring about positive effects, reasoning that “Evolution is value-free. The high-school dropout with six children by the age of 25 is clearly more fit (or ‘better’ in darwinian terms) than the career woman pregnant for the first time in her late thirties. If we would wish to alter the relative reproductive success of these two women to favour the latter, make no mistake that it is because we want it, not because Darwin, or God, or the teleological destiny of man demands it.”
  But then who gets to choose, and on what moral grounds?

Teenager Is an Evolutionary Disease   12/06/2001
The Dec. 6 Nature has a new theory about the evolution of adolescence, and National Geographic wasted no time reporting it. A London paleoanthropologist studied teeth of Homo erectus and concluded they didn’t have teenagers; their adults were fully grown at 14 (based on their teeth). He believes this shows that adolescence didn’t evolve till much later up to the time of the Neanderthals. The Nature Science Update summary states, “Although apes cut the apron strings at around 12 years, despairing human parents are well aware that their kids take at least 18 years to grow up. The development of this prolonged growth period is seen as a key event in human evolution, allowing extra time for learning.”

Is it any wonder that the ApeMan and Dumb categories usually go together? How can they possibly make these pronouncements about the family life and behavior and social evolution of people from teeth? We reported June 10 that Science News said the data from juvenile skeletons is conflicting and contradictory, yielding more questions than answers.

If these paleoanthropologists were not already convinced that man evolved from ape-like ancestors, all this speculation would be totally unjustified. National Geographic includes a picture of a cute coed and pipes in, “It may be the dream of many parents to have their children skip the teenage years altogether. But it was a major step forward in human evolution, and scientists have long been intrigued by when the change first took place.” Now ask yourself some very logical questions: who decides that this is a step forward or backward? If it is all an unguided, purposeless game, and if it drives parents crazy, is it really progress? How will your teenager live if he/she is convinced he/she is just an evolved ape, driven along by impersonal forces? How can scientists know these teeth and bones are as old as claimed, and fit into the sequence assumed without first assuming there is a sequence?

We should learn from the historical analysis by Stephen Jay Gould (an ardent evolutionist) in The Mismeasure of Man about an anthropologist named Broca. Measuring skull capacities with care and precision, Broca was convinced he was doing objective science, but was in fact selecting data that fit his preconceived bias that some humans were intellectually superior to others. What’s the difference here? Nothing in this data supports the idea that adolescence evolved 300,000 years ago; a few tooth measurements are being force-fitted into an already inviolable, slavish commitment to human evolution, despite their surprise at a detail here or there. If you read back through the Early Man links, it’s clear that the whole story is just made up, not built up by the evidence. Tell your teen she/he still has to obey the rules.

Geologists Continue to Find Anomalies   12/05/2001
Unlike the concrete displays in national parks, the explanations in scientific journals for geological phenomena seem to be more flexible. Several anomalies and findings contrary to established opinion are reported in the December Geology journal of the Geological Society of America:

