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Politics and Ethics

Scientists Cheer Theoretical Holocaust
April 2, 2006
Popular science reporter Forest Mims III heard a chilling round of applause at a meeting of scientists, reported World Net Daily.  When lizard expert Eric R. Pianka suggested it would be a good thing if airborne ebola killed off 90% of the human population, he got a standing ovation – and an award.  At a […]
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Fossils

Can Delicate Fossil Embryos Survive 570 Million Years?
April 1, 2006
Scientists and English and American universities are trying to understand how to preserve biological embryos such as those found in Cambrian rock claimed to be 570 million years old, reports a press release from Indiana University.  Normally, such soft tissues would disappear within a month.  “It’s like trying to fossilize soap bubbles” they said.  “Some […]
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Astronomy

More Hints at Early Origin of Stars, Galaxies
March 31, 2006
Several articles this month showed further evidence for a growing realization in astronomy: stars and galaxies were already mature at the beginning of the universe (see, for instance, 09/21/2005 entry).  Some recent examples: Spitzer Clusters:  JPL issued a press release stating that the Spitzer Space Telescope, on a “cosmic safari,” found evidence for clusters of […]
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Dumb Ideas

Sacrificial Love Evolved from Colored Beards
March 31, 2006
Scientific jargon is like a foreign language to most lay people, but anyone stumbling across a paper on “altruism through beard chromodynamics” in Nature1 this week must surely wonder what on earth Vincent Jansen and Minus van Baalen were talking about.  Let’s see if their introduction can explain, or if Nature has printed a grown-up […]
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Cell Biology

Reviewer Stunned by Author’s Handwaving
March 31, 2006
David Nicholls appears to have suffered whiplash from a line in a book he was reviewing in Science,1 Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life by Nick Lane (Oxford, 2006).  Though he liked the book in general, he said this about Lane’s explanation for how the first cell got its power generator: The […]
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Genetics

Minimum Genome Doubles
March 31, 2006
How many genes does a bacterium need to live?  Evolutionists interested in the origin of life have been trying to determine the minimal genome for life.  Those estimates may have been way too low, say researchers from the University of Bath.  Though they did not supply a number, they estimate the required number of genes […]
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Dumb Ideas

Stupid Evolution Quote of the Week:  Evolution of ABC
March 30, 2006
Four Caltech scientists have tried to explain the shapes of alphabet letters in evolutionary terms, reported EurekAlert: In a new study forthcoming in the May 2006 issue of The American Naturalist, Mark A. Changizi and his coauthors, Qiang Zhang, Hao Ye, and Shinsuke Shimojo, from the California Institute of Technology explore the hypothesis that human […]
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Amazing Facts

Spiders Rappel Without Getting Dizzy
March 29, 2006
How can spiders drop straight down their dragline silk without going into dizzying spins on the way down?  It’s because spider silk has “shape memory” and a resistance to twisting, due to its unique molecular structure.  Scientists tested three strong threads for shape memory: Kevlar thread, copper thread, and spider silk.  The winner was spider […]
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Fossils

Chicxulub Impact Not a Global Catastrophe
March 29, 2006
In a surprising reversal of stories told for decades, it appears the dinosaurs did not die from the impact of a large meteor near the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico.  According to a press release from the Geological Society of America, the Chicxulub Impact occurred too early – 300,000 years too early – to have killed […]
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Intelligent Design

How Dry I.D.
March 27, 2006
Greg Schirf of Wasatch Brewery is riding the wave of publicity over the intelligent design controversy in Utah.  He came out with a new “intelligently designed” beer: Evolution Amber Ale.  The press release expresses his alarm over the alleged erosion of separation of church and state, but how serious (or sober) he was may be […]
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Early Man

Human ‘Missing Link’ Skull Found in Ethiopia
March 26, 2006
Reuters reported that a skull intermediate between Homo erectus and Homo sapiens has been found in Ethiopia (see MSNBC News): “Ethiopian find could fill gap in human origins,” reads the title.  “Skull seen as ‘intermediate’ between modern humans and older ancestors.”  Associated Press (see Fox News) says this fossil is 250,000 to 500,000 years old, […]
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Uncategorized

Plant Species Divisions Are As Distinct As Those of Animals
March 25, 2006
Plants were thought to speciate differently than animals.  Evolutionary taxonomists presumed that their species barriers were more fuzzy, with hybridization, polyploidy and other mechanisms blurring the lines between species.  Not so, claim three scientists from Indiana University writing in Nature.1  These perceptions may just be artifacts of the plants selected for study: Many botanists doubt […]
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Uncategorized

Non-Coding DNA: Whatcha Calling Junk?
March 24, 2006
The focus on genes continues to blur, as more geneticists look outside the box.  Some 98% of DNA in the nucleus of human cells does not code for genes.  Long dismissed as genetic junk, much of it may turn out to be the hands on the controls.     A press release from Johns Hopkins […]
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Education

New Book:  Traipsing Into Evolution
March 23, 2006
The Discovery Institute has published a new book, Traipsing Into Evolution, analyzing the Dover decision.  (Traipsing is defined as walking or traveling about without apparent plan but with or without a purpose.)  An article on Evolution News introduces the contents, and describes the authors: “The book was written by David K. DeWolf, professor of law […]
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Origin of Life

Dry-Marsers Score Points
March 23, 2006
Those looking for water on Mars in hopes that life would grow in it had some setbacks this week.  National Geographic and Mars Daily reported on work by Gwendolyn Bart (U of Arizona) who found gullies on the moon similar to those on Mars thought to be formed by water.  Since the moon never had […]
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