Pro-Science News
Things Promoting Road Rage: Cigarettes
Yesterday, I was driving to work and ended up behind a black Pontiac Grand Prix driven by a male driver wearing short-cut dark hair. I’ll call him Goofus. Goofus is also apparently a smoker, for as we were stopped at a light, he flicked a cigarette butt out onto the road.
I thought for a [...]
Categories: Pro-Science News
Disappointing Spam
Subject: Huge tool to please your lassie
What, email about table saws? A 3-axis CNC mill? A tractor plus mowing accessory? At least a lathe, surely…
Nope, just more useless “male enhancement” spam.
Diane would have liked any of the other tool items listed.
Categories: Pro-Science News
"A Teacher on the Front Line"
August 24, 2008: "A Teacher on the Front Line as Faith and Science Clash" -- a story on the front page of The New York Times (August 24, 2008) -- examines the creationism/evolution controversy as it plays out in the classroom of David Campbell, a biology teacher in Orange Park, F ...
Categories: Pro-Science News
A Few Words for Joe Biden
Fox News wasted no time in going on the attack after Senator Joe Biden was selected as the vice presidential candidate by Barack Obama. And part of that attack concerns “intelligent design”.
Biden also used unusually strong language to ridicule those who believe in creationism or intelligent design.
“I refuse to believe the majority of people believe [...]
Categories: Pro-Science News
Ayala interviewed in HHMI Bulletin
August 22, 2008: NCSE Supporter Francisco Ayala was interviewed about evolution and creationism for the August 2008 issue of HHMI Bulletin, published by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Responding to a question about whether the controversy ended with the decision in ...
Categories: Pro-Science News
Mexico, the Vaquita, and the USA
The vaquita is a small porpoise endemic to the Gulf of California. It is also critically endangered, with only about 150 individuals left. The Associated Press reports that Mexico is working on ways to reduce human interaction with the remaining vaquita population, primarily through programs to get fishermen to stay out of vaquita habitat, use [...]
Categories: Pro-Science News
Caution: Lumping Hazardous to Species Health
There are great big groupers in the Atlantic and the Pacific. They look the same, so the assumption has been that they belong to the same species.
Genetics shows, though, that the Atlantic and Pacific populations actually differ substantially genetically, and so instead of having one widely-distributed endangered species, what we have is two species, [...]
Categories: Pro-Science News
A Cool Genome
Another genome has been sequenced, and this time they did Trichoplax adhaerens. This is one of the simplest of multi-cellular animals, and a phylogenetic curiousity: the phylum Placozoa contains only T. adhaerens, a species discovered in 1883 in an aquarium.
The genomic work shows shared genes between T. adhaerens and H. sapiens:
Still, humans share elements with [...]
Categories: Pro-Science News
Checking China Censorship
WebSitePulse has a China firewall test that gives users a way to check if a particular website is being blocked by the Chinese government. A TV news item from the Olympics noted that multiple blogging athletes had no access to their weblogs from the Olympic Village. In the cases of sponsored athletes, part of the [...]
Categories: Pro-Science News
Mice Reject Human Embryonic Stem Cells; Dog Bites Man
In the “Duh” category of research, a new study from Stanford University finds that the immune response of mice targets human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). The last sentence of the SciAm report may be the most candid of the whole thing:
Leslie Silberstein, program leader for cell therapy at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, called the [...]
Categories: Pro-Science News
Evolution in Culture: Nintendo
I’ve commented before about advertising showing broader acceptance of evolution in a positive light than the antievolutionists like to paint. The latest example I’ve come across is a Nintendo Wii online advertisement. It uses a cartoon version of the “March of Progress” graphic with a slogan, “Evolve Your Gaming”.
Of course, I was using the [...]
Categories: Pro-Science News
NCSE and the Grand Canyon 2009
August 19, 2008: Explore the Grand Canyon with Scott and Gish! Seats are now available for NCSE's next excursion to the Grand Canyon -- as featured in The New York Times (October 6, 2005). From July 3 ...
Categories: Pro-Science News
More Depressing Ocean News
A report says that exotic Pacific red lionfish, a staple of hobbyist salt-water aquaria in the USA, are expanding across the Caribbean following an accidental release during Hurricane Andrew in south Florida.
The voracious and poisonous predators suck up reef fish at an astounding rate, destabilizing already-fragile food webs on reefs dealing with disease, pollution, [...]
Categories: Pro-Science News
The Self-Recognition Club Expands: Magpies
Research shows that magpies can display mirror self-recognition behavior. Mirror self-recognition is one of the few tests of behavior that is generally considered to be indicative of the presence of a critical component of consciousness, the ability to recognize oneself. Several of the magpies tested used the mirror to attempt to remove added dots of [...]
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Dead Zones: The True Oceanic Horror Story
Scientific American has an article about dead zones, those regions of ocean bottom that become too depleted of oxygen to support many common forms of living organisms. Worldwide, the article reports that over 400 such regions have been identified. A handy graphic depicts the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and US Eastern seaboard, and what it [...]
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FAQ: Is there a difference between “intelligent design” and “creationism”?
Over at Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub, there’s discussion of the theism-in-science issue. Among the questions, one popped up that lots of intelligent design creationism cheerleaders just don’t get.
HannahJ Says:
August 13, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Ed, the unstated assumption I see you making is that ID is religion. Please demonstrate that more thoroughly to me; from what I’ve [...]
Categories: Pro-Science News
The Clergy Letter Project seeks rabbis
August 13, 2008: As part of its efforts to encourage and support members of the clergy who acknowledge the scientific importance of evolution, the Clergy Letter Project is now asking rabbis to sign its open letter concerning religion and science. The letter begins, "As rabbis from var ...
Categories: Pro-Science News
Victory in California creationism case
August 12, 2008: The defendants in Association of Christian Schools International et al. v. Roman Stearns et al. have prevailed. The case, originally filed in federal court in Los Angeles on August 25, 2005, centered on the University of California system's policies and statements relevant to evaluating the qualifications of applicants for admission ...
Categories: Pro-Science News
Polling creationism in Canada
August 8, 2008: Among Canadians, 58 percent accept evolution, while 22 percent think that God created humans in their present form within the last 10,000 years, and 20 percent are unsure, according to a new poll from Angus Reid Stategies. The poll was conducted ...
Categories: Pro-Science News
The New Independent: Paris Hilton?
John McCain’s invocation of Paris Hilton in attacking Barack Obama has garnered a response from… Paris Hilton. With tongue firmly in cheek, Hilton takes up McCain’s snideness. She also delivers an energy policy that is at least as sensible as the sound bites delivered by the candidates themselves.
If somebody organized a McCain/Hilton debate, that would [...]
Categories: Pro-Science News
