Geoscience Research Institute
    — News Archive (October 2005)

DISCLAIMER:  The following links do not necessarily represent endorsement by the Geoscience Research Institute, but are meant to provide information from a wide range of viewpoints and expertise on scientific issues, religious issues, and the interface between the two, particularly in the area of creation and evolution.

OCTOBER 14

• Science Wars: Should Schools Teach Intelligent Design? / October 21, 2005 / American Enterprise Institute / Wohlstetter Conference Center, Washington, D.C.
• Backward, Christian Soldiers! / October 17, 2005 / Kurt Andersen / New York Magazine — Why must intelligent design be stopped? Because this -- God forbid -- could be the moment when the theocratization of America makes a real advance.
• Mysterious 'half-animal, half-plant' marine microbe discovered by Japanese researchers / October 14, 2005 / Mainichi Daily News
• Science is the basis of public schooling / October 14, 2005 / Stephen Haycox / Anchorage Daily News
• Evolution and the evidence of reason / October 13, 2005 / Observer
• New finds of human ancestor jumble evolutionary puzzle / October 13, 2005 / Peter N. Spotts / Christian Science Monitor — three feet tall and built like a long-extinct primate, Homo floresiensis nevertheless mastered toolmaking
• Newly Discovered Birdlike Dinosaur Is Oldest Raptor Ever Found in South America / October 13, 2005 / Field Museum / Science Daily
• Return of the Hobbit / October 13, 2005 / Tabitha M. Powledge / The Scientist — archaeologists uncover more evidence of tiny human-like creatures; experts still at war over interpretation
• Nothing new under the sun: media report hypes evolution claims / October 12, 2005 / David A. DeWitt / Answers in Genesis
• Nobel Came After Years of Battling the System / October 11, 2005 / Lawrence K. Altman / New York Times — when two Australian scientists set out in the early 1980's to prove that a bacterium, Helicobacter pylori, caused stomach inflammation and ulcers, they met opposition from a medical-industrial complex entrenched in the belief that psychological stress was the cause
• 'Hobbit' Jawbone Unearthed / October 11, 2005 / CBS News (Associated Press)
• New “hobbit” bones bolster separate species claim / 11 October 2005 / Andy Coghlan / New Scientist
• Creationism’s Reluctance to Enter ID’s Big Tent / October 11, 2005 / William A. Dembski
• NASA Discovers Life's Building Blocks Are Common in Space / October 11, 2005 / mongabay.com
  • Scientists find clues that the path leading to the Origin of Life begins in Deep Space / contacts: Douglas Hudgins, Charles Bauschlicher, Jr., Els Peeters, Andrew Mattioda, and Louis Allamandola / Astrochemistry Lab, NASA Ames Research Center
• The whole world, from whose hands? / October 10, 2005 / USA Today
• Scientists say no evidence exists that therapod dinosaurs evolved into birds / October 10, 2005 / David Williamson / University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill — see also Science Daily
• Don’t settle for separate but equal / October 9, 2005 / Dave Dentel / York Daily Record (Pennsylvania) — the most frustrating thing about following the Dover school board trial is seeing both sides maneuver for a legal advantage with arguments that not only seem disingenuous, but miss the point
• Evolution is a winner -- for breakthroughs and prizes / October 9, 2005 / James McCarter / St. Louis Post-Dispatch
• Let schools be open-minded on Creator / October 8, 2005 / Lynne Meredith Schreiber / Detroit News
• 'Intelligent design' trial under scrutiny / October 8, 2005 / Martha Raffaele / USA Today (Associated Press)
• Text originally referred to creationism / October 7, 2005 / CNN — early drafts of a student biology text contained references to creationism before they were replaced with the term "intelligent design," a witness testified Wednesday
• Teacher Asked to be Excused from Presenting 'Intelligent Design' / 7 October 2005 / Martha Raffaele / Live Science (Associated Press)
