Reflectorites
Here are some excerpts from CNN from 1-12 May 2000, with my
comments in square brackets.
Steve
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http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/05/12/science.ancestors.reut/ CNN ...
Skulls point to early human migration out of Africa. Partial human-like
skulls found in the Republic of Georgia were dated as the oldest human
ancestors ever found outside of Africa May 12, 2000 ... WASHINGTON
(Reuters) -- Three skulls dug from under a mediaeval Georgian town and
dating back 1.7 million years may represent the first pre-humans who
migrated out of Africa and into Europe ... The skulls look like those of
early humans who lived in East Africa at the same time, and a wealth of
tools found at the site look like tools made by the African pre-humans.
...This is surprising because archaeologists had believed the species of
hominid, called Homo ergaster, was too primitive to have made the long
and difficult journey from African savanna to the challenging terrain of
Europe. "These constitute the first well-documented humans that came out
of Africa," ... "We suggest that these hominids may represent the same
species that initially dispersed from Africa and from which the Asian branch
of H. erectus was derived," ... "We are dealing with people who are very
closely related to folks in East Africa at the time," ... The finding suggests
the hominids moved quickly out of Africa across the Levant, what is now
Syria and Lebanon, into Turkey and up into Georgia. ... Homo ergaster
falls in between the more primitive Homo habilis and Homo erectus, a
robust creature with advanced stone tools that just about everyone thought
was the first to move out of Africa to populate Asia and Europe. It had
been assumed that hominids had to develop more physically and
technologically to make the jump out of Africa into the strange and
extreme terrain of Eurasia .... "In my mind, also, they were advanced in
ways that don't show up in their stone tools," .... This would include the
use of wood, but also social development. ... The hominids would have had
to be organized to survive at 3,000 feet elevation, where it snows heavily in
winter. "We are not in Africa at all," ... And there would have been lots of
them. "It looks like this was a pretty substantial occupation. These people
made a lot of tools," .... "It raises the issue of were these people hunters."
Susan Anton ... thinks it is probable. "... during that time in Africa, the
savanna is expanding and there is a greater availability of 'protein on the
hoof'," ... "With the appearance of Homo, we see bigger bodies that require
more energy to run, and therefore need these higher quality sources of
protein as fuel." ... The researchers had a run of luck, first in finding that
the site, at Dmanisi, about 50 miles southwest of Tblisi, was so intact. "It
was a very nice surprise to find these skulls," ... They were in good enough
condition to compare them with East African finds, ... And the site ... built
on layers of basalt laid down during volcanic activity 1.85 million years
ago, offered many clues as to its age. One was provided by the periodic
flip-flopping of the Earth's magnetic poles, which leaves a record in the
rock. "We know that 1.78 million years ago the poles shifted from normal
to reverse," .... The basalt is "normal" but the deposits on top which
contain the artifacts and remains, are reversed. This geomagnetic evidence
helped them check the other evidence provided by traditional dating of
layers and by radiographic dating. The dates alone would make the
hominids the first in Europe. "I don't think anyone, pushed into a corner,
would say these are the first, because someone will always come along next
week and find something even older," .... "We don't want to get into a 'first'
game." ... [I like the modesty, which is a refreshing contrast to the usual
paleoanthropological hype. At 1.7 mya in Georgia, this is an entirely
different story to the Yahoo! one I posted the other day at:
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000503/sc/science_tools_1.html about
125,000-year-old tools unearthed on the Red Sea coast of Eritrea in East
Africa. This Georgian find may force a `demotion' of Homo erectus and a
`promotion' of H. ergaster, although I thought that the latter was already
regarded as more advanced than H. erectus?]
http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/05/11/sue.clues.ap/index.html CNN
... Sue fossil provides insights into T. rex's behavior and diet Paleontologist
Chris Brochu poses in front of a projected CT scan from the
Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil named Sue May 11, 2000 ... CT-scanning of the
desk-sized skull of Sue, the most complete T. rex fossil ever found,
suggests the supreme carnivore in North America 65 million years ago had
acute senses. Its forward-pointing eyes provided a wide field of view, and
ear structures suggest it could hear well. But Sue's key advantage was
smell. Its olfactory bulbs were grapefruit-sized. The dinosaur "smelled its
way through life," ... ... it was unlikely that the bones, however complete,
would settle key debates about the superstar of dinosaurs. Among them: T.
rex's color and vocalizations, whether it was warm-blooded, hunter or
scavenger, male or female. ... He believes the Sue fossil is an older female.
