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Walking Fish Gets Good Mileage
January 16, 2008
In 2006 (04/06/2006), 05/03/2006), Neil Shubin of the University of Chicago announced his missing link: Tiktaalik, a fish with wrist bones that he claimed were transitional between fish and four-footed creatures, or tetrapods. Since then he has taken his fish on the road and is getting good mileage for evolution.
NY Times: Cosmologists Have Lost Their Brains
January 15, 2008
Naked brains floating in space, disconnected from reality – this describes the minds of some modern cosmologists, accused Dennis Overbye in a shocking article in the New York Times January 15. While attempting to be sympathetic to the smart guys who can cover a blackboard with equations about higher dimensions, it was clear he was […]
Humans Excel at… Please Wait… Patience
January 14, 2008
Here’s another thing that distinguishes humans from animals: patience. Current Biology usually has a “Quick Guide” feature on some aspect of biology. In the latest issue, patience was the patient. First of all, what is it? Humans and other animals often make decisions that trade off present and future benefits. Should a monkey eat an […]
Bacteria to the Future
January 14, 2008
Bacteria used to be considered so boring, they were passed over by scientists eager to look where the action was: eukaryotic cells. That was then. Now, Nature reported,1 the little rods and spheres and spirals have lots of tricks up their sleeves worth investigating. “Long dismissed as featureless, disorganized sacks, bacteria are now revealing a […]
Zatta Fact? Scientific Facts Evolve
January 14, 2008
Every once in awhile it is good to be reminded that “scientific facts” are in a constant state of revision. Here are some recent examples of scientists with surprised looks on their faces: Cholesterol for health: Surprise, says EurekAlert: cholesterol may actually pose health benefits. “… don’t push aside bacon and eggs just yet,” it […]
Laetoli Prints Eroding Fast
January 13, 2008
Can footprints said to be 3.7 million years old be so fragile as to disappear in 30 years? News@Nature reported that the famed Laetoli footprints, said to be those of Lucy’s vintage, are in danger of being destroyed by weathering, erosion, vegetation, cattle and humans. Though located several hours’ drive in Ngorongoro National […]
A Tale of Two Cosmic Cities
January 13, 2008
Two organizations have prepared curricula presenting grand panoramas of cosmic history. Each is divided into seven modules – but that is where any similarity ends. One is a completely materialistic and evolutionary view composed by scientists and educators from NASA and the federal government and major academic institutions and corporations. The other is a completely […]
Solar System Super Snapshots
January 12, 2008
Here are some of the most fascinating new images coming from spacecraft out there on duty – but they didn’t just come in on their own. They are brought to you by highly intelligent and dedicated human beings: the navigators, instrument teams, deep space network engineers, flight controllers and scientists who gather and distribute the […]
NAS Booklet Gets Its Counterpunch
January 11, 2008
Recommended Reading: Dr. Cornelius Hunter, Author of Darwin’s God, Darwin’s Proof and Science’s Blind Spot is reviewing the newly-revised NAS booklet Science, Evolution and Creationism at Access Research Network. It’s so well written, we are speechless. Dr. Hunter has saved us a lot of work, because the NAS booklet was crying out for rebuttal. This […]
Monarch Butterflies as a Test of Evolution
January 11, 2008
The Discovery Institute and the National Academy of Sciences have recently published books with butterflies prominently displayed on the cover. The two books give opposite viewpoints on whether life was designed or a product of evolution. Maybe a look at a real-world butterfly research project can shed light on the debate. A paper […]
Stem Cells: Its a New Ball Game
January 10, 2008
A year ago, the ethical battle over human embryonic stem cells was raging. Now, both Science and Nature have acknowledged that the new induced pluripotent stem cell technology (see 11/20/2007) has opened up a new era that may make embryonic stem cells practically obsolete. Martin Pera, writing in Nature1, left open only a […]
Evo-Giants Battle Over Evo-Love
January 10, 2008
Richard Dawkins and E. O. Wilson, both atheistic evolutionists, are at odds over the evolution of unselfish love (altruism). Wilson attributes it to a revised form of group selection; Dawkins to individual selection (the basis of his “selfish gene” theory). Evolutionists see no difference between the “eusociality” in insect colonies, in which individuals […]
Dinosaur Fossil Shows Exquisite Skin Detail
January 9, 2008
More imaginary feathers on a dinosaur have been discovered. A BBC News article shows a cartoon of a dinosaur with feathers on its arms. This is strange, because the paper it refers to makes no claim about feathers – only that certain structures had been interpreted as feathers by some. The original paper […]
Blind Cave Fish Can See Again
January 8, 2008
Can blind cave fish get their lost eyes back? Yes, if they hybridize with other cave fish that lost them due to different mutations. An article on Science Daily described experiments at New York University that showed that the progeny of two independent cave populations could have fully functioning eyes. Why? Because “the genetic deficiencies […]
The Evolutionary Inference
January 7, 2008
Today’s Darwinian Just-So Story comes from a paper in PNAS.1 Three Italian scientists did experiments on the perception of two-day old human infants. They found that the babies tended to pay more attention to biological motion than non-biological motion, and looked longer at right-side-up displays than upside-down ones. Their conclusion: “These data support the hypothesis […]
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