• Creation and Evolution: To the Debate as It Stands / October 2, 2005 / Christoph Cardinal Schönborn / St. Stephan's Cathedral, Vienna — first catechetical lecture for 2005/2006
• Cuban Fossils Offer Support for Meteor's Role in Dinosaur Extinction / September 20, 2005 / William J. Broad / New York Times, p.F4
• "Young-Earth Creationism: A Literal Mistake" (pdf) / December 2003 / Dick Fischer / Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, v.55, n.4, p.222-231

OCTOBER 7

• Why Intelligent Design Is Going to Win / October 7, 2005 / Douglas Kern / Tech Central Station
• Descent of Man in Dover / October 7, 2005 / Sallie Baliunas / Tech Central Station
• "Bottom-Feeding Plesiosaurs" / 7 October 2005 / Colin R. McHenry, Alex G. Cook, and Stephen Wroe / Science, v.310, n.5745, p.75
• "Pterosaur diversity and faunal turnover in Cretaceous terrestrial ecosystems in China" / 6 October 2005 / Xiaolin Wang, Alexander W. A. Kellner, Zhonghe Zhou, and Diogenes de Almeida Campos / Nature, v.437, p.875-879
  • Not strictly for the birds / Editor's Summary
• "Astrophysics: Short-burst sources" / 6 October 2005 / Luigi Piro / Nature, v.437, p.822-823 — Measurements of the X-ray afterglow of long g-ray bursts largely clarified the origin of these bright flashes of cosmic radiation. Their shorter-lived siblings are now beginning to divulge their secrets, too.
  • Short gamma-ray bursts / Editor's Summary
• Elderly probe nails gamma-ray bursts / 5 October 2005 / Mark Peplow / Nature (news@nature) — collision of dead stars is the answer to 30-year mystery
• Letter to the University of Idaho Faculty, Staff and Students / October 4, 2005 / Timothy P. White, President / University of Idaho — with respect to evolution: This is the only curriculum that is appropriate to be taught in our bio-physical sciences
  • U of I President: Teach Only Evolution in Science Classes / October 6, 2005 / John Miller / Discovery Institute News (Associated Press)
• A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906 / October 2005 / Simon Winchester / HarperCollins — see also Amazon
• The Republican War on Science / August 2005 / Chris Mooney / Basic Books — see also Amazon
  • review: A Vast Conspiracy? / September 30, 2005 / Adam Keiper / National Review ... Ethics and Public Policy Center
• God and Philosophy / April 2005 / Antony Flew / Prometheus Books — see also Amazon; rumor is that this longtime advocate of atheistic humanism has become a theist
  • Anthony Flew's deism / September 21, 2005 / Talk.Origins Archive
• "Unmasking a long-age icon" / December 2004 / Tas Walker / Creation, v.27, n.1, p.50-55 — a Scottish site, revered by evolutionary geologists worldwide as the birthplace of their long-age philosophy, actually gives powerful evidence for the Genesis Flood
  • Siccar Point: James Hutton's Unconformity & Geological Theory ... pictures

OCTOBER 6

• Breakthrough Awards 2005 / November 2005 / Logan Ward / Popular Mechanics — innovators who are shaping the world’s future through science and technology--and new products that represent benchmarks of engineering
• Tenth planet finds a companion / 8 October 2005 / New Scientist, n.2520 — the discoverer of Xena has now found a moon orbiting it, which he has dubbed Gabrielle after the fictional warrior princess's sidekick
• Reality Wars / 8 October 2005 / New Scientist, n.2520
  • End of the Enlightenment / Debora Mackenzie — What has fuelled the rise of fundamentalism, and why does it matter? ... With new, radical religious movements on the rise globally, why is so much of the world bent on rejecting reason?
  • Meeting of Minds — What drives people into irrational belief?
    • Blind faith in science / Bryan Appleyard — scientific fundamentalism is the belief that the world is accessible to and ultimately controllable by human reason...a profoundly unscientific idea
  • Enemy at the Gates / Mike Holderness — What is the campaign strategy against science, and who is bankrolling it? ... The campaign against science is well funded and meticulously organised. No wonder it is already winning battles.
