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Rooting for Human Evolution
September 20, 2002
Can you squeeze human blood out of a turnip? A new story floating around for how humans began their long divergence away from apes in the jungle was that they developed a taste for roots. EurekAlert reported a story coming out of U of Minnesota: “About five to seven million years ago, when the lineage […]
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, […]
Big Bird Was Scary
September 20, 2002
51; A giant fossil bird with a serrated-edge beak was found in Chile, reported Science Daily, PhysOrg, Live Science, and New Scientist. The projections on its beak look like teeth but are not true teeth. They probably helped the sea bird hold onto fish. The artist reconstruction gives the bird a scary-looking demeanor. […]
Biblical History News
August 20, 2002
Little by little, the archaeologist’s spade helps shed light on Biblical history – that is, when not hindered by wars and conflicts. Biblical Archaeology Society published some interesting news on its website and in the Sept-Oct issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. Royal portrait: The magazine contains a report by renowned Israeli archaeologist Gabriel Barkay of […]
Cambrian Explosion Still Explosive
August 20, 2002
51; Two new papers about Cambrian and Precambrian fossils did nothing to help soften the blow of the Cambrian explosion – the sudden appearance of all the animal body plans in the geological blink of an eye. They essentially restated the problem for Darwin, who hoped that fossil discoveries would fill in the gaps where […]
Soft Squid Ink Sac Claimed to Be 150 Million Years Old
August 20, 2002
51; The BBC News announced the discovery of a fossil squid with its ink sac still intact. “The fossil, thought to be 150 million years old, was found when a rock was cracked open, revealing the one-inch-long black ink sac.” The ink has been sent to Yale for analysis. An article on the Daily Mail […]
Stupid Evolution Quote of the Week:
Let Darwin Take Over
August 20, 2002
Jack Szostak (Harvard Medical Center) wins this week’s prize for a comment in an Associated Press article (see PhysOrg) claiming that scientists will create life in a test tube within 10 years. Szostak was explaining the process of creating a cell membrane to the reporter: His idea is that once the container is made, if […]
Plants Are World Travelers
July 20, 2002
We think of plants as stationary life forms anchored to the soil, but National Geographic News reminds us that they have remarkable ways of getting around via seed dispersal mechanisms. Some fly through the air with parachutes or helicopters, some float in the water, and some rely on animals. It appears that some exotic species […]
Dark Energy Is Embarrassing
July 20, 2002
Robert Scherrer is trying to come up with a theory that combines dark matter and dark energy, reports Space.Com. “It is somewhat embarrassing to have two different unknown sources for the dominant forms of matter and energy in the universe. On the other hand, that may just be the way things are. We don’t get […]
Harnessing Cellular Machines for Humans
July 20, 2002
The cell is loaded with molecular machines, so why reinvent the wheel? or the whole truck? Martin G. L. van den Heuvel and Cees Dekker wrote in Science that engineers ought to put the existing technology to work.1 The biological cell is equipped with a variety of molecular machines that perform complex mechanical tasks such […]
Only Atheists Need Apply
July 20, 2002
51; He’s a Christian, yes, but he is also a leading American scientist and a harsh critic of intelligent design. He supports research on embryonic stem cells and upholds Darwin’s theory of evolution completely. That’s not enough to get Francis Collins off the hook with the scientific establishment. Both Nature and Science expressed “serious misgivings” […]
Genomic Junk Is Cells Air-Traffic Control
July 20, 2002
51; Linc-RNAs (large intervening non-coding RNAs) have been promoted from junk molecules to air traffic controllers. A mystery about these transcripts of DNA that are not translated into proteins is being explained. Science Daily reported on work at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and the Broad Institute that found these RNA molecules […]
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