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Echoes of Historic Supernovae Observed

December 29, 2005

Astronomers using telescopes at the Cerro-Tololo observatory in Chile were able to detect the faint light echoes of supernovae (see EurekAlert, Space.com and original paper in Nature1). They found three light echoes for six of the smallest previously-catalogued supernova remnants (SNR) in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a small irregular galaxy visible from the southern […]

Marine Biology

Bombardier of the Sea

December 28, 2005

Creationists have made much of the bombardier beetle (#1, #2) whose firing chambers would explode if the timing and mixture of ingredients did not work perfectly together. Now, here is a similar case in the lowly sea slug. EurekAlert described research by Georgia State University scientists, who found that the sea slug Aplysia mixes three […]

Uncategorized

Historic Scopes Trial Photos Uncovered

December 28, 2005

Dozens of photos of the 1925 Scopes Trial, never before published, were uncovered in Smithsonian archives by independent historian Marcel C. LaFollette, reported Science News.1 One photo shows the famous scene of Clarence Darrow interrogating William Jennings Bryan on the witness stand; another shows a close up of John Scopes. LaFollette is writing a new […]

Health

Abortion Pill Can Kill

December 28, 2005

An ugly secret has come out of the abortion drug mifepristone known as RU486. It can kill normal, healthy women, and its approval by the FDA involved procedural violations that overlooked known safety concerns at the time. Source: Annals of Pharmacotherapy news release (see also EurekAlert). The research paper by Margaret M. Gary, MD and […]

Health

Health from Unlikely Sources: Poison and Scum

December 27, 2005

“Everything in moderation,” health professionals remind us during the holidays. Some things, however, none of us would have wanted at all – till scientists found there was treasure in them. Botulinum toxin (botox), for instance, is one of the deadliest of biological poisons, but by now everyone knows it is being put to […]

Genetics

How Blind Cave Fish Lose Color

December 26, 2005

A study on cave fish revealed that several populations can have mutations to the same gene. A gene that produces melanin, named Oca2, was found to be mutated in two separate populations of cave fish, resulting in albinism. This same gene can produce albinism in humans. The replicated experiment is a powerful tool for experimental […]

Dumb Ideas

How Apemen Learned to Give Christmas Presents

December 25, 2005

For your Christmas amusement, some scientists think they have solved the evolution of gift giving. In an announcement on EurekAlert called “Why we give: New study finds evidence of generosity among our early human ancestors,” the introduction states, “A groundbreaking new study examines the origins of holiday giving and finds that our early human ancestors […]

Uncategorized

Evolution of the Christmas Tree: Firs Tie Oaks in Fitness Race

December 24, 2005

In the struggle for existence, the conifers should have lost, because when angiosperms appeared, they had fancier valve jobs. That’s the feeling of a story introduced by Elizabeth Pennisi on Science Now. “Those of us who celebrate Christmas tend to take fir and spruce trees for granted around the holiday season,” she quipped, “But without […]

Education

Dover Fallout Is Radio Active

December 23, 2005

Reaction in the media from Judge Jones’ stinging decision against intelligent design (ID) in the Pennsylvania case Kitzmiller vs Dover Area School District has been rapid and varied. Evolutionists are overjoyed at this Christmas present the judge delivered, a dirty bomb they hope will put ID out of business, but the other side claims the […]

Uncategorized

Mars Water Evidence Evaporates

December 23, 2005

The strongest evidence for water from the Mars rovers has been called into question. Scientists from the University of Colorado at Boulder believe that the observations of sulfates and concretions are better explained by fumaroles in volcanic ash deposits (see also EurekAlert). Their paper in Nature1 explains that the model means high temperatures: “Consequently, the […]

Fossils

Cambrian Explosion Still Troubling to Evolutionists

December 22, 2005

Despite Darwinian efforts to muffle it or spread it into a diffuse rumble, the Cambrian explosion (the near-sudden emergence of most animal body plans in the fossil record) was loud and snappy. A new phylogenetic study by Antonis Rokas (MIT), Dirk Krüger, and Sean B. Carroll (U of Wisconsin), published in Science this week,1 could […]

Education

How to Overcome Student Objections to Evolution

December 21, 2005

Biology teachers face increasing difficulty from students coming into class with bad feelings about evolution (11/30/2005, 08/30/2005). Many pro-evolution teachers will be attracted to methods that have a demonstrable track record of relieving tensions and facilitating the process of getting students to accept Darwin’s theory. David Sloan Wilson (Binghamton U, NY) has just the thing. […]

Biology

Undersea Christmas Lights Explained

December 19, 2005

There is a marine animal like a jellyfish that puts on one of the most dazzling light shows in nature. Some ctenophores, or comb jellies, can send multi-colored pulses of light that radiate down their sides in a rainbow of colors. If you’ve ever seen one of these on a TV nature show, you were […]

Cosmology

Choose You This Day: Multiverse or I.D.

December 18, 2005

If Leonard Susskind is right, cosmologists are escaping the conclusion of intelligent design (ID) by backing into a radically speculative idea: a near infinity of universes. Susskind, a theoretical physicist from Stanford, just published a book, Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design (Little, Brown 2005), that explores current cosmological thinking about […]

Origin of Life

Don’t PNA in our OOL

December 17, 2005

Theories for the origin of life (OOL) are in a crisis, unable to imagine how something as complex as a replicating cell could come into existence. Could PNA do it?

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