Paleo – Page 78

VIEW HEADLINES ONLY

What Do Scientists Know About Prehistory?

January 9, 2012

Evolutionary biologists and geologists speak of events happening millions or billions of years ago as concrete facts. They are not observational facts, though; they are inferences from indirect evidence. Indirect evidence can often lead to different conclusions; in fact, some philosophers like Duhem and Quine argue for “under-determination of theory by data,” meaning that data can never converge to support just one theory. Some can demonstrate logically that there are an infinite number of theories that can explain a set of data. Evolutionary scientists counter that there are only one or a few that are reasonable (implying that theirs is among the limited set of reasonable ones). Recent discoveries that threaten to overturn past reasonable theories, though, cast doubt on their confidence.

Amazing Facts

Nature Does It Right

January 4, 2012

Scientists and engineers continue to find well-designed features in living things that are worth imitating.

Biology

Hear Ye: Another Darwinian Prediction Falsified by Fossils

January 3, 2012

In a classic test of evolutionary “post-diction” (predicting what should be found in the fossil record), scientists made a bold prediction of what insect ears would look like before the evolution of bats. Believing that the presence of bats, a new predator with sonar, would spur the evolution of insect ears, the scientists predicted that earlier insects would have less-developed ears, or none at all. Then they found exceptionally-preserved insect fossils from the Green River formation in Wyoming, and compared the fossil evidence with their prediction. What was found?

Biology

Dino Expert Plays Chicken

December 28, 2011

Jack Horner, the dinosaur hunter who was science advisor to the Jurassic Park movies, wants to create a real dinosaur. He won’t use the movie method, trying to extract blood from Jurassic amber, because “DNA degrades too quickly,” he said. But he has a method he thinks will work: un-evolve a chicken back into its dinosaur ancestor.

Awards

Humans Evolved from Pigeons

December 26, 2011

Experiments with pigeons show that their intelligence matches or exceeds that of chimpanzees. If evolutionists can infer that chimpanzees are our closest living relatives based on intelligence, why wouldn’t it be just as logical to infer that humans evolved from birds? As some recent articles show, such a whimsical story does not exceed in silliness what some evolutionists actually do claim.

Biology

Cambrian Explosion Louder Still

December 23, 2011

Darwin started a tradition of worrying about the Cambrian Explosion. Over time the problem has only worsened; now we know that all the animal phyla appeared suddenly in the oldest strata containing metazoan (multi-celled) animals. In recent decades, evolutionists had hoped that the strange Ediacaran fossils would provide the needed missing links. In addition, some thought they had found embryos of early metazoans in the exceptionally-preserved Precambrian beds of China. Those hopes have now been dashed, leading to moans and groans from Darwinians.

Awards

Human Variability Can Be Rapid

December 19, 2011

All living humans are interfertile – one species by definition. People from all parts of the globe can marry and have children, even though global travel is relatively recent in human history. Yet we know there is considerable variability between tribes and nationalities. Does this variability take millions of years? Does it lead to the origin of new human species? Recent evidence shows that variations can be rapid, both genetic and acquired, without reducing interfertility.

Awards

Hopping Fish and Other Darwin Mysteries

December 12, 2011

The chieftans of evolutionary theory insist that their doctrines have come a long way since Darwin. Discoveries in molecular biology, population genetics, biogeography, paleontology have left the Victorian concepts of evolution outdated and antiquated, they would say. Yet a look at the evolutionary literature shows otherwise. Simplistic just-so stories, Darwinian phrases like “survival of the fittest” and “missing link,” iconic fossils, and antiquated principles continue to be the rule, as the following articles illustrate.

Early Man

Early Man Stories Evolve

December 11, 2011

Early man evolved, evolutionary scientists assure us. But it's not clear what is evolving more: our ancestors, or the tales told about them.

Biology

Cambrian Predator Had Modern Eyes

December 7, 2011

An exquisite fossil alleged to be 515 million years old shows a compound eye so complex, it looks as good as any modern insect’s eye. The eye belonged to Anomalocaris, the fearsome predator of Cambrian seas, one of the key players in the Cambrian explosion – the sudden appearance of all the animal phyla in the earliest rock layers.

Bible and Theology

The Science of Atheism

December 6, 2011

Science news sites have recently included some unusual articles: reports about the science of atheism. What can scientists say about atheism without leaving the domain of science altogether?

Bible and Theology

Simplest Explanation: Dinosaurs Drowned

November 23, 2011

Why are dinosaur skeletons so often found with head arched backward? The simplest explanation, according to one experimenter, is that they drowned in water.

Biology

Whale Fossils: Challenge or Support for Evolution?

November 14, 2011

When most fossils consist of small shelly creatures, finding a whale is indeed big news. Two whale fossil discoveries on opposite sides of the world are spectacular and puzzling. Do they support the theory that whales evolved from land mammals?

Astronomy

Selling Confabulation as Science

November 11, 2011

Science is supposed to be all about demonstrable proof through experiment. Should some scientists get away with confabulation – mere storytelling? Look at these recent headlines published on science news sites and consider whether some serious housecleaning is in order.

Amazing Facts

Animal Plan: It Works Well

November 10, 2011

There were Greek and Roman naturalists who were intrigued by what they saw in the living world, but their observational tools were limited to their five senses. Modern science has expanded our senses far beyond the capabilities known just a century ago. We are privileged to live in an age of discovery that is revealing even more wonders beneath the surface of living things, wonders worth knowing about. Here are just a few.

All Posts by Date

[archives type="yearly" cat_id="6630"]