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The Demise of the Neanderthal Species Concept

November 3, 2006

Can you call a population a separate species when it shares its distinctive characteristics with another species, and interbreeds readily? A team of Romanian paleontologists, publishing in PNAS Nov. 3,1 re-evaluated some “poorly dated and largely ignored” skeletons of early modern human bones found in the Pestera Muierii region that, since 1952, had “never been […]

Bible and Theology

Former Top Atheist Unveils His Reasons for Believing in a Creator

November 2, 2006

Antony Flew, formerly an influential atheist, was interviewed by Lee Strobel recently. Flew explained why he became convinced of the existence of a Creator. An article and video clip of the interview is available on the Lee Strobel website. Notice how it was the scientific evidence that convinced Flew to consider the possibility of a […]

Cosmology

Strange Exploding Star Continues to Puzzle Astronomers

November 1, 2006

The Hubble took another image of the expanding shell of star V838 Monocerotis (see ESA and Hubblesite). Four years after the first dramatic sequence (see 05/29/2003), astronomers are still puzzled by this star, with the most dramatic light echo ever photographed. Leading hypothesis now is that two stars collided before the outburst. The image made […]

Human Body

Intestinal Efficiency Praised

November 1, 2006

Leave it to a science website to answer those questions one would never ask out loud, or might not really care to know, like “why are feces brown?” One line jumps out of an explanation at Live Science that is no joke: “Feces are fascinating. Flush down your initial grade-school scatological silliness and you’ll discover […]

Solar System

Geologists Puzzle Over Egyptian Craters

November 1, 2006

A set of craters deep in the Egyptian desert has geologists scratching their heads. Discovery Channel News says that they look neither like impact craters nor known volcanic phenomena. “It is a strange and new thing,” reported one French scientist. Jay Melosh of the University of Arizona remarked, “There’s nothing in our current geological literature […]

Bible and Theology

Will Cosmology Emerge from the Dark Ages?

October 31, 2006

To cosmologists, the “dark ages” were not after the fall of Rome, but the time between the release of the microwave background radiation, and the light from the first stars. In a feature article for the November Scientific American, Abraham Loeb discussed how astronomers hope to shed light on this epoch with new telescopes measuring […]

Origin of Life

Mars Life: Hope Against Hope

October 30, 2006

Good news: the Viking landers (1976) may have been unable to detect life on Mars if it were present. Bad news: the dust devils on Mars probably would kill anything alive on the surface. These contrasting stories recently tugged in opposite directions on hopes to find life on the red planet. A report on PNAS1 […]

Education

Darwinist Anti-Creation Tactics Increase in Fervor

October 27, 2006

The consistent popular support for intelligent design and old-fashioned Biblical creationism is not making hard-core Darwinists any more interested in negotiating or debating. Quite the contrary; as the following stories show, their opposition borders on mania and tyranny. Toad in the hole: A blog named Toad in the Hole expresses some of the fervor of […]

Genetics

Bees Make Beeline to the Headlines

October 27, 2006

The science journals and media were abuzz with honeybee stories this week. We counted 18 press releases and half a dozen research papers related to aspects of honeybees, including the publication of the honeybee genome. Many research labs seem to have gotten into the act of figuring out what makes bees tick. The major stories […]

Birds

Big Bad Bird: Ten-Foot “Terror Bird” Found

October 26, 2006

What would a “terror bird” look like? Imagine a ten-footer, able to disembowel you with a single kick and crush your skull in its jaws. That’s what scientists from the Dinosaur Institute of the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History described in Nature1 after finding the largest-ever skull of a flightless phorusrhacid (‘terror bird’) in […]

Fossils

Fossil Lamprey Changed Little in 360 Million Years

October 26, 2006

Lampreys, fish that consist of little more than a mouth with a tube-like body and fin, don’t usually fossilize well because they lack bones and hard cartilage. A small two-inch fossil lamprey has been found in South Africa and reported in Nature1 (see also National Geographic, Live Science and EurekAlert based on a press release […]

Uncategorized

Key Reference Rock Formed Five Times Faster than Thought

October 25, 2006

Strata in the Niagara Gorge, used as a reference for Silurian dating, formed much quicker than previously believed – in just 1/5 the time, according to a press release from Ohio State. Bradley Cramer and his advisor Matthew Saltzmann used high-resolution carbon isotope stratigraphy to re-examine the rocks in the Niagara Gorge. “Rocks that were […]

Dinosaurs

Dinos Not Killed Off by Meteor, but by Worms

October 24, 2006

Confident speculations that a big meteor hitting southern Mexico caused the mass extinction of the dinosaurs appear to be unraveling. Gerta Keller [Princeton, 09/25/2003], a doubter of the story that has been a leading contender for years with its smoking-gun crater called Chicxulub in the Yucatan, has been getting a receptive hearing among geologists with […]

Uncategorized

Quote: Chuck Norris Joke

October 23, 2006

Alleged Chuck Norris Fact: “There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of creatures Chuck Norris has allowed to live.” What does Chuck Norris himself think of this? It’s funny. It’s cute. But here’s what I really think about the theory of evolution: It’s not real. It is not the way we got here. […]

Early Man

Baby Lucy Makes National Geographic Evolution Cover

October 22, 2006

No regime change is evident at National Geographic since Bill Allen left (see 02/15/2005). The Nov. 2006 is vintage NG with alleged primitive human ancestors on the cover, this time “Baby Lucy” (see 09/20/2006, 10/02/2006). Despite many passionate letters to the editor after their in-your-face Darwinist two years ago (see “Was Darwin Wrong?” 10/24/2004), this […]

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