  • People in Glass Houses — Does science have its own fundamentalists?
    • Fundamentalists are just like us / Michael Brooks / — We are all capable of thinking fundamentalist thoughts. It's when like-minded people get together that the trouble starts.
• Ten years on, a rich haul of planets / 6 October 2005 / Hazel Muir / New Scientist, n.2520 — On the anniversary of the first discovery of a planet orbiting a Sun-like star, a tally of 160 others have been located. But are there any like Earth?
• Seeing Creation and Evolution in Grand Canyon / October 6, 2005 / Jodi Wilgoren / New York Times
• Testimony Focuses on Intelligent Design / October 5, 2005 / News 10, Sacramento, CA (Associated Press) — a witness in an evolution trial in Pennsylvania said the term "intelligent design" seems to mean virtually the same thing as "creationism"
• The Evolution Debate / October 5, 2005 / Michael Powell / Washington Post
• Intelligent Design Trial / October 5, 2005 / The Onion, v.41, n.40 — humor: a debate has arisen over a Pennsylvania school board's decision to teach both intelligent design and evolution in the classroom
• Brief of Amici Curiae (pdf) / October 3, 2005 / biologists and other scientists in support of defendants — Pennsylvania: Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District
• Let 'intelligent design' and science rumble / October 2, 2005 / Michael Balter / Los Angeles Times — Should "Intelligent Design" be taught in school alongside the theory of evolution?
• Doctor Atomic / premiere: October 1, 2005 / John Adams and Peter Sellars / San Francisco Opera — J. Robert Oppenheimer and the development of the atomic bomb
• Evolution as Zero-Sum Game / October 1, 2005 / Kenneth L. Woodward / New York Times
• First pictures of live giant squid in its natural habitat / 1 October 2005 / New Scientist, n.2519, p.4
• Parents put 'Intelligent design' in the dock / 1 October 2005 / New Scientist, n.2519, p.4
• Structure exposes the evolutionary roots of language / 1 October 2005 / New Scientist, n.2519, p.15
• The making of T. rex / 1 October 2005 / Paul Chambers / New Scientist, n.2519 — a lucky break transformed T. rex from an obscure fossil into the most famous dinosaur of all time
• The dark side of faith / October 1, 2005 / Rosa Brooks / Los Angeles Times — too much religion may be a dangerous thing
• "Rapid decompression-driven crystallization recorded by melt inclusions from Mount St. Helens volcano" / October 2005 / Jon Blundy and Kathy Cashman / Geology, v.33, n.10, p.793-796
• "²²⁶Ra/²³⁰Th excess generated in the lower crust: Implications for magma transport and storage time scales" / October 2005 / Josef Dufek and Kari M. Cooper / Geology, v.33, n.10, p.833-836
• "Short time scales of magmatic assimilation from diffusion modeling of multiple elements in olivine" / October 2005 / Fidel Costa and Michael Dungan / Geology, v.33, n.10, p.837-840
• "Is the Backwards Human Retina Evidence of Poor Design?" / October 2005 / Jerry Bergman and Joseph Calkins / Impact, n.388 (Institute for Creation Research)
• "Willful Ignorance" / October 2005 / Henry Morris / Back to Genesis, n.202 (Institute for Creation Research)
• A Cool Early Earth? / October 2005 / John W. Valley / Scientific American — The textbook view that the earth spent its first half a billion years drenched in magma could be wrong. The surface may have cooled quickly--with oceans, nascent continents and the opportunity for life to form much earlier.
• GENETICS: Founder Mutations / October 2005 / Dennis Drayna / Scientific American — A special class of genetic mutations that often cause human disease is enabling scientists to trace the migration and growth of specific human populations over thousands of years.
