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Snails Walk on Water

October 27, 2008

Why is that scientist staring at a snail? He’s watching a miracle: walking on water. This is not our exaggeration: Matt Kaplan on National Geographic News entitled his article, “How Snails Walk on Water Is a Small Miracle.” If we can figure out the trick, we might be able to make little robots do it […]

Human Body

Evolutionizing Religion: Whos Assuming What?

October 26, 2008

“Findings from cognitive psychology, neuroscience, cultural anthropology and archaeology promise to change our view of religion,” said Pascal Boyer in Nature.1 His essay summarized studies that offer an evolutionary explanation for mankind’s propensity to embrace religion. “We can probe the shared assumptions that religions are built on, however disparate, and examine the connection between religion […]

Origin of Life

The Life and Death of Oxygen

October 24, 2008

The oxygen in our atmosphere has the energy equivalent of 20 thousand billion billion hydrogen bombs. To maintain the oxygen level in our atmosphere, that amount of energy would have to be spent in manufacturing molecular oxygen every 4 million years (a thousandth the assumed age of the earth). Now that we have […]

Human Body

Minding the Brain, or Braining the Mind?

October 23, 2008

There’s a battle brewing over who controls your brain: nature or your mind. Materialist scientists are recognizing that creationists are getting a foothold on this hill and “declaring war over the brain,” according to an article in New Scientist. Psychiatrist Jeffrey Schwartz fired this salvo: “Materialism needs to start fading away and non-materialist causation needs […]

Birds

Another Strange Chinese Fossil Found: Dinosaur or Bird?

October 22, 2008

Feathers and wings are among the most distinguishing characteristics of birds. “Integumenary features” have been found on some dinosaur fossils, and true feathers have been found on some strange-looking extinct birds. The news media often try to marry the two into a committed relationship using exaggerated artwork. They have been found imagining feathers on fossils […]

Education

How Not to Teach Evolution

October 21, 2008

Current Biology usually interviews a scientist for each issue. In the October 14 issue,1 the subject was Dyche Mullins, a molecular biologist at UC San Francisco. His story of how evolution was taught in high school should make teachers and parents take notice. After the usual anecdotal fluff about what kind of cookies […]

Dumb Ideas

Journalist Advises Scientists to Tell Stories

October 18, 2008

Caltech may be the egghead capital of America. The prestigious university where Einstein and Feynman hung out may be weak in sports and arts, but is unsurpassed in science and engineering. Caltech graduates are so adept with mathematics and advanced physics, many of them would probably have a hard time at parties telling their relatives […]

Amazing Facts

How Cells Thread a Needle

October 17, 2008

Your challenge today is to invent a machine that can push a wet noodle through a straw. It can’t pull it. First it has to grab the end, then push it through without breaking it. Oh, and there’s a catch; the straw has a plug at the far end and a constriction inside. Give up? […]

Dinosaurs

Nonsense and Nonscience

October 17, 2008

For an enterprise that prizes itself on objectivity and careful thought, science occasionally makes some outlandish claims. Here are some things that slipped past the scientific method into the popular news media. As good as it gets: Steve Jones says men have stopped evolving. Better enjoy what you have, because it’s not going to get […]

Cosmology

Science Cannot Validate Itself

October 16, 2008

Science is an unbiased, objective, disciplined, cooperative method for progressively uncovering truth about the natural world. That’s the way most of us were taught to think about it in school. Further reflection, however, produces a host of questions rarely discussed in science class. How does science differ from other unbiased, objective, disciplined, cooperative methods of […]

Cell Biology

Selling Stem Cells to Voters

October 15, 2008

If you thought embryonic stem cell research became moot after researchers found they could induce skin cells to become pluripotent, these news stories show the push is still on to open up more funds for embryonic stem cells. A ballot measure in Michigan is a bellwether for how scientists still feel about these tantalizing objects […]

Mammals

Tooth Evolution Theory Lacks Bite

October 14, 2008

The hardest substance in your body is your teeth. The varieties of teeth among vertebrates is astounding, from the tiny incisors in a mole to the bone-crushing scimitars on a T. rex. Many fossils are known only from their teeth. One would think teeth are the best-studied objects in evolutionary theory, but a recent paper […]

Amazing Facts

Plants Have Thermostats

October 13, 2008

Plants, being stuck in the ground, have few options when it gets hot. They may not be able to move into the shade like animals, but they know how to cope. They have a built-in thermostat that acts like a fire prevention department. Science Daily tells the story. Researchers at Michigan State identified […]

Astronomy

SETI Could Find Design in Neutrinos

October 12, 2008

Most of the scientists involved in SETI research are very antagonistic to Intelligent Design. Nevertheless, they find the design inference perfectly “natural” when looking for ways to comb through natural phenomena for intelligently-designed signals. Two new methods for detecting alien messages were reported by Science News in the Oct. 11 issue.1 Both involve […]