Origins

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Darwin Still Doesnt Do Well in Polls

February 4, 2009

British Darwin defender Richard Dawkins is gnashing his teeth over the latest poll in Britain that shows “More than half of the public believe that the theory of evolution cannot explain the full complexity of life on Earth, and a ‘designer’ must have lent a hand,” according to the UK Guardian and UK Telegraph. Dawkins […]

Intelligent Design

SETI Has a Long History

January 30, 2009

Astrobiology Magazine provided a historical look at attempts to communicate with aliens. Like the weather, people talked about life in outer space, but nobody did anything about it – at least till technology made such talk a little less crazy. Michael Schirber’s survey includes some interesting characters – Kepler, Gauss, Tesla and Einstein – along […]

Genetics

New Genetics Revolution Underway

January 27, 2009

The genetics of the 1950s was that DNA is the seat of all inheritance, and that genetic information traveled one way: from DNA to protein. That “central dogma” has been changing after decades of further researchers. Theories of epigenetics (inheritance not limited to DNA) have been gaining attention with increasing frequency. Science Daily […]

Early Man

Darwinists Frustrated at Public

January 26, 2009

“The creationists got what they wanted,” moaned Barbara Forrest in Science News of the Week (23 January 2009: Vol. 323. no. 5913, p. 451, DOI: 10.1126/science.323.5913.451b). All they got was the right for teachers to use supplementary materials in Louisiana schools. This followed a “wave of so-called academic freedom bills,” complained Yudhijit Bhattacharjee in his […]

Health

Immune System Has a Code, Language and Memory

January 24, 2009

“Decoding the language of memory cells” is the title of an article in Science Daily. A researcher at the University of the School of Medicine is using the concepts of codes, language and memory to understand the way T-cells “remember” a pathogen to prevent later infections. “We are currently figuring out which signals are important […]

Darwin and Evolution

Exploring the Malleability of Evolutionary Explanation

January 23, 2009

Is evolutionary theory just a very malleable and ductile idea, able to adapt to changing observations, or should it be described as a strong theory, powerful in its explanatory breadth?

Education

For His Birthday, Darwin Loses His Tree

January 22, 2009

The “tree of life” is the central icon of Darwinism. Charles Darwin’s only illustration in the Origin of Species was a drawing of organisms descending from a common ancestor in a branching tree pattern. It has been reproduced, expanded, embellished and decorated into a primal symbol of what science believes about biology. Why, then, are […]

Biomimetics

Minerals Can Fool Astrobiologists

January 21, 2009

Look at this picture on National Geographic News. Looks alive, doesn’t it? It’s only a mineral. The article contains a gallery of five micrographs of minerals that form curvy crystals. They’re called biomorphs (a word simply meaning life-like shapes). “Until now scientists had thought rounded crystals, such as those found in seashells and […]

Origin of Life

Time for Mars Life Again

January 16, 2009

Methane detection around Mars is giving new life to claims there is life on Mars. Space.com #1 and Space.com #2 explain why NASA scientists are looking to see if the methane can be explained geologically or biologically. Some news sites, like The Sun, go over the top with claims life has been discovered. Only the […]

Bible and Theology

Darwinists Cannot Deny Disturbing Implications

January 15, 2009

A common attitude among scientists is that they are not responsible for what people do with their discoveries. Facts are facts, after all, and nuclear energy can be used to power a city as well as destroy it. Is this a truism or a half-truth? Are there cases where a scientist is responsible for what […]

Origin of Life

Darwin Blogs on Origin of Life

January 14, 2009

He may not blog himself, but Darwin has disciples who blog for him. There’s bound to be a lot of blogging this year with Darwin’s 200th birthday next month and the 150th anniversary of the Origin of Species this November. Science began a blog called Origins with some entries from their Jan 8 issue. Two […]

Amazing Facts

Biology Now Includes Fluid Dynamic Construction

January 13, 2009

There’s an old legend that Tibetan monks built a wall by levitating heavy stones with sound by beating their drums and gongs. Something not quite so fantastic but still amazing is done by cells in the embryo. Scientists have filmed zebrafish embryos using beating cilia to build little stone structures that they use for balance. […]

Darwin and Evolution

Darwin in the Air

January 11, 2009

Darwin Day euphoria must be in the air. There have been several news stories with Darwin or Evolution in the title, but little to his credit in the substance of the article. Evolution inaction: The human immune system is, by any account, Science Daily, however not only called it a case of “Evolution in Action,” […]

Intelligent Design

Comparing Geological and Biological Patterns

December 26, 2008

Beehives have hexagons. So do lava flows. Is there any difference in how they form? Science Daily shows a picture of polygon-shaped tops of basalt columns at the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland. Similar formations are found in the Grand Canyon, at Devil’s Postpile in California, and in many places around the world. Researchers […]

Cosmology

Dream On, Astrobiology

December 22, 2008

An astrobiologist at Open University (UK) has classified habitable worlds into four types, even though only one of them is known to have life. Astrobiology Magazine reported the list by Jan Hendrik Bredeh?ft: earth-like, Mars-like, Venus-like and water-worlds. After considering all the facts, Bredeh?ft says our best bet to find extraterrestrial ecosystems is to hunt […]

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Darwin Still Doesnt Do Well in Polls