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This is the archive page for articles that have appeared under "In the News" on the ARN homepage. Many appear on other subject-appropriate pages, while some only appear here. Articles appearing in this section may be copyrighted by other organizations. If so, ARN will attempt to provide copyright information and a weblink to the original source. ARN does not endorse all viewpoints represented in these news articles. The articles are simply presented as news items of general interest to our web visitors.
Galactic Habitable Zones June 10 Astrobiology News.Our Milky Way Galaxy is unusual in that it is one of the most massive galaxies in the nearby universe. Our Solar System also seems to have qualities that make it rather unique. According to Guillermo Gonzalez, Assistant Professor of Astronomy at the University of Washington, these qualities make the Sun one of the few stars in the Galaxy capable of supporting complex life. File Date: 7.16.01.
Tiny Discovery May Answer a Question about the Big Bang July 7 New York Times.By observing millions of subatomic particles called B mesons, a team of scientists working at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in California has found new evidence of a basic but subtle lopsidedness in nature that may explain why the universe contains mostly matter, rather than being virtually empty and devoid of stars, planets and people. File Date: 7.07.01.
Scientists Say Mind Continues after Brain Dies June 29 Reuters. A British scientist studying heart attack patients says he is finding evidence that suggests that consciousness may continue after the brain has stopped functioning and a patient is clinically dead.. File Date: 7.07.01.
Two New Dinosaurs Found in New Mexico June 19 New York Times.Illuminating a mysterious epoch in the age of dinosaurs, scientists said on Monday they had unearthed two new species in New Mexico, including a bizarre one that sprang from the same lineage as super carnivore Tyrannosaurus rex but was content to eat plants. File Date: 6.26.01.
The Web as Dictator of Science Fashion June 19 New York Times. Why are physicists, historians and philosophers meeting at an isolated lodge where cell phones generally do not work and many of the rooms have no phones at all, let alone speedy Internet connections? The answer is that a few scientists — including some of those who attended the annual Seven Pines Symposium in Stillwater, Minnesota— are now saying what would have sounded not only retrograde but also deeply uncool just a few years ago: The World Wide Web and cheap satellite communications have brought trouble as well as opportunity to the scientific enterprise. File Date: 6.26.01.
Phisics' Big Puzzle has Big Question: What is Time? June 19 New York Times. When philosophers debate the nature of time and space, a listener is liable to walk away muttering something like "Whoa. . . ." On the same question, a technical exchange among scientists is more likely to elicit a "Huh?" A conference here this month brought together both camps to explore that question — which happens to lie at the heart of the most important unsolved problem in physics — in the hope of bringing forth a satisfying "Aha!" of discovery. File Date: 6.23.01.
Web Archive Opens a New Realm of Research June 19 New York Times. A web-based archive centered at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is transforming the quality of scientific research at institutions that are geographically isolated and, in many cases, small and financially precarious. It nurtures top-flight research in countries as disparate as Bulgaria, Colombia, Cuba, Ukraine, Iran, India, Romania, Russia, Israel, the Czech Republic and Zambia. File Date: 6.23.01.
New Algae Grows in Darkness June 15 New York Times. Inserting a single new gene into the DNA of a type of algae allowed the microscopic plant to thrive in darkness, growing vigorously without the need for sunlight, scientists say. In a study appearing Friday in the journal Science, researchers from Martek Biosciences Corp. in Columbia, Md., and the Carnegie Institution of Washington department of biology in Palo Alto, Calif., report that a microalgae was engineered to use glucose as its primary energy source instead of sunlight. File Date: 6.20.01.
Early Humans Blamed for Mass Extinctions June 14 CNN.com. Termed "Blitzkrieg", it is the scientific theory that prehistoric people moving for the first time into new geographical areas during their spread around the world invariably hunted large animals into extinction. New work by American and Australian researchers is adding weight to the theory, while undercutting the notion that climate change and not human influence was the cause. File Date: 6.20.01.
Swiss Discover Mars Meteroite June 15 New York Times. A fist-sized meteorite, one of only 18 rocks on Earth known to have come from Mars, has been found by Swiss scientists in the Oman desert -- a prize discovery that could help determine if the planet ever sustained life. File Date: 6.20.01.
Houston Company Wants to Sail DNA into Space June 14 CNN.com. California businessman Dennis Tito paid about $20 million for an eight-day trip to space. Now, a Houston-based company can send you to space for $50. Well, part of you anyway. Encounter 2001 is working to build an unmanned spacecraft, fill it with DNA samples and messages from up to 4.5 million people, then blast it beyond the solar system. The company hopes to launch its spacecraft in late 2003. File Date: 6.20.01.
