Terrestrial Zoology – Page 46

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An Evaluation of Evolution as an Explanatory Device

June 3, 2008

It is very common for scientists to claim this or that phenomenon “evolved.” How well do such statements qualify as scientific explanations? How much scientific heavy lifting is done by merely stating that things are the way they are because they evolved that way? The following recent examples can be considered representative of the evolutionary […]

Fossils

Fossil Frog-amander Claimed to Be Missing Link

May 28, 2008

It looks like a frog with four equal legs and a tail; is it the ancestor of frogs and amphibians? It depends on whether you read the original paper or the popular press. Live Science writer Jeanna Brynner is absolutely certain this puts a feather in Darwin’s cap: “the creature represents a transitional […]

Birds

Animals Outsmart Scientists

May 15, 2008

In science, long-standing beliefs are often challenged by new evidence. Several recent findings not only show animals to be more remarkable than thought, they pose some new questions for evolutionists. Slothlessness: Sleeping almost all day, the sloth is the epitome of laziness in the animal kingdom. Or is it? The BBC News now tells us […]

Biomimetics

Sweet Solutions from Nature

April 29, 2008

Human engineers continue to look at plants and animals for inspiration. Biomimetics – the imitation of biology for design technology – shows no sign of running out of ideas. Sweet gas: A spoonful of sugar in the gas tank? Science Daily reported on progress in converting plant sugars into clean-burning hydrogen – using biological enzymes. […]

Fossils

Evolution Revealed?

April 22, 2008

When the news reports evidence for evolution in the fossils or genes, it sounds like Darwinism has been all but proved, because scientists have observed its effects. Can these stories withstand deeper scrutiny? Lungless frog: Science Daily reported a frog without lungs in Borneo. Lunglessness in tetrapods has been reported in salamanders and other amphibians, […]

Amazing Facts

Moths Navigate in the Dark Against the Wind

April 12, 2008

A moth weighs little more than a piece of paper, but it does things no paper blowing in the wind can do: it can navigate with and against the wind to get where it needs to go. Science Daily reported on work by UK scientists who used “entomological radar” to monitor where the […]

Fossils

Evolution After the Fact

April 4, 2008

Many scientific theories are evaluated on their ability to make predictions. Good theories suggest experiments that lead a researcher to discover new things. In biology, however, “evolution” is a word often invoked as an after-market explanation for observations that emerged outside of the theory. Here are some recent examples: Ant farm: Science Daily reported on […]

Genetics

Tuatara Genes Are Running in Place

March 24, 2008

One would expect a living fossil to show extreme stasis at the genetic level. Not so for the tuatara, a New Zealand reptile, reported EurekAlert: researchers found that “although tuatara have remained largely physically unchanged over very long periods of evolution, they are evolving – at a DNA level – faster than any other animal […]

Amazing Facts

The Gecko in the Flight Simulator

March 17, 2008

It’s a lizard! It’s a plane! It’s Supergecko! Researchers at UC Berkeley (where else) put a gecko into a wind tunnel to watch it fly. News about gecko’s magic feet that allow it to run vertically up glass is almost old hat now (08/27/2002, 01/04/2005). Even a gecko can lose its footing, though, and thereon […]

Biomimetics

Animal Feats Inspire Imitation

March 14, 2008

Imagine carrying 850 times your own weight. Step aside, Hercules, and meet the Hercules beetle: the strongest creature in the world. Science Daily said that researchers in Belgium are not just impressed with its show of strength. They are finding inspiration for “intelligent materials.” The Hercules beetle has a shell that is able […]

Biomimetics

A Step Closer to Gecko Adhesive

January 30, 2008

Scientists are getting closer to imitating the amazing wall-climbing ability of geckos. Science Daily reports that a team from UC Berkeley manufactured tape with hard polymer fibers just 600 nanometers across that mimic the spatulae on gecko feet. This latest attempt at imitating the gecko works only on smooth, clean surfaces, but requires […]

Amazing Facts

Butterfly Wings Flash Shiny Optical Tricks

January 22, 2008

You can get brilliant colors without pigment if you build patterns near the wavelengths of light. Butterflies have the trick down to a science. Their wings shimmer and shine with brilliant colors produced by nanostructures that scientists want to imitate. Science Daily told how butterflies and moths, even the white-winged varieties, use nanostructures […]

Intelligent Design

Monarch Butterflies as a Test of Evolution

January 11, 2008

The Discovery Institute and the National Academy of Sciences have recently published books with butterflies prominently displayed on the cover. The two books give opposite viewpoints on whether life was designed or a product of evolution. Maybe a look at a real-world butterfly research project can shed light on the debate. A paper […]

Dinosaurs

Yet Another Dinosaur Extinction Theory: Bugs

January 3, 2008

A press release from Oregon State claims that insects may have finished off the dinosaurs. Two main reasons were given for this hypothesis: (1) the extinction coincides with the rise of flowering plants and their pollinators, and (2) the impact theory has serious problems. “There are serious problems with the sudden impact theories of dinosaur […]

Biomimetics

Accurate Chemical Classifier Mimics Insect Nose

December 10, 2007

Two Germans have built a better chemical classification system by taking their inspiration from insect olfactory organs. Here’s how they described their achievement in an abstract from PNAS:1 The chemical sense of insects has evolved to encode and classify odorants. Thus, the neural circuits in their olfactory system are likely to implement an efficient method […]

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