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Cell Biology

Evolutionists Try to Out-Complex Behe
November 14, 2010
The phrase irreducible complexity has reluctantly entered the working vocabulary of evolutionary biologists, though they usually disparage its source (Dr. Michael Behe, leading proponent of intelligent design).  The latest evidence is a paper in Science that was titled with an obvious play on words and an attempt to refute Behe’s principle.  They called it “irremediable […]
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SETI

SETI Reinvades Oz
November 13, 2010
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first SETI search, astronomers from around the world are going to tune into the stars, listening for aliens.  Frank Drake named his first attempt in 1960 after the land of Oz: Project Ozma.  Today’s searchers, looking at promising candidates with much better resolution, are once again paying tribute […]
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Philosophy of Science

A Tale of Two Mavericks
November 12, 2010
Two men who recently died are now being honored for their willingness to have stood up to the majority and advanced views that were unpopular at the time.
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Darwin and Evolution

Darwin Dethroned by Geologist
November 11, 2010
Gradual evolution seems synonymous with Charles Darwin, but a geologist at New York University disagrees.  According to an article on PhysOrg, Michael Rampino thinks Patrick Matthew deserves the credit for a different, more realistic view of evolution – a catastrophist view: “Matthew discovered and clearly stated the idea of natural selection, applied it to the […]
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Darwin and Evolution

Evolutionary Explanations Come Up Empty
November 10, 2010
When evolutionists claim that they have explained the evolution of this or that, or that their research sheds light on its evolution, a closer examination sometimes shows verbiage covering up hollow reasoning, or even employing intelligent design concepts as weapons against design. Snap goes the dragon:  PhysOrg highlighted a research project by some UK biologists […]
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Darwin and Evolution

Oldest Shrimp Looks Shrimpy
November 9, 2010
PhysOrg shows a picture of a fossil shrimp found in Oklahoma next to a live shrimp.  They look identical, yet the article claims the fossil is 360 million years old – the oldest known decapod (a group containing shrimp, crabs, and lobsters).  The fossil shrimp even has fine preservation of the muscles of its tail, […]
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Amazing Facts

Venus Flytrap Uses Chemical “Brain”
November 9, 2010
There’s a lowly plant that has a botanical version of muscles and a brain – the Venus flytrap.  It has muscle in its ability to snap its traps shut faster than a bug can escape.  And it has a brain in its ability to distinguish between debris and edible prey.  More about its chemical brain […]
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Amazing Facts

Cells Can Be Transformed
November 8, 2010
An astonishing feat has been performed in a Canadian lab: scientists turned human skin cells into blood cells.  Bypassing the need for stem cells, the technique provides hope for a supply of blood from a person’s own skin. Live Science calls it a “modern miracle.”  The technique avoids “the ethical concerns concerning embryonic stem cells […]
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Darwin and Evolution

Is “Religious Selection” Evolution?
November 6, 2010
An annual ritual by a tribe in Mexico has caused some cave fish to adapt.  Science Daily calls this “evolution by religious selection.”  But is it really evolution?  Two evolutionary biologists think so; they said that the tribe not only changed the population dynamics of the fish, but “inadvertently kick-started the evolutionary process of natural […]
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Cosmology

Dumbing Down the Science Reading Public
November 5, 2010
In their rush to grab attention-getting headlines, are reporters doing more harm than good?  An essential part of science education is critical thinking.  Some headlines and articles state ideas that far outstrip the meager data on which they are based.  Fingers do the walking:  Science Daily blindly reproduced an audacious claim from the University of […]
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Amazing Facts

All Kingdoms of Life Have Ideas We Need
November 4, 2010
Inventors aren’t partial.  They are willing to find inspiration in plants, animals, and microbes.  Here are three examples showing that all kingdoms of life have great engineering ideas that researchers involved in biomimetics are seeking to understand. Plants:  We don’t fight walled cities with catapults any more, but storing elastic energy can still be useful.  […]
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Amazing Facts

Windows into the Mind
November 3, 2010
What would it be like to see things for the first time?  You can watch the reaction on Live Science #1 and Live Science #2.  Blind patients were implanted with a microchip that allowed them, for the first time, to roughly sense the visual input of objects in front of them.  Amazing as it was, […]
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Philosophy of Science

People Doing Science, Sometimes Badly
November 2, 2010
Harvard historian of science Steven Shapin has a really long subtitle for his latest book, but it reveals all.  The title is very short: Never Pure.1  Here’s the long subtitle: “Historical Studies of Science as if It Was Produced by People with Bodies, Situated in Time, Space, Culture, and Society, and Struggling for Credibility and […]
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Philosophy of Science

Are Saturn Rings Like Galaxies?
November 1, 2010
Dramatic photos of dynamic processes in Saturn’s rings have been released by the Cassini mission at Jet Propulsion Laboratory.  The photos, taken near Saturn’s equinox last year, show ruffled edges of the B ring made of particles lofted as high as 2 miles above the ring plane, casting long shadows across the rings.  By watching […]
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Darwin and Evolution

Cambrian Explosion Solved
October 31, 2010
Geologists have come out swinging against the idea the Cambrian Explosion damages Darwinism.  In a lengthy new paper in the Geological Society of America Bulletin,1 they believe they pitch three strikes against creationists and intelligent-design supporters who claim that the sudden appearance of all the animal body plans at the base of the Cambrian falsifies […]
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