Second Largest Dinosaur Found in Egypt May 31 CNN.com. One of the two most massive dinosaurs ever known has been uncovered in a barren stretch of Egypt, scientists announced. The 70-ton plant-eater was discovered in what is now the Sahara Desert. But eons ago the area was filled with mangrove swamps, said University of Pennsylvania researchers, who reported their findings in the May 31 edition of the journal Science. File Date: 6.05.01.
Controversies of Evolution: Intelligent Design, Sociobiology, and the Philosophy of Science May 24. Description of course offering from Northwestern University summer session: Philosophy 220, Science and Human Culture -- "Controversies of Evolution: Intelligent Design, Sociobiology, and the Philosophy of Science" File Date: 6.05.01.
Jurassic Mammal Had Surprisingly Modern Features May 24 Reuters. Researchers said Thursday that the discovery of the fossilized remains of what they believe is one of the tiniest mammals that ever lived has advanced their understanding of how mammals -- including humans -- evolved. File Date: 5.24.01.
Fossil Findings May Force Revisions in the History of Life May 22 New York Times. After the most devastating mass extinction swept the planet 250 million years ago, the earth witnessed a nearly unabated increase in the variety of living organisms leading to unparalleled heights of diversity — or so paleontologists have long thought. Now a new study in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests a radically different picture that, if correct, will require a large-scale rewriting of the history of life. File Date: 5.22.01.
Link Between Human Genes and Bacteria Is Hotly Debated May 18 New York Times. In a fresh skirmish in the genome wars, a finding presented as a major discovery by the consortium of academic centers that decoded the human genome has come under attack from the camp of the consortium's rival, Celera Genomics. File Date: 5.18.01.
Ancient sea floor slab said big geologic find May 11 CNN.com. A massive slab of rock near the Great Wall of China is actually a section of ocean floor dating back 2.5 billion years, scientists said on Thursday in announcing an important geological discovery that also could yield clues about early life on Earth. File Date: 5.11.01.
Evolution debate: Student leads textbook challenge May 9 CNN.com. The latest battleground over the teaching of evolution in public schools is in the town of Perkasie, Pennsylvania. But what makes this particular debate unique is that the campaign against teaching evolution is being led not by parents or politicians, but a high school student. File Date: 5.11.01.
Life's Intelligent Design May 7 Tacoma News-Tribune. Article talking about Phillip Johnson and his recent lecture at Pacific Lutheran University. File Date. 5.07.01.
ID Featured on CNN: Transcript and Questions Transcript of May 2 CNN Classroom broadcast featuring promininent thinkers int he creation/evolution debate. File Date: 5.03.01.
It's Not Darwin Who's In The Wrong, It's His Supporters April 29 London Sunday Telegraph. More than 150 years since Darwin published Origin of Species, bitter arguments still rage over its implications, however scientists are doing much of the bickering. File Date: 5.03.01.
Archaeological Site in Peru Is Called Oldest City in Americas April 27 New York Times. Researchers investigating a long-ignored Peruvian archaeological site say they have determined that it is the oldest city in the Americas. File Date: 5.02.01.
Scientists Find Big Bang Evidence New York Times, April 30, 2001. Key elements of theories about how the universe expanded and developed after the Big Bang have been confirmed by data from high-flying balloons and from instruments operating in Antarctica, scientists say. File Date: 5.01.01.
Science's Elusive Realm: Life's Little Mysteries New York Times, April 24. Scientists boast that the principles onserved from the natural world predict how most matter will behave in physical and chemical experiments. But there is one region that eludes them. That is the region containing matter on a scale of 10 to 1,000 angstroms (an angstrom being one ten-billionth of a meter) bigger than a simple molecule but smaller than a living cell. This is the realm in which the constituents of cells interact with one another. File Date: 5.01.01.
Approaching Biology from a Different Angle New York Times, April 17, 2001. Dr. Leroy Hood, who lead the team that developed the DNA sequencer says its time for a new approach to biology "biology is an information science, with genes a sort of digital code." File Date: 4.23.01.
In Search of God April 21 New Scientist article examing the physiological aspect of human religious feelings. File Date: 4.23.01.
Darwin's Ladder Ed Larson's new book Evolution's Workshop: God and Science on the Galapagos Islands is reviewed in the Washington Post. File Date: 4.23.01.
The New Creationists Seattle Weekly article discussing the work by the Discovery Institute and its role in challenging Darwinian theory. File Date: 4.22.01.
A Map to Nowhere: The genome isn't a code and we can't read it. In the April 2001 issue of The American Spectator, Tom Bethell explains that the recent announcement that there may only be 30,000 human genes (25% of what we previously estimated) means that the notion that one gene leads to one protein, and perhaps one disease, is false. It's time to rewrite the genetic textbooks.
Was Darwin Right After All? In this Boundless article, Mark Hartwig responds to the claims that the recent mapping of the human genome supports Darwian theory.
The Wedge: A Progress Report April 16. Phillip Johnson provides a report on the current state of his "Wedge" strategy. Borrowing a quote from Winston Churchill, Johnson says, "it's not the beginning of the end, but it is the end of the beginning."
