From Mike Wall at Space.com: Ultraviolet (UV) radiation streaming from the sun “activates” chlorine compounds in the Red Planet’s soil, turning them into potent microbe-killers, a new study suggests. These compounds, known as perchlorates, seem to be widespread in the Martian dirt; several NASA missions have detected them at a variety of locations. Perchlorates have some characteristics that would appear to boost the Red Planet’s habitability. They drastically lower the freezing point of water, for example, and they offer a potential energy source for microorganisms, scientists have said. But the new study, by Jennifer Wadsworth and Charles Cockell — both of the U.K. Centre for Astrobiology at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland — paints perchlorates in a different light. Read More ›

From Sandrine Ceurstemont at New Scientist: The Neomorphus ground cuckoos live in forests in Central and South America, where they often follow herds of wild peccaries so they can feed on the invertebrates that the peccaries disturb as they plough through the leaf litter. Ecologists have noticed that when the cuckoos clap their beaks together they sound a lot like the tooth clacks the peccaries make to deter large predatory cats. Generally, the proposed explanations rely on far more intelligence than either species has or both put together. Biondo and her colleagues have considered alternatives too. For instance, by making the same sounds, cuckoos and pigs could be teaming up to protect each other. The birds could be taking on Read More ›

We were forwarded a PR from The Technics & Science Research Foundation  (TSRF). Turkey is rapidly degenerating into an authoritarian state (journalists imprisoned, etc.), so one should assess what one hears with caution. That said, the following media release on removing evolution teaching from the schools is from an organization associated with longtime Turkish ID advocate, Adnan Ottar (pen name Harun Yahya), whom we interviewed in 2009. (Here is a recent conference.) A couple of comments are interspersed: Turkey recently made a decision to remove the teachings of the theory of evolution from the curriculum taught in classes, a move that is contrary to how the world usually approaches this subject. The news spread very quickly via the European pro-evolutionists Read More ›

From Denyse O’Leary at Evolution News and Views:: Those who still defend a reality-based view of science seem to be slowly losing ground. Overall, science is experiencing a massive invasion of post-fact. There is a marked difference between the style of the literature that celebrates naturalism in and of itself and the more traditional excitement around, say, finding the Higgs boson. Theory now needs only a tangential relationship to the methods and tools of science. But then perhaps our expectations of science are changing. Possibly many no longer want information so much as they want attitudes they can live with. What strikes one is the fundamental unseriousness of it all. That would not necessarily matter. Unserious disciplines can often be Read More ›

From Sal Cordova at Creation-Evolution Headlines: Dr John C. Sanford, an elite scientist and inventor of 40 years at Cornell, an Ivy League School, made American history by inventing the Gene Gun in the mid 1980’s. This invention has been used for a highly substantial proportion of all the genetically modified organisms (GMOs) on planet Earth, allowing food genes to be intelligently re-designed. As a result, millions of individuals have been able to avoid starvation. His invention also increased our ability to study genomes and thus further scientific understanding. For these accomplishments, one of his inventions became part of the collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. More. Sanford is the author of Genetic Entropy: The episode articulates Read More ›

From Aylin Woodward at New Scientist: It’s a sex-laced mystery. If modern humans didn’t reach Europe until about 60,000 years ago, how has DNA from them turned up in a Neanderthal fossil in Germany from 124,000 years ago? The answer seems to be that there was a previous migration of early humans – more than 219,000 years ago. One that we’re only just starting to reveal from piecemeal evidence that is DNA extracted from fossilised bones.More. Note especially, “The results also suggest that Neanderthals had a much greater genetic diversity and larger population than we realised.” Indeed. A lot of speculation/discussion of Neanderthals pegs them in ways that are better described as “what we believe” than “what we know.” As Read More ›

A friend calls attention to this interesting new paper: When Homoplasy is not Homoplasy: Dissecting Trait Evolution by Contrasting Composite and Reductive Coding Alejandro Torres-Montúfar  Thomas Borsch  Helga Ochoterena Syst Biol syx053. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syx053 Published: 22 June 2017  Article history Received: 03 February 2017 Revision Received: 13 April 2017 Revision Received: 18 May 2017 Accepted: 24 May 2017 Abstract: The conceptualization and coding of characters is a difficult issue in phylogenetic systematics, no matter which inference method is used when reconstructing phylogenetic trees or if the characters are just mapped onto a specific tree. Complex characters are groups of features that can be divided into simpler hierarchical characters (reductive coding), although the implied hierarchical relational information may change depending on the type of coding Read More ›