Sue has a wider pelvis that would accommodate egg-laying. And, similar to
crocodile anatomy, she lacks an extra bone that male crocs and smaller,
presumably male T. rex skeletons both have. ... Sue's teeth are foot-long
cylinders with serrated edges. Her stomach contents included acid-etched
bones of a duckbilled dinosaur. Other T. rex remains include bones from
triceratops and other plentiful herbivores. A T. rex gulped everything and
relied on a powerful digestive tract to process bone and horn. In the
movies, T. rex is a solitary killer. But many scientists believe the real-life
carnivores hunted in packs. ... How did Sue die? .... The left side of the
skull is smashed, with holes along her jaw. Brochu doubts it is evidence of
a fatal encounter. The holes don't line up with the bite of a T. rex, he said.
Larson disagrees. "In her last fight she didn't do so well," ... [It is
interesting that they still don't know if T. rex was just a scavenger.]
http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/05/11/science.creatures.reut/index.html
CNN ... Cockroaches, slugs and snails feel pain, study says May 11,
2000 ... LONDON (Reuters) -- New studies showing that slugs, snails and
cockroaches suffer pain may prompt humans to tiptoe around the animal
kingdom. The research, the subject of a meeting Thursday organized by the
British charity Universities Federation for Animal Welfare, boosts lobby
groups that argue that animals have emotions. "People who think insects
do not feel any pain may be wrong," ... "Perhaps people should think twice
before reaching for the fly spray." ... Dr. Chris Sherwin ... said insects
reacted much like cats and dogs in their aversion to electric shocks. "If it is
a chimp, we say it feels pain, if a fly, we do not. Why?" ... Studies carried
out at Cambridge University discovered that cows can react emotionally.
Another study revealed that sheep, in defiance of their dumb image, can
distinguish one person from another. ... [That insects and even plants react
to stimuli does not necessarily mean that it experiencing "pain" as we
humans experience it. But it seems a reasonable assumption that the closer
the nervous system is to ours, the more likely it is the pain resembles ours.]
http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/05/10/science.flower.reut/index.html
CNN ... Master genes for flowers could make brighter plants May 10, 2000
.... LONDON (Reuters) -- American and German scientists said
Wednesday they had discovered the master genes that regulate the
development of flowers which could be used to produce new colorful
varieties of plants. ... biologists ... identified a trio of genes that produce
flowers within flowers. This plant abnormality, called the "double flower,"
has puzzled geneticists. When the three nearly identical genes are all
mutated, they produce the repetitive effect that continues indefinitely ...
The genes are essential for the four rings, or whorls, of flowers. Sepals are
the outermost ring. Inside the sepals is a ring of petals, then the ring of
stamens, the male reproductive structures and at the center are the carpels
or female organs. When the trio of genes are all mutated, all the rings are
converted to sepals, causing the double flower ... By turning on the genes
in leaves, where they are normally turned off, the researchers said they may
be able to produce different varieties of plants. "This could well make for
some very interesting new plant varieties that have, for example, colorful
petals replacing the normal leaves," he added. [Another example of master
genes with the latent potential to make everything when switched on. This
supports a mediate progressive creation model where genes are prepared in
advance but masked, and then switched on when needed. This might help
explain Darwin's famous complaint that: "The rapid development as far as
we can judge of all the higher plants within recent geological times is an
abominable mystery" (Darwin C., letter to J. D. Hooker, 22 July 1879)]
http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/space/05/09/new.planets.ap/index.html
CNN ... Astronomers find evidence of eight objects orbiting distant stars ...
May 9, 2000 ... WASHINGTON (AP) -- European astronomers say they
have found evidence of eight planet-like objects orbiting distant stars,
bringing to 43 the number of extrasolar system planets that have been
found. An astronomy team from the Geneva Observatory reported finding
six planet-sized objects and two more massive objects orbiting stars up to
140 light years away from Earth. The planets range in size from a mass
slightly less than Saturn, to about 15 times more massive than Jupiter.
Jupiter is about 317 times more massive than the Earth and Saturn is about
95 times more massive. Two of the new extra solar system objects are
large enough to be classified as brown dwarfs. ... Extra solar system planets
are discovered by measuring the motion of the host stars. The gravitational
tug of a companion object causes a central star to wobble slightly. By
measuring this motion, astronomers can determine the mass of a planet-like
body and its distance from the central star ... The first extra solar system
planet, or exoplanet, was found in 1995, and astronomers at centers in
Europe and in the United States have been steadily adding new discoveries
ever since. ... [More on exoplanets. This is another example of how is not
necessary for a cause to be itself observable, but only its presumed effects,
for it to be regarded as science. Demarcation criteria that intelligent design
is not science because the Designer is not observable therefore fail.]