• Dover Trial Transcripts / September-October 2005 / American Civil Liberties Union — Pennsylvania: Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District
• "The Rise of Oxygen over the Past 205 Million Years and the Evolution of Large Placental Mammals" / 30 September 2005 / Paul G. Falkowski, et al. / Science, v.309, n.5744, p.2202-2204
• Gorillas branch out into tool use / 30 September 2005 / Michael Hopkin / Nature (news@nature) — wild gorillas seen using walking sticks and plank bridges
• Here We Go Again / September 30, 2005 / Chuck Colson / BreakPoint — the ‘Darwinist Inquisition’ starts another round
• That Famous Equation and You / September 30, 2005 / Brian Greene / New York Times — E = mc²
• Live Giant Squid Photographed for First Time / September 29, 2005 / Tracy Staedter / Scientific American
• The stubborn pull of dogma / September 27, 2005 / David P. Barash / Los Angeles Times
• Human life: The next generation / 24 September 2005 / Ray Kurzweil / New Scientist, n.2518 — technological development is not linear, but exponential, and this explosive rate of change means that human life will soon be irreversibly transformed
• "ECOLOGY: Making Sense of Evolution in an Uncertain World" / 23 September 2005 / Vincent A. A. Jansen and Michael P. H. Stumpf / Science, v.309, n.5743, p.2005-2007
• "EVOLUTION: Pushing the Time Barrier in the Quest for Language Roots" / 23 September 2005 / Russell Gray / Science, v.309, n.5743, p.2007-2008
• "Dating of Multistage Fluid Flow in Sandstones" / 23 September 2005 / Darren F. Mark, John Parnell, Simon P. Kelley, Martin Lee, Sarah C. Sherlock, and Andrew Carr / Science, v.309, n.5743, p.2048-2051
• Evolutionary Tools Help Unlock Origins of Ancient Languages / September 23, 2005 / Sarah Graham / Scientific American
• From Scopes to Dover: Should the Courts Permit Public Schools to Teach Intelligent Design? / September 22, 2005 / speakers: David DeWolf, K. Hollyn Hollman, and Barry Lynn / National Press Club, Washington, DC — event transcript discussing Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area School District et al. trial in federal district court in Pennsylvania
• Saving science from radical secularism / September 20, 2005 / Benjamin Wiker / To The Source
• Evolution Lectureship Series Begins with Darwin Scholar / September 20, 2005 / Michael Ruse / University of Alabama
• Believing vs. Knowing: Faith’s Role in the Evolution Debate / September 2005 / Lee J. Suttner  / Geotimes
• Evolution & Intelligent Design: Understanding Public Opinion / September 2005 / Matthew C. Nisbet and Erik C. Nisbet / Geotimes
• "A memorable misunderstanding" / updated: 6 August 2005 / Gert Korthof — Fred Hoyle's Boeing-story in the evolution-creation literature
• Information Theory, Evolution, and The Origin of Life / June 2005 / Hubert P. Yockey / Cambridge University Press — see also Amazon
• Making Modern Science: A Historical Survey / April 2005 / Peter J. Bowler and Iwan Rhys Morus / University of Chicago Press — see also Amazon
• Conflict in the Cosmos: Fred Hoyle's Life in Science / March 2005 / Simon Mitton / Joseph Henry Press (National Academies Press) — see also Amazon
• No Easy Answers: Science and the Pursuit of Knowledge / March 2005 / Allan Franklin / University of Pittsburgh Press — see also Amazon
• Creation Science Academy / John Nuckols./ Minnesota — all classes are taught from a biblical Christian viewpoint and a literal six day creation
• Darwinism and the Law: Can Non-Naturalistic Scientific Theories Survive Constitutional Challenge? / H. Wayne House
• Why Politicized Science is Dangerous — on eugenics; excerpted from
  • State of Fear / December 2004 / Michael Crichton / HarperCollins — see also Amazon
