The Conceit of Hindsight
“Life is peculiar,” said Jeremy.
“Compared to what?” asked the spider.
-- Men Who Play God (1968), by Norman Moss.
The recent discovery by NASA of the amino acid Glycine in dust from a comet in the outer Solar System has been a shot in the arm to the idea that life here was seeded by organic matter in meteorites, about 3.8 billion years ago. The technical term for this is Panspermia (meaning “seed everywhere”), of which no less a scientist than Francis Crick, co-discoverer of DNA, was an ardent supporter, arguing that the time interval between the formation of our planet and the appearance of life (in the shape of microscopic fossils) was too short for the genetic code to have evolved de novo (to use the biochemical terminology). Thus, the raw materials must have arrived here from elsewhere in the Galaxy. Many scientists remain unconvinced; and hot on the tail of the aforementioned discovery came the latest hypothesis on life's terrestrial origins in transparent Zinc Sulfide 'bubbles' which would have allowed access to the energy of sunlight for early replicating matter.
Canadian science minister's coyness on evolution worries researchers
CBC News, March 17, 2009.
Federal Science Minister Gary Goodyear's refusal to say whether he believes in evolution has left scientists questioning what that means for Canadian research.
Dolph Schluter, a professor at the University of British Columbia, told CBCNews.ca in an email that he was "first flabbergasted and then embarrassed" when he heard Goodyear's response to a reporter's question about whether he believed in evolution.
"I'm not going to answer that question," Goodyear, federal minister of state for science and technology, told the Globe and Mail in an article published Tuesday. "I am a Christian, and I don't think anybody asking a question about my religion is appropriate."Read more: Canadian science minister's coyness on evolution worries researchers
Rare seabird fossil found in Peru
The unusually intact fossilized skull of a giant, toothed sea bird that died millions of years ago has been found on Peru's arid southern coast, researchers said Friday.
The fossil is the best-preserved cranium ever found of a pelagornithid, a family of large seabirds believed to have gone extinct some three million years ago, said Rodolfo Salas, head of vertebrate paleontology at Peru's National History Museum.
One side can be wrong: Why Intelligent Design Is Not Science
by Richard Dawkins and Jerry Coyne, The Guardian.
It sounds so reasonable, doesn't it? Such a modest proposal. Why not teach "both sides" and let the children decide for themselves? As President Bush said, "You're asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, the answer is yes." At first hearing, everything about the phrase "both sides" warms the hearts of educators like ourselves.Read more: One side can be wrong: Why Intelligent Design Is Not Science
