Evolution

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Indonesian Hobbit No Numbskull

March 4, 2005

Whoever Homo florensiensis was (see 10/27/2004 entry), it was no dumb half-ape. This miniature human packed a lot of brains into a small skull, says Michael Balter in Science1 (see also EurekAlert, National Geographic and BBC News). A cast of the brain made from the skull shows complexity: convolutions in the frontal lobe suggest an […]

Education

SETI Outreach Director: Teach Evolution

February 11, 2005

Evolution is the foundation of biology, geology, and astronomy, claims Edna Devore, Director of Education and Public Education for the SETI Institute. Writing in Space.Com, she finds it hard to believe evolution is controversial (see 12/14/2004 and 11/30/2004 entries). Why, just look out the airplane window; it’s obvious. “Evolution is fundamental to modern biology, geology […]

Darwin and Evolution

E-I-E-I-O in Old McDarwin’s Animal Farm

February 3, 2004

Some beliefs about origins are more equal than others.

Fossils

How Bambi Gave Rise to Moby Dick

December 20, 2002

The title of this entry, in Kipling Just-So Story format, is only slightly modified from an article from The Guardian, titled, “How Bambi evolved into Moby-Dick.” This is not a joke; check on the link and see. The article is about the latest fossil claimed to be ancestral to whales. Hans Thewissen (Northeastern […]

Fossils

Cambrian Explosion Still Explosive

August 20, 2002

51; Two new papers about Cambrian and Precambrian fossils did nothing to help soften the blow of the Cambrian explosion – the sudden appearance of all the animal body plans in the geological blink of an eye. They essentially restated the problem for Darwin, who hoped that fossil discoveries would fill in the gaps where […]

Bible and Theology

Only Atheists Need Apply

July 20, 2002

51; He’s a Christian, yes, but he is also a leading American scientist and a harsh critic of intelligent design. He supports research on embryonic stem cells and upholds Darwin’s theory of evolution completely. That’s not enough to get Francis Collins off the hook with the scientific establishment. Both Nature and Science expressed “serious misgivings” […]

Genetics

Something from Nothing Dept.: Can a Divide-and-Conquer Strategy Climb Mt. Improbable?

June 20, 2002

Darwinian evolution from the most primitive organisms to the most advanced must have produced huge increases in functional information (see 06/12/2003 entry). Yet finding specific genetic mechanisms for just how DNA succeeded in “climbing Mt. Improbable,” as Richard Dawkins termed it in his book of the same name, has been daunting. In a recent paper […]

Dumb Ideas

Fishing for Darwinian Stories

June 20, 2002

51; Stickleback fish can learn from each other where the best food sources are. This proves you brain’s remarkable learning abilities have their roots in fish heads, according to science news sources this week. Science Daily said the findings by UK scientists “show that the cognitive mechanisms underlying cumulative cultural evolution may be more prevalent […]

Dumb Ideas

Stupid Evolution Quote of the Week: The Evolution of TV Dinners

April 20, 2002

Humans still have genetic memories of feasting and telling stories around the campfire, says Martin Jones at Cambridge University. That’s why we gravitate toward eating TV dinners in front of the telly. This opinion is expressed in all seriousness by United Press International, titled “Television dinners linked to evolution.” Jones calls today’s TV dinners “today’s […]

Mammals

Findings vs Surmisings in Evolutionary Biology