• Dawkins' God: Genes, Memes, and the Meaning of Life / November 2004 / Alister McGrath / Blackwell — see also Amazon and Access Research Network
• Designer Earth / April 2003 / Arthur Jones / Biblical Creation Society — the optimum environment for living things

OCTOBER 4

• Einstein's Big Idea / October 11, 2005 / PBS — the story behind the worlds' most famous equation, E=mc²
• Cardinal backs evolution and "intelligent design" / October 4, 2005 / Tom Heneghan / Yahoo! News (Reuters)
• Live from Pennsylvania: Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District / October 3, 2005 / Joe Manzari / American Enterprise Online — suit over a policy which requires that teachers read to students a three-paragraph statement about the theory of intelligent design
• New view should be taken on 'Design' theory / October 3, 2005 / Mercury (University of Texas, Dallas)
• The timeless truth of creation / October 2, 2005 / Jeff Jacoby / Boston Globe
• Novel Mechanism for DNA Replication Discovered / September 30, 2005 / Mount Sinai Hospital & School of Medicine / Science Daily
• Life After Dover / September 30, 2005 / William A. Dembski / Uncommon Descent (weblog)
• Design advocates fire back / September 30, 2005 / John Hanna / Kansas City Star (Associated Press) — supporters respond to criticism by Nobel laureates
• Scientists don't sue to gain access to pulpits / September 30, 2005 / Leonard Pitts, Jr / Miami Herald
• Q&A: intelligent design / September 30, 2005 / Anna Seward / Guardian (UK) — theories behind the ongoing test case in a US court over the right to teach intelligent design alongside evolution
• 150 attend meeting on 'stupid' theory / September 30, 2005 / Teresa McMinn / York Daily Record — If Charles Darwin could have attended a meeting in Dover, PA on Thursday, he would have been shocked by the disrespect shown his theory, according to his great-great-grandson Matthew Chapman.
• Intelligent Design Advocates Fight Back / September 29, 2005 / New York Times (Associated Press)
• Scientists protest Cell retraction / September 29, 2005 / Alison McCook / The Scientist — journal pulls paper against authors' wishes, with little explanation
• Spider blood found in 20 million year old fossil / 29 September 2005 / contact: Simon Hunter / EurekAlert!
• Biologists Observe Gorillas Using Tools / September 29, 2005 / Joseph B. Verrengia / My Way News
• Did oxygen boost fuel rise of large mammals? / 29 September 2005 / Shaoni Bhattacharya / New Scientist
• Massive young galaxy surprises astronomers / 28 September 2005 / Kelly Young / New Scientist
• To Debate or Not to Debate Intelligent Design? / September 28, 2005 / Gerald Graff / Inside Higher Ed
• Anti-evolution Attacks on the Rise / 27 September 2005 / Ker Than / Live Science
• The kindness of strangers / August 27, 2005 / Andrew Brown / The Guardian (UK) — Despite switching disciplines - from maths to law to history then the sciences - Robert Trivers profoundly influenced evolutionary biology with his theory that our sense of justice has Darwinian explanations. But he suffered severe mental breakdowns and his career at Harvard was dogged by controversy. After 15 years in genetics he has now turned to anthropology.
• Societies worse off 'when they have God on their side' / September 27, 2005 / Ruth Gledhill / Times Online (UK) — religious belief can cause damage to a society, contributing towards high murder rates, abortion, sexual promiscuity and suicide
  • Mystery man / September 28, 2005 / magicstatistics.blogspot
  • From our bulging 'How not to do statistics' file / September 27, 2005 / magicstatistics.blogspot
• How a zebra lost its stripes: Rapid evolution of the quagga / 26 September 2005 / contact: Janet Rettig Emanuel / EurekAlert!
