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Publish Your Kooky Idea

April 22, 2009

Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute has a solution for sorting science from pseudoscience: publish. In the weekly SETI article for April 16 on Space.com, he said he gets lots of wacky theories in the mail and email. What’s the best way to sift through claims and find the gems? Publication. Shostak acknowledged […]

Dinosaurs

How Valid Is Computerized Dinosaur Reconstruction?

April 18, 2009

Can you reconstruct a dinosaur on a computer? Of course you can. The question is how accurate it reflects something no one has ever seen. Live Science told about Peter Falkingham at the University of Manchester who is using “genetic algorithms” and simulating evolution to figure out how dinosaurs walked. A dinosaur’s gait […]

Amazing Facts

Better Solar Cells with Diatoms

April 14, 2009

Let’s start with the operative quote before the subject matter: “Nature is the engineer, not high tech tools. This is providing a more efficient, less costly way to produce some of the most advanced materials in the world.” OK, now the subject: how to build better solar cells, by imitating diatoms. See the story on […]

Dumb Ideas

Did Nature Dictate Biological Codes?

April 9, 2009

Pangloss was a character in Voltaire’s Candide made to caricature philosophers who give simplistic, optimistic answers to difficult questions. Dr. Pangloss was fond of saying, a la Leibniz, that we live in the best of all possible worlds. One evolutionist described a theory by two other evolutionists as possibly a “Panglossian argument” about the origin […]

Amazing Facts

Your Eye Works a Precision Jigsaw Puzzle

April 7, 2009

You have twin 125 megapixel video cameras in your eyeballs. Each pixel, a rod or cone connected to a neuron, sees only a small bit of the total image. How do these bits, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, fit together? Scientists at the Salk Institute have found that they are finely tuned to fit […]

Dumb Ideas

Can Evolution Be Programmed?

April 6, 2009

Some researchers are employing “evolutionary computing” as an algorithm to solve problems. But is it really evolution? Evolved machines: A company called Evolved Machines in Palo Alto announced a 40-teraflop machine that will be used for the “artificial evolution of neural circuitry” (see press release on United Business Media). “It is self-evident that in biological […]

Amazing Facts

Quick, Make Like an Ant

April 5, 2009

Ants deserve a lot of respect, despite being a nuisance in the kitchen. The very fact they are so effective at bugging us is a testament to their ingenuity in foraging, communicating and organizing themselves into successful colonies. We might just gain some valuable knowledge by watching them more closely. Foraging: Live Science says that […]

Dumb Ideas

Evolutionists Tell Us What Nature Intended

April 3, 2009

Can nature intend anything? A true materialist lacks access to the concept of purpose and intentionality. Whatever is, is. Nevertheless, some staunch evolutionists avail themselves of the purpose-driven life by telling us what evolution intended. Meredith Small tells us on Live Science, for instance, that nature did not intend single parents. Having become […]

Amazing Facts

Envying the Tooth of the Sea Urchin

March 31, 2009

Did you know the lowly sea urchin has a tooth? It’s not just any tooth: it’s “a remarkable grinding tool,” according to a team of international scientists. They even used the word “exquisite” in the title of their paper in PNAS.1 Humans might benefit from knowing more about this tool. “The improved understanding of these […]

Cell Biology

Crystal Mysticism Invades Astrobiology

March 20, 2009

Mystical ideas about the life-giving power of crystals usually go with New Age movies and storefronts. Science is above all that, right? Then what is a reader supposed to think of this opening line by Leslie Mullen on Space.com? One of the greatest mysteries about the origin of life is how the necessary ingredients consistently […]

Dumb Ideas

From Dust to St. Patrick in 5 Billion Years Flat

March 17, 2009

Biblical creationists and evolutionists have one belief in common: we came originally from dust. How that dust became organized is the difference. Both views teach that our bodies are comprised of the same atoms found in dust, but creationists say an intelligent designer purposefully molded the dust into a fully-formed man and woman, whereas evolutionists […]

Cell Biology

Shedding Light on the Protein Big Bang Theory

March 13, 2009

The precise three-dimensional structure of a typical protein molecule is so complex, its origin would seem hopeless by chance. What if evolutionary biologists were to discover a whole host of proteins literally exploded into existence at the beginning of complex life? We can find out what they would think by looking at an article on […]

Dumb Ideas

Ye Are the Salt of the Evolution

March 11, 2009

Salt is good, the good book says (Mark 9:50). Another good thing it may do for you, according to Science Daily, is act as “Nature’s Antidepressant.” Presumably it’s hard to have a good mood about a steak with no salt on it. In the midst of this article about the mood-enhancing effects of salt, an […]

Early Man

Gobekli Tepe: What Mean These Ancient Stones?

March 10, 2009

Imagine stone carvings and monuments whose age make the pyramids and Stonehenge look like artifacts of modern history. Such monuments exist on a hill in Turkey at a site called Gobekli Tepe. Squared-off limestone blocks stacked like the letter T, arranged in circles, with ornate animal carvings on them, have been baffling archaeologists for the […]

Dumb Ideas

The Evolution of Creationism and Other Intangibles

March 6, 2009

If you are a creationist, you can’t help yourself, because evolution made you that way. It might have also made you moral and religious, especially if you are a woman. These and other evolutionary stories are making the rounds. Evo-creationism: New Scientist says humans may be primed to believe in creation. Studies show that humans […]

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