Blog – Page 424

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This Bug Is Whiter than White, Brighter than Bright

January 19, 2007

Detergent manufacturers should get a load of this beetle. Cyphochilus, a resident of southeast Asia, is clothed in one of the brightest white surfaces (per unit thickness) known. British scientists reporting in Science1 were intrigued how the bug accomplishes this shining performance. Most bright-white surfaces, such as paint and paper, need a hundred times the […]

Cosmology

No Evolutionary Tree for Galaxies

January 18, 2007

Edwin Hubble was famous for many important discoveries, including the confirmation of external galaxies and the expansion of the universe (no, he did not build the Hubble Space Telescope; he died in 1953). One of his theories, though, a kind of evolutionary story of galaxies, has not fared so well. Sidney van den Bergh discussed […]

Cell Biology

The Evolution of Electrical Engineering: An Imaginary Tale

January 17, 2007

Nerves carry electrical impulses. Ipso facto, they are subject to laws of physics concerning conductance, capacitance, and resistance. Getting a signal from one end of an animal to the other in time can be a matter of life and death. In order to maintain optimum levels of electrical conductivity to meet their lifestyle requirements, animals […]

Dinosaurs

Dinosaur Fight or Common Fate?

January 17, 2007

A fossil discovery by amateurs in Montana, reported by the Great Falls Tribune, shows “a meat-eater and a plant-eater – with their tails crossed like swords.” The fossils show “remarkable detail, right down to tendons and teeth.” The three amateur discoverers had been scouting on private property in Garfield County. Finding bone fragments on a […]

Fossils

Fossil Non-Embryos Quench Cambrian Explosion Fuse

January 16, 2007

Alleged fossil animal embryos in Precambrian rock in China are not. Last year (06/18/2006) and before, researchers found what looked like cleaved embryos in the strata under the Cambrian “explosion” layers. Now, a paper in Nature reclassifies them as giant bacteria, not embryos.1 Some evolutionists had hoped the discovery of animal embryos would […]

Early Man

Evolutionary Reversal: Is the Neanderthal Category Collapsing?

January 16, 2007

The Oase skulls found in Romania share modern and Neanderthal characteristics, reported Science Daily in a story reverberating on major media sites (see Reuters). From a press release by the University of Bristol, Science Daily reported, “By comparing it with other skulls, Professor [Joao] Zilhao and colleagues found that Oase 2 had the same proportions […]

Bible and Theology

Evolutionist Lost Faith Over Flawed Geology Lesson

January 12, 2007

A college student’s Biblical faith could not survive a geology lesson that seemed to offer convincing proof that the earth was older than Genesis indicated.

Education

Evolutionists Fret Over Persistent Creationism

January 11, 2007

Fretting and fuming over the persistence of creationism (and belief in God, which usually accompanies it), evolutionists are trying to come up with ways to combat it. This presupposes that they are not listening to the arguments of the creationists. Ambassadors for Darwin: In an editorial in Science Jan. 12, editor Alan Leshner encouraged scientists […]

Fossils

Amphibious Assault Against Gradualism

January 10, 2007

A State of the Salamander Address was printed in PNAS recently.1 An international group of scientists looked for evolutionary ancestry and “Global patterns of diversification in the history of modern amphibians.” It would seem Mr. Darwin has a bit of frog in his throat: The fossil record of modern amphibians (frogs, salamanders, and caecilians) provides […]

Mammals

Are Evolutionists Converging on a Story of Vertebrates?

January 10, 2007

Here’s what the Linnean Society said in 1909, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Darwin’s Origin of Species, about the rise of vertebrates (fish, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals): “When we return home and our friends gleefully enquire, ‘What then has been decided as to the Origin of Vertebrates?’, so far we seem to have no reply […]

Origin of Life

Dreams of Planetary Oceans Dry Up

January 9, 2007

Astrobiologists like oceans. The vision of life evolving on Earth in a primordial soup drives the quest to find liquid on other worlds. It doesn’t have to be liquid water: just liquid that stimulates the imagination with visions of exotic life. Two solar system bodies once considered prime candidates for ocean front property, though, have […]

Dumb Ideas

New Scapegoat for Your Golf Score: Evolution

January 9, 2007

Stanford scientists are blaming evolution for our difficulty at golf, according to The Stanford Daily. Working with rhesus monkeys, the researchers found that primate brains are too adaptable to changing conditions to become good at a repetitive tasks. “One possible explanation for the observation is that evolution favored predators who could improvise, as they never […]

Politics and Ethics

Non-Embryonic Stem Cells Found in Amniotic Fluid

January 9, 2007

A vast source of possibly pluripotent stem cells without ethical problems has been discovered in amniotic fluid by scientists at Wake Forest University. Ronald Green of Dartmouth is hoping the science pans out, according to National Geographic News. He said, “We are very much in need of ‘ethically universal’ lines [of stem cells] that anyone […]

Amazing Facts

Woodpecker Heads Absorb Shocks

January 9, 2007

Pounding a tree with your head 12,000 times a day would tend to give one a headache, but for woodpeckers, it’s all in a day’s work. How do they manage? Corey Binns on Live Science interviewed Ivan Schwab (UC Davis) who explained some of the specialized adaptations in a woodpecker head: thick muscles, spring-like bones, […]

Dumb Ideas

Mars Life With Bleached Hair

January 8, 2007

Mars has hydrogen peroxide. Bombardier beetles use peroxide. So maybe the Viking landers in 1976 didn’t find life, because they didn’t look for peroxide-based life. That’s the essence of the reasoning in an Associated Press story circulating on the net (see Breitbart.com). Reporter Seth Borenstein earns Stupid Evolution Quote of the Week for […]

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