http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/evolution/ en-us Mon, 4 Jan 2010 00:31:10 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2420271/posts South America is the world's most species-rich area. There have been many theories as to why, ranging from animals and plants accompanying the continent when it broke loose from Africa to variations in the extent of the rainforests over millions of years creating new species... South America's unique richness of species has been explained by several hypotheses. One states that animals and plants "accompanied" the South American continent when it broke loose from Africa 100 million years ago. Another proposes that many species were formed when the rainforest shrank into smaller areas during the Ice Ages and then subsequently expanded...... ScienceDaily http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2420271/posts#comment Mon, 4 Jan 2010 00:31:10 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2420070/posts The timing of molar emergence and its relation to growth and reproduction in apes is being reported by two scientists at Arizona State University's Institute of Human Origins in the Dec. 28 online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). From the smallest South American monkeys to the largest African apes, the timing of molar development and eruption is closely attuned to many fundamental aspects of a primate's biology, according to Gary Schwartz, a researcher at the Institute of Human Origins and an associate professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change in... ScienceDaily http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2420070/posts#comment Sun, 3 Jan 2010 18:10:25 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2419622/posts Mutations are the raw material of evolution. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tubingen, Germany, and Indiana University in Bloomington have now been able to measure for the first time directly the speed with which new mutations occur in plants. Their findings shed new light on a fundamental evolutionary process. They explain, for example, why resistance to herbicides can appear within just a few years. "While the long term effects of genome mutations are quite well understood, we did not know how often new mutations arise in the first place," said Detlef Weigel, director at the... Physorg.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2419622/posts#comment Sat, 2 Jan 2010 18:57:44 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419838/posts Scientists have shown for the first time that "lifeless" prion proteins, devoid of all genetic material, can evolve just like higher forms of life. The Scripps Research Institute in the US says the prions can change to suit their environment and go on to develop drug resistance. Prions are associated with 20 different brain diseases in humans and animals. BBC Website http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419838/posts#comment Sun, 3 Jan 2010 04:47:47 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2419647/posts In the thread on General/Chat forum, Evolution caught in the act: Scientists measure how quickly genomes change, Restore discussed a interesting and recent scientific discovery, genome within certain plants are occurring more rapidly than expected, a lot faster.   As I was reading this thread, somebody asked how evolution explained how the moon got there.  Okay, evolution doesn't, as pointed out by several people on the thread, but geology has does a pretty good job of that explaination. This article got me to thinking about those who say the Bible states that God only took 6,000 years before the creation of Adam... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2419647/posts#comment Sat, 2 Jan 2010 20:02:43 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2419213/posts Scientists have analysed DNA extracted from the remains of a 30,000-year-old European hunter-gatherer.> The researchers were able to assign the Kostenki individual to haplogroup "U2", which is relatively uncommon among modern populations. U2 appears to be scattered at low frequencies in populations from South and Western Asia, Europe and North Africa. Despite its rarity, the very presence of this haplogroup in today's Europeans suggests some continuity between Palaeolithic hunters and the continent's present-day inhabitants, argue the authors of the latest study. > BBC http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2419213/posts#comment Fri, 1 Jan 2010 23:19:58 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419112/posts The battle over the science of global warming has long been a street fight between mainstream researchers and skeptics. But never have the scientists received such a deep wound as when, in late November, a large trove of e-mails and documents stolen from the Climatic Research Unit at Britain's University of East Anglia were released onto the Web. In the ensuing "Climategate" scandal, scientists were accused of withholding information, suppressing dissent, manipulating data and more. But while the controversy has receded, it may have done lasting damage to science's reputation: Last month, a Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 40... Washington Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419112/posts#comment Fri, 1 Jan 2010 20:18:01 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2418453/posts DNA that is left in the remains of long-dead plants, animals, or humans allows a direct look into the history of evolution. So far, studies of this kind on ancestral members of our own species have been hampered by scientists' inability to distinguish the ancient DNA from modern-day human DNA contamination. Now, research by Svante Pääbo from The Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, published online on December 31st in Current Biology — a Cell Press publication — overcomes this hurdle and shows how it is possible to directly analyze DNA from a member of our own species who... Cell Press http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2418453/posts#comment Thu, 31 Dec 2009 17:25:55 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418474/posts In the autumn of 1913, two farmers were arguing about hominid skull fragments they had uncovered while digging a drainage ditch. The location was Boskop, a small town about 200 miles inland from the east coast of South Africa. These Afrikaner farmers, to their lasting credit, had the presence of mind to notice that there was something distinctly odd about the bones. They brought the find to