2012

An very interesting study has now made the press cycle. Susanne Dobler and Anurag Agrawal studied the genetic mechanism employed by monarch butterflies to resist cardenolides, a powerful toxin which binds the cell’s sodium pump, and which is common to milkweed and foxgloves. They found that a single ” specific mutation — called N122H — of the Na,K-ATPase gene” was enough to confer resistance. They then looked in other insect lines to see what genetic mechanism was employed by these other lines. “Already knowing how monarchs deal with the toxin, we wanted to see if it was the same molecular solution used by beetles, flies and true bugs that are also resistant to cardenolides,” said Anurag Agrawal, a Cornell professor Read More ›

The vid is embedded here at 640 wide. Appealing to the WordPress gods to allow an embed here: And, let me clip the linked KF post: . . . Of course, there is a hot — and too often quite uncivil — controversy surrounding the inference to design on empirically tested signs such as complex, functionally specific organisation and associated information, or irreducibly complex functional organisation. However, much of that controversy is not driven by the actual balance on the merits but by the determination of institutionally dominant evolutionary materialist factions to retain their (now fast-crumbling) hold on science, the academy, education, most mass media, public policy and the public square. Sometimes, even the pulpit. If you doubt the accuracy Read More ›

Friday afternoon I returned from a meeting to find number one daughter waiting at my office. “What’s up, hon”? “I just needed a daddy hug.” “Anything in particular”? “Yeah, mom and I were at the midnight premier of Batman at the Mills.  But I was thinking.  Mom lives just a few blocks from the Aurora 16.  She changed her plans when I invited her to drive out to see the movie with me.  If I hadn’t done that she would have been there for the shooting.” As I wrapped my arms around my daughter and gave her a daddy hug, I said, “Well, God is looking out for you and her.” But even as the words were leaving my mouth Read More ›

UD News highlights from C Hunter, how Darwin wrote: If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down. But I can find out no such case. Hunter aptly picks up that: . . . this was hardly a concession. Darwin may sound generous here, allowing that his theory would “absolutely break down,” but his requirement for such a failure is no less than impossible. For no one can show that an organ “could not possibly” have been formed in such a way. So in short order Darwin reduced what seemed to be a dilemma for his theory into a logical truism. Read More ›