• A University of Colorado geologist finds that arid regions might show more flood erosion: “Thus, a shift toward more arid conditions may have increased relative magnitudes of rare floods or, conversely, increased the frequency of large floods. Such a shift, despite a decrease in precipitation and discharge, could have doubled incision rates, particularly in regions already quite arid.”
• Two Ohio and South Carolina geologists study a Santa Barbara foraminifera trap for evidence of El Nino effects, and find that, “Surprisingly, despite greatly reduced upwelling conditions, foraminiferal flux values during the spring 1997 upwelling season were more than four times greater than the year before. The contrast between normal and El Niño foraminifer populations has important implications for reconstructing the past history of both El Niño events and more general climate histories from the Santa Barbara Basin varved sediment record.”
• Canadian geologists studying a region of Western Canada explain the absence of certain fossils with erosion and mountain-building events that had the effect of “concealing the extent of the Late Devonian faunal crisis and its recovery.”
• Two Michigan geologists propose an alternative theory to the popular subduction hypothesis for the origin of continental crust, lamenting that “The processes that created the first large cratonic areas such as the Pilbara and the Kaapvaal remain poorly understood. Models based on the uniformitarian extrapolation of present-day arc volcanic processes to a hotter early Earth have not adequately explained the observations in these terranes.”
• Two University of California planetary scientists did experiments on river erosion dependence on sedimentary particles in the water, admitting that “Recent theoretical investigations suggest that the rate of river incision into bedrock depends nonlinearly on sediment supply, challenging the common assumption that incision rate is simply proportional to stream power.” Finding the situation more complex and variable than popular belief would suppose, they conclude, “Our results suggest that spatial and temporal variations in the extent of bedrock exposure provide incising rivers with a previously unrecognized degree of freedom in adjusting to changes in rock uplift rate and climate. Furthermore, we conclude that the grain size distribution of sediment supplied by hillslopes to the channel network is a fundamental control on bedrock channel gradients and topographic relief.”
• Two Canadian geologists find interleaved fossils of stromatolites and metazoans in British Columbia similar to a find in Namibia, which “greatly extends its geographic range, and suggests a more widespread distribution in similar facies in intermediate areas. Both assemblages constitute the earliest occurrences of shelly fossils in their respective regions.” (Stromatolites are presumed to be early blue-green algal structures preceding the evolution of metazoans.)
• Seven geologists studying remains of a Montana glaciation use radiometric dating to find that “These cosmogenic chronologies identify a late Pinedale glacial maximum in northern Yellowstone that is significantly younger than previously thought, and they suggest deglaciation of the Yellowstone plateau by ~14 ¹⁰Be ka.”
• Six geologists studying Antarctica find that a coast section of east Antarctica was largely ice free during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and stayed that way, puzzling that “Previous reconstructions of LGM ice limits for the area are incompatible with this new evidence.”
• Italian geologists find the “oldest pristine Milankovitch cycle” in the Latemar formation in Italy, admitting that “This evidence deepens a widely noted disagreement between radiometric and cyclostratigraphic time scales for the Latemar buildup.”
• Two Ohio geologists experiment with the “vexing question” of sheet erosion and rill erosion. Measuring radionuclides on an Iowa soil after thunderstorm runoff, and evaluating 15.5 million possible combinations, they suggest that “rill erosion produced 29 times more sediment than sheet erosion.”
• Geologists from California, New York and Australia contest the “snowball earth” hypothesis of P.F. Hoffman as an explanation for cap carbonates and other negative isotopic incursions that would otherwise require short-term perturbations in the global carbon cycle during glaciation. These geologists think the carbon ratios show a healthy ocean during the periods Hoffman and others believed evidence showed the earth must have been a frozen ball of ice.

We cite enough technical samples here (the reader can find more in the abstracts) to exemplify the difference between national park geology and back-room geology. National park displays typically pontificate authoritarian certainties in words like, “64.265 million years ago, such and such an event occurred in this way,” giving the mistaken impression that all geologists agree. Actual field geology is done by scientists who look at one small part of the whole, find an anomaly and try to fit it in with current thinking or propose another theory; or claim that everyone else is all wet. There are egos and competition involved, and so many variables and exceptions to everything that it is well nigh impossible to weave all the disparate facts into a coherent story that will satisfy everyone. Most of the time they just assume it fits in somehow with the geological time scale and accepted uniformitarian wisdom. But over and over you find statements like these where the actual data contradict the “big picture” of earth history, sometimes in drastic ways. Evolutionary geology resembles the joke about a farmer’s ramshackle house; when asked how it stood up, he replied, “The termites are holding hands.”

Nature Benefits Children With A.D.D.   12/05/2001
If you’re a mom, having plants and trees around the house might help your mood and improve the attention of your children, claims Nancy Wells, a researcher at Cornell University. Her study correlated the extent of natural surroundings at home with scores on the Attention Deficit Disorders Evaluation Scale. Wells concluded, “The results suggest that the natural environment may play a far more significant role in the well-being of children within a housing environment than has previously been recognized.” The study also indicated that mothers’ psychological relief from stress was noticeable and sustained in homes with more natural settings.

This is a somewhat fuzzy result from a limited sample, and may have overlooked other significant factors, but it seems to reinforce common sense notions that the sight of trees, grass, plants and other beautiful parts of God’s creation is more satisfying than endless expanses of concrete. It also coincides with previous findings (follow the Health category.) Try it out; view some gardens on your street and see if it brightens your day. If you’re a student, try studying in the park. Maybe this story will make you feel good about catching up on the yard work. You need it; your kid needs it.

All-Natural Miracles Explained   12/04/2001
The December issue of Popular Mechanics has an article by Mike Fillon that tries to give natural explanations for some of the Biblical miracles like manna, the collapse of the walls of Jericho, the shadow of Ahaz’s sundial, and others.

