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Is Psychology Adding Scientific Knowledge?

July 8, 2010

Psychologists have a knack for proving the obvious. It leads to a question, though: do we really need their help? Broken relationships are bad: A press release on PhysOrg about a study at the University of Queensland reported that “Separation has an enormous impact on both men and women.” Rudeness at work is bad: According […]

Biomimetics

Productive Science Imitates Nature

July 7, 2010

Examples continue to accumulate that some of the most interesting and fruitful science projects involve copying design principles found in nature. This “biomimetics” approach not only pleases the consumers who can look forward to greener, cheaper, better products, but leads to deeper understandings of nature’s workings. Gecko adhesives: PhysOrg published a story on the ongoing […]

Amazing Facts

Your Inner Locomotive Revealed

July 6, 2010

Visualize an old locomotive train roaring down the tracks. One of the characteristic images that surely comes to mind is the oscillating motion of the coupling rods on the wheels. The long rods that connected the wheels provided a way to convert heat energy from the steam into mechanical energy (example video on YouTube). It […]

Darwin and Evolution

Do New Fossils Soften the Cambrian Explosion?

July 5, 2010

Look at the picture of fossils in an article on PhysOrg. The discoverers claim these fossils from Gabon are 2.1 billion years old, and provide evidence that multicellular organisms began evolving long before the Cambrian explosion. “Until now, it has been assumed that organized multicellular life appeared around 0.6 billion years ago and that before […]

Bible and Theology

Artifact Found from Biblical Time of Judges

July 4, 2010

A chariot linchpin has been found in Israel that appears to date from the time of the book of Judges. The linchpin (a cover over the axle) contains a carved image of a woman, and is being dated at around 1200 BC. The discoverer believes the location is the site of ancient Harosheth Haggoyim, the […]

Darwin and Evolution

Tibetans Evolved Altitude Tolerance in 3,000 Years

July 3, 2010

Tibetans and other peoples who live at high altitudes possess a remarkable tolerance to the thin atmosphere. Now, scientists at UC Berkeley have identified some 30 genes related to oxygen regulation that differ in Tibetans from Han Chinese. Since those tribes are thought to have diverged 3,000 years ago, natural selection for these changes must […]

Birds

Humans Got Birdbrains by Convergent Evolution

July 2, 2010

Scientists are learning that birds have brains remarkably similar to those of mammals. This is contrary to a century of belief, PhysOrg said. How did such similarities evolve for groups of animals so widely separated? To explain it, evolutionists pulled out one of their common explanations: convergent evolution. “For more than a century,” […]

Physics

Breaking Up an Ice Age Is Hard to Do

July 1, 2010

“Ice Age 3” the movie is out, and the subject of ice ages deserves some attention. Atmospheric scientists and geologists seem very confident sometimes about things they know about only indirectly, like ice ages. At other times, though, the rhetoric turns diffident (opposite of confident). Take this opening paragraph from PhysOrg: Scientists still puzzle over […]

Cell Biology

Heal the Blind with Stem Cells

June 30, 2010

Have you heard that some cases of corneal blindness can be cured by stem cells #– from the person’s own eyes? New Scientist recounted some recent successes for victims blinded in one eye by burns or acid. Stem cells taken from the limbus, a disk surrounding the iris, and transplanted onto the damaged cornea, were […]

Amazing Facts

Farm Algae for Energy

June 29, 2010

June 29, 2010 — Why manufacture fuels when microbes can do it faster, better and cheaper? Researchers at the University of Cambridge are wiring electrodes to algae to produce “green energy” – solar-powered fuel that is carbon-neutral, “cheaper to produce, self-repairing, self-replicating, biodegradable and much more sustainable – real green energy.” The team […]

Astronomy

Using Aliens to Titillate the Public

June 28, 2010

Geologists cannot even figure out our own planet (next headline), but some of them claim to know a lot about other planets – their geological history, and even their prospects for life. Is it fair to tease the public with the L-word life when so much remains to be understood on the ground under our […]

Uncategorized

Colorado Plateau Stumps Geologists

June 27, 2010

Many of the West’s greatest parks and scenic areas lie on the Colorado Plateau, a large basin covering parts of Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado. Within its rugged acres are the Grand Canyon, Grand Staircase, Bryce Canyon, Zion Canyon, Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Natural Bridges, Monument Valley, Mesa Verde, Glen Canyon and Lake Powell, […]

Darwin and Evolution

Fish Feet: Can Evolution Add by Subtraction?

June 26, 2010

How did fish grow feet? One would think that feet require adding a lot of new parts: bones, muscles, nerves, blood vessels, and additional supporting tissues. Each of those would require genetic instructions and changes to embryonic development. One evolutionist, however, feels that switching genes off paved the way to the invasion of land. The […]

Education

What Good Are Science Societies?

June 25, 2010

It’s the 350th anniversary of the Royal Society, England’s oldest and most prestigious scientific organization. Amid the celebrations are essays and commentaries about the role scientific societies play for the public, the government, and the advancement of natural knowledge. It should only be expected that the scientific journals will give the positive side, but between […]

Amazing Facts

The RNA Code: Pseudogenes Functional, Help Prevent Cancer

June 24, 2010

A surprising function has been discovered for a “pseudogene” – an apparently mutated copy of a regular gene that till recently was thought to be genetic junk. This pseudogene, reported in Nature today,1 not only has a function unrelated to the production of proteins, but a function that could save your life. It is part […]

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