Frederick W. Fitz Simons, director of the Port Elizabeth Museum, in a small town at the tip of South Africa. The scientific community of South Africa was small, and before long the skull... Discover http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418474/posts#comment Thu, 31 Dec 2009 17:53:37 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2418163/posts Did our Neolithic ancestors turn to agriculture so that they could be sure of a tipple? US Archaeologist Patrick McGovern thinks so. The expert on identifying traces of alcohol in prehistoric sites reckons the thirst for a brew was enough of an incentive to start growing crops... Here is how the story likely began -- a prehistoric human picked up some dropped fruit from the ground and popped it unsuspectingly into his or her mouth. The first effect was nothing more than an agreeably bittersweet flavor spreading across the palate. But as alcohol entered the bloodstream, the brain started sending... Der Spiegel http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2418163/posts#comment Thu, 31 Dec 2009 05:14:41 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2412600/posts This is the first report of venom in the lineage that leads to modern birdsLAWRENCE, Kan. — A group of University of Kansas researchers working with Chinese colleagues have discovered a venomous, birdlike raptor that thrived some 128 million years ago in China. This is the first report of venom in the lineage that leads to modern birds. "This thing is a venomous bird for all intents and purposes," said Larry Martin, KU professor and curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Institute. "It was a real shock to us and we made a special trip... University of Kansas http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2412600/posts#comment Tue, 22 Dec 2009 00:02:57 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2414235/posts An ancient dwarf whale unearthed in southeastern Australia captured its prey by slurping up mouthfuls of mud, a new study says. The fossil whale, thought to between 25 and 28 million years old, hints that mud sucking might have been a precursor to the filter feeding used by today's baleen whales... The newfound fossil whale, which measures just nine feet (three meters) long, shares the same distinct jaw and skull structures as today's baleens. But the tiny whale also had teeth, said study author Erich Fitzgerald, a paleontologist at Museum Victoria in Melbourne, Australia. The odd combination suggests that the... National Geographic News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2414235/posts#comment Thu, 24 Dec 2009 03:28:17 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2414216/posts The entire grove of trunks is in fact one plant, a newly discovered Palmer's oak (Quercus palmeri) that researchers estimate is over 13,000 years old, making it one of the oldest plants on Earth... none of its 70 stems get more than a few feet tall, and it grows in a boulder pile that doubles as shelter from the area's buffeting winds. At first glance, the scientists thought it was an isolated grove of trees, but something didn't add up: None of them produced fertile acorns, so the plants couldn't reproduce... Genetic analysis confirmed their suspicion. Each of the 70... Discovery http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2414216/posts#comment Thu, 24 Dec 2009 02:46:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415379/posts PHUKET, Thailand (AP) ― Buddhist monks chanted on white-sand beaches in Thailand and thousands prayed at mosques in Indonesia to mark the fifth anniversary of the Asian tsunami that left 230,000 people dead. The devastating Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami struck a dozen countries around the Indian Ocean rim. Its towering waves wiped out entire coastal communities, devastated families and crashed over tourist-filled beaches the morning after Christmas. Survivors waded through a horror show of corpse-filled waters. In Thailand, hundreds of residents and foreigners returned to the beaches on the island of Phuket to recall one of the worst natural disasters... WCBSTV.COM http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415379/posts#comment Sat, 26 Dec 2009 18:09:04 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415219/posts referring to U.S.-based evangelist Ray Comfort, who argues that the universe and life is the result of an intelligent creator, Dawkins said: "There is no refutation of Darwinian evolution in existence. If a refutation ever were to come about, it would come from a scientist, and not an idiot. "You can't prove there's no God, no fairies, no leprechauns, or that Thor or Apollo don't exist. There's got to be a positive reason to think that fairies exist. Until somebody does, we can say technically we are agnostic about fairies. We can't disprove them, but we think it's a bit... CNN http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415219/posts#comment Sat, 26 Dec 2009 07:36:48 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2412993/posts Believers in human-caused global climate change have been placed under an uncomfortable spotlight recently. That is thanks to the Climategate scandal, centering on e-mails hacked from the influential Climate Research Unit (CRU) at England’s University of East Anglia. The e-mails show scientists from various academic institutions hard at work suppressing dissent from other scientists who have doubts on global warming, massaging research data to fit preconceived ideas, and seeking to manipulate the gold standard “peer review” process to keep skeptical views from being heard. Does this sound familiar at all? To me, as a prominent skeptic of modern Darwinian theory,... Human Events http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2412993/posts#comment Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:53:44 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2412338/posts Bogus: ‘Case Western’ Blogger Falsifies Protest Bethany Stotts, December 21, 2009 Blogger “Norman Novus,” who claims to be a Case Western Reserve University Ph.D. candidate, wrote on December 18 that “a group of Cleveland’s less cerebrally engaged have take to protesting outside my research suite at Case.” But at least one of his photos is ripped off Getty Images. “For the past week, a group of Cleveland’s less cerebrally engaged have taken to protesting outside my research suite at Case. (I can hear them once in a while from where I’m sitting and writing this.) It’s been a mix of... AIA-FL Blog