Geophysical King Dethroned?
April 17, 2009
Geologists have been speaking of a Great Oxygenation Event that may have never happened.
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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 […]
Permian Extinction: The Origin of Specious Geological Events
March 9, 2009
The Permian extinction – one of the most dramatic events in the history of life on Earth, in which some 90% of species went extinct – lay people assume scientists can back up this story with evidence from geology and fossils, but where is it? Whatever happened at the prime site in South Africa, from […]
Darwins Wrong Turn in Argentina
February 12, 2009
When the Beagle was sailing the coast of Argentina in 1834, it stopped at the mouth of the Santa Cruz River. 25-year-old Charles Darwin, who had been reading Lyell’s Principles of Geology, got out and explored the area on foot as the crew made camp on the cliffs. Darwin was impressed by the six-mile-wide canyon […]
Titan Methane Age Still a Problem
February 2, 2009
“Our new map provides more coverage of Titan’s poles, but even if all of the features we see there were filled with liquid methane, there’s still not enough to sustain the atmosphere for more than 10 million years.” So said Elizabeth Turtle, lead author of a paper in Geophysical Research Letters,1 in an article on […]
The Moon Has Core Values
January 25, 2009
Did the moon have a molten core? There has been “a long-held consensus that objects in the solar system smaller than than [sic] Mars, can’t sustain magnetic fields,” said National Geographic News based on a paper in Science January 16.1 Apollo rock samples seem to indicate the presence of long-lived magnetism. It suggests a molten […]
Time for Mars Life Again
January 16, 2009
Methane detection around Mars is giving new life to claims there is life on Mars. Space.com #1 and Space.com #2 explain why NASA scientists are looking to see if the methane can be explained geologically or biologically. Some news sites, like The Sun, go over the top with claims life has been discovered. Only the […]
Worlds Largest Dino Graveyard Found
December 30, 2008
China boasts the world’s largest known dinosaur graveyard, a report from China View claims. Over 7,600 fossils have been found so far. These include hadrosaurs, ceratopsians, ankylosaurs, and tyrannosaurids. Though known since at least 1980, the area has yielded new fossil sections during mining operations. “A 2m skull of a large ceratopsian was found here,” […]
Comparing Geological and Biological Patterns
December 26, 2008
Beehives have hexagons. So do lava flows. Is there any difference in how they form? Science Daily shows a picture of polygon-shaped tops of basalt columns at the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland. Similar formations are found in the Grand Canyon, at Devil’s Postpile in California, and in many places around the world. Researchers […]
Applying the Scientific Method to Prehistory
December 10, 2008
What could be more scientific than the scientific method? A scientist observes an unexplained phenomenon. He or she gathers data, analyzes it, proposes a hypothesis to explain it, and tests it. The results are published in a peer-reviewed journal. Mission accomplished, right? Here are two papers on very different phenomena – one dealing with the […]
Poison Planet Was Lifes Training Ground
November 14, 2008
Navy Seals go through “Hell Week” in their training to become warriors. The radical hardships they endure help prepare them for missions that will call on their deepest resources of courage and determination. These men of the elite special forces also become experts in dealing with explosives. Can molecules do the same, with a little […]
Solar System Surprises
November 2, 2008
In the last few days and weeks, more amazing discoveries were made about bodies in the solar system. Mercury: Results from the second flyby of Mercury on Oct. 6 by MESSENGER were announced Oct 29. This pass covered more “hidden” territory that had never been seen before, bringing the coverage to 95%. According to Space.com […]
The Life and Death of Oxygen
October 24, 2008
The oxygen in our atmosphere has the energy equivalent of 20 thousand billion billion hydrogen bombs. To maintain the oxygen level in our atmosphere, that amount of energy would have to be spent in manufacturing molecular oxygen every 4 million years (a thousandth the assumed age of the earth). Now that we have […]
Looking for Laws to Make Darwinism Scientific
September 15, 2008
Science needs natural laws. Darwinian laws that have been put forward by evolutionists contain so many exceptions and complexities, they seem to have a bad case of physics envy. Coping with Cope’s Rule: Evolution tends to make animals larger over time – except when it makes them smaller. In Science,1 Kaustuv Roy lamented the perils […]
Modeling Just-So Stories for Earth History
September 8, 2008
Models are only simulations of reality. In science, they have a long history of simplifying complex physical phenomena in an attempt to understand them. Many times, empirical evidence can correct a model. The model then becomes a more accurate simulation, and can even provide additional insights and make predictions. Can modeling work for the unobservable, […]