News to Note, January 8, 2011

1. Teeth That Could Change Everything

Is Homo sapiens twice as old as was previously believed? Or are evolutionists simply twice as credulous?

Last month, researchers from Tel Aviv University shocked the world, reporting the discovery of what appear to be Homo sapiens teeth that are an alleged 400,000 years old.

2. Vatican Backs the Big Bang Theory

Based on the press reports, the Roman Catholic Church continues to accept the big bang model of universal origins, but the pope makes it clear that believers should still see a divine mind behind the bang.

3. Meet the Denisovans

Neanderthals, move aside; it’s time for us to meet your cousins, the “Denisovans.”

Genetic data gathered from a tooth and a portion of a pinky bone found in a Siberia's Denisova cave have confirmed the existence of a “new” group of humans related to Neanderthals and “modern” humans (though their genes are more similar to Neanderthals’). They have not been given an official scientific name, but have instead been nicknamed the “Denisovans.”

4. Replicating the Bombardier Beetle

The amazing Bombardier beetle has long been a favorite of intelligent design advocates, who ask how the insect’s amazing self-defense mechanism could have arisen in stepwise fashion. Now, researchers have imitated that incredible mechanism.

5. More Misrepresentation of Ark Encounter

Is the Ark Encounter—the forthcoming Noah’s Ark-centered “edutainment” theme park—a “boondoggle” and an “embarrassment”? Apparently so, if one is asking the editors of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and several other newspapers that have recently printed anti-Ark editorials.

And Don’t Miss . . .

• Can’t imagine how humans could have shared the earth with fearsome dinosaurs? Agence France-Presse reports on a new study by scientists at Chicago’s Field Museum that indicates that “90 species of theropod dinosaurs ate a plant-based diet.” This finding is “in sharp contrast to a widespread belief among paleontologists who say theropod dinosaurs hunted their prey.” The research is further evidence that many animals thought to be necessarily carnivorous could have survived (and even thrived) on herbivorous diets—supporting the Bible’s teaching that all animals were originally vegetarian.
• While antibiotic resistance in microbes is often (wrongly) cited as an example of evolution, a new study shows that such resistance can come from “persistence,” which is not based on genetic changes.
• Wet sediment can really move. Research on landslides may remind us how catastrophic processes, such as those related to the global Flood of Noah’s Day, could substantially reshape the surface of the earth.
• A cache of 20,000 fossils is a testament to the “the most devastating mass extinction on [e]arth”—and we all know what that was, right?