Archive for the ‘Science’ Category

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Human Family Tree: Shallow Roots

Saturday, July 1st, 2006

Whoever it was probably lived a few thousand years ago, somewhere in East Asia — Taiwan, Malaysia and Siberia all are likely locations. He or she did nothing more remarkable than be born, live, have children and die.

Yet this was the ancestor of every person now living on Earth — the last person in history whose family tree branches out to touch all 6.5 billion people on the planet today.

That means everybody on Earth descends from somebody who was around as recently as the reign of Tutankhamen, maybe even during the Golden Age of ancient Greece. There’s even a chance that our last shared ancestor lived at the time of Christ.

More… ➡

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A Convenient Endorsement for Gore

Tuesday, June 27th, 2006

This gets it right whereas the piece a week or so ago on Slashdot was simply a hit piece by a shill from the oil and coal industry.

The nation’s top climate scientists are giving An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore’s documentary on global warming, five stars for accuracy.

The former vice president’s movