Terrestrial Zoology

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Butterflies in Amber Stun Discoverers

March 17, 2004

New Scientist reports that exquisitely-preserved butterflies have been found in amber from the Dominican Republic. “It was just incredible,” exclaimed a Smithsonian researcher. It’s no different than if you took a modern day butterfly and put it under a light microscope.” But this prompted a puzzle: the amber is estimated to be up to 25 […]

Amazing Facts

Chameleon Tongue Beats Jet Aircraft

March 8, 2004

Did you know a chameleon’s tongue is so fast as it shoots out toward its prey, it reaches 50 G’s – five times faster than a fighter jet can accelerate? Science Now describes how the chameleon does it. Scientists only recently found out the secret with high-speed photography and careful examination of the tongue structure, […]

Fossils

Oldest Fossil Insect Alleged

February 11, 2004

In a pattern that sounds familiar, an insect fossil has been found that (1) is the oldest ever discovered, and (2) shows that “winged flight may have emerged earlier than previously thought.” Estimates put this fossil at about 400 million years old, among the first creatures to colonize the land. Though wing impressions were not […]

Amazing Facts

Flight Design Inspires Research

November 20, 2002

There are flying machines hovering over our planet that can turn on a dime, making rapid 90-degree turns. Their instruments process images ten times faster than we can, and possess precision gyros that tell them how fast they are rotating in space – yet their computers are smaller than the head of a pin. They’re […]

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 […]

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 […]

Darwin and Evolution

Peppered Moths Are Back

May 20, 2002

51; One might think that past embarrassments about the peppered moth as evidence for evolution would keep evolutionists reluctant to mention them. A team from the University of Liverpool either didn’t get the message, or shed all reluctance anyway. They published a new paper about Biston betularia in Science,1 calling the moth story “a textbook […]

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 […]

Biomimetics

Scientists Are Studying Your Garden for Ideas

February 20, 2002

51; Your garden plants are visited by a butterfly and various insects as you sip tea in a lawn chair. Did you have any idea that inventors are watching the same things with an eye to making money? Or that military officers are getting ideas from the garden to use against the enemy? Biomimetics – […]

Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs of the Month

February 20, 2002

The tools of paleontologists continue to turn up interesting things. Here are some of the latest dinosaur discoveries reported this month: Mighty mouth: An African theropod with massive, shark-like teeth was found in the African Sahara, reported National Geographic News and PhysOrg. It was named Eocarcharia dinops, or “fierce-eyed dawn shark.” Another similar individual, presumed […]

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