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Early Man

Stone Tools May Be Crocodile Stomach Stones
September 21, 2009
“Were crocodiles responsible for the stones we call tools?” is the title of a surprising letter to the editor in Nature last week.1  Patrick Dempsey (the archaeologist, not the actor) raised a possibility that paleoanthropologists and the journals have been making a big mistake for a long time.  He asked, “Could Nature have been unknowingly […]
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Dumb Ideas

Crusty Salt Incubates Raw Ingredients for Life
September 21, 2009
Science Daily asked, “Could salt crusts be key ingredient in cooking up prebiotic molecules?”  What if the answer is “No”?  Just asking the question must be newsworthy.  It invokes the power of suggestion.     Stefan Fox told members of the European Planetary Science Congress last week that his team cooked up a new idea […]
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Amazing Facts

Nature’s Designs Are Engineers’ Finds
September 18, 2009
Nature is a treasure trove of technology.  Though engineers have garnered inspiration from nature since the Wright brothers and before, it seems that in recent years there has been a gold rush to follow nature’s lead. Wet glue:  Worms may not be very inspiring to most people, but Science News reported that scientists at the […]
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Intelligent Design

Intelligent Design Found in DNA
September 17, 2009
Readers of this headline may say it is not news to say that intelligent design has been found in DNA.  Others may be ready for a fight on that issue.  But in this case, the design has been verified beyond any shadow of doubt.  The designers are not who you may be suspecting.  They are […]
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Intelligent Design

Trio of Darwin Films Released
September 16, 2009
This month finds us two thirds of the way between Darwin’s 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of his Origin of Species.  Taking advantage of the extra attention Darwin is getting this year (as if he needed more), three films on his life and ideas are being released from three different companies. The Voyage that […]
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Uncategorized

Science: Knowing vs. Crowing
September 15, 2009
Every week, it seems, some new discovery casts doubt on common scientific knowledge.  News reports about embarrassing finds contrast sharply with confident claims about less observable things – like evolution. Mystery illness:  Science reported last week that the Veterans Administration has pulled the plug on research about “Gulf War Syndrome.”1  Why?  The suite of ailments […]
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Intelligent Design

I.D. Defeated by Triumphant Press Release
September 14, 2009
As if having withstood a terrorist attack, “Evolution [is] still scientifically stable,” announced a Monash university press release.  After a threat from a non-Darwinian explanation, “An international team of researchers, including Monash University biochemists, has discovered evidence at the molecular level in support of one of the key tenets of Darwin’s theory of evolution.”   […]
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Politics and Ethics

Does Hedonism Belong in Science?
September 13, 2009
What’s an article advocating hedonism doing on Science Daily?  Sure enough, an article entitled “Hedonism As the Explanation of Value” appeared today on the science news site without controversy or debate.  The entry gave David Brax of Lund University a platform to preach that “pleasure is the only thing that is valuable in itself.”   […]
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Uncategorized

Useless Evolution
September 12, 2009
Most people think of evolution producing useful traits.  But isn’t it also supposed to get rid of useless ones?  Science Daily reported work by researchers trying to figure that out.     The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in Durham, North Carolina sponsored a team seeking to explore the removal of useless traits by natural selection […]
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Dinosaurs

Velociraptors as Tree Climbers?
September 11, 2009
Remember those sickle-shaped claws on the feet of Velociraptor that terrified visitors in the Jurassic Park movies?  New Scientist reported a radically different theory about them.  They weren’t for eviscerating their prey; they were for climbing trees.  Phil Manning (U of Manchester) previously showed they were insufficient for tearing dinosaur skin.  Now he is suggesting […]
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Amazing Facts

Your Eye Sees Trouble Before You Do
September 10, 2009
In slapstick comedy, the fall guy gets the pie in the face when the clown in front of him ducks.  It’s funny because most of us instinctively duck when we see something coming.  But two recent experimental studies are revealing new automated capabilities built into the eye and brain that are quicker and more automatic […]
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Early Man

Human Evolution Story Confounded – Again
September 9, 2009
Human fossils in Georgia (Asia) have confounded the timeline of human evolution again.  The UK newspaper Independent reported that the 3 skulls of Homo erectus are rewriting the history of man.  If these are as old as claimed (1.8 million years), it would toss overboard the long held belief that modern humans first emerged in […]
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Education

Do You Need a Darwinian Doctor?
September 8, 2009
Visualize a cartoon of Charles Darwin as Hippocrates.  It accompanies a book review in Science by Peter T. Ellison (Harvard).1  Ellison realizes that the mass of material doctors need to master is formidable, but thinks that “Evolutionary biology, however, is no longer an expendable topic in medical education.”     The book is Principles of […]
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Intelligent Design

Earth Size Gives Life Edge
September 7, 2009
The earth seems to be holding onto its status as a privileged planet.  New Scientist reported that a rocky planet’s size is linked to its ability to sustain a magnetic field and plate tectonics.  This means that some of the “super-earths” found around other stars (5-10 times the size of earth) may not be habitable.  […]
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Mind and Brain

What Darwin Does to Psychology – And Humanity
September 6, 2009
“Traits that we may find unsavory are nevertheless also products of our evolutionary history.”  This quote stands out boldly in a call-out from an article by psychologist Jerome H. Barkow (Dalhousie University) in a review of evo-psych (evolutionary psychology) in PNAS.1 Barkow acknowledged controversy about the premise that the evolutionary history of our psyches produces […]
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