http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/05/09/primatesonthebrink.ap/index.html
CNN ... Conservationists warn that many primate species could vanish
immediately These five rare primate species are among those teetering on
the brink of oblivion May 9, 2000 ... Dozens of primate species are
teetering on the brink of oblivion in a new extinction emergency that has
left scientists astonished and angry ... No primate has gone extinct in the
20th century. It was a remarkable feat of endurance for humankind's closest
relatives at a time when 100 species -- especially cats, bats, insects and
birds were vanishing every day. But what had been hailed as a conservation
triumph is beginning to look like a sad illusion. ... Deforestation, poaching
blamed for decline ... New estimates suggest that 10 percent of the world's
608 primate species and subspecies on three continents are critically
imperiled. Renewed surges of deforestation and poaching in the 1990s, as
well as shrinking genetic diversity, suddenly are thinning the ranks of many
species to just a few hundred individuals, or a few dozen. At any moment,
they could vanish forever. .... In a few cases, scientists aren't even sure if a
species still exists ... Primates are the highest order of mammals. Besides
humans, they include apes, monkeys and prosimians, a suborder that
includes more primitive lemurs and tarsiers. Primates have been in
worsening trouble for decades as the world's human population crashed the
6 billion barrier .... Researchers blame recent losses primarily on political
unrest and commercial exploitation of the creatures' habitats ... Among the
hardest hit species are orangutans and gibbons. .. In Africa, the biggest
threat is poaching. Conservationists say hunters are slaughtering entire
populations to supply urban markets with exotic meat. ...gorillas now are
split into two species -- eastern and western -- and further divided into five
subspecies. Scientists declared 200 gorillas living along the Nigeria-
Cameroon border to belong to a new subspecies named the Cross River
gorilla. ... See also:
http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/05/12/endangered.primates.reut/ [At
least *one* of Darwin's predictions looks like coming true: "At some future
period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilised races of man
will almost certainly exterminate, and replace, the savage races throughout
the world. At the same time the anthropomorphous apes, as Professor
Schaaffhausen has remarked,* will no doubt be exterminated. The break
between man and his nearest allies will then be wider, for it will intervene
between man in a more civilised state, as we may hope, even than the
Caucasian, and some ape as low as a baboon, instead of as now between
the negro or Australian and the gorilla." (Darwin C., "Descent of Man,"
http://infidels.org/library/historical/charles_darwin/descent_of_man/chapter
_06.html :-(]
http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/05/05/pollinators.peril/index.html
CNN ... Earth Matters: Pollinator decline puts world food supply at risk,
experts warn Honeybees, the primary pollinator for many food plants, have
seen a drastic decrease in numbers May 5, 2000 ... Domestic honeybees
have lost as many as one-third of their Hives and their wild cousins have
become virtually extinct in many places around the world. A variety of
troubles threaten the pollinators: Endless waves of development destroy
nesting and feeding grounds; pesticides decimate them along with other
beneficial insects. Agribusiness increasingly treats honeybees as a mass
commodity, exposing them to uncontrollable plagues of pests, introduced
through human error. ... The cardon, largest cactus on earth, is pollinated
by the lesser longnosed bat Each spring, the deserts of northern Mexico
come alive. The centerpiece is the cardon. At heights sometimes over 60
feet, it's the largest cactus on Earth. The cardon serves as a supermarket
for the desert neighborhood, offering food and nectar to a diverse
population of animals. But for a long time, no one knew what pollinated
the cardon. Turns out it was neither the birds nor the bees but a flying
mammal that arrives under cover of darkness: the lesser longnosed bat.
When the cactus flower meets the tiny bat, the fit and the transfer of pollen
are perfect. With each drink, the bat carries away thousands of pollen
grains to be transported to the next flowering giant. The grains are
obtained via a tongue that's as long as the bat's entire body. The tongue has
a brushy tip with fibers on the end than enable it to act like a mop ... In the
spring, the pregnant bats follow the wave of the cardon bloom northward.
After bearing their young, they head south, fueled this time by flowering
agave plants. If the gaps between food patches become too large, this
ancient cycle could fail. The bats face increasing competition for agave
from humans, who use the plant's roots as the source for mescal and
tequila. ... Combine that with increased development wiping out vegetation
along the coast near Acapulco, and another link is lost in the bats' nectar
chain. For the bats to survive, their food plants must be preserved along
their entire migration route. If the gaps between islands of habitat get too
big, the bats could starve to death. ... [Darwinians would presumably claim
that originally the lesser longnosed bat and the cardon cactus flower were a
less than perfect fit, but there were a successive stream of genetic
variations in *both* bat and flower which favoured a better and better fit?
