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Information in Living Organisms Theorem 28: There is no known law of nature, no known process, and no known sequence of events which can cause information to originate by itself in matter... (for remainder, click link below)

Envying the Tooth of the Sea Urchin March 31, 2009 — Did you know the lowly sea urchin has a tooth?  It’s not just any tooth: it’s “a remarkable grinding tool,” according to a team of international scientists.  They even used the word “exquisite” in the title of their paper in PNAS.1  Humans might benefit from knowing more about this tool.  “The improved understanding of these structural features,” they said, “could lead to the design of better mechanical grinding and cutting tools.”     The sea urchin “tooth” is not really a tooth, but a hard rod with a serrated...

Tail-gliding Bugs Are Not Evidence for Flight Evolution by Jeffrey Tomkins, Ph.D.* Researchers recently announced that they have unlocked some of the mystery surrounding the evolution of insect flight.1 Their observance of a certain wingless insect led them to hypothesize that its “directed aerial descent” might be an important stage in flight evolution. But is it?...

Prescription for raising children by Russell Grigg and David Catchpoole 2 April 2009 A study by the Mapping America project has found that children have fewer behaviour problems when they live with both biological parents and attend religious services frequently.[1,2] “Children who worship at least weekly are least likely to have their parents contacted by school teachers or administrators about school-related problems,” the report said.[2] Those who live with both parents and frequently attend religious services are five times less likely to repeat a grade, and more likely to be cooperative and understanding of others’ feelings. The data were collected...

Biologic Institute Announces First Self-Replicating Motor Vehicle April 1st, 2009 by Douglas Axe Researchers at Biologic Institute have stunned the scientific community with the announcement today of a fully functioning automobile capable of replicating itself. Although simple autocatalytic versions of self-replication have previously been demonstrated, the complexity of the system described today—complete with GPS navigation, DVD player, and onboard WiFi—has taken everyone by surprise. In the minds of many, this discovery has forever altered the once fundamental distinction between life and non-life. Reactions from the automotive industry have, understandably, been less philosophical. One executive, who wished to remain unnamed, characterized...

The 'Mystery' of Octopus Fossils by Brian Thomas, M.S.* Around 150 years ago, Charles Darwin asserted that “no organism wholly soft can be preserved.”1 He concluded this based on the assumption that fossilization required long periods of time. The reality is, however, that fossilization must occur rapidly, at a faster rate than the specimen would decay. Darwin’s belief in vast geological ages, borrowed from Charles Lyell and perhaps from his grandfather Erasmus, led to his misinterpretation that fossils form slowly and gradually. Since Darwin’s time, however, many organisms that were “wholly soft” have been found preserved and fossilized, and by...

In 1912 scientists thought they'd discovered the elusive missing link between human and ape. Found in a gravel pit in Piltdown, England, a set of intriguing skull and jaw fragments were later reconstructed by the British Museum into a human-like head with an ape-like jaw. In 1953 it turned out the find wasn't proof of anything—other than the skill of the still anonymous forger. The skull was a medieval human's. The jaw was an orangutan's. And the teeth were a chimp's.

A comment from a scientist of Darwin’s day reminds us that it was predominantly the scientists, rather than the theologians, who at first opposed Darwinism...

Some time ago, a highly charged argument was set in motion. It pitted evolution against creationism. One side of this debate relies on scientific inquiry and the other relies on ancient mythological texts. That's my view. That's what I intend to teach my children. Yet, I have no interest in foisting this curriculum on your kids. Nor am I particularly distressed that a creationist theory may one day collide with the tiny eardrums of my precocious offspring. Which brings me to the Texas Board of Education's recent landmark compromise between evolutionary science and related religious concerns in public school textbooks....

Natural Selection Studies Based on Bad Statistics March 30, 2009 — Hundreds of studies claiming to show natural selection may be wrong, say scientists from Penn State and Japan.  PhysOrg reported today that “several statistical methods commonly used by biologists to detect natural selection at the molecular level tend to produce incorrect results.”  Many studies of human evolution have relied on these flawed methods.  If the methods were wrong, the conclusions are unreliable.  “Of course, we would never say that natural selection is not happening, but we are saying that these statistical methods can lead scientists to make erroneous inferences,”...

