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Sweet Solutions from Nature

April 29, 2008

Human engineers continue to look at plants and animals for inspiration. Biomimetics – the imitation of biology for design technology – shows no sign of running out of ideas. Sweet gas: A spoonful of sugar in the gas tank? Science Daily reported on progress in converting plant sugars into clean-burning hydrogen – using biological enzymes. […]

Amazing Facts

Orchids: Epitome of Plant Evolution

April 28, 2008

“Orchids might be considered the epitome of plant evolution,” said David Roberts [Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew] and Kingsley Dixon [Kings Park and Botanic Garden, Australia] in a primer on orchids in Current Biology.1 Yet some of the facts they shared about these amazingly diverse and well-adapted plants are puzzling for evolutionary theory. First, […]

Early Man

Hobbit Prophecy: Somebody Will Take a Big Fall

April 27, 2008

The men of muddle earth are wondering what to do with their hobbit prisoners. Elizabeth Culotta wrote in Science about the ongoing debates among paleoanthropologists about how to interpret the diminutive skeletons found in the Liang Bua cave of Flores in Indonesia, affectionately dubbed hobbits.1 After four years of study (10/27/2004, 06/06/2006, 08/21/2006, 10/11/2006), there […]

Dinosaurs

Inferences from Old Protein

April 26, 2008

The dinosaur leg bone with the soft tissue was back in the news. Back in 2005 (03/24/2005), a femur from a T. rex broke open during transport and was found to contain pliable tissue and blood vessels with apparent red blood cells. This was a “phenomenon, once thought impossible” for such tissues to have survived […]

Amazing Facts

Complex Ankle Puts Bounce in Your Step

April 25, 2008

“The ankle is incredibly efficient at working so the amount of energy you burn with the ankle is much lower than what would be predicted with just isolated muscle studies.” That’s what kinesiologist Daniel Ferris (U of Michigan) said in an article on Science Daily. His team measured the efficiency of the muscles and tendons […]

Astronomy

Hubble Snaps Colliding Galaxies

April 24, 2008

A new catalog of colliding galaxy images has been released by the Hubble Space Science Institute. The 59 images show “close encounters that sometimes end in grand mergers and overflowing sites of new star birth as the colliding galaxies morph into wondrous new shapes.” The release coincided with the 18th anniversary of the Hubble Space […]

Human Body

Can Hardwired Humans Have Rational Choice?

April 23, 2008

Two articles recently claimed that we humans are “hardwired” for certain processes. Fairness: Science Daily reported on work by UCLA psychologists that suggest humans are “hardwired for fairness.” A sense of contempt arises when games appear rigged unfairly, they found. The psychologists found a particular region of the brain was activated during this response, but […]

Fossils

Evolution Revealed?

April 22, 2008

When the news reports evidence for evolution in the fossils or genes, it sounds like Darwinism has been all but proved, because scientists have observed its effects. Can these stories withstand deeper scrutiny? Lungless frog: Science Daily reported a frog without lungs in Borneo. Lunglessness in tetrapods has been reported in salamanders and other amphibians, […]

Astronomy

Findings vs Surmisings in Astronomy

April 21, 2008

The Galex satellite (Galaxy Evolution Explorer) found “bright features” with an ultraviolet glow in the outskirts of a spiral galaxy, reported the BBC News. What are they? Scientists “think” they are large clusters of stars. How much is known, and how much is interpreted? The region imaged is the dark area around spiral […]

Genetics

Nature Topples ID Straw Man

April 19, 2008

It’s easier to knock down a straw man than a strong man. Maybe that explains the human tendency to fantasize about victory over one’s enemies. In scientific journals, however, one would expect to deal in facts and to realistically portray adversarial positions. Even better would be to let the adversary respond. Nature, however, in its […]

Cosmology

Is Inflation Theory in Trouble?

April 18, 2008

For more than a quarter of a century, “inflation” has been viewed as the savior of the Big Bang theory. The Big Bang was in trouble in the late 1970s because of the flatness problem and the horizon problem: our universe appeared to be too homogeneous and isotropic to be an accident. If a runaway […]

SETI

Imagination as Science

April 17, 2008

Can a science exist without evidence? Astrobiology, and its subcategory “the search for extraterrestrial intelligence,” involve a great deal of scientific equipment, trained researchers, and funding, but still have no observational evidence to support their reason for being: extraterrestrial life. Where is the line between imagination and reality in these fields? Some insight […]

Media

Darwin and Hitler: A Trumped-Up Connection?

April 16, 2008

If there is anything critics of Ben Stein’s documentary Expelled are griping about, it is the association of Hitler with Darwin. What is the movie claiming and not claiming, and how solid is the historical connection? Scientific American, in particular, loathed the implication that Darwinism has anything to do with the Holocaust (but […]

Birds

Itemized Deductions

April 15, 2008

Here are some free deductions to take the edge off Income Tax Day…. as long as one deduces correctly. Israel is picking a national bird. So what feathered friend will represent the Holy Land? “The nine finalists include the hoopoe, the owl, the spur-winged plover, and the griffin vulture, but no doves.” Source: Science, Random […]

Bible and Theology

Darwinism and Logic: How Strong a Grip?

April 14, 2008

Science and logic are inseparable. Whether one approaches the study of nature from reason (rationalism) or evidence (empiricism), logical inferences and deductions are essential for understanding – or for claiming one’s scientific work produces understanding. When it comes to the reigning evolutionary perspective, though, how can a blind, chancy process like evolution produce reason, laws […]

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