News to Note, September 6, 2008

1. Natural Selection Theory Strengthened By Armored Fish Study

It’s yet another rock-solid proof of Darwin’s theory—at least in the eyes of Darwinists.

2. Bones Don’t Add Up For Palauan Hobbits

News broke last week of the misinterpretation of Palauan bone fragments, which had led to the misidentification of a modern human as something else. It isn’t the first time!

3. Hominid Fossil Finder Disputes Age of His Find

After years of thorough dispute from creationist circles, the controversial Toumai skull—said to be the remains of an apeman—is now under another attack from evolutionists.

4. BBC News: “Stem Cells ‘Created from Teeth'”

The work of Japanese scientists in harvesting stem cells from wisdom teeth affirms that stem cell research doesn’t have to be ethically repugnant.

A team at Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology has created stem cells using tissue taken from extracted wisdom teeth (which originally belonged to a 10-year-old girl). The announcement strikes another blow against proponents of ethically controversial embryonic stem cell research, which produces stem cells but destroys viable human embryos in the process.

Members of the team say the success shows that wisdom teeth could replace embryos as a source for stem cells, though they caution that it will be half a decade until their work results in practical applications.

Team leader Hajime Ogushi pointed out that, in addition to the moral superiority of stem cells from discarded teeth is the fact that the teeth had been preserved in a freezer for three years before the stem cells were extracted. “That means that it’s easy for us to stock this source of stem cells,” Ogushi explained.

The Japanese team’s work piggybacks on the research of other scientists that have shown discarded baby teeth as another morally sound source of viable stem cells. In fact, the BBC reports that some U.S. dentists are already offering to collect baby teeth and wisdom teeth for storage, in the hopes they will be useful in the future. Read more about such stem cell research that does not dishonor God in Questions for Robin Crossman, DVM, founder of Babytooth Technologies.

5. Elephants and Their Surprising Math Skills

Move over (again), chimpanzees: it’s not only you in the animal kingdom that has calculable intelligence.

6. Sarah Palin: Evolutionist or Creationist?

U.S. vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin has made a comment or two that earn her the title of “worrisome character” from evolutionists. So is she really a creationist?

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