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Plants Are World Travelers

July 20, 2002

We think of plants as stationary life forms anchored to the soil, but National Geographic News reminds us that they have remarkable ways of getting around via seed dispersal mechanisms. Some fly through the air with parachutes or helicopters, some float in the water, and some rely on animals. It appears that some exotic species […]

Amazing Facts

Harnessing Cellular Machines for Humans

July 20, 2002

The cell is loaded with molecular machines, so why reinvent the wheel? or the whole truck? Martin G. L. van den Heuvel and Cees Dekker wrote in Science that engineers ought to put the existing technology to work.1 The biological cell is equipped with a variety of molecular machines that perform complex mechanical tasks such […]

Biomimetics

Mutating Evolution Into Design

July 20, 2002

51; The word evolve gets used in funny ways. As Paul Nelson has noted, it often becomes a Designer substitute. Look how an article in New Scientist employed it: Could a 3D printer help to create in minutes what nature took millions of years to evolve – the perfect insect wing? Tiny robotic insects would […]

Dumb Ideas

Media Becoming Ambivalent on How to Spin Evolution

June 20, 2002

Anti-evolutionists remain the whipping boys of science, but some reporters, at least, seem to be waffling on the effectiveness of the torture. For others, the heat of the battle is apparently wearing them down. Some even seem to be entertaining treasonous thoughts that the Darwinists are unable or unwilling to provide the promised reinforcements. Chimp […]

Dumb Ideas

Fishing for Darwinian Stories

June 20, 2002

51; Stickleback fish can learn from each other where the best food sources are. This proves you brain’s remarkable learning abilities have their roots in fish heads, according to science news sources this week. Science Daily said the findings by UK scientists “show that the cognitive mechanisms underlying cumulative cultural evolution may be more prevalent […]

Amazing Facts

Amazing Animals on Parade

June 20, 2002

You have to admire animals. They have tricks humans still need to learn, and possess technologies that engineers are striving to imitate. Spiders: Don’t let the black widow scare you; it’s only a picture on Science Daily. Scientists are amazed at how these animals produce one of the best dragline silks in spiderdom. It is […]

Amazing Facts

Genetics: Alternate Reading Frames May Be Common

May 20, 2002

Imagine a book written in a language where there were no spaces, and every word was three letters long. Now imagine that you could get one story by starting at the first letter, and a different story by starting at the second letter, and another by starting at the third letter. That’s the situation with […]

Darwin and Evolution

A Hairy Evolution Story

May 20, 2002

51; A mammal hair was found in amber. It is claimed to be 100 million years old, but it is identical to modern mammal hair. What is the meaning of this find? How should it be interpreted? It may say more about the modern evolutionist than about evolution itself. New Scientist told the […]

Amazing Facts

White Blood Cells Walk to Infection on Tiny Legs

May 20, 2002

51; How do white blood cells know where to go when infection strikes? The cells have tiny little feet and crawl like millipedes, against the blood stream, if necessary, following signals from the infection site. When they arrive, more signals tell them where to slip through the cells of the blood vessel to get to […]

Amazing Facts

Your Inner Postal Service

April 20, 2002

51; Zip codes – those five- or nine-digit numbers on mail – have an analogue in every one of your cells. Like a city,1 a cell has information to ship from place to place.2 To make sure that the manufacturing instructions for protein parts arrive at the appropriate assembly site, the shipper puts a molecular […]

Amazing Facts

Teeth Resist Cracking

April 20, 2002

51; Here’s a story to share with your dentist. You can crack a tooth, but it takes a lot of force. This should be surprising, since tooth enamel is as brittle as glass. The way the enamel develops, researchers found, absorbs excess energy and gives your teeth an extraordinary crack resistance. “Human enamel […]

Dumb Ideas

Stupid Evolution Quote of the Week: The Evolution of TV Dinners

April 20, 2002

Humans still have genetic memories of feasting and telling stories around the campfire, says Martin Jones at Cambridge University. That’s why we gravitate toward eating TV dinners in front of the telly. This opinion is expressed in all seriousness by United Press International, titled “Television dinners linked to evolution.” Jones calls today’s TV dinners “today’s […]

Amazing Facts

Crows Use Tools in Sequence

April 20, 2002

51; Watch a one-minute video clip on the BBC News. A New Caledonian crow in New Zealand figures out how to use three tools in sequence to get at food that is out of reach. This amazing display of animal intelligence surprised researchers at the University of Auckland who already knew about the legendary problem-solving […]

Amazing Facts

Flies Turn on a Dime

April 20, 2002

51; A fly can turn 180 degrees in one tenth the time it takes you to blink an eye. Beating their wings 250 times a second, they don’t even have to think about each wing beat, PhysOrg said about studies at Brown University using high-speed cameras and image tracking software. “[Attila] Bergou discovered that flies […]

Dumb Ideas

Evolution Rules

March 20, 2002

51; It would be convenient if all a scientist had to do to prove his theory was declare it to be a law of nature. Is that what scientists from UC Berkeley and Imperial College have done with evolution? “First ‘rule’ of evolution suggests that life is destined to become more complex,” announced a press […]

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