See the response by Andrew Lamb in Answers in Genesis.

Mars Once a Mile Deep in Water?   12/03/2001
NASA’s Astrobiology webnews is echoing an Associated Press story that Johns Hopkins scientists believe Mars was once up to a mile deep in water. They base this on the discovery of molecular hydrogen (H₂) detected in the Martian atmosphere by the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) spacecraft.

Scientists are stepping on each other to drown Mars with a global flood. Better wait for better data before transferring Noah’s Ark from a water planet to a desert.

World’s Tiniest Vertebrate Found   12/03/2001
A lizard so small (16mm) it can turn on a dime has been found on a Caribbean island, reports Nature Science Update. This makes it the smallest known vertebrate. “Islands are natural evolutionary laboratories.” the article states. “Their isolation means that the creatures that do wash up, perhaps clinging to floating vegetation, have less competition, and can evolve to do ecological jobs that are already taken on the mainland.”

The article mentions other examples of exotic island animals: “Island species are often unusually large or small. Mauritius’ dodo, for example, was an overgrown pigeon, while the ancient inhabitants of Crete included a pygmy elephant and hippopotamus.” One cannot assume they were transported and then evolved, however; they might have become isolated by land bridges that disappeared. Regardless, the lizards are not evolving into another type of animal. A lizard is still a lizard, large or small. Genetic characteristics can be exaggerated among isolated populations. Look at the variety among dog breeds, which are one interfertile species (Canis familiaris) from one original gene pool. To extrapolate variation endlessly into evolution from a reptile to a mammal, however, is unwarranted, both in fossil evidence and observation of living species.

Mission to Pluto Approved   12/03/2001
The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory has been selected by NASA to plan a mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt for 2006 launch and arrival in 2020. The mission, to be jointly operated with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, “is likely to rewrite textbooks regarding the origins of the planets, the nature of the outer solar system, and even the origin of primitive materials that may have played a role in the development of life.”

They always have to sneak in that word life to get the public excited about it, because otherwise they think nobody would care about scientific missions of discovery. But why not? Millions of youngsters find astronomy and planetary exploration exciting, whether or not we are looking for life or its so-called building blocks. What’s evolution got to do with it? Just explore the unknown regions and let the evidence speak for itself. Pluto is the last planet to be explored; that should be exciting enough. The thing needing a rewrite in textbooks is the unscientific hype about chemical evolution.

[Note: the New Horizons Spacecraft, launched in 2006, flew successfully by Pluto in 2015, taking fantastic images and data. To scientists’ great surprise, Pluto and its large moon Charon both appear to be active. This challenges assumptions of Deep Time for the solar system. Search for our articles about Pluto from 2015 and forward.]

Molecule May Remove Need for Embryonic Stem Cells   12/03/2001
University of Pennsylvania scientists have identified a receptor molecule that plays a key role in pluripotency, the ability of a cell to develop into any kind of adult cell type. This may eliminate the need for embryonic stem cells with the ethical controversies they entail.

If the cloners keep pushing for their way after enough stories like these, you can suspect an ulterior motive.

Review: National Geographic December 2001

The Geographica column mentions a species of black bear called the Kermode bear on the coast of British Columbia; one in ten is born white. It would be interesting to conjecture whether polar bears originated from a colored stock, but the genes for white coats got segregated into the population as they migrated north. This is not evolution (they are still bears, part of a bear “kind”), because all the genes for bear diversity were present at the beginning, but became accentuated in isolated populations.

NG is making a big deal of its new super-crocodile, with museum displays and a TV episode. A short article states, “Extinction has trimmed the largest and smallest of the croc family. Yet unlike dinosaurs, crocs today are much as they were more than a hundred million years ago…” (So where’s the evolution? And are you sure they lived a hundred million years ago?)

The magazine has a colorful adventure story about Antarctica, with pictures of dangerously hard-to-get-to organisms living comfortably under an iceberg, and another about the Internet and life in Silicon Valley, but its cover story is about Abraham, “Father of Three Faiths.” Bible students may find the pictures of Abraham’s travels enlightening, though a politically-correct magazine like National Geographic cannot appear judgmental about which faith, if any, is more historically accurate or makes better sense. But the following story about Afghanistan, with all its war, poverty and despair, renders its own verdict. You can study the enclosed map of Afghanistan better to follow the nightly news of the war effort against this enclave of terrorism.