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Double Ratchet Found in ATP Synthase

March 16, 2011

ATP synthase, the rotary engine in all living things, has another trick in its design specs: a ratcheting mechanism that improves the efficiency of ATP synthesis. ATP is the “energy currency” of cellular life, so the efficiency of production of ATP is of vital importance. (For background and animation, see CMI article.) Three […]

Biomimetics

Follow the Insects

March 15, 2011

Science has good reason to study insects – not just because they are the most numerous and diverse animals on the planet. They know some tricks we would do well to emulate. Robot designers are taking the lead on following insects. Print a fly: New printers are allowing inventors to print the paper-thin wings they […]

Uncategorized

Surprises in Science Never End

March 14, 2011

In a perfect world of scientific knowledge, scientists would understand everything and be able to predict everything according to their best theories. The number of surprises that continue to turn up, however, show that we remain far from that perfect world. Paleoecology: Chilly dinosaurs: “It has long been thought that the climate of the Mesozoic, […]

Amazing Facts

Feather Color Is a Costly Complex System Design

March 13, 2011

The brilliant, shimmering colors in the breast feathers of the Bird of Paradise have long fascinated ornithologists. Alfred Russell Wallace was perhaps the first Englishman to see the magnificent birds in their native Malaysian habitats and wrote, “the richness of their glossy orange colouring, and the exquisite delicacy of the loosely waving feathers, were unsurpassable.”1 […]

Bible and Theology

Dont Tell the Creationists

March 12, 2011

John Horgan, a blogger for Scientific American, wanted to use this headline 20 years ago, but the editor didn’t let him. Now that editor is gone, so Horgan let the cat out of the bag: “Pssst! Don’t tell the creationists, but scientists don’t have a clue how life began.” Well, he just did. […]

Darwin and Evolution

Assessing Evolutionary Explanations

March 11, 2011

No matter the biological discovery, evolutionists are ready with their explanations. The explanations, however, are often riddled with puzzles, surprises, and seemingly arbitrary appeals to chance. Do such explanations really provide more understanding than those of creationists, who explain that living things were designed for a purpose? Shrimp deal: “Many deep-sea species have close relatives […]

Mind and Brain

If Pigs Have Wings, SETI Could Be Robots

March 11, 2011

The SETI program is still waiting to catch a sentient signal from deep space, but in the absence of data, people are free to speculate. Michael Dyer, a computer science professor at UCLA, is certain that the first aliens to visit Earth will be robots. He even attached a probability to it, according to Adam […]

Dumb Ideas

Evolution by Loss

March 10, 2011

Evolutionists have added a counter-intuitive notion to their explanatory toolkit. It surfaced this week in Nature,1 then reverberated around the media: our ancestors became human when they lost genetic information from ape-like ancestors. New Scientist exemplified the new story line: “Key to humanity is in missing DNA.” Reporter Andy Coghlan explained the central […]

Biomimetics

Bone Structure Matches Animal Size

March 10, 2011

The bigger the animal, the more weight it has to carry. How can large animals maintain strong bones without making them heavier? It turns out all animals have struts in their bones called trabeculae, but the larger the animal, the fewer, stronger, and farther apart are the struts. This new finding is leading to ideas […]

Cosmology

Young Galaxy Cluster Already Mature

March 9, 2011

“Isn’t that special.” The remark, in common parlance, is a generic way of avoiding a judgment call. When astronomers were confronted with the sight of a galaxy too mature for its age, Space.com reported the response: “And that makes it special, researchers said.” The headline was, “Surprise! Ancient Galaxy Cluster Still Looks Young.” […]

Education

Word Choice Affects Scientific Impact

March 8, 2011

The emotional reaction to scientific ideas can change depending on the words used. Can words manipulate public opinion? “Wording matters,” said Jonathon Schuldt [U of Michigan] in a press release posted on PhysOrg. His team found that opinion polls yielded a 16% difference among Republicans depending on whether they were asked if global […]

Physics

Enceladus Geyser Heat Much Higher Than Thought Possible

March 7, 2011

The Enceladus problem – accounting for the heat source of a tiny moon of Saturn – just jumped by more than an order of magnitude. “Cassini Finds Enceladus Is a Powerhouse,” reported Jet Propulsion Laboratory today. “Heat output from the south polar region of Saturn’s moon Enceladus is much greater than was previously thought possible,” […]

Amazing Facts

You Have Electronic Skin

March 7, 2011

Your skin has resistance with memory. That makes it like a memristor, researchers at the University of Oslo are saying. A memristor is a device that remembers the last current it experienced, and varies its resistance accordingly. New Scientist explained what they found: They found that when a negative electrical potential is applied […]

Origin of Life

Alien Life in Meteorites Claimed

March 6, 2011

After scrutinizing rare meteorites for over a decade, a NASA astrobiologist decided to go with his announcement: he may have found alien life. Fox News began his story, “We are not alone in the universe – and alien life forms may have a lot more in common with life on Earth than we had previously […]