http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2412338/posts#comment Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:52:41 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2410059/posts Evidence of what could be Australia's earliest human occupation has been found on the fringe of desert in the country's remote northwest, according to archaeologists. Peter Veth, of the Australian National University, said an artefact dated at between 45,000 and 50,000 years old found near the shores of Lake Gregory could be the start of a 25-year study into Australia's first humans. "This is the first evidence of human activity ... in the arid northwest of the continent which can be dated to a time before the last great Ice Age," he said in a statement. It was likely to... Times of Malta http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2410059/posts#comment Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:43:33 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2410066/posts ...The plateau, with an average altitude above 4,000 meters and known as "the Roof of the World" in southwestern China, is one of the most challenging areas in the world for human settlement due to its environmental extremes, such as extreme cold and low oxygen levels. ...with the drastic drop of temperature on the Earth in the Last Glacial Maximum of the Late Paleolithic Age, about 23,000 years ago, many species could not adapt to the changes and died out... From the perspective of genetic continuity studies, geneticists had also attempted to find out when modern humans settled on the... Xinhua http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2410066/posts#comment Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:48:00 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2409845/posts In a stone-age version of "Iron Chef," early humans were dividing their living spaces into kitchens and work areas much earlier than previously thought, a new study found. So rather than cooking and eating in the same area where they snoozed, early humans demarcated such living quarters. Archaeologists discovered evidence of this coordinated living at a hominid site at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel from about 800,000 years ago. Scientists aren't sure exactly who lived there, but it predates the appearance of modern humans, so it was likely a human ancestor such as Homo erectus. Yet this advanced organizational skill was... Live Science http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2409845/posts#comment Thu, 17 Dec 2009 20:32:43 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2409952/posts Millions of high school and college biology textbooks teach that research scientist Stanley Miller, in the 1950’s, showed how life could have arisen by chance. Nothing could be further from the truth. Miller, in his famous experiment in 1953, showed that individual amino acids (the building blocks of life) could come into existence by chance. But, it’s not enough just to have amino acids. The various amino acids that make-up life must link together in a precise sequence, just like the letters in a sentence, to form functioning protein molecules. If they’re not in the right sequence the protein molecules... OrthodoxNet.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2409952/posts#comment Thu, 17 Dec 2009 23:15:42 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2408674/posts PARIS (AFP) – Experts on prehistoric man are rethinking their dates after a find in a southern French valley suggested our ancestors may have reached Europe 1.57 million years ago: 200,000 years earlier than we thought. What provoked the recount was a pile of fossilised bones and teeth uncovered 15 years ago by local man Jean Rouvier in a basalt quarry at Lezignan la Cebe, in the Herault valley, Languedoc. In the summer of 2008, Rouvier mentioned his find to Jerome Ivorra, an archaeological researcher at France's National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). The subsequent dig uncovered a large variety... AFP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2408674/posts#comment Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:22:20 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2408401/posts Genetic changes that apparently allow humans to live longer than any other primate may be rooted in a more carnivorous diet. These changes may also promote brain development and make us less vulnerable to diseases of aging, such as cancer, heart disease and dementia. These key differences in lifespan may be due to genes that humans evolved to adjust better to meat-rich diets, biologist Caleb Finch at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles suggested. The oldest known stone tools manufactured by the ancestors of modern humans, which date back some 2.6 million years, apparently helped butcher animal bones.... livescience http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2408401/posts#comment Wed, 16 Dec 2009 02:44:02 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2408138/posts "It is often assumed by the anti-God brigade, though unvoiced, that the designer created everything as we see it today. Within the biblical model, degeneration is expected because of the Fall. The Fall subjected the Creation to bondage to decay (Romans 8:18–25), of which mutational degeneration is one example." Vestigial arguments: remnants of evolution by Shaun Doyle The coccyx (tailbone) has long been wrongly thought to be vestigial by evolutionists ‘Vestigial’ organs have been used as an argument against a designer for many years, and have been used as a major ‘proof’ of evolution. The ‘vestigial organs’ argument is merely... Creation Ministries International http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2408138/posts#comment Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:00:15 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2408121/posts Problems with Evolutionary Theory Why is there a problem with evolution in the first place? Someone once asked you, "What should I believe?" Remember what you told them? Basically I said you should only believe what there is evidence for. After spending years studying evolution in bachelor's, master's, and doctoral programs, I can tell you that, first of all, there is evidence for small changes in organisms as they adapt to small environmental fluctuations. Second, there is evidence that new species do arise. We see new species of fruit flies, rodents, and even birds. But when the original species is... probe.org http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2408121/posts#comment Tue, 15 Dec 2009 19:35:39 GMT