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Stupid Evolution Quote of the Week: Handy Dandy Modus Operandi

June 2, 2006

Charles G. Gross and Asif A. Ghazanfar win the prize for this gem in Science1 from a book review of The Sensory Hand by Vernon B. Mountcastle (Harvard, 2006): In one of the first systematic attempts to describe the differences between primates and other mammals, Thomas Huxley argued that the former are distinguished by virtue […]

Solar System

Asteroid Sticks Together While Theories Disintegrate

June 1, 2006

[Guest article] In an story entitled “Rubbly Itokawa revealed as ‘impossible’ asteroid,” New Scientist Space reported on findings gathered from the recent visit of Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa to the asteroid Itokawa (see 11/28/2005 bullet). There seems to be no end of problems for scientists trying to fit the solar system into billions of years. Now […]

Intelligent Design

Leading Evolutionist Provides His Best Proof: HIV

May 30, 2006

[Guest article] Sarah Crown reports in the Guardian Unlimited (“Why Creationism Is Wrong”) on biologist Steve Jones’ speech to a crowd at an English bank holiday, the Hay Festival: The aim of the talk, he explained, is to establish the testability and therefore prove the truth of evolution. After gaining the audience’s sympathy with a […]

Early Man

A Challenge to our Victorian Ethics: Humans and Chimps Interbreeding

May 22, 2006

[Guest article] Newspapers chipped away at Christian ethics last week with articles describing evidence that “early humans” bred (hybridized) with their supposed ancestors, the chimpanzees, for millions of years after becoming another species. The New York Times reports: David Page, a human geneticist at the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, said the design of the new […]

Biomimetics

Bioneers Update: International Conference Held on Animal-Inspired Design

May 13, 2006

Georgia Tech came out with a press release about progress at their Center for Biologically Inspired Design (CBID) that opened last year (see 10/29/2005). At a two-day conference May 11-12, international representatives from 20 institutions shared their inspirations on how nature can “help them solve some of the most complex problems of the day,” just […]

Dinosaurs

Dinosaur Boneyard: Dying Together Implies Living Together, Not Much Else

May 13, 2006

(Guest article) CNN reported in an article from Associated Press that scientists have uncovered a small cache of dinosaur bones that contains bones from no other animals, and in their excitement have concluded that this means they must have hunted in packs. One expert called the discovery the first substantial evidence of group living by […]

Uncategorized

Cactus Evolution Explained

May 12, 2006

Phew, finally: now we know how cacti evolved, reports EurekAlert. Ouch! On second thought, how’s that again? Two Yale scientists set out to figure out how the succulent plants turned leaves into spines. Using molecular methods, they identified the earliest cactus, but then said it “already showed water use patterns that are similar […]

Bible and Theology

Paper View: Cosmic Questions, Personal Implications

May 11, 2006

A good question provokes good thinking. It stimulates the imagination and inspires reasoning about profound issues. It focuses attention on problems, calls for clarification of assumptions, and leads to good follow-up questions, too. Such a good question was asked in four simple words by Sean M. Carroll1 (U of Chicago, Enrico Fermi Institute) this month […]

Solar System

See Comet Crumble

May 10, 2006

A comet is breaking up before our eyes. Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 has split into dozens of pieces and is crumbling quickly, like pieces of dried meringue. Science News tells about the breakup, and it made Astronomy Picture of the Day. The Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes are also documenting the event. This is […]

Health

Escape to Reality: Turn Off the Video Games

May 10, 2006

Visitation at national parks has declined significantly, reports University of Illinois at Chicago, correlated with rising use of video games and home entertainment. “My concern is that young people are simply not going outdoors or to natural areas,” said a biology professor at the school, “but are instead playing video games, going on the Internet […]

Uncategorized

Mt. St. Helens Performs Fast Rock

May 10, 2006

Before reading the caption, look at the picture of this football-field size mountain of rock at Astronomy Picture of the Day and guess how old it is. The answer: about five months. The smooth rock slab with its cornice tip has grown as much as a meter a day. The caption contains links to more […]

Education

Book: Darwin Centurions Join Forces Against ID Visigoths

May 9, 2006

A new book attacking intelligent design has chapters by most of the big names in evolutionary thought: Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins, Jerry Coyne, and others. An introduction to the book Intelligent Thought: Science vs. the Intelligent Design Movement (ed. John Brockman, Vintage Press, May 2006), with a synopsis of each chapter, is available at The […]

Dumb Ideas

Fitness Costs What? Say That Again?

May 9, 2006

Good news: evolution has figured out how to make your wounds heal faster. Bad news: the required mutation makes you go deaf. Believe it or not, that is the story told on News@Nature. “Deafness gene has health benefit,” wrote Alison Abbott. “Protein from genetic mutation helps wounds to heal.” The article treats this […]

Amazing Facts

Q: Who Fights With Supercharged Harpoons? A: Jellyfish

May 8, 2006

Weak, transparent, limp, and drifting in the water – who would have thought these creatures possess one of the most powerful weapons in the animal kingdom? Jellyfish and hydras have stinging cells called nematocysts that fire so fast, no one has been able to catch the action of their microscopic harpoons – till now. […]

Origin of Life

The Porridge Before the Soup: Too Hot?

May 8, 2006

In the evolutionary theory of everything, there is a soup before the primordial soup we normally think of. It’s the solar nebula, the whirling disk of dust, gas and ice that preceded the planets. Scientists used to think the nebula was differentiated like chemicals in a giant centrifuge, with the rocks close to the sun […]

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