Evolution – Page 45

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School Evolution Bills Listed

July 18, 2005

In response to claims in the media that many states are passing bills to mandate the teaching of intelligent design along with evolution, Seth Cooper on the Evolution News blog has listed 10 states where evolution bills are being debated and three more where discussions are taking place in the legislature. Contrary to media reports, […]

Education

AAAS President Rails Against ID

July 11, 2005

Alan Leshner, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and executive publisher of Science, wrote an editorial asking “Why are scientists so upset about the growing movement to bring ‘intelligent design’ (ID) into science classrooms and public education venues such as science museums, zoos, and theme parks?” He took the occasion of […]

Education

Battle for Creation Makes Cover of New Scientist Magazine

July 10, 2005

Another indication of the notice the scientific community is giving to creation and intelligent design can be seen on the cover of New Scientist, in a report entitled, “Creationism special: A battle for science’s soul.” With battle-laden lingo, Debora McKenzie surveys creationism and intelligent-design skirmishes not only among American school boards, but in Holland, Turkey, […]

Botany

Roses Are Red, Darwinists Are Blue

June 9, 2005

Roses have a special pigment molecule, a particular form of anthocyanin, responsible for all the rich red-to-blue shades in the petals that delight gardeners and attract pollinating insects. This molecule is different from the pigments in every other flowering plant; it is glycosylated at two positions instead of one.2 A single enzyme does the job […]

Uncategorized

Evangelical Christians Split on How to Handle Evolution

June 3, 2005

A dismal picture of controversy dividing Christian brother against brother, with no resolution in sight, is painted by Paul Nussbaum in the Philadelphia Inquirer. He says evangelical Christians are not monolithic in their opposition to evolution, but as divided as much of the rest of the nation. He quotes a spokesperson for the American Scientific […]

Education

Who Wins and Loses in the Darwin Wars?

June 3, 2005

Sandra Lilley, writing in MSNBC News, pictures sad-faced students, whose scientific inquisitiveness has been stifled by the controversy over evolution. The article starts with a touching photo of a young girl, a look of wonder in her eyes, examining a toy human skeleton. “Science is becoming a political ‘hot potato’ for some students,” she describes, […]

Education

Kansas Debate Over ID Reverberates in Holland

June 3, 2005

“Is Holland becoming the Kansas of Europe?” asked Martin Enserink in Science this week.1 All that education minister Maria van der Hoeven wants to do is have some public debate about intelligent design, but the suggestion has caused an uproar among scientists who claim she wants to take Holland back to the Dark Ages. On […]

Dumb Ideas

Something from Nothing Dept.

June 2, 2005

How do you get optimization by chance? In a Concepts piece in Nature this week,1 William J. Sutherland (U. of East Anglia, UK) suggested that the constraints of the environment will drive living systems toward optimal solutions. He thinks that’s how “selective forces” shaped your teeth and jaw, for instance. Economists and engineers use optimization […]

Media

SETI Researcher Joins NG Imagination Fest

May 31, 2005

Space.Com writer Tariq Malik reviewed the National Geographic TV series Extraterrestrial that envisions flying whales, giraffe-like predators and flesh-eating tadpoles on a mythical world undergoing its own evolution. “Using computer models and armed with basic evolutionary theory, the scientists imagined not only what conditions might exist on their theoretical planets,” writes Malik, “but also how […]

Terrestrial Zoology

All You Wanted to Know About Spider Webs, Except Their Evolution

May 25, 2005

Each issue of Current Biology contains a Primer on some interesting subject. The May 24 issue had one about spider webs.1 Fritz Vollrath shared some amazing details about this unique product of the lowly spider, but gave a strange explanation for how the capability to spin strong-as-steel nets evolved. First, the factoids: Structure: …the… common […]

Dinosaurs

Stegosaur Plates Were for Decoration

May 18, 2005

Berkeley scientists are disputing the notion that the rows of plates on the backs of stegosaurs served as heat exchangers. Instead, they were for show. EurekAlert and Science Daily explain that this was probably true of other dinosaur decorations: “The team’s analysis of stegosaur plates lends support to a growing consensus among paleontologists that the […]

Botany

David Attenborough Finds Living Fossil Tree Romantic, Not Devastating

May 12, 2005

England’s famous Kew Royal Botanical Gardens is getting a Wollemi Pine, and David Attenborough, naturalist and evolution popularist, is proud of it. This “living fossil” was thought extinct for 200 million years, but was found alive and well a few years ago in Australia (see 12/15/2000 entry). Grinning like a kid at Christmas, […]

Education

Media, Journals Alarmed at Rise of Intelligent Design Movement

April 29, 2005

The number of articles in the news about the Intelligent Design (ID) Movement is rising, partly because of the upcoming hearings before the Kansas school board. National Geographic news asked, “Does ‘Intelligent Design’ Threaten the Definition of Science?” in an April 27 article, but at least author John Roach got the definition of ID correct, […]

Early Man

Do Neurologists Understand Brain Evolution?

April 3, 2005

Jane Bradbury wrote a feature piece for PLOS Biology recently,1 entitled, “Molecular Insights into Human Brain Evolution.” Help us find the insights. First, she marvels on how “humans sit on top of the pile when it comes to relative brain size.” Then she marvels at how quickly the human brain apparently evolved compared to apes. […]

Fossils

More Convergent Evolution Claimed for Dino-Era Mammal

April 1, 2005

A chipmunk-size mammal with Popeye-like forearms and beaver-like teeth resembling an armadillo? That’s how the discoverers are describing the fossil they named Fruitafossor, a small mammal found near Fruita, Colorado and reported in Science.1 They think it dug burrows and ate termites. Of special interest were the open-root teeth like those of the beaver. Lead […]

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