News to Note, November 7, 2009

1. Pizzly or Grolar Bear?

If you’re in the forest, beware the menacing grolar bear.

If you’ve heard of zonkeys, ligers, or wholphins before, then you’re aware of some of the interesting animal “hybrids” that exist in nature or captivity. For creationists, these hybrids remind us of the original created kinds of Genesis 1—despite millennia of speciating effects.

2. Preserved T-rex Ancestor Fossil

What’s the cause for our sixth mention of T. rex in seven weeks? A new study of the famed dinosaur’s “most ancient fossil relative” that is “exquisitely” preserved.

3. Ape or Human?

This week, American public broadcasting began a three-part series on human evolution titled Becoming Human.

4. Marine Animal Robots

Are a series of robots made in nature’s image, or were they inspired by God’s designs? Or could it be both?

National Geographic News offers a gallery of robotic creations that are based on marine animals. Among the designs are “robo-lobsters,” “AquaPenguins,” and even “Charlie the Robo-Tuna.”

5. Generations' Changing Views on the Bible

Results compiled from Barna Group surveys reveal an unsurprising result: younger generations are less likely to consider the Bible sacred or accurate.

6. And Don’t Miss . . .

• Last December we reported on the discovery of what was allegedly the “world’s oldest spider web,” preserved in a piece of amber. The Times offers a follow-up report covering a study published on the web (pardon the pun). Despite a supposed age of 140 million years old, the web is effectively identical to a modern orb-weaving spider’s web.
• The search for life on Mars—or on other planets—may one day receive a technological boost from “cyborg astrobiologists.” A team at the University of Chicago is investigating how to add elements of artificial intelligence to spacesuits to help astronauts of the future detect signs of life.
• Research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences asks if there is a “speed limit” to evolution. But while the report discusses the concept of fitness, that is quite different from new, meaningful genetic information—which has never been observed.
• Are humans “biologically complex” in part because of our genetic problems—specifically, duplicate genes that can contribute to such ailments as Alzheimer’s? Or rather, are we complex in spite of the genetic maladies that have built up ever since the Fall?
• Two American paleontologists report on a new species of Ankylosaur, a tank-like dinosaur that was protected from predators by body armor, a thick skull, and sharp spikes.
• The Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of Natural History will open a new Hall of Human Origins next March that costs nearly as much as the first phase of our own 70,000-square-foot Creation Museum when it opened in May 2007. Speaking of which, our museum will be opening a new exhibit soon that deals with (alleged) human origins and, specifically, Lucy. (We’ll let you know when it’s ready so you can come to see it.) Also, the 900,000th visitor may come through our museum on Sunday (in 29 months).
• We often hear much about what pastors and scientists think of Genesis, but what about the politicians—whether an evolutionist Australian governor or the newly elected young-earth creationist mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida?