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Another Tetrapod Ancestor Claimed
October 20, 2002
Maybe the Aussies want their share of missing link notoriety; an unusual fish with bony fins has been discovered in western Australia, reported in Nature.1 The bigger the splash a missing link makes for reporters, the better. The story on Science Daily said, “A fossil fish discovered in the West Australian Kimberley has been identified […]
Miller-Frankenstein Ghost Rises from the Dead
October 20, 2002
51; Stanley Miller died last year, but his friendly ghost lives on. Famous for his Halloweenish spark-discharge apparatus that brought naturalism to life, Miller subsequently began to doubt the simplistic “primordial soup” vision that took on a life of its own, making apparitions in many a textbook. He realized that improbably atmospheric conditions—a reducing atmosphere […]
Ring Around the Moons
October 20, 2002
51; Saturn is known for its rings, and some small moons have been found inside its rings. But wouldn’t it be strange if some of its moons had rings of their own? Such a thing had not been widely considered before 2007, when there was a tentative detection of a ring around Rhea (see 03/10/2008). […]
The Why and How of Leopard Spots
October 20, 2002
51; A leopard may not be able to change its spots (Jeremiah 13:23), but maybe evolution can – if evolutionists – or Rudyard Kipling – can tell us how or why. A headline in the BBC News promised to tell us “how the leopard got its spots,” while PhysOrg promised to reveal, “Why the leopard […]
Radioactive Dating: Science or Alchemy?
September 20, 2002
Richard Kerr had some surprising things to say about uranium-lead dating in the Sept. 17 issue of Science1 – surprising, because as a believer in the method and an evolutionist, he admitted there is a fair amount of unscientific methodology and controversy involved. “For years, different laboratories using uranium-lead radiometric dating—the gold standard of geochronology—have […]
Mars Methane May Be Geological, Not Biological
September 20, 2002
Just when the ESA Mars Express spacecraft was collecting data on methane emissions on Mars, leading some to speculate it might be a biomarker, Science Now reported new findings that indicate methane can form naturally in Earth’s mantle by heating water, iron oxide and calcite under pressure (see also Physics Web). This demonstrates […]
National Geographic Calls Noahs Ark Search a Stunt
September 20, 2002
National Geographic News has taken the announcement that McGivern’s team failed to get a permit to search Mt. Ararat (see 04/26/2004 headline) as an opportunity to question all searches and the historicity of Noah’s flood. They questioned the character and motives of the search team and its guide, and quoted a historian who called the […]
How Precise Is Precision Cosmology?
September 20, 2002
When data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) came in, cosmologists heralded it as the era of “precision cosmology” and immediately began to make claims that resulting data map confirmed some cosmological theories and falsified others (see 02/14/2003 headline). Two papers in the Astrophysical Journal, however, are discounting the precision of the data and […]
Press Goes Ape Over Baby Lucy
September 20, 2002
The news media, especially National Geographic, BBC News, and Associated Press (see Fox News) have new fodder for human-evolution stories and artwork, now that a partial skeleton of Australopithecus afarensis has been reported in Nature.1 The teeth, cranium, shoulder blades, fingers, inner ear, hyoid bone and other well-preserved parts match “typical African ape morphology.” This […]
Farewell, Cannibal Dino
September 20, 2002
Whoops, We Were Wrong Dept.: Fossils of Coelophysis found in 1947 included members of the same species in the stomach, so they were cannibals, right? Not so fast, corrects an article in BBC News. The food now looks more like filet of crocodile. After re-examining the evidence, researchers from Columbia University and the American Museum […]
No More Excuses: You Have Time to Work Out
September 20, 2002
If you use the excuse that you don’t have the time to exercise, consider a study from McMaster University in Canada that found a short, 20-minute intense workout can be just as effective as two hours of moderate exercise. You can manage 20 minutes, can’t you? Another Canadian study mentioned on EurekAlert claims that walking, […]
Questioning Earths Privileges
September 20, 2002
51; Two articles this week downplayed considerations that would make the Earth seem like a special place in the universe. Both have ties to NASA. Are life-friendly stars limited to a narrow band in the galaxy called the Galactic Habitable Zone (GHZ)? NASA-supported Astrobiology Magazine cast doubt on the idea. Citing a study […]
Dmanisi Homo erectus Fossil Count Grows
September 20, 2002
More bones matching the skulls from the purported Eurasian Homo erectus skulls in Dmanisi, Republic of Georgia have been found (for background, see 08/31/2005 bullet 5, 03/20/2005, 08/01/2002, 11/29/2002). The find was reported in Nature1 with commentary by Daniel Lieberman in the same issue.2 The bones, including ribs, leg bones and arm bones, fingers and […]
SETI at 50: Onward with Style
September 20, 2002
51; It’s been fifty years since the first scientific paper suggested listening in on the stellar radio dial for signs of intelligence.1 Nature celebrated the occasion with two articles and an Editorial that said,2 “Despite the long odds against success, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence has come a long way.” SETI sure has […]
Waltzing with Dinosaurs
September 20, 2002
51; An international team of paleontologists wrote a kind of “State of the Tyrannosaur Address” in Science last week,1 boasting about all that is known of these creatures: Tyrannosaurs, the group of dinosaurian carnivores that includes Tyrannosaurus rex and its closest relatives, are icons of prehistory. They are also the most intensively studied extinct dinosaurs, […]
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