Fossil Fibers Befuddle Dinosaur Evolution by Brian Thomas, M.S.* Evolutionary museums and textbooks have often portrayed modern birds as the descendants of dinosaurs, a story that has been presented without empirical support. Now, a new “feathered” dinosaur discovery has thrown a wrench into the already dysfunctional machinery of the dino-to-bird tale. This dinosaur fossil with fang-like teeth, Tianyulong confuciusi, has been found with fibers that resemble structures believed by some evolutionists to be the precursors of feathers—the only problem is, it’s the wrong category of dinosaur to have them!...

Using Religion to Suppress Debate on Evolution By John G. West Senior Fellow, Discovery Institute Evolution was back in the headlines this week as the Texas State Board of Education voted 13-2 to require students to "analyze and evaluate" major evolutionary concepts such as common ancestry, natural selection, and mutations, as well as adopting a critical thinking standard calling on students to "critique" and examine "all sides of scientific evidence." The vote was a loss for defenders of evolution who had pushed the Board to strip the "analyze and evaluate" language from the evolution standards and gut the overall critical...

Darwinists Trick Themselves in Texas The New York Times got the preview story wrong, and the Washington Post editorial writer probably was too rushed to question the charges of "creationism" coming from the National Center for Science Education, the Darwin-only lobby. So this week's important decisions by the Texas Board of Education (TBOE) on how to teach evolution were predicated in the media by the big question of whether teachers should provide both "strengths and weaknesses" of Darwin's theory. Those words might sound benign, readers were told, but they really are "code words" (take the press' word for it) for...

Members of the public across Europe are being asked to look in their gardens or local green spaces for banded snails as part of a UK-led evolutionary study. The Open University says its Evolution MegaLab will be one of the largest evolutionary studies ever undertaken. Scientists believe the research could show how the creatures have evolved in the past 40 years to reflect changes in temperature and their predators. The six-month study, starting in April, will ask people to submit data online.

Darwinian evolution in the light of genomics Eugene V. Koonin* National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA ABSTRACT Comparative genomics and systems biology offer unprecedented opportunities for testing central tenets of evolutionary biology formulated by Darwin in the Origin of Species in 1859 and expanded in the Modern Synthesis 100 years later. Evolutionary-genomic studies show that natural selection is only one of the forces that shape genome evolution and is not quantitatively dominant, whereas non-adaptive processes are much more prominent than previously suspected. Major contributions of horizontal gene transfer and diverse...

Does Dark Energy Really Exist? Or does Earth occupy a very unusual place in the universe? Scientific American, March 2009 By Timothy Clifton and Pedro G. Ferreira ... Most of us are very familiar with the idea that our planet is nothing more than a tiny speck orbiting a typical star, somewhere near the edge of an otherwise unnoteworthy galaxy. In the midst of a universe populated by billions of galaxies that stretch out to our cosmic horizon, we are led to believe that there is nothing special or unique about our location. But what is the evidence for this...

An emotional response to the age of the earth by CMI staffPublished: 28 March 2009 Peter Milford’s article ‘But the New Testament does not make a big deal out of the Age of the Earth’ prompted a reader to send this account of a quite remarkable experience:What a troubling issue this is in Christianity today! My sister, who helped me become a Christian many years ago, and her family, will now no longer talk to me about this topic. They appear to be long-age Christian believers. The last time I tried to talk to her about it she burst out...

Predation Did Not Come from Evolution by Daniel Criswell, Ph.D.* Although the origin of predation is poorly understood, it is incorrect to attribute to young-earth creation the assertion that predatory animals quickly and recently evolved the physical features necessary for predation. It is a common fallacy that carnivores evolved from a change in form and function. No physical evolution was required to change herbivores to predators--it was merely a change in behavior. The view that an alteration of genomes and phenotypes, such as sharp teeth and claws, would have been required to supply the physical features for predation from herbivorous...

Big Texas Win on “Critical Thinking” March 27, 2009 — Students in Texas schools will now have more opportunities to hear the flaws in Darwinism as well as evidences for it. After months of acrimonious debate, the Texas State Board of Education adopted science standards that require students learn to “analyze, evaluate and critique scientific explanations” including theories of evolution and the origin of life. The new language replaced the long-standing wording of teaching the “strengths and weaknesses” of evolution. Though Darwin critics were advocating to retain the old language (the website of Texans for Better Science Education is StrengthsAndWeaknesses.org),...

<p>Students in Texas schools will now have more opportunities to hear the flaws in Darwinism as well as evidences for it.  After months of acrimonious debate, the Texas State Board of Education adopted science standards that require students learn to “analyze, evaluate and critique scientific explanations” including theories of evolution and the origin of life.</p>