News to Note, September 30, 2006

1. Telegraph (London): Flood made Britain into an island 'in 24 hours'

Dr. Sanjeev Gupta, from London's Imperial College, recently presented a paper supporting the idea that, as reported by the Telegraph, a “biblical-style flood” separated Britain from the European continent-in less than 24 hours.

Increasingly, even secular scientists postulate that catastrophic mechanisms-often the powerful force of floodwaters-are behind Earth's geological features. This helps show that millions of years were not needed for the formation of Earth's geological features, but instead could have been formed by the catastrophic global Flood and following Flood-caused Ice Age.

2. National Geographic News: “Resurrecting” Bacteria's Secret Revealed

Researchers this week announced the discovery of the mechanism certain bacteria use to “resurrect” themselves-even after the bacterium's metabolism comes to a halt.

The incredible Deinococcus radiodurans braves “sunbaked deserts and rock surfaces,” even enduring radiation and desiccation, yet is able to “put itself back together,” so to speak, when it dies. The secret is in the multiple copies each bacterium has of its own DNA. The article explains:

Since the spots where DNA breaks because of radiation or damage are random, each copy of the genetic material will likely have breaks in unique locations.

[…]

The bacteria then chemically glue matching pieces together. Once they're bound, the cells fill in the missing parts of each of the two stuck-together copies … .

Using such clues, D. radiodurans can piece together all of its own DNA in about three hours, even if it was split into hundreds of pieces.

Could this complex mechanism have arisen by chance? It is almost impossible to imagine, as “partial” success would leave the bacterium still dead! The entire system had to work from the get-go, or else it wouldn't have worked at all.

3. National Geographic News: Dino-Era Bird Flew With Four Wings, Study Says

A recent study of Archaeopteryx, which evolutionists believe to be a transitional form between reptiles and birds, suggests that the creature flew using four wings instead of the two we're used to seeing on modern birds.

Paleontologist Nick Longrich (of Canada's University of Calgary) examined the fossil birds' hindlimbs and determined that the leg feathers “have an aerodynamic structure and likely acted as lift-generating 'winglets'.” Evolutionists who believe birds evolved “tree down”-that is, from arboreal dinosaurs-are using this new study to support their theory.

The problem, of course, is that evolutionists still haven't shown how pterosaur scales could evolve into bird feathers (which are quite different from scales). Adding two new “wings” only doubles this problem for evolutionists! Although evolutionists are quick to concoct stories of how one animal evolved into another, this contradicts the fact that we have never observed information-increasing mutations like the sort that would be required to turn flightless dinosaurs into flying birds.

4. BBC: New challenge over school science

“Truth in Science,” a new British organization, is aiming to promote better origins education in UK schools. Unsurprisingly, evolutionists are responding negatively, referring to the movement as “superstition.”

One of the scientists behind the project is Prof. Andy McIntosh, author of Genesis for Today. We hope and pray that efforts such as this enlighten students to the fact that not all scientists agree that millions of years of evolution is responsible for life-despite what they may be taught in the classroom.

5. news@nature.com: Tarantulas spin silk from their feet

news@nature.com reports that researchers studying Costa Rican zebra tarantulas accidentally discovered that the cute and cuddly creatures produce silken threads-made of the same protein used in spiderwebs-from their feet. The threads helped the tarantulas scale vertical pieces of glass by preventing backsliding.

One researcher is quick to suggest that spinnerets (which spiders use to create webs) may have evolved from leg-like appendages. Others wonder if the “foot silk” mechanism evolved separately. What the researchers don't know, however, is how the genetic information that produces the complex “machinery” of spiders could have arisen by chance.

6. PhysOrg.com: Neanderthal 'butcher shop' found in France

This short article describes the discovery of a Neandertal “butcher shop,” allegedly 125,000 years old, in France. Archaeozoologist Patrick Auguste comments:

You have to wonder at the artistry, the exceptional skill, with which the flint tools have been shaped. The Neanderthals may have had thicker fingers than us but they were certainly not clumsy.

This discovery adds to growing evidence that Neandertals were “just a particular type of modern man,” as creationist Mike Oard puts it.