News to Note, May 16, 2009

1. The Weakest Link

Although not yet officially unveiled, a new missing link is the focus of a forthcoming BBC documentary hosted by Sir David Attenborough.

2. Evolution at a Snail's Pace

It’s supposedly evolution in action but the evolution is proceeding like a snail creeping downhill.

The evolution of snails was in the news last month. Starting then, scientists from the Open University’s Evolution MegaLab project have sought grassroots support in learning how Europe’s banded snail populations have changed.

3. Battle for the Classroom

The conclusion may seem obvious, but it now has statistical support: high school teaching influences acceptance of evolution.

4. We Don't Need Help

Time magazine offers a frustrating report revealing biblical illiteracy and Christian compromise.

5. Precambrian Puzzle

Millions of years of supposed evolution without a trace in the fossil record—a puzzle of Precambrian proportions!

And Don’t Miss . . .

• A team led by John Sutherland of the University of Manchester has synthesized two “essential elements” of RNA (viz., ribonucleotides) in the lab. The usual response applies: producing these basic elements of a single entity for “life” required considerable intelligence and design to overcome a problem that “has perplexed scientists for decades.” Projects like these do nothing to reduce the viability of the creation model; instead, they do just barely enough to buoy others’ faith in the evolution model.
• The main character of the Da Vinci Code is back on the big screen this weekend as Angels & Demons opens, a film based on the book of the same name by Da Vinci Code author and Bible skeptic Dan Brown.
• Last week we followed up on a story in a previous week’s News to Note concerning the mysterious Indonesian “hobbit” fossil. Well—you guessed it—there’s now another twist.
• Is evolution compatible with (supernatural) religion? Another scientist speaks up and admits that he doesn’t believe they are, despite evolutionist tactics to imply otherwise. Of course, as a worldview in itself, evolution s religion.
• Could we be the only intelligence that (supposedly) evolved in the universe? At least one evolutionist is facing up to (and trying to explain away) the lack of extraterrestrial intelligence.
• Last June we reported on the controversy of creationist science teacher John Freshwater, who was accused of burning a cross into a student’s arm using an electrostatic device (although the real story is much less sensational). Mount Vernon News reports on the progress of the trial, including the accusation that Freshwater “referred students to the Answers in Genesis [website] during class.” The plot thickens!
• A 200,000-year-old human hair—yet, per the article, “[i]t is extremely rare for soft tissue such as hair, skin, and muscle to survive more than a few hundred years and only hard tissue like bone is fossilised normally.”
• Discover magazine is hosting a contest to, in two minutes, present a compelling enough argument for evolution as to “convince even the most hard-headed creationist that Darwin was right.” We’re interested to see the results, but we’re not exactly holding our breath.
• News media went crazy this week over an (allegedly) 35,000-year-old carving, probably a fertility symbol, found in a German cave. We’ll play the evolutionist role for a moment and (satirically) suggest archaeologists are just “seeing” design when it isn’t there.
• So much for chimps being at the top of the animal intelligence totem pole—it seems gorillas may be the, ahem, dark horse when it comes to the primate brain.
• A turtle fossilized along with her eggs—evidence of catastrophe?
• A cave painting of the now-extinct marsupial lion convinces scientists that humans saw the real thing. It’s a shame they won’t apply the same logic to dinosaurs.
• More speculation over Mars water, life, etc.—in other words, anything but “news.”
• An incredible design found in the deep sea—or is it an incredible evolution?