New Mexico Public Planetarium Promotes Naturalism April 10 Albuquerque Tribune editiorial.
Cosmic Fender Bender: Will New Theory Make Big Bang Whimper? April 13 Philadelphia Inquirer editorial.
Richard Dawkins Speaks to the Berkeley Faithful Jed Macosko reports on Richard Dawkins' lectures, "The Gene's Eye View of Creation", at the University of California's Berkeley's Hitchcock lecture series.
Some Wonder Whether Blending Religion and Science in the College Classroom Crosses the Line April 7 Grand Rapids Press. New course at Grand Valley State University explores the contradictions between science and religion.
Biotech CEO Says Map Missed Much of Genome April 9 Boston Globe. According to Dr. William Haseltine, CEO of Human Genome Sciences, says the massive effort to map the human genome, which riveted the world's attention over the last year, is not complete, and is missing a significant number of genes.
Biology Text Illustrations More Fiction Than Fact April 8, 2001 NY Times article discussing Haeckel's embryo drawings in biology textbooks.
On the Trail of a Few More Ancestors April 8, 2001 NY Times article discussing recent fossil findings in Kenya and the circumstances surrounding that find.
Evolutionists Battle New Theory on Creation April 8, 2001 NY Times article discussing Intelligent Design.
Christian de Duve Lectures on the Origins and Evolution of Life at UCSD On April 5, 2001 Nobel laureate Christian de Duve gave a free public lecture at UC San Diego. Here is a report on that lecture.
Scientists Debate Evolution's Place in Classroom The American Institute of Biological Sciences held a town meeting last weekend, bringing together biology teachers from across the country to discuss the current debate in many of our schools over the teaching of evolution.
Enlisting Science to Find the Fingerprints of a Creator Recent LA Times article examining the teaching of evolution in the public schools.
Scientists Find 'cell executioner' Gene Find may lead to cures, but gene may prove too powerful to tamper with.
Ancient Tick has Researchers Scratching their Heads A 36 kilogram block of amber found in a vacant lot in New Jersey has turned up a mysterious creature - a 90-million-year-old tick.
Don't Blame the Fundamentalists for Evolution Controversies March 2001 Alton (Illinois) Telegraph article in which Hartwig argues that the continuing evolution controversy in our public schools is not being fueled by religious fundamentalists, but rather by the "shabby maneuvers prominent science educators have pulled to advance the cause of evolution in public schools."
Jonathan Wells Lecture Report from Western Michigan University Jonathan Wells, author of Icons of Evolution, spoke on March 14, 2001 to a group of approximately 350 students, faculty, and other interested people at Western Michigan University. Here is a report on his lecture.
Discovery of an Ancient Skull Clouds the Origins of Humans Los Angeles Times, March 22, 2001. Researchers in Kenya have unearthed a battered but almost complete skull of a new human species with a surprisingly delicate face dating from 3.5 million years ago. The new species is nestled in the roots of the human family tree during a period when scientists thought only one ancestral species existed, leaving it unclear just which was the direct forebear of modern humankind.
Lecture Report: Meave Leakey Announces New Hominid Genus Meave Leakey lectured in San Francisco the evening of Thursday, March 22, the very day of the official publication (in Nature) of her team's claim to have discovered a new genus of hominid. Phillip Johnson provides this report of the lecture.
Much DNA just "junk"--or is it? Sacramento Bee, March 19, 2001.
Alien Biology Sparks Class Although there is yet a shred of evidence for other intelligent life in the universe, educators are hoping to spark student interest in science by looking at the question. Boston Globe, February 27, 2001.
A Life's Work: Interview With Stuart Kaufman Ehsan Masood talks to Stuart Kauffman, one of a pioneering generation of complexity theorists who struggled to define life in terms of advanced mathematics. Fifteen years on, his new book Investigations makes it clear that there may be more to life than Kauffman thought.
Looking for ET with a Metal Detector Finding Earth-like planets with advanced life forms could be easier than we once thought, says one astrophysicist. Charles Lineweaver, of the University of New South Wales, says the probability of a solar system harboring life-sustaining planets is directly proportional to the amount of metal in that system's star.
With Little Evidence, String Theory Gains Influence New York Times, February 13, 2001
New Evidence for Life on Mars? By BBC News Online's Ivan Noble. Scientists have published what they claim is conclusive evidence that bacteria once lived on Mars.
Phillip Johnson Speaks to University of New Mexico Crowd Albuquerque Tribune, February 20, 2001.
Human Genome Map Has Scientists Talking about the Divine San Francisco Chronicle, February 19, 2001
Against Sociobiology First Things, January, 2001
Oh My Darwin! Who's the Fittest Evolutionary Thinker of Them All? Lingua Franca, November, 1999.
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