Evolution Takes Credit
August 24, 2007
It may be more blessed to give than to receive, but evolution often just takes.
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Crows Use Tools on Tools
August 21, 2007
Crows can use one tool on another to get food. A report in Science Daily says they appear to use analogical reasoning, not just trial and error, to figure out how to manipulate objects. They used a short stick to get a longer stick out of a toolbox in order to reach a snack too […]
SETI Camp Promotes Make Believe
August 17, 2007
“Every kid loves to play make believe,” wrote Lisa Grossman for Space.com’s “SETI Thursday” feature. How did Lisa spend her summer? Playing make believe with 16 undergraduates at a NSF- and NASA-funded SETI camp. “For many of us, the experience was nothing short of fantasy fulfillment,” she cheerfully said in her report entitled, “How I […]
Artificial Selection Is Not Natural Selection
August 16, 2007
From Nature1 comes this point to ponder: Evolution has crafted thousands of enzymes that are efficient catalysts for a plethora of reactions. Human attempts at enzyme design trail far behind, but may benefit from exploiting evolutionary tactics. The subheading summarized a commentary by Michael P. Robertson and William G. Scott (UC Santa Cruz) on “directed […]
Stupid Evolution Quote of the Week: Shark Chefs and Finger Food
August 15, 2007
A press release from University of Florida wins this week’s prize for trying to make dogmatism funny (or at least appealing to snackers): When the first four-legged animals sprouted fingers and toes, they took an ancient genetic recipe and simply extended the cooking time, say University of Florida scientists writing in Wednesday’s issue of the […]
DNA Repair Is Highly Coordinated
August 14, 2007
The remarkable ability of cells to repair DNA damage has been the subject of several recent articles. As a long, physical molecule subject to perturbing forces, DNA is subject to breakage on occasion. If repair mechanisms were not in place, the genetic information would quickly become hopelessly scrambled and life would break down. Studies are […]
Weird-Science Origin-of-Life Theories
August 10, 2007
Two news articles on the origin of life seem bizarre at best. One even used the word “bizarrely” in its own self-evaluation. Living dust: Zap the dust in your living room and it may come alive. Is that the gist of this story in PhysOrg? A team of international scientists thinks that cosmic dust in […]
The World Is a Free Lunch
August 7, 2007
One of the strangest Darwinian models to be put forth recently has to be a paper by James V. Stone (a psychologist at Sheffield U, UK), published in PLoS Computational Biology.1 He basically says that evolution is a free lunch. Brains and whole body types can emerge if an organism can learn parts of adaptive […]
Darwinism Seen in Action!
August 3, 2007
An example of Darwinian evolution in action was reported by EurekAlert. This dramatic announcement called it a “rare example” of a “controversial theory of genetic conflict” in the reproduction of certain fish: The conflict has been likened to a “battle of the sexes” or an “arms race” at the molecular level between mothers and fathers. […]
Motorized Ears Give Mammals Acoustic Acuity
July 31, 2007
f=”crev03.htm#amazing11″>03/27/2001), we reported on the discovery of prestin, a motor protein that acts as an amplifier in the inner ear. One of the fastest-acting molecular motors known (02/21/2002), prestin works by stiffening the rod-shaped cell body with its cilia. Somehow, the action of this motor protein amplifies hearing in mammalian ears by several orders of […]
The Simpsons Producer Treats Evolution as Fact
July 26, 2007
The TV cartoon The Simpsons was praised for its “greatness” in, of all places, the premiere scientific journal Nature.1 Michael Hopkin interviewed “Executive producer Al Jean, the show’s head writer and a Harvard mathematics graduate.” One of the questions was, “One episode in which the show does take sides is the one in which Lisa […]
Mosquitos Are Water-Walking Champions
July 18, 2007
We hate ’em, but in one sense we should admire them: mosquitos are the water-walking champions of the animal kingdom. They even beat out water striders, reported Live Science and EurekAlert based on research from Physical Review E. Science Daily wrote of “miraculous mosquito legs” and had a picture of the intricate fan-shaped superhydrophobic structures […]
News Reporters Knuckling Under to Darwinian Storytelling
July 17, 2007
The science news media are virtually going ape over a claim about how chimpanzees might have evolved into upright-walking humans: what is going on? It began with a paper in PNAS.1 Sockol, Raichlen and Pontzer measured the gaits of chimpanzees and humans and concluded that it is more efficient to walk upright than to propel […]
Cool Cell Tricks
July 16, 2007
Some cell parts act like acrobats, some like rescue workers, and some like I.T. professionals. Here are some recent stories about the tricks that living cells perform each day. Precision formation flying: The Scientist expressed amazement at the precision of key factors in development of the body plan in fruit flies. The levels of expression […]
Roadrunner and Largest Flying Bird Described from Fossils
July 15, 2007
A bird with a 23-foot wingspan was described in the BBC News. At an estimated 155 pounds, this bird probably had to jump from a height to get airborne and likely rode on thermals. The article says the bird rivalled in size some light airplanes. A diagram shows the Argentinean giant with wings upwardly stretched […]