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Paper View: Cambrian Explosion Damage Control
April 23, 2006
Like some federal official holding a press conference after a disaster, a Harvard paleontologist has tackled the unenviable job of explaining what Darwin called the most severe challenge that could be levied against his theory: the fossil record. The challenge starts with a bang...
No Pain, No Gain Explained: Lactic Acid Supercharges Your Engines
April 21, 2006
The old paradigm: lactic acid buildup during exercise is like poison to your muscles, producing stiffness and agony. The new paradigm: lactic acid is your friend, a fuel additive that helps keep your mitochondrial motors in top-notch condition. Read all about it in a press release from UC Berkeley. What are you waiting for? It’s […]
The Politics of Darwinism: Dictate, Slander, Block
April 21, 2006
In a state of panic over the rise of intelligent design and creationism, most scientific societies supporting Darwinism are doing what their opponents feel is doomed to fail: avoiding, at all costs, a fair and intellectual debate about the evidence. Instead, many pro-Darwin forces issue prepared statements, misrepresent their opponents, and use legal maneuvering to […]
Ethiopian Missing Link: Location, Location, Location
April 19, 2006
The Associated Press reported that a new fossil discovery proves the link between two ancestral species of man, and shows the change happening right before our eyes: Fossils have long provided snapshots of the human family tree, but a new find in Africa gives scientists a kind of mini home movie showing man’s primal development. […]
Step Aside, T. Rex: Bigger Dino Found
April 19, 2006
A cache of dinosaur bones, meat-eaters bigger than Tyrannosaurus rex, has been uncovered in South America. National Geographic News says the new species, Mapusaurus, exceeded the former heavyweight carnivore in size and agility. All the bones in a river deposit were 100% from this one species, so “the chances they had been deposited randomly are […]
Stupid Evolution Quote of the Week: Scientists, Learn Darwinism on TV
April 18, 2006
In Current Biology, Kenneth E. Sawin of Wellcome Trust Center for Cell Biology at Edinburgh University was interviewed about his career. One of the questions was, “What are the big ideas for you now?” Here is part of his answer: Another thing that I think about, which may be more ethereal, is that cell biologists […]
Astrobiology Ten Years Later: Can It Justify Its Funding?
April 17, 2006
Astrobiology just turned ten years old, but is experiencing growing pains, partly due to a starvation diet. This “science without a subject” (as George Gaylord Simpson quipped about its predecessor, exobiology) is struggling to justify itself at the Congressional feeding trough. Proponents tout it as the most important subject in the universe. Why, then, is […]
How Much Can a Cell Do Without?
April 14, 2006
In an old high school game, the leader would call some unsuspecting boy to the front, put a sheet over him, and say, “Take off what you don’t need.” Perhaps a shoe would emerge from under the sheet. “Take off something else you don’t need,” the leader would continue, and the volume of giggling in […]
Paleoanthropologists Announce the Middle Man
April 12, 2006
In unison, the news media joined the most recent chorus over alleged fossil human ancestors: “Fossil find improves knowledge of human origins” (Live Science): “Fossils fill gap in human lineage,” (BBC News); “Ancient fossils fill gap in early human evolution” (Yahoo News); “Fossil discovery fills gap in human evolution” (MSNBC News, which adds, ‘We just […]
Few Mutational Pathways Lead to Darwinian Evolution
April 12, 2006
Mutations may not be as helpful for neo-Darwinian evolution as expected, say researchers from Harvard. Let’s say five mutations need to occur for a bacterium to gain resistance to an antibiotic, and there are 120 ways to get these mutations. They found that only about 10 of the pathways could be selected by natural selection. […]
Isolated DNA Bases Are Destroyed Quickly
April 11, 2006
Without water, DNA bases fall apart quickly. Any origin-of-life models expecting the building blocks of DNA (nucleotides) to stick around for long are going to suffer, say researchers from Oregon State University. The molecules can enter a “dark state” in which they are highly vulnerable to UV radiation. This idea was once considered “scientific heresy” […]
Imaginary Feathers Found on Turkey Dino
April 10, 2006
Last month, we reported on announcements of a dinosaur fossil with imaginary feathers (02/08/2006); at least, all the news stories mentioned feathers and some had pictures of them, but the original paper said nothing about feathers. Now, National Geographic has done it again: “Giant Turkey-Like Dinosaur Found in Utah,” the title reads, with a picture […]
Gospel of Judas TV Documentary Sells Gnosticism to the Public
April 9, 2006
National Geographic aired its long-awaited documentary Sunday night about the discovery, restoration, and translation of a Gnostic manuscript found in 1970, the Gospel of Judas (see next entry). The trailers had titillated audiences that this was an explosive document that would call our deepest beliefs into question. The content of the documentary clearly gave better […]
Can You Trust the Bible Skeptics?
April 7, 2006
Ever since National Geographic announced the completion of a translation of the Gospel of Judas (a 2nd-century apocryphal gospel attributed to, but not authored by, Judas), the news media have been abuzz with speculations that it provides a clearer view of Jesus from Judas’ point of view, and that the early church leaders suppressed it. […]
The Evolution of Irreducible Complexity
April 6, 2006
It must be open season on Intelligent Design (ID). Yesterday, Nature tried defense with a new missing link claim (04/06) and today, Science is printing a story to tackle ID’s offensive line, irreducible complexity (see U of Oregon press release and EurekAlert). The Discovery Institute immediately jumped to the match, with Mr. Irreducible Complexity himself, […]
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