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Earth Size Gives Life Edge
September 7, 2009
The earth seems to be holding onto its status as a privileged planet. New Scientist reported that a rocky planet’s size is linked to its ability to sustain a magnetic field and plate tectonics. This means that some of the “super-earths” found around other stars (5-10 times the size of earth) may not be habitable. […]
What Darwin Does to Psychology – And Humanity
September 6, 2009
“Traits that we may find unsavory are nevertheless also products of our evolutionary history.” This quote stands out boldly in a call-out from an article by psychologist Jerome H. Barkow (Dalhousie University) in a review of evo-psych (evolutionary psychology) in PNAS.1 Barkow acknowledged controversy about the premise that the evolutionary history of our psyches produces […]
New Recipe for Life: Zinc & Zap
September 5, 2009
Two scientists are overturning the Miller icon of the origin of life – you know, the illustration in almost every textbook showing sparks zapping gases and amino acids emerging from the goo. That doesn’t wash any more, claim Armen Mulkidjanian (University of Osnabrueck) and Michael Galperin (U.S. National Institutes of Health). Instead, Astrobiology Magazine reported, […]
Permian Extinction Recovery Story Stretches Credibility
September 4, 2009
It goes without saying that Darwin’s theory fits hand in glove with the geological dating scheme, but how reliable is the latter? The textbook age names – Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, Eocene and all the rest – have taken on their own life as assumed truths. Every once in awhile, though, papers are published that require […]
Molecular Machines on Parade
September 3, 2009
Scientific papers continue to exhibit the exquisite mechanisms in the cell for handling all kinds of situations, through the operation of molecular machines. Here are a few recent examples from this week’s issue of Nature (Sept 3, 2009). Molecular sieve: What happens when a cell gets bloated? Too much water entering a cell can increase […]
Mutation: Not a Bug, a Feature
September 2, 2009
Evolutionary biologists are sometimes risque with the way they discuss mutations. They treat them almost like magic wands, able to produce wondrous new organs and functions by accident. Health to them, death to you: One article on Science Daily discussed a mutation that causes congenital heart disease in humans, but may have been a stepping […]
Milking the Martian Meteorite
September 1, 2009
One would think everything has been told about ALH 84001, the Martian meteorite that made a splash in 1996 with claims it contained fossils of living organisms. That claim was essentially discarded in subsequent years. Its major contribution was giving life to a new science called astrobiology and energizing NASA’s Mars program. Now, a new […]
Emergence of Genetic Code Touted
August 31, 2009
Most origin-of-life researchers have acknowledged the extreme improbability of the genetic code arising by chance. Their approaches to get around this problem have varied considerably since the Miller experiment succeeded in generating a few amino acids. Despite the celebrations that 1953 experiment generated (05/02/2003), it did not even begin to approach the problem of solving […]
Your Throat Has Tasteful Antennae
August 30, 2009
Our airways are lined with cells that have beating oars called motile cilia. Like galley slaves on a Roman ship, they beat in coordinated waves, setting up currents that propel dust and foreign matter out toward the mouth. Scientists just found out another amazing capability of these motile cilia: they can “taste” toxic chemicals and […]
How the Girl Evolved Fear of Spiders
August 29, 2009
Today’s Evolutionary Just-So Story is brought to you by New Scientist: “Girls Are Primed to Fear Spiders.” Once upon a time, while cavemen were out hunting and gathering, the women back home had to learn to avoid dangerous animals. David Rakison of Carnegie Mellon University put this all into evolutionary terms for the rest of […]
Return of the Peppered Mice
August 28, 2009
Slight changes in the coat color of deer mice is the latest triumph of evolutionary theory.
Whats Up With the Planets?
August 27, 2009
Here are planets and moons making news in our celestial neighborhood, the solar system. Maybe we’ll drop in on another neighborhood while we’re looking around. Venus resurfacing: Planetary geologists can’t get away from the evidence that Venus underwent a planet-wide volcanic resurfacing epoch. Crater counts and lava flow surveys leave little room for doubt that, […]
Feather Technology Resurrected in Printer After 40 Million Years
August 26, 2009
A fossil bird feather from Germany still shows that melanosomes – the cell organelles that produce iridescent colors in feathers – are still visible after an alleged 40 million years. The structures were long thought to be remnants of bacteria that fed on the organic matter, but now are seen to consist of original feather […]
Plants Use Hourglass Mechanism
August 26, 2009
Plants need to know when to flower and produce seed. They can read the sunshine, but what about plants living in shade or cloudy conditions? It turns out they have two mechanisms for telling time: a light meter and an hourglass. If the light meter doesn’t switch on, the hourglass lets the plant know it […]
Cosmic Accounting Is Wildly Inaccurate
August 26, 2009
Counting faint celestial objects is admittedly hard, but the task should be within the capabilities of expert astronomers. It is, after all, as simple as counting. So much theoretical work relies on accurate counts of what’s out there, they need to get at least in the ballpark. Recent indications hint that their counts have been […]
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David Coppedge, B.S. Education, B.S. Physics, founded Creation-Evolution Headlines in late 2000 as a way to share science news he was encountering at NASA. It has grown into a highly-trusted source of news and commentary critical of the pro-Darwin consensus, providing analysis of breaking news of interest to creationists and evolutionists, without the Darwin spin. He has authored over 7,000 entries at CEH since its inception.