• Archaeologists find ancient remains / September 26, 2005 / CNN — two newborns excavated from a hillside in northern Austria
• Lawyers debate God vs. science in court drama / 26 September 2005 / Jon Hurdle / News 1 (New Brisbane, Australia)
• Intelligent Design: Belief Posing as Theory / 26 September 2005 / Ker Than / Live Science
• New Analyses Bolster Central Tenets of Evolution Theory / September 26, 2005 / Rick Weiss and David Brown / Washington Post, p.A08 — Pennsylvania trial will ask whether alternatives can pass as science
• In Evolution Debate, Creationists Are Breaking New Ground / September 25, 2005 / Michael Powell / Washington Post, p.A03 — museum dedicated to Biblical interpretation of the world is being built near Cincinnati
• Darwin paid for the fury he unleashed / September 25, 2005 / John Darnton / San Francisco Chronicle — how a believer became an iconoclast
• Scopes Turns 80 / September 25, 2005 / Joe Manzari / American Enterprise Online — in the 1925 Scopes Trial, a young science teacher was prosecuted for teaching evolution in a public school
• Researchers Predict Infinite Genomes / September 23, 2005 / Institute for Genomic Research / Science Daily
• New 'Hobbit' disease link claim / 23 September 2005 / BBC News — the tiny human species dubbed "The Hobbit" may not be what it seems
• Intelligent Design: 'The Death of Science' / 23 September 2005 / Ker Than / Live Science
• Most Americans Tentative About Origin-of-Life Explanations / September 23, 2005 / David W. Moore / Gallup Poll — public says evolution, creationism probably true; divided on intelligent design
• Insight into Eye Evolution Deals Blow to Intelligent Design / 23 September 2005 / Science a Go Go
• Insight into our sight: A new view on the evolution of the eye lens / 22 September 2005 / contact: Heidi Hardman / EurekAlert!
• Intelligent Design: An Ambiguous Assault on Evolution / 22 September 2005 / Ker Than / Live Science
• Scopes, 2005: 'Design' Theory Faces Legal Test / September 22, 2005 / Suzanne Sataline / Wall Street Journal, p.B1
• Researchers create functioning artificial proteins using nature's rules / September 21, 2005 / UT Southwestern Medical Center / Daily Science News — by examining how proteins have evolved, researchers have discovered a set of simple "rules" that nature appears to use to design proteins, rules the scientists have now employed to create artificial proteins that look and function just like their natural counterparts
• Museums prepare for creationist visitors / September 20, 2005 / Science Daily (United Press International)
• Mary Midgley: Moral missionary / September 20, 2005 / John Crace / Guardian (UK) — One of Britain's foremost philosophers publishes her autobiography this month at the age of 86. She once fell out dramatically with Richard Dawkins, but that doesn't mean she is 'anti-science.'
• Neanderthal Teeth Grew No Faster Than Comparable Modern Humans' / September 20, 2005 / Ohio State University / Science Daily
• Mysterious ring of stars guards Andromeda’s heart / 20 September 2005 / David L Chandler / New Scientist
• Why Evolution Fails to Persuade: Facts and Speculation are Regarded the Same / September 16, 2005 / Kevin Wirth / crevoblog.blogspot
• Darwin’s Rottweiler / September 2005 / Stephen S. Hall / Discover, v.26, n.9 — Sir Richard Dawkins: Evolution’s fiercest champion, far too fierce
• An NSTA Q&A on the Teaching of Evolution / August 31, 2005 / National Science Teachers Association
• Is science held up by language shortfalls? / 27 August 2005 / Peter Watson / New Scientist, n.2514 — do some words and psychological concepts from before the scientific revolution need to be dumped for science to progress
• The story that won’t be told / 9 December 2003 / Michael J. Oard / Answers in Genesis — the planned Lake Missoula flood interpretive pathway
• "Does the Bible Teach a Spherical Earth?" / September 2001 / Robert J. Schneider / Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, v.53, p.159-169 — no substantive evidence in Isa 40:22 and Job 26:7 that the Bible teaches that the earth is spherical
• The Great Scablands Debate / August-September 1978 / Stephen Jay Gould / Natural History, p.12,14,16,18 — How could so vast an area of eastern Washington change so much in so little time?

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