Microbiology – Page 101

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Few Typos Get Past Your Spell Checker

June 11, 2008

Inside your cells are thousands of spell checkers that put any human typist to shame. In a process critical to all living things, RNA Polymerase II transcribes DNA into RNA rapidly with high fidelity. Even very similar chemical letters are accurately discriminated by this wonder of a molecular machine that is described in Science Daily. […]

Cell Biology

Darwinism Demonstrated in the Lab

June 10, 2008

Lenski’s done it. The champion of Avida, a computerized evolution demo (see Evolution News) has demonstrated Darwinian evolution with real live organisms. His achievement announces his inauguration into the prestigious National Academy of Sciences.1 Lenski and team ran one of the longest-running evolution experiments ever with E. coli bacteria. After more than 30,000 […]

Genetics

Can Darwin Fit into Designer Genes?

June 2, 2008

Humans are tinkering with DNA in ways that appear to blur the boundaries between design and nature. PhysOrg reported that geneticists at the University of Nottingham have created capsules that can coax bacteria to transfer their genetic information. The title is “Life, but not as we know it?” PNAS reported that scientists at UC Santa […]

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 […]

Amazing Facts

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 […]

Genetics

Platypus Genome Surprises Evolutionists

May 9, 2008

Thanks to more efficient sequencing techniques, genomes of more and more animals are coming to light. The latest is from one of the most unusual animals in nature: the duck-billed platypus of Australia. The long and short of it: if evolutionists were confused about the phenotype (outward appearance) of this creature, they are just as […]

Genetics

Whence Plague?

May 8, 2008

Where did bubonic plague come from? Science News reported that two mutations turned the bacterium from a docile, innocuous bacterium into a curse. The combination of two mutations disabled the gene for aspartase, an enzyme that breaks down aspartic acid. When the crippled Yersinia pestis enters a host, more aspartic acid is generated […]

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 […]

Genetics

Nature Topples ID Straw Man

April 19, 2008

It’s easier to knock down a straw man than a strong man. Maybe that explains the human tendency to fantasize about victory over one’s enemies. In scientific journals, however, one would expect to deal in facts and to realistically portray adversarial positions. Even better would be to let the adversary respond. Nature, however, in its […]

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 […]

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 […]

Genetics

How to Translate Darwinese

March 6, 2008

A unique culture has sprung up around evolutionary biology. Since evolutionary theory encompasses far more than just change in living species (touching on, for instance, ultimate origins, the nature of humanity and the destiny of the universe), its supporters sometimes get a little carried away in their language. The tendency in science reporting to embellish […]

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 […]

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