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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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Dumb Ideas

New Recipe for Life: Zinc & Zap
September 5, 2009
Two scientists are overturning the Miller icon of the origin of life – you know, the illustration in almost every textbook showing sparks zapping gases and amino acids emerging from the goo.  That doesn’t wash any more, claim Armen Mulkidjanian (University of Osnabrueck) and Michael Galperin (U.S. National Institutes of Health).  Instead, Astrobiology Magazine reported, […]
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Fossils

Permian Extinction Recovery Story Stretches Credibility
September 4, 2009
It goes without saying that Darwin’s theory fits hand in glove with the geological dating scheme, but how reliable is the latter?  The textbook age names – Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, Eocene and all the rest – have taken on their own life as assumed truths.  Every once in awhile, though, papers are published that require […]
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Amazing Facts

Molecular Machines on Parade
September 3, 2009
Scientific papers continue to exhibit the exquisite mechanisms in the cell for handling all kinds of situations, through the operation of molecular machines.  Here are a few recent examples from this week’s issue of Nature (Sept 3, 2009). Molecular sieve:  What happens when a cell gets bloated?  Too much water entering a cell can increase […]
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