How Best to Propagate Darwin’s Science
May 31, 2007
Two book reviews recently discussed the problem of “scientific illiteracy” in society, which the authors equated with doubts about Darwinian evolution.
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Red Vision Produced Red Hair in Monkeys
May 27, 2007
A story circulating in the news media claims that as soon as monkeys evolved the ability to see red, they evolved red hair to look at. Isn’t that the gist of a press release from Ohio University? Science Daily thought so, and so did Live Science, which said, “A new study shows that apes first […]
Stupid Evolution Quote of the Week: Design by Darwin
May 24, 2007
Can Darwin get credit for intelligently-planned research? Apparently John Chaput thinks so. A press release from the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University states this: Nature, through the trial and error of evolution, has discovered a vast diversity of life from what can only presumed to have been a primordial pool of building blocks. Inspired […]
Batting for Stupid Evolution Quote of the Week
May 18, 2007
National Geographic reported that bats are master flyers, whose aerodynamic skills outperform birds.1 They also have an exquisitely refined sonar sense that allows them to discern detail as fine as a fish fin sticking out of the water. Coupled with aerobatics and see-in-the-dark sonar, a bat can swoop down and catch the fish right out […]
Can Morality Be Evolutionized?
May 17, 2007
A psychologist at the University of Virginia is probing the evolutionary origins of morality: [Jonathan] Haidt shows how evolutionary, neurological and social-psychological insights are being synthesized in support of three principles: 1) Intuitive primacy, which says that human emotions and gut feelings generally drive our moral judgments; 2) Moral thinking if [sic] for social doing, […]
When Is a Primate a Human Ancestor?
May 14, 2007
Behold Aegyptopithecus zeuxis, an extinct fossil monkey. It had a brain smaller than a lemon, smaller than that of modern lemurs. Why, then, are the news media touting this as a human ancestor? The new specimen of Aegyptopithecus is more intact and complete than previous specimens. Two surprises were noted; the amount of […]
Stupid Evolution Quote of the Week: Design without a Designer
May 10, 2007
Apparently Francisco Ayala (UC Irvine) thinks that just stating something dogmatically is enough to end all discussion. The scope of his paper in PNAS is grandiose and sweeping, enough to keep philosophers and theologians from around the world busy for years, but Ayala just put out his opinions without any hint of dispute, and stamped […]
Stupid Evolution Quote Prizes
April 27, 2007
The Stupid Evolution Quote of the Week goes to Mark Gladwin (04/25/2007) who said something the gentler sex will probably wince at: “Study the pregnant women, because that’s where you’ll see evolution in action.” No offense intended, we hope. A runner-up goes to Deborah Charlesworth, who in Current Biology April 17 named Darwin as a […]
Cave Chimps Suggest Cave Men
April 11, 2007
Some chimpanzees have been found in Senegal using caves for shelter from the heat. Jill Pruetz (Iowa State) took note of this and is publishing a paper about it in Primates. National Geographic speculated that this sheds light on human origins: The adaptations of savanna chimpanzees are particularly interesting to researchers because early humans are […]
Stupid Evolution Quote of the Week: The Evolution of Shoppers Arm
March 31, 2007
This week’s prize goes to the Society for Experimental Biology, which, according to EurekAlert, said this in a press release: The next time you are struggling to carry your bags home from the supermarket just remember that this could, in fact, be the reason you are able to walk upright on two legs at all! […]
Can the Interior Design Itself?
March 26, 2007
Calling all interior designers: has Darwinism rendered you superfluous? J. Scott Turner thinks so. He wrote a book called The Tinkerer’s Accomplice: How Design Emerges from Life Itself (Harvard, 2007). It was reviewed by Claus Wedekind in last week’s Nature with the title, “The interior designer.” This does not imply that interiors need an exterior […]
Stupid Evolution Quote of the Week: Monkeys Bang Rocks, Invent Culture
March 23, 2007
The venerable University of Cambridge earns this week’s prize for the following statements in a press release today: New evidence of “human” culture among primates 23 March 2007 Research suggests that stone-banging by South American monkeys could be a socially-learned skill Fresh evidence that suggests monkeys can learn skills from each other, in the same […]
An Extinctions Long Fuse
March 15, 2007
Some scientists are claiming that when the Isthmus of Panama was formed, an extinction event occurred two million years later. The story is reported on EurekAlert: “We may be way off-track when we search for the causes of extinctions by looking only at the time the extinctions occur in the fossil record, which is what […]
Immature Kid? Blame Evolution
March 14, 2007
Why do older children linger at home longer than they should? Evolution, says Ker Than for Live Science. This insight of his is based on growth patterns of teeth from an alleged 160,000-year-old juvenile skeleton in Africa. Tanya Smith [Max Planck Institute] said of the bones, “These early fossils show a mix of primitive and […]
Were Australopithecines Violent? Should Humans Not Be?
March 12, 2007
One wonders how a scientist could infer behavior from skeletal dimensions, but David Carrier (U of Utah) believes he can visualize that evolutionary ancestors of humans were good fighters. A report on EurekAlert begins, “Ape-like human ancestors known as australopiths maintained short legs for 2 million years because a squat physique and stance helped the […]