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The Universe Is Made Out of… Fudge!

June 7, 2006

[Guest article] According to the July issue of Astronomy magazine, the Universe is comprised mostly of fudge – or at least fudge factors, anyway. The article by James Trefil from George Mason University describes the current thinking among astrophysicists as to the eventual fate of the universe. Since the Big Bang, there has been an […]

Amazing Facts

Protein Dressing Room Has Electronic Walls

June 7, 2006

Properly folded proteins are essential to all of life. When a polypeptide, or chain of amino acids, emerges from the ribosome translation factory on its way to becoming a protein, it looks like a useless, shapeless piece of string. It cannot perform its function till folded into a precise, compact shape particular for its job. […]

Bible and Theology

Update: Iraq Marshlands Recovering Quicker Than Expected

June 6, 2006

How is south-central Iraq doing? Recall that Saddam Hussein nearly obliterated, intentionally, one of the world’s premier wetlands (05/01/2003, 02/18/2005). His fall from power enabled scientists to measure the damage and estimate hopes for recovery. The outlook was pretty bleak at first. Now, after two seasons of above-average rainfall upstream, fresh water has again been […]

Early Man

Hobbit Man, Neanderthal Man Further Scrutinized

June 6, 2006

The positions of two alleged human ancestors in the family tree is becoming clearer, or murkier, depending on whom you ask. This illustrates the uncertainty and disparity of opinions in this field. Hobbit workshop: Regarding the diminutive skeletons dubbed Homo floresiensis found in Indonesia, opinions seems to be condensing around the idea they were true […]

Amazing Facts

Hummingbirds: Small Wonders

June 5, 2006

Do you enjoy watching the world’s smallest birds, right from your backyard? Susan Healy and T. Andrew Hurly provided interesting tidbits about them in a Quick Guide to Hummingbirds in Current Biology this week.1 There are 330 species of these small flyers noted for their aerobatics and iridescent colors. Typically, they weigh a […]

SETI

Researcher Denies SETI Is a Religion

June 3, 2006

Apparently irritated by charges that SETI research is like a religion (see, for instance, the article by novelist Michael Crichton mentioned in our 12/27/2003 entry), David Darling of the SETI Institute has issued a response. On Space.com, his title was direct: “Of Faith and Facts: Is SETI a Religion?” The answer was a forthright NO […]

Dumb Ideas

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 […]

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 […]

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