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Junk-DNA Stock Tumbles

May 18, 2009

Those investing credibility in the concept of “junk DNA” suffered more losses this week. Repeated hits to the paradigm that portions of non-coding DNA are useless leftovers of evolution make a recovery unlikely. In Science,1 researchers from Princeton and Indiana University reported a function for transposons and the genes that act on them, […]

Politics and Ethics

Political Science 101

May 18, 2009

Ideally, science should be non-partisan and stay out of politics. That ideal is not always met, as the following recent stories illustrate. The intellectual president: New Scientist published a commentary, “Hail to the intellectual president,” by Chris Mooney, author of The Republican War on Science. Opening line: “If you liked George W. Bush, it wasn’t […]

Bible and Theology

Can Humans Scientifically Analyze One Another?

May 17, 2009

Imagine an alien landing on Earth and trying to figure out two groups of people. One group wields spears and arrows and decides that those who interfere with their traditions are enemies to be killed. Another lives in penthouses and universities and explains the behavior of the other group as evolved tendencies from their animal […]

Origin of Life

Key Step in Origin of Life Declared

May 15, 2009

The popular “RNA World” scenario for the origin of life has long suffered from a big hurdle: the implausibility of getting the key components of RNA building blocks, called nucleotides, from joining together. Each nucleotide requires a ribose sugar, a pyrimidine base, and a phosphate group. Now, a team publishing in Nature tried a new […]

Amazing Facts

Cuttlefish Inspire Reflective Screens

May 14, 2009

“Cuttlefish are masters of disguise, able to change their skin color in less than a second to hide from predators or draw in prey for the kill,” begins an article on MSNBC News. A team at MIT, fascinated with the physics of this capability, tried to imitate it. They found they could electrically control the […]

Early Man

Darwinizing Morality

May 13, 2009

Darwinists continue to try to lay claim to morality (cf. 01/20/2008, 05/02/2008, 03/12/2009) If Darwinism is to succeed as a comprehensive world view, it must explain this innate sense we all have that certain actions (e.g., torturing babies, slavery, genocide) are morally wrong. Without a God telling man “Thou shalt not”, how can all humans […]

Early Man

Early Man IQ: Et Tu, Brute?

May 12, 2009

Anthropologists are receiving a jolt about the intelligence of early man. Long before the cave paintings showed our forebears exercising art appreciation, new findings suggest they were gifted individuals, not brutes. The first report was about manufactured beads dated older than 82,000 years. Science Daily said, “The shells are currently at the centre […]

Dumb Ideas

Survival of the Slowest

May 11, 2009

Without stopping to think, the BBC News claimed that evolution is slowing snails down. “Natural selection is favouring snails with reduced metabolic rates, researchers in Chile have discovered.” Why would evolution do such a thing? Isn’t the proverbial slowest of beasts already at risk of predators? Not necessarily. Look on the positive side: “Snails with […]

Intelligent Design

Using Evolutionary Algorithms by Intelligent Design

May 8, 2009

Evolution can’t be all bad if scientists can use it to optimize your car. Science Daily said that scientists in Germany are “simulating evolution” to come up with ways to optimize difficult problems. Using “Evolutionary Algorithms”, they can discover solutions for engineering problems like water resource management and the design of brakes, airbags and air […]

Education

High School Biology Teachers Have Clout

May 8, 2009

Two professors at Minnesota State surveyed a thousand students on the impact of their high school biology teachers when it comes to the subject of evolution or creation: Students whose high school biology class included creationism (with or without evolution) were more likely to accept creationist views as entering college students. Similarly, students exposed to […]

Darwin and Evolution

Evolution Does What Comes Physically

May 7, 2009

Two scientists believe they have unified biology and physics into one law that both animals and falling rocks obey. They call it the “constructal law.” This “universal principle of evolution” explains the “universal design principles” that make fish swim and birds fly – the “physics of evolution.” Even if evolution does not predict what animals […]

Solar System

State of the Moon Titan Addressed

May 6, 2009

Each May, a series of articles on major topics of geological interest, written by leading experts in the field, is published in the Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences. This year’s issue includes a treatise on Titan, the large moon of Saturn, written by the two titans of Titan science, Jonathan Lunine and Ralph […]

Cosmology

Gravity: A Theory in Crisis

May 5, 2009

Note: This is **not** a joke. How could gravity be a theory in crisis? Isn’t gravity one of the best-understood facts of nature? Don’t we all avoid jumping off cliffs because of the law of gravity? Gravity is doing just fine, thank you. It’s our theory of gravity, and the cosmology built on it, that […]

Cell Biology

Scientific Data Can Mislead

May 4, 2009

Some recent stories should remind scientists that data do not exist in a philosophical vacuum. Sometimes empirical measurements can be downright misleading. Pillars of creation: The famous Hubble photo of the Eagle Nebula’s “pillars of creation” seemed to have a straightforward explanation: nearby stars were eroding the pillars with blasts of radiation. Scientists have been […]