From experimental particle physicist Dr Michael G Strauss at his blog: Barnes goes on to show that Stenger commits the logical fallacy of equivocation. He uses the word invariant (invariance) in LN1 and LN2 as if they mean the same thing, but, actually, they mean two very different things. The invariance in LN1 means the physical laws are the same while that in LN2 is a more technical term with a very distinct meaning of being symmetric. By using the word “invariant” when the appropriate term is “symmetric” Stenger sets up a false equivalence, and without that equivalence his whole argument is destroyed. His conclusion in LN3 does not logically follow. I believe this is why many scientists have indicated Read More ›

From Daniel Oberhaus at Motherboard Vice: “We are investigating the possibility of interplanetary migration of microorganisms,” Kensei Kobayashi, the lead research on the Tanpopo mission, told me during the recent NASA astrobiology conference. “Cosmic dust is a very promising carrier of organic compounds, but it’s exposed directly to solar radiation. Our hypothesis is that there are some kinds of extraterrestrial compounds that can survive and be delivered to Earth by cosmic dust.” Researchers at the European Space Agency are preparing to launch the OREOcube, which will be attached to the ISS and will focus on exposing “organic thin films” deposited on an inorganic substrate (read: rocks) to space to see how the Sun affects organic-inorganic interactions. The main goal is Read More ›

Forwarded by reader, from Journal of Paleontology, 2012: —Tympanal ears in insects are important for both intraspecific communication and for the detection of nocturnal predators. Ears are thought, based on modern forms, to have originated independently multiple times within insects and can be found on multiple regions of the body. Here we describe and document the exceptionally well preserved tympanal ears found in crickets and katydids from the Eocene Green River Formation of Colorado, which are virtually identical to those seen in modern representatives of these groups. These specimens are among the best preserved insect ears in the fossil record and establish the presence of ears in two major clades of Orthoptera 50 million years ago. Also discussed and evaluated Read More ›

No currently known living or extinct bird has them. From ScienceDaily: “In ostriches, the upper kneecap looks similar to the single kneecap in most other species, but the lower kneecap resembles a fixed bony process, like the point of your elbow,” says Ms Regnault. “As far as we know, this double kneecap is unique to ostriches, with no evidence found even in extinct giant birds.” … The effect that this double-kneecap has on the running performance of ostriches is hard to identify, but Ms Regnault and her team have a few ideas: “We speculate that this might mean ostriches are able to extend their knees relatively faster than they would with one kneecap.” Society for Experimental Biology More. Ah yes, Read More ›

From Amy Maxmen at Nature News: tenOever speculates that RNAse III proteins originally helped bacteria to maintain their own RNA, and that bacteria later deployed the proteins against the genetic material of viruses. He points out the occurrence of RNAse III proteins in immune responses throughout the tree of life. For instance, some CRISPR systems, a virus-fighting response in archaea and bacteria, include RNAse III proteins. Plants and invertebrates deploy the proteins in RNAi. And although vertebrates rely on interferons for viral control, this study now shows that Drosha still chases after viruses, in the same way a pet Golden Retriever — a dog bred to retrieve waterfowl — fetches a stick as if it were a fallen duck. Donald Read More ›

From Charles Q. Choi at Space.com: For the first time ever, scientists have directly spotted a pair of supermassive black holes orbiting each other, a new study suggests. This orbital motion — which was noted in observations made over the course of a dozen years — may be the smallest-ever movement detected of an object across the sky, the researchers said. … The presence of these giant black holes so close together suggested that the galaxy in which they lie resulted from dozens of galaxies merging sometime in the past, the researchers said. This raises the possibility that the two black holes themselves might one day merge also, the scientists said. More. Better than fireworks. Happy Fourth of July to Read More ›

This is becoming an anthology. From Joshua C. Tom at Sociological Perspectives: Social Origins of Scientific Deviance: Examining Creationism and Global Warming Skepticism Abstract: Scientific communities maintain respected authority on matters related to the natural world; however, there are instances where significant portions of the population hold beliefs contrary to the scientific consensus. These beliefs have generally been studied as the product of scientific illiteracy. This project reframes the issue as one of social deviance from the consensus of scientific communities. Using young-earth creationism and global warming skepticism as case studies, I suggest that consensus perception in light of public scientific deviance is a valuable dialectical framework, and demonstrate its utility using logistic regression analyses of the 2006 Pew Religion Read More ›

In the journal Nature Geoscience:  Abstract Here.