Dumb Ideas – Page 23

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Cell Ribosome Assembly Is Like Throwing Car Parts Together

December 1, 2005

Ribosomes are the protein-assembly machines in the living cell (11/24/2005, 07/26/2005, 01/19/2005). A bacterium can have thousands of them. They are composed of two large RNA complexes; the smaller one has 20 unique proteins that fit snugly in various parts of the apparatus, and the larger complex has even more. How do the parts all […]

Dumb Ideas

On the Origin of Hee-Hees by Natural Selection

November 22, 2005

From slime to smile in 200 million years: some Darwinists feel they have explained the evolution of laughter. In all seriousness, EurekAlert announced, “The first laugh: New study posits evolutionary origins of two distinct types of laughter.” The story is about a new hypothesis by Matthew Gervais and David Sloan Wilson. The origin of comedy, […]

Dumb Ideas

Stupid Evolution Quotes of the Week

November 7, 2005

Two articles in the popular press tried to make the case that monkeys have humanlike characteristics. Maybe they proved the converse, at least for some humans. Does this add up? Reporting on experiments suggesting monkeys have the rudiments of math skills, at least in the ability to compare sizes of things, MSNBC News writer Bjorn […]

Dumb Ideas

A Just-So Story Digest

November 5, 2005

For your weekend reading entertainment, here is a collection of recent science stories that rely more on imagination than evidence, in the tradition of Kipling’s Just-So Stories for children. How the Brown Dwarf Sowed Planet Seeds: Apai et al. in Science found magic crystals, hidden by the six brown dwarfs, that turn into planets over […]

Dumb Ideas

Listen to Yourself Evolve

October 23, 2005

A pretty gene is like a melody, decided Mary Anne Clark at Texas Wesleyan University, so she gave life to music—literally. She translated the structure of proteins into musical notes so that she could hear “protein songs,” reported National Geographic News. By listening to the songs, scientists and students alike can hear the structure of […]

Dumb Ideas

Evolution Runs in Reverse

October 22, 2005

A commercial for Guinness Beer shows devolution: evolution running in reverse. It’s called, “The history of life in :50 seconds flat.” Is beer drinking a slippery slope to the primordial ooze? This commercial is really funny to watch, and very clever, but it demonstrates the pervasive influence of Darwinism on our culture. We like the […]

Cell Biology

Stupid Evolution Quote of the Week: Network Evolution Trumps ID

October 5, 2005

This entry will make more sense after reading yesterday’s story on the evolution of modular networks (10/04/2005). A reader sent in a reference to a very similar article from scientists at Johns Hopkins published in PLoS Biology.1 It must be Network Evolution Week. Before awarding the SEQOTW prize, some background is necessary. Like […]

Dumb Ideas

Can Chemicals Be Fertile?

September 21, 2005

Simon Conway Morris wins Stupid Evolution Quote of the Week for the following entry in Current Biology.1 Ostensibly he was trying to be light-hearted and funny about mass extinctions. We’ll see if anyone is laughing about whether massive impacts are a blessing or a curse: Manna from heaven. So yet more violence, with the Earth […]

Dumb Ideas

Zoo Wants You in the Cage

September 15, 2005

Visitors to the Zagreb Zoo get to walk through displays detailing the ways in which humans “contribute to the destruction of wildlife and the environment,” and then spend a little time in a cage that was deemed unsuitable for the foxes and martens who were its previous inhabitants. The zoo calls humans “the most dangerous […]

Dumb Ideas

Mars and Moons Shed Cocoons

September 13, 2005

With so many spacecraft touring our solar system, there’s almost too much news to process. Here are a few highlights, starting with Mars, then comets, asteroids, a Titanic puzzle, and what Cassini found mini moons ago. Mars Ice Age: Mars Express may have found evidence for deep ice deposits on Mars around the equator in […]

Dumb Ideas

Are Brains Evolving Bigger, or Fatter?

September 9, 2005

Two papers in Science Sept. 9 claimed that human brains may still be evolving. According to the authors, two genes related to brain size appear to be under “positive selection” in certain people groups. One team said their variant occurred the same time as the emergence of art, music, religious practices and sophisticated tool use, […]

Dumb Ideas

Comet Theories Vanish in Puff of Powder

September 7, 2005

They were supposed to be dirty snowballs, those comets, pristine relics from the primordial solar system. They were supposed to be blasting volatile ices from their interiors as they approached the sun. What are they doing with aromatic hydrocarbons, olivine, iron, clays and carbonates? When the Deep Impact probe hit its target July 4, it […]

Dumb Ideas

Do You Belong in the Zoo?

August 29, 2005

People are gawking at people in the London Zoo, each probably wondering what side of the cage they belong on. In one of the primate exhibits, eight scantily clad white people are on display, reports AP (see MSNBC and Yahoo). Wearing fig leaves pinned onto their swimsuits, they play, they scratch, they groom each other, […]

Dumb Ideas

History Channel Documentary on Human Ancestry: History or Fiction?

August 9, 2005

The History Channel aired a program called “Ape to Man” Monday evening August 7, alleging that modern science had finally pieced together the solution to the puzzle of human evolution. Although it included debunking episodes of Piltdown (11/18/2003) and Java Man (02/27/2003), the flavor of the show was that the picture of human origins has […]

Cosmology

Tailpipe Soot: Can It Live?

July 28, 2005

Better stay clear of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). They come out of your tailpipe and furnace, line your chimney, and generally are products of unhealthy processes like industrial waste and cigarette smoke. According to Environment Canada, “PAHs are a concern because some of them can cause cancers in humans and are harmful to fish and […]

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