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Nose Code Rockets Smell Discrimination

February 1, 2008

You have a code in your nose. Scientists working on fruit fly olfactory systems have found that a mapping mechanism between components maximizes the fly’s ability to discriminate smells. The coding system provides a non-linear response that appears finely tuned to maximize the information content of odor inputs. The components of this system […]

Intelligent Design

Explorer 1 Chief Discovers Design

January 31, 2008

On this day 50 years ago, America entered the space race. On January 31, 1958, America gave its answer to Sputnik: a civilian satellite named Explorer 1. Within a few hours of the time of day these words are being written, von Braun’s Jupiter-C rocket at Cape Canaveral, Florida, successfully launched a JPL satellite into […]

Biomimetics

A Step Closer to Gecko Adhesive

January 30, 2008

Scientists are getting closer to imitating the amazing wall-climbing ability of geckos. Science Daily reports that a team from UC Berkeley manufactured tape with hard polymer fibers just 600 nanometers across that mimic the spatulae on gecko feet. This latest attempt at imitating the gecko works only on smooth, clean surfaces, but requires […]

Genetics

Hidden Messages Found in DNA

January 29, 2008

DNA contains the language of life, but what would happen if someone found hidden messages in the genetic code? Such a thing actually happened, reported the New York Times. When Craig Venter’s lab produced an artificial organism, they inserted hidden “watermarks” into the genome: his name, the names of co-workers, and the name of the […]

Amazing Facts

A Pitcher of Health, and Reasons to Love Slime

January 28, 2008

Pitcher plants contain chemicals that just might help medicine and agriculture, reported PhysOrg. A Japanese team found a myriad of interesting proteins in this “evolutionary marvel,” a plant that eats insect meat. Now for some slimy good news. PhysOrg said, “You know algae. It’s the gunk that collects on the sides of a […]

Fossils

Horseshoe Crabs Unchanged Since Ordovician

January 28, 2008

A fossil horseshoe crab has been discovered in Canada that pushes back their origins at least 100 million years in the evolutionary timetable. The previous record placed these marine arthropods in the Carboniferous (350 million years BP in the geologic column); others were known from the Jurassic. “Both the Carboniferous and the Jurassic fossil discoveries […]

Genetics

Molecular Phylogeny Is a Mess of Uncertainty

January 26, 2008

Genomes galore – a great opportunity to study evolution, right? Think again. A paper in Science by Wong et al1 revealed systematic uncertainty in the way genomes are compared, leading to bias that makes genetic comparisons essentially useless. Antonis Rokas, in the same issue,2 began his commentary on this problem thus: Darwin relied on fossils, […]

Origin of Life

Leslie Orgel’s Last Testament: Pigs Don’t Fly, and Life Doesn’t Just Happen

January 26, 2008

Leslie Orgel's last written article before his death shows no patience for hypothetical scenarios for the origin of life.

Solar System

The Geologists Were Wrong

January 25, 2008

More examples of collapsing theories have appeared in the literature this week (compare last week, 01/21/2008): Dirty Comet: The Stardust spacecraft that collected comet samples in 2006 was so named because it was believed comets contained pristine material from the birth of the sun. That has all changed. National Geographic News summarized a paper in […]

Birds

Do Chicks Tell Dinosaur Tales?

January 25, 2008

For years, evolutionary biologists have battled over the origin of flight. Did dinosaurs run along the ground and take off, or did they jump from trees? The first idea is called the cursorial hypothesis; the latter, the arboreal hypothesis. In 2003, Ken Dial [U Montana] had an idea: maybe watching partridge chicks could inform the […]

Amazing Facts

Getting a Hand on Facts and Meanings

January 24, 2008

What could be more simple than pressing a button with your finger? That “seemingly trivial action is the result of a complex neuro-motor-mechanical process orchestrated with precision timing by the brain, nervous system and muscles of the hand.” So says a press release from University of Southern California posted on EurekAlert. Simple, everyday […]

Dumb Ideas

Nuke Sand, Get Life

January 23, 2008

Glowing sand was your cradle, claimed The Telegraph. “The sifting and collection of radioactive material by powerful tides could have generated the complex molecules that led to the evolution of carbon-based life forms –including plants, animals and humans.” The article acknowledged that “radiation may seem an unlikely candidate to kick-start life because it […]

Uncategorized

Life Influences Dating Method

January 22, 2008

The rate of calcium carbonate precipitation can double if microbes are present, says an article in PhysOrg. Scientists studying hot spring deposits in Yellowstone made this “surprising discovery about the geological record of life and the environment.” The article adds, “Their discovery could affect how certain sequences of sedimentary rock are dated, and how scientists […]

Amazing Facts

Butterfly Wings Flash Shiny Optical Tricks

January 22, 2008

You can get brilliant colors without pigment if you build patterns near the wavelengths of light. Butterflies have the trick down to a science. Their wings shimmer and shine with brilliant colors produced by nanostructures that scientists want to imitate. Science Daily told how butterflies and moths, even the white-winged varieties, use nanostructures […]

Dinosaurs

Backtracking on Darwinian Claims

January 21, 2008

Evolutionary theory evolves. Since Darwinists no longer consider evolution progressive, it follows that evolutionary theory is also not necessarily progressing. The following stories show evolutionary biologists backtracking on earlier claims. The pig is falling. “Darwinian evolutionary theory proposes that the phenotype of a creature is an adaptation to the particular demands of the ecological situation […]

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