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.
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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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Evolutionary Theory Cant Handle Language
February 21, 2008
Did a gene turn on speech? Five years ago, evolutionary geneticists were claiming that mutations in a gene called Foxp2 were the key to human language (see 08/15/2002, 05/26/2004). This was based on two observations: chimps do not have these mutations, and people with alterations to Foxp2 have language impediments. This idea is very unlikely […]
Animals from Junk by Chance
February 12, 2008
How to build an animal: throw junk DNA at it. That seems to be the latest idea on where higher animals came from. A press release from University of Bristol posted on Science Daily and EurekAlert announced, “‘Junk DNA’ Can Explain Origin And Complexity Of Vertebrates, Study Suggests.” The basic idea, coming from […]
Of All the Nerve: Functional Intron Discovered
February 6, 2008
An intron vital to the production of nerve cells has been discovered, reported Science Daily. It acts as a “gatekeeper” to guide the messenger RNA for local control of gene expression in dendrites, the spindly arms of neurons. The discovery was made by a research team at University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. […]
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 […]
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 […]
Hidden Messages Found in DNA
January 29, 2008
DNA contains the language of life, but what would happen if someone found hidden messages in the genetic code? Such a thing actually happened, reported the New York Times. When Craig Venter’s lab produced an artificial organism, they inserted hidden “watermarks” into the genome: his name, the names of co-workers, and the name of the […]
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 […]
Molecular Phylogeny Is a Mess of Uncertainty
January 26, 2008
Genomes galore – a great opportunity to study evolution, right? Think again. A paper in Science by Wong et al1 revealed systematic uncertainty in the way genomes are compared, leading to bias that makes genetic comparisons essentially useless. Antonis Rokas, in the same issue,2 began his commentary on this problem thus: Darwin relied on fossils, […]
Backtracking on Darwinian Claims
January 21, 2008
Evolutionary theory evolves. Since Darwinists no longer consider evolution progressive, it follows that evolutionary theory is also not necessarily progressing. The following stories show evolutionary biologists backtracking on earlier claims. The pig is falling. “Darwinian evolutionary theory proposes that the phenotype of a creature is an adaptation to the particular demands of the ecological situation […]