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Our Complex Brains: Lessons from Phrenology

June 25, 2007

This is your brain on science: it is too complex for simplistic diagrams. Back in the 19th century, the “science” of phrenology was in full swing. Phrenologists divided the brain into more than two dozen regions of “mental faculties” that controlled such things as instincts for eating and sex, sensation of color, language ability, and […]

Education

Council of Europe Officially Condemns Creationism and I.D.

June 22, 2007

A lengthy and strident policy document was issued by the Council of Europe denouncing creationism. The summary statement makes it clear there is no compromise possible, because “religious fundamentalists” are behind it, and that creationism and intelligent design must be firmly and unequivocally opposed. Evolution, by contrast, is given supreme status as the explanation for […]

Cell Biology

Crisis at Both Ends of Darwins Tree

June 21, 2007

Two assumptions about evolution – one about the earliest multicellular organisms and one about the rise of mammals – have run into trouble. Eukarya sans Mechanista: “In the absence of direct evidence, science should proceed cautiously with conjecture,” wisely advised Anthony Poole and David Penny in Nature.1 They scorned the researchers who glibly invent fables […]

Bible and Theology

The Evolution of Pride: Psychology Trumps the Bible?

June 19, 2007

“The Bible got it wrong,” announced a subtitle on Science Daily: pride doesn’t come before a fall (Proverbs 16:18). A proud look and haughty eyes may be the first two of the Bible’s seven deadly sins (Proverbs 6:16-19), but psychologist Jessica Tracy (U of British Columbia) begs to differ. She says pride can be a […]

Amazing Facts

Why Your Eyes Jitter

June 18, 2007

The coach’s advice “Keep your eye on the ball” is impossible, because your eyes are constantly in motion with tiny jerks called fixational eye movements or saccades. Why do the eyes move all the time? Some scientists at Boston University decided to find out. Reporting in Nature,1 they found that saccades help you discriminate fine […]

Health

More Reasons to Enjoy Creation Outdoors

June 17, 2007

Evidence keeps mounting that exercise is good for almost every body. It can prevent and alleviate many ailments. But isn’t that only natural? Low back pain: Laziness increases the risk of back pain, reported EurekAlert on work from Australia. Staying in bed shrinks muscles needed to support the back. So does prolonged inactivity at a […]

Physics

Saturns Moons Are Bustin Out All Over

June 16, 2007

Add Tethys and Dione to the party blowers around Saturn. Cassini found that these two moons are active, like Enceladus and Titan, though on a lesser scale. Cassini scientists discovered the effects of outbound particles from these moons by studying the plasma fields with the Cassini plasma spectrometer (CAPS) instrument. The results suggest surface activity, […]

Amazing Facts

Plants International Travel Upsets Evolutionary Idea

June 16, 2007

They may be rooted in soil, but plants really get around. Some of them make it around the world. One example has upset a long-believed evolutionary idea. First of all, plants have a social life. National Geographic published a story about how plants socialize and communicate. “Plants have family values, too, it seems, […]

Cell Biology

Could Germ Toxicity Be an Environmental Effect?

June 15, 2007

Listeria becomes nasty when starved of oxygen, reported EurekAlert. “Limiting oxygen produces bacteria up to 100 times more invasive than similar bacteria grown with ample oxygen supplies.” Could this imply that a world with different atmospheric or soil conditions could have been less prone to disease? Could the bacteria we fear most have been placid […]

Genetics

Genome Complexity Unveiled: No Junk, Only Function

June 15, 2007

Any remaining doubts that the idea of “junk DNA” has itself been junked should vanish under the latest findings about genome complexity. A number of recent news stories have revealed astonishing levels of regulation and organization in the non-coding regions of DNA. It turns out that genes are not the only interesting things in the […]

Dumb Ideas

The Evolution of Vomit

June 14, 2007

Upchucking “could have an adaptive value in evolution,” wrote Dan Jones in Nature1 in a news feature about moral psychology. Why are we disgusted at certain things, like maggots and rotting food? Evolution, he asserted without a burp, throwing in disgusting things like OPM and OPI (other people’s morals and other people’s ideologies) — Evolution […]

Fossils

Huge Forest Fossilized Suddenly

June 14, 2007

Nature1 had some interesting comments about the fossil forest found in a coal mine a few months ago (see 04/23/2007). Kirk Johnson of the Denver Museum of Natural History said that a vast area (over 3.8 square miles) must have been inundated quickly for this fossil graveyard to be preserved. Rapid burial can result from […]

Birds

Imaginary Dinosaur Feathers Found Again!

June 13, 2007

Last year, we reported that imaginary feathers had been found on a dinosaur fossil (see 02/08/2006). Now, more imaginary feathers have turned up. This turkey was big, too: the dinosaur plumed in the imaginary feathers stood almost 12 feet tall. Everyone’s talking about it: Fox News, MSNBC News and Science News among others. National Geographic […]

Mammals

Why Do Some Fruit Bats Have Color Vision?

June 12, 2007

One would think bats don’t need color, since most fly at night. That’s what scientists thought, reported Max Planck Institute, until color-vision cones were found in some species. Some species have two cone types, giving them bichromatic vision, and some have only one, making them effectively color blind. Bats come in two orders: […]

Terrestrial Zoology

Ma Lizards Dress Their Young