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Extinction Puzzle Explained as Selection Effect
February 1, 2004
It’s not evolution, it’s statistics. That’s the conclusion of Robert Scotland and Michael Sanderson in the Jan. 30 issue of Science. What’s the puzzle? When biodiversity is examined in the context of species richness, a consistent feature emerges: Most taxonomic groups are species-poor, relatively few are species-rich, and the frequency distribution has the shape of […]
Proof of Life in Martian Meteorite Alleged Again
January 30, 2004
Some Aussies are trying to scoop the Mars prize, it seems from a headline in the down-under Daily Telegraph. While two American rovers are busily sniffing about for evidence of water (as a prerequisite for life) on opposite sides of the surface of Mars, the Australians are saying, “No worries, mate,” they already found Martian […]
Georgia to Teach Evolution, but Avoid the E Word
January 30, 2004
It’s not “evolution,” it’s “biological changes over time,” asserts Georgia Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox. But sometimes good intentions can make both sides of a dispute upset, reports MSNBC News. Pro-evolutionists think the state is trying to water down the teaching of evolution, and anti-evolutionists think changing the word does not change the meaning. Cox […]
For Complex Life, Just Add Oxygen
January 29, 2004
When you take in a breath of fresh air, you let in a lively but dangerous molecule that would kill you if it were not that your cells have elaborate controls to utilize its energy for good and avoid its damaging potential. Oxygen makes forests burn to ashes but also powers your muscles. Astrobiologists realize […]
How to Get Engineering Without an Engineer
January 28, 2004
The study of complex systems is all the rage these days (see, for example, 08/18/2003 entry). In the Jan. 28 issue of Nature,1 J. M. Ottino (Northwestern University) mixes up biology with human design in his Concepts essay on “Engineering complex systems.” “Complex systems,” he explains, “can be identified by what they do […]
10 More Questions
January 27, 2004
As a follow-up to Jonathan Wells’ popular (or notorious, depending on your point of view) 10 Questions to Ask Your Biology Teacher About Evolution, William Dembski has come up with 10 Questions to Ask Your Biology Teacher About Design. Dembski has also recently published a new book, The Design Revolution, “Answering the Toughest […]
The New Phrenology Ostracizes Neanderthals
January 27, 2004
Scientists contrasted different points on Neanderthal skulls to modern human skulls, and concluded Neanderthals were a separate species. The New York Times report by John Noble Wilford says that not all scientists are convinced, however, by the analysis published by Katerina Harvati et al. in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences1 Jan. 26 […]
Early Oxygen Causes Evolutionary Gasps
January 24, 2004
The rise of oxygen in the primitive Earth’s atmosphere has been pushed back 100 million more years, according to Sid Perkins writing for the Jan. 24 issue of Science News. This is based on studies of sediments in South Africa. Though estimated at just a millionth of today’s concentrations, the finding comes as a surprise. […]
La Brea Tar Pits Trap Scientists
January 24, 2004
Sid Perkins of Science News dropped in at La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, and got stuck, not in tar, but in the sticky evolutionary interpretations of these world-famous fossil deposits. This fossil bed, right in one of the ritziest parts of Los Angeles (adjacent to the County Art Museum), Perkins whimsically calls “L.A.’s […]
Should Cosmologists Get Worried Yet?
January 23, 2004
The unexpected finding of mature galaxies in the early universe (see 01/02/2004) has Robert Irion worried, but he seems surprised the theorists are not. Reporting on last week’s meeting of the American Astronomical Society in the Jan. 23 issue of Science,1 he titles his article, “Early Galaxies Baffle Observers, But Theorists Shrug.” He begins: “It’s […]
Minnesota Debates Darwin Teaching
January 22, 2004
Minnesota is next in line in the Darwin wars. This science framework writing committee has taken the unusual step of submitting two drafts to the legislature, a majority report with the usual Darwin-only rule, and a minority with two improvements, according to Seth Cooper of the Discovery Institute: The first benchmark improvement proposed by the […]
Sex and Gender Cannot Be Separated
January 22, 2004
A study of male children born with a rare birth defect called cloacal exstrophy demonstrates that sexual identity is biologically determined, not a result of upbringing. The report in Science Now shows that most of the boys identified themselves as male early on, even though unaware of their condition and “raised as girls” under doctor’s […]
Mars Gusev Crater May Be Dry
January 22, 2004
Preliminary indications from the spectrometer on Spirit, the rover exploring Gusev Crater on Mars, may dash hopes for those looking for evidence of past water there. According to the NASA-JPL press release, the signature of olivine has been found. Olivine degrades in water, even at near-freezing temperatures, and it weathers easily. It is not known […]
Why You Need Sleep
January 21, 2004
A study in the Jan. 22 issue of Nature1 claims that sleep gives you inspiration. Sleep is not just a waste of a third of your day; it helps consolidate memories, and provides pivotal insights. “Insight denotes a mental restructuring that leads to a sudden gain of explicit knowledge allowing qualitatively changed behaviour,” the five […]
Does Microevolution Add Up?
January 15, 2004
Do numerous small changes add up to big ones, like Darwin thought? In the Jan. 15 issue of Nature,1 New Zealand kiwi David Penny (Allan Wilson Center for Molecular Ecology and Evolution, Massey University) is hopeful that the new chimp genome will prove it so: The fundamental issue here is Darwin’s bold claim that “numerous, […]
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 almost 5,000 entries at CEH since its inception.
