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Life in Space: Follow the Hot Water, not the Hot Air
August 8, 2008
Planetary scientists have their eyes and instruments on regions of hot water, but speculating too dogmatically about life in space could get you in hot water yourself. Simon Klatterhorn (geologist, U of Idaho) is mesmerized by the possibility of life at Europa, Jupiter’s ice-crusted oceanic moon. In an interview by Science Daily, he […]
New Camera Imitates Eyeball
August 7, 2008
Scientists at the University of Illinois and Northwestern University have succeeded in manufacturing stretchable optical electronic sensors on curved surfaces. This will open up a whole new world of new imaging products – inventions that imitate the human eyeball. The team said this about the eyeball in their paper in Nature:1 The human eye is […]
Adult Stem Cells Race Ahead; Embryonics Falter
August 7, 2008
Major advances are being made with induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS), stem cells reconstituted from adult tissues, while interest in embryonic stem cells (ES) seems to be drying up. Both Nature and Science reported advances in iPS technology last week. Nature reported that the number of factors needed to reconstitute pluripotent stem cells […]
Survival of the, Whatever
August 6, 2008
Two articles recently have cast doubt on whether the classic Darwinian phrase “survival of the fittest” fits what happens in nature. Science Daily reported on work by researchers at University of Texas at Austin that suggests evolution’s products may not always be optimal. The team speculated that mutations which help an animal in […]
Defeat Spam: Imitate the Bodys Defenses
August 5, 2008
Your body’s immune system is inspiring the next generation of email spam-fighters. The University of Southampton reported that “An algorithm for spam recognition inspired by the immune system will be presented at the first European conference on Artificial Life (ALIFE XI) being held in Winchester this week.” The idea is that “in the […]
Phoenix Did NOT Find Mars Life
August 4, 2008
A media snafu has NASA spokespersons rushing to deny that life has been found on Mars, reported Space.com. For example, Live Science reporter Leonard David said that the White House has been alerted to the potential for new information about life on Mars based on findings from the Phoenix Lander. The apparent secrecy has teased […]
Scientists Bemoan Research Fraud
August 2, 2008
A commentary entitled “Repairing research integrity” published in Nature June 181 struck a nerve. Three letters to the editor in the July 31 issue said the problem is worse than Titus, Wells and Rhoades indicated when they said many issues of research fraud go unreported, and suggested principles to fix the problem. The […]
How Much Is Known About Climate History?
August 1, 2008
Scientific papers on earth history can seem very erudite and confident, filled with jargon and named periods that appear carved in stone. Every once in awhile, though, a surprise discovery raises questions about how sound their timelines and models really are. Get a load of this opening to a review by Jacqueline Flückiger,1 an environmental […]
Wet Cave with Fossils Found in Dry Desert
July 31, 2008
The Atacama Desert in Chile is one of the driest places on earth – it gets about 1mm of rainfall per year, if that – but scientists just discovered a wet cave there. Robert Roy Britt reported for Live Science that these desert caves can contain water, and at least one is loaded with fossils […]
Whats SETI Got to Do With It?
July 31, 2008
The science news outlets are all posting a story from Space.com about how you can adopt a scientist. Mark Showalter is an interesting guy – astronomer, scuba diver, amateur naturalist, award-winning photographer, and specialist in planetary rings. But why was this story posted in the SETI column? There doesn’t seem to be anything […]
Ethane Lake Found on Titan
July 31, 2008
Liquid ethane has been detected in a lake near the south pole of Saturn’s moon Titan, reported JPL yesterday. This confirms long-held suspicions that ethane, a byproduct of methane disruption by the solar wind, accumulates on the surface of the large atmosphere-shrouded moon. A problem remains why there is so little of it. Pre-Cassini predictions […]
Dinosaur Soft Tissue: Fooled by Slime?
July 30, 2008
The claim made in 2005 that soft tissues in dinosaur bone had been discovered (see 03/24/2005) has been challenged by new research published in PLoS One.1 Maybe the pliable stuff is just slime. Thomas Kaye from the Burke Museum of Natural History in Seattle with two colleagues were actually hoping to find more […]
Leaf Assumption Challenged: Affects Climate Modeling
July 29, 2008
A reasonable-sounding assumption has been overturned, leaving climate models in upheaval. The assumption was that leaf temperature stays in equilibrium with air temperature. It doesn’t. Leaves are hotter than assumed during active periods of growth, such as at midday in the growing season. They maintain a relatively constant temperature through their own biological air conditioning, […]
History Channel Airs Evolve
July 29, 2008
A new 13-part series on the History Channel, called Evolve, begins with an episode on the evolution of the eye. To sell the story, the blurb needed to cast Evolution as an inventor: They are one of evolution’s most useful and prevalent inventions. Ninety five percent of living species are equipped with eyes and they […]
Gems and Hot Ideas About Lifes Origin
July 28, 2008
It seems that origin-of-life speculations are constantly looking for new plot lines. PhysOrg published a new idea that life started on diamonds. Yes, “Diamonds may have been life”s best friend on primordial Earth,” it began, raising the interesting question whether friendship was a concept before consciousness emerged. Since diamonds are thought to be among the […]
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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.
