Archive for July, 2012

NASA astrobiology scientists In December 2010 announced the discovery of molecular evidence for life in an arsenic-rich environment.

Geomicrobiologist Felisa Wolfe-Simon, a NASA funded astrobiology fellow in residence at the US Geological Survey in Menlo Park, California, discovered a bacterium in 2009 from arsenic-rich sediments collected at the bottom of Mono Lake, California, U.S.A. Continue Reading

To explore the evolutionary mechanism between sister sea star species, a research team headed by Jonathan Puritz of Institute of Marine Biology at the University of Hawaii investigated the genetic and phylogeographic differences between the species living off the Australian coast in the Coral Sea.

The findings, published last week in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, undermine the fundamental tenet of Darwinian evolution−natural selection. Continue Reading

Last September 2011, the announcement of a fossil discovery touted as a missing link in the evolutionary ancestry of humans in South Africa by Lee Berger created a blaze of media hype. National Public Radio (NPR) ran an article entitled “Examining Ancient Fossils for Clues to Human Origins”.

The Wall Street Journal chimed in with “Fossil Trove Sheds Light on a Stage of Evolution”. The Boston Globe speculated with the title “Skeleton could be human relative”; TIME with “Rethinking Human Origins: Fossils Reveal a New Ancestor on the Family Tree”. New Scientist ran the article: South African fossils halfway between ape and human. Continue Reading

The Piltdown Man skull at the British Museum of Natural History was once rated as one of the most important scientific exhibits of the twentieth century from 1913 until 1953. Piltdown is the hamlet where the skull fragments were found.

The exhibit stunned evolution critics and strengthened unrelenting evolution activists.  The Guardian newspaper in November 1912 announced that “One of the most important prehistoric finds of our time has been made in Sussex.” Piltdown is located in East Sussex, England.

The Piltdown Man fit the profile of Charles Darwin’s long sought after missing link between ape and man, the exhibit gained immediate notoriety. Darwin had been vindicated, so it seemed. Continue Reading

Within inner circle of advocates, Thomas Huxley was Charles Darwin’s flanking advocate for evolution, yet adversary.

Darwin began correspondence with Huxley in July 1851, eight years before the publication of The Origin of Species in 1859, who was then connected with the Westminster Review, a flagship publication for philosophical radicals known for promoting evolutionary concepts.

Huxley was one of the first to publicly come Darwin’s defense and the first to use the term “Darwinism” in a favorable review of The Origin of Species in the April 1860 issue of the Westminster Review. Together, Huxley and Darwin formed a perfect match−both Bible hating evolution advocates. Continue reading