Quality Control Ensures Accurate Cell Division
December 28, 2007
The wonders of cell division are described in several new discovery papers.
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Evolution: Demonstrated or Assumed?
December 18, 2007
Michael Behe wrote in The Edge of Evolution that Darwinists tend to forget the difference between what is assumed and what is demonstrated, and fall into the habit of attributing even the most elegant of biological features to evolution without demonstrating how it could be so (see quote, top right of this page). Some examples […]
What Mean These Bones?
December 12, 2007
Fossils found in unusual conditions and strange locations tell a silent story. Humans often cannot resist making up their own versions of the plot. Consider the following discoveries. Listen to the stories told about them, and ask: what is the probability the stories are true? How could we ever know? Who is qualified to be […]
Flowering Plants Do Big Bang in Darwins Face
December 1, 2007
There’s a big bang in botany. The flowering plants, reported Science Daily, “evolved very quickly into five groups.” The claim is based on the investigation of plant genes by scientists in Florida. Their work “showed that a stunning diversification of flowering plants they are referring to as the ‘Big Bang’ took place in […]
Nature Inspires Useful Products
November 16, 2007
Some day soon you may be able to extract water out of thin air, decorate your walls with detachable wallpaper, read street signs clearly in fog, and employ reusable tape underwater. These are some of the innovations coming from biomimetics – science inspired by nature’s designs. Venus flytrap: Alex Crosby at University of Massachusetts was […]
Evolutionary Algorithms Improve on Plants
November 12, 2007
A press release from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign talks design, but it’s really about evolution, but then really about design. Confused? So is the author of the press release, entitled “Researchers successfully simulate photosynthesis and design a better leaf.” University of Illinois researchers have built a better plant, one that produces more leaves and […]
Fall Colors Have a Function
October 27, 2007
Deciduous trees have an investment decision to make when fall chill sets in: do they send their sunlight-produced nutrients to the roots early, and so risk damage to the leaves from autumn sunlight, or should they spend more energy creating a sunscreen that allows them to produce nutrients longer, and thereby increase food storage in […]
Searching for Natural Selection in a Wildflower
October 19, 2007
Evening snow (Linanthus) is an amazing little wildflower that adorns desert areas of southern California. Its blossoms open in the evening, spreading fragrance across a harsh landscape. Two varieties have been noticed; one with white flowers, and one with blue flowers. Scientists noticed that the white ones sometimes grow on one side of a ravine, […]
Can Life Survive for Millions of Years?
August 6, 2007
How long can cells and tissues last? Two different yet related stories should raise questions about the dates claimed, because the observations are astonishing. Trees of the living dead: Cypress trees in Hungary supposedly buried for eight million years look pristine. The wood is unfossilized and uncoalified, said the report on Breitbart.com. All that remained […]
Photosynthesis Requires the Right Kind of Star
July 27, 2007
Where can photosynthesis occur? The answer depends on the energy of starlight, the atmosphere, the amount of water vapor, and the organisms equipped to harvest it. A new kind of photosynthetic bacterium was just discovered in a Yellowstone hot spring (see Science Daily). Exciting as this is (and the discoverer felt he had […]
Greenland Was Forest Green
July 6, 2007
Greenland once had boreal forests like those in Sweden, reported Science Daily. Researchers analyzed the mud under 2 km of ice and found DNA from yew, alder, pine, grain, butterflies, moths, flies and beetles. According to the article, “the research is painting a picture which is overturning all previous assumptions about biological life and the […]
Plants International Travel Upsets Evolutionary Idea
June 16, 2007
They may be rooted in soil, but plants really get around. Some of them make it around the world. One example has upset a long-believed evolutionary idea. First of all, plants have a social life. National Geographic published a story about how plants socialize and communicate. “Plants have family values, too, it seems, […]
Huge Forest Fossilized Suddenly
June 14, 2007
Nature1 had some interesting comments about the fossil forest found in a coal mine a few months ago (see 04/23/2007). Kirk Johnson of the Denver Museum of Natural History said that a vast area (over 3.8 square miles) must have been inundated quickly for this fossil graveyard to be preserved. Rapid burial can result from […]
Seeds Muscle Their Way into the Soil
May 11, 2007
A biological motor has been found, of all places, on the seeds of wild wheat. A team of German and Israeli scientists watched wheat seeds and found they could dig themselves into the ground. How can a dry seed, with no muscles, nerves or circulatory system, accomplish such a feat? It all becomes clear when […]
Details of Photosynthesis Coming to Light
May 9, 2007
New tools of science are unveiling the secrets of what was long a “black box” in biology: photosynthesis. A paper in Nature last week1 described the structure of the plant PhotoSystem I complex (PSI) in near-atomic resolution. Next day, a paper in Science2 described some of the protein interactions that occur when plants turn light […]