Discovery Institute's Blog, page 160

Identifying Earliest Stone Tools Is "Most Important Discovery" in a Half Century -- and a Score for ID

The evolution-related story of the hour is the discovery of stone tools in Kenya predating, by 700,000 years, the previously known earliest such handmade tools. From Live Science:

The oldest handmade stone tools discovered yet predate any known humans and may have been wielded by an as-yet-unknown species, researchers say.

The 3.3-million-year-old stone artifacts are the first direct evidence that early human ancestors may have possessed the mental abilities needed to figure out how to make...

Stone Tools Are "Most Important Discovery" in a Half Century -- and a Score for Intelligent Design

The evolution-related story of the hour is the discovery of stone tools in Kenya predating, by 700,000 years, the previously known earliest such handmade tools. From Live Science:

The oldest handmade stone tools discovered yet predate any known humans and may have been wielded by an as-yet-unknown species, researchers say.

The 3.3-million-year-old stone artifacts are the first direct evidence that early human ancestors may have possessed the mental abilities needed to figure out how to make...

Must See: Illustrating the Golden Ratio

A beautiful and thought-provoking video from Cristbal Vila and Etria Studios illustrates the presence of the golden ratio, also called the divine proportion or golden mean, in living things.

Known to the Greeks and Romans, and present in many geometric figures, this ratio can be found in architecture, music, art, and human design of all kinds (books, postcards, even cars). For example, the ratio was used in the building of the Parthenon. Leonard da Vinci was fascinated by it. Some composers...

Understanding Cardiovascular Function: An Irreducibly Complex System for Controlling Water Content

Editor's note : Physicians have a special place among the thinkers who have elaborated the argument for intelligent design. Perhaps that's because, more than evolutionary biologists, they are familiar with the challenges of maintaining a functioning complex system, the human body. With that in mind, Evolution News & Views is delighted to present this series, "The Designed Body." Dr. Glicksman practices palliative medicine for a hospice organization.

Since they are made up of atoms and molecul...

Stem Cell Hype Opened the Door to Stem Cell Fraud

Those who pushed the hype about embryonic stem cell therapies have themselves to blame for the apparent proliferation of stem cell fraud.

You see, in order to win the political debate about embryonic stem cell research, harm President Bush's popularity, and gain billions in research dollars, universities, scientists, bioethicists, sector advocacy groups, and Big Biotech PR departments -- amplified by the in-the-tank media -- pushed imminent CURES! CURES! CURES! that would soon have children...

Doctors and Evolution

In an almost charmingly nave article, Francie Diep at Pacific Standard wonders, "Why Do Some Doctors Reject Evolution?" Her news peg is Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson, a neurosurgeon who has expressed reservations about Darwinian accounts of evolution -- though I don't know that anyone has questioned him sharply and in an informed way about his ideas on the subject.

Miss Diep is perplexed: "We assumed such beliefs would be unusual among doctors." Not so, she discovered.

[W]hen P...

Warm-Bloodedness in an Ocean Fish Stuns Evolutionists

It's a big, round fish called the opah, found in deep waters around the earth and looking a bit like someone's goldfish that seriously outgrew its bowl. Some fish, like tuna and sharks, can control temperature in parts of the body. This one can keep its whole body warm, giving it improved performance in the coldness of the depths. It's the first example of whole-body endothermy in a fish, raising new questions about the evolution of a complex trait.

The story caught the attention of many new...

The Giraffe as Artwork

German biologist Wolf-Ekkehard Lnnig studied mutations for over twenty years at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne. Based on that research, he wrote a two-part, 130-page scientific work, The Evolution of the Long-Necked Giraffe, that looks in great detail at the physiology, behavior, and natural history of giraffes.

When I first read it several years ago, one sentence in this technical treatise especially captured my attention. Lnnig analyzes many Darwinian atte...

Suicide Promotion Is Now at Flood Levels in the Media

The mainstream media have largely become suicide pushers. Yesterday, the New York Times Magazine had a front-page story touting the suicide of a woman with Alzheimer's. From "The Last Day":

Over the next several weeks, Sandy told those closest to her about her diagnosis and her plan to end her life before she became incapable of doing so. She told her two adult children, Emily and Jeremy, both in their 30s, and a handful of others: Karen; Daryl's sister, Robyn Bem; and Sandy's sister, Bev Li...

A New Way to Explore ID: Discovering Intelligent Design Curriculum Now Includes Online Learning

Does nature give positive evidence of purpose and design? Let's face it: the question posed by the theory of intelligent design is an ultimate question, relevant to young and old alike, scientists and non-scientists, thoughtful people of all backgrounds. But weighing the scientific evidence for ID can be daunting. With that in mind, have you been looking for a new way to educate yourself or your family about ID?

Well, as of today, you're in luck.

A new online component for the Discovering I...