A factor in this might be that no other pollinator exists, so there should be
strong selective pressure favouring an increasing better fit. It would be
interesting to know if there is any fossil or other evidence (e.g. near
relatives of both) that the bat's tongue and the cactus' flower were once not
such a perfect fit and gradually converged on each other. Even if such
evidence was found, there is probably no way of knowing how many
genetic variations there were and if they were random. The Darwinists'
claim is that the environment, via natural selection, `pumps' genetic
information into the genome. But here the environment seems to be playing
little or no part. Any information that is being added is being done so by
already information-rich sources, namely the flower and the bat. Finally, if
this is a prime example of Darwinian adaptation at work, it is going
nowhere and doing neither species any good in the long run. They are now
so over-specialised that they are probably both headed for extinction when
the environment changes.]
http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/space/05/01/earth.weight.ap/index.html
CNN ... Physicists: Earth weighs less than previously thought May 1, 2000
... LONG BEACH, California (AP) -- Using a new, precise measurement
of the force of gravity, physicists have recalculated the mass of the Earth
and determined the planet is a bit lighter than previously thought. The new
estimate is that the third rock from the sun has a mass of 5.972 sextillion
metric tons, or 5,972 followed by 18 zeros. Textbooks currently list the
mass at 5.978 sextillion metric tons. ... The new measurement stems from a
recalculation of the force of gravity, a constant represented by the big letter
"G." It is one of three fundamental numbers that physicists believe are
consistent across the universe. But in recent years, different measurements
of G have produced wildly different results, raising the level of uncertainty.
... To arrive at the new constant, the Washington physicists refined an
experiment first developed in the 18th century. A device called a torsion
balance recorded the effects of the gravity of four stainless steel balls on a
gold-coated plate. If the new value is accepted, it would reduce the
uncertainty of G by a factor of 100. But the University of Washington
researchers warned their findings are preliminary and subject to change. ...
[And I thought it was *me* who had lost weight! :-)]
http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/05/10/environment.koala.reut/index.html
CNN ... Australia disputes U.S. listing koalas as endangered Australian
officials say adding the koala to the U.S. endangered species list is
unnecessary May 10, 2000 ... CANBERRA, Australia (Reuters) --
Australia criticized a decision by the United States on Wednesday to list
the nation's native cuddly marsupial, the koala, under U.S. endangered
species laws. Environment Minister Robert Hill said the decision by the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was "inappropriate and unnecessary" and
ignored scientific data on the abundance of koalas in Australia. "All
Australian states and territories where koalas occur have legislation
protecting the species," .... "The U.S. decision will not contribute to the
conservation of the species in Australia." ... The U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service said it hoped to raise awareness of the plight of koalas, a tourist's
favourite, by listing them as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species
Act and prohibiting their trade by anyone subject to American law. ... The
U.S. listing followed a petition from environmental lobby group Australia
for Animals and its U.S. based affiliate, Fund for Animals. "However it
does not take into account the conservation and wildlife management
strategies in place in Australia," Hill said. Conservation programmes in
Australia since the 1930s have protected koalas from hunters, who once
killed them for their fur. Populations estimates now range from 40,000 to
400,000 across the country but human encroachment and ensuing changes
in the koala's habitats have been blamed for recent population drops.
Nearly two-thirds of the eucalyptus forest and woodland ecosystem on
which the koala depends has been lost, the Fish and Wildlife Service said.
[There seems to be an urban myth in the rest of the world that koalas are
on the verge of extinction. The fact is that they are now so numerous that
wildlife officers have recommended permission to cull them for their own
good! There is a related myth that koalas will only eat leaves from one
species of eucalypt tree. The fact is that they will eat leaves from about
eight different species of eucalypt trees. There is no doubt koalas
habitat has been diminished due to clearing for farming. But OTOH
they are no longer hunted by man, as they had been for 40,000 years.
This seems to me to be just another example of `selective greenism'.
There are plenty of Australian species under far more danger of extinction
than the koala, but they don't look like the greenies' childhood teddy-bears!]
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"When adaptation is considered to be the result of natural selection under
the pressure of the struggle for existence, it is seen to be a relative
condition rather than an absolute one. Even though a species may be
surviving and numerous, and therefore may be adapted in an absolute
sense, a new form may arise that has a greater reproductive rate on the
same resources, and it may cause the extinction of the older form. The
concept of relative adaptation removes the apparent tautology in the theory
of natural selection. Without it the theory of natural selection states that
fitter individuals have more offspring and then defines the fitter as being
those that leave more offspring; since some individuals will always have
more offspring than others by sheer chance, nothing is explained. ...
Unfortunately the concept of relative adaptation also requires the ceteris
paribus assumption, so that in practice it is not easy to predict which of
two forms will leave more offspring." (Lewontin R.C., "Adaptation,"
Scientific American, Vol. 239, No. 3, pp.157-169, September 1978,
pp.166-167)
Stephen E. Jones | sejones@iinet.net.au | http://www.iinet.net.au/~sejones
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