Cell Biology

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Cell Electronics Is High-Tech

May 13, 2008

To describe a living cell these days, you have to borrow electronics lingo. Notice how two recent articles described cell specs: Ham radio immunity: What acts like a radio dial, a signal amplifier, and a precision rheostat? Your immune system, according to Science Daily. Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital described how the cell […]

Cell Biology

Fitting Data to Darwinism Takes Creativity and Spin

May 6, 2008

Fairly regularly, papers appear in journals under the heading of Evolution. The ones dealing with genetics tend to be hard to follow. They are filled with jargon, correlation scores, charts and network diagrams. They employ algorithms and databases unfamiliar to the lay reader. Overall, though, they claim to find support for Darwin’s tree of life […]

Cell Biology

Watch for Falling Amino Acids

April 8, 2008

A long-standing problem of origin-of-life theories is how proteins became left-handed. Amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, come in right-handed and left-handed forms, yet life uses only the left-handed form. The two isoforms are otherwise identical—yet one amino acid of the wrong hand in a protein spells doom for its function. Wherever […]

Darwin and Evolution

Darwin and Complexity: Another Genetic Solution?

April 2, 2008

It remains one of the biggest obstacles to belief in evolution that a random, unguided process could build an eye, a wing or any of thousands of complex structures.

Amazing Facts

Scientist Harnesses ATP Synthase

March 27, 2008

How would you like shorter waits at airports? fast screening for disease? the ability to detect biological warfare agents quickly? That may be possible soon – thanks to an amazing man-and-nature cooperative technology reported by Science Daily. A team led by Wayne Frasch at Arizona State is on the verge of an invention that can […]

Amazing Facts

The Root Route

March 4, 2008

Why don’t roots push a plant right out of the ground? It’s a question only a scientist or an 8-year-old kid would ask. The answer is more amazing than either would have realized. Root hairs feel their way around obstacles and find the openings, in the dark, by means of a complex interplay of proteins […]

Amazing Facts

Why Blood Clots Are Stretchy

February 27, 2008

A team of biophysicists at University of Illinois ran a computation for six months to find out why blood clots are stretchy. The primary protein in the clot, fibrinogen, can stretch two to three times its resting size. By studying the force on every atom in the protein, Science Daily said, they produced a force […]

Cell Biology

Did Darwinism Build the Nuclear Pore Complex?

February 2, 2008

After nine years of work, three universities including a team at Rockefeller University completed a beautiful new model of the nuclear pore complex. The story is told by Science Daily. The article attributed the origin of this exquisite gatekeeper of the nucleus to evolution: “their findings provide a glimpse into how the nucleus […]

Amazing Facts

Nose Code Rockets Smell Discrimination

February 1, 2008

You have a code in your nose. Scientists working on fruit fly olfactory systems have found that a mapping mechanism between components maximizes the fly’s ability to discriminate smells. The coding system provides a non-linear response that appears finely tuned to maximize the information content of odor inputs. The components of this system […]

Amazing Facts

A Pitcher of Health, and Reasons to Love Slime

January 28, 2008

Pitcher plants contain chemicals that just might help medicine and agriculture, reported PhysOrg. A Japanese team found a myriad of interesting proteins in this “evolutionary marvel,” a plant that eats insect meat. Now for some slimy good news. PhysOrg said, “You know algae. It’s the gunk that collects on the sides of a […]

Cell Biology

Bacteria to the Future

January 14, 2008

Bacteria used to be considered so boring, they were passed over by scientists eager to look where the action was: eukaryotic cells. That was then. Now, Nature reported,1 the little rods and spheres and spirals have lots of tricks up their sleeves worth investigating. “Long dismissed as featureless, disorganized sacks, bacteria are now revealing a […]

Cell Biology

Stem Cells: Its a New Ball Game

January 10, 2008

A year ago, the ethical battle over human embryonic stem cells was raging. Now, both Science and Nature have acknowledged that the new induced pluripotent stem cell technology (see 11/20/2007) has opened up a new era that may make embryonic stem cells practically obsolete. Martin Pera, writing in Nature1, left open only a […]

Cell Biology

Missing Links or Linking Misses? The Case of the Fungus Crystal

January 3, 2008

Another evolutionary missing-link claim showed up in the news recently. The suggestive phrase “missing link” implies a chain with just one piece missing. It also implies that the chain is visible from one end to the other. Maybe a magic crystal from a fungus can help us visualize the chain. A “critical missing […]