Evolution – Page 35

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Fossil Fish Pushes Evolutionary Time

March 26, 2009

Quick! When was the Age of Fishes? If you said “Devonian,” you were correct according to the textbooks and museums, but where’s your evidence? Look at this diorama in the Smithsonian depicting the seas of the Silurian, the period preceding the Devonian: crinoids, trilobites, corals and nautiloids, but no fish. It may be time to […]

Uncategorized

Animal Protein Appears in Plant

March 25, 2009

Science Daily reported a “a first-of-its-kind discovery that overturns conventional wisdom” – an animal substance produced by a plant. The white bird of paradise tree, a large plant that resembles a palm or banana plant (see picture), has bright orange flowers with a substance previously known only in animals. Animals produce bilirubin from […]

Mammals

Is a Hippo a Pig or a Whale?

March 24, 2009

Two teams of evolutionists are having a spat over whale evolution. Thewissen and team (Northeastern Ohio U) say the hippo is close to the pig, but Jessica Theodor (U of Calgary) and Jonathan Geisler (Georgia Southern U) say it’s in the whale family tree. Their arguments and counter-arguments were published in Nature last week.1 Science […]

Physics

Evolution of Photosynthesis: A Theory in Crisis

March 23, 2009

“Although the last word on the origins of oxygen-making photosynthesis isn’t in,” writes Mitch Leslie in Science,1 “researchers say they are making progress. One thing is for certain, however: Without this innovation, Earth would look a lot like Mars.” That’s the end of his story. What did he say in the beginning and middle? Not […]

Dumb Ideas

From Dust to St. Patrick in 5 Billion Years Flat

March 17, 2009

Biblical creationists and evolutionists have one belief in common: we came originally from dust. How that dust became organized is the difference. Both views teach that our bodies are comprised of the same atoms found in dust, but creationists say an intelligent designer purposefully molded the dust into a fully-formed man and woman, whereas evolutionists […]

Cell Biology

Shedding Light on the Protein Big Bang Theory

March 13, 2009

The precise three-dimensional structure of a typical protein molecule is so complex, its origin would seem hopeless by chance. What if evolutionary biologists were to discover a whole host of proteins literally exploded into existence at the beginning of complex life? We can find out what they would think by looking at an article on […]

Dumb Ideas

Ye Are the Salt of the Evolution

March 11, 2009

Salt is good, the good book says (Mark 9:50). Another good thing it may do for you, according to Science Daily, is act as “Nature’s Antidepressant.” Presumably it’s hard to have a good mood about a steak with no salt on it. In the midst of this article about the mood-enhancing effects of salt, an […]

Dumb Ideas

The Evolution of Creationism and Other Intangibles

March 6, 2009

If you are a creationist, you can’t help yourself, because evolution made you that way. It might have also made you moral and religious, especially if you are a woman. These and other evolutionary stories are making the rounds. Evo-creationism: New Scientist says humans may be primed to believe in creation. Studies show that humans […]

Astronomy

Star Children for Darwin

February 28, 2009

Why should we be looking for alien intelligence around other stars when it is right behind your eyeballs? You may not have known that you are a star child, but that’s what a leading astronomer called you. As a good star child, you need to pay tribute to Charles Darwin. In New Scientist, […]

Education

Motive Mongering: Does It Belong in Science?

February 26, 2009

Amanda Gefter, a book reviewer and science editor, felt the need to warn the world about the creationists. She wrote a blog entry at New Scientist called “How to spot a hidden religious agenda.” Aiming to “share a few tips for spotting what may be religion in science’s clothing,” she exposed buzzwords and buzzphrases she […]

Biomimetics

Can Evolution Keep You Safe?

February 25, 2009

A new practical use for Darwinism has come to light: natural security. Two recent articles claim that we can learn from evolution how best to protect ourselves. Natural security: Darwinism can be practical, thinks Rafe Sagarin, an ecologist at Duke University. Science Daily reported that he is using Darwinian principles to write and speak about […]

Early Man

Language Is Not a Simple Genetic Matter

February 18, 2009

It sounds so simple. The title on an article in PhysOrg announced, in Kipling Just-So Story Format, “How gorilla gestures point to evolution of human language.” Because gorillas have an extensive repertoire of over 100 gestures, human conversation was only a matter of evolutionary time. Is this mere storytelling, or do such explanations have scientific […]

Fossils

A Tale of Two Sites: Moby Dog and The Claw

February 6, 2009

Discoveries portrayed as major evolutionary missing links were announced this week. One is a putative transitional form from land animal to whale, and one is a Cambrian trilobite-like creature said to be evolving the first claw. Moby dog: The current evolutionary scenario for the origin of whales is that they evolved from dog-like hoofed animals […]

Amazing Facts

Evolution as Efficiency Expert

February 6, 2009

Who would have thought that a lowly bacterium is a “master of industrial efficiency”? That’s what a researcher at the Weizmann Institute of Science called it. E. coli, the best-studied microbe, “can be thought of as a factory with just one product: itself,” a press release said. “It exists to make copies of itself, and […]

Early Man

What Mean These Observations?

February 5, 2009

Science news outlets report many interesting findings every week. It’s not always clear, though, whether the conclusions drawn from them are warranted by the data. Here are some recent cases: Jaws of steel: A skull labeled Australopithecus robustus was studied for the force its jaws could generate. Interpretation: “Early humans had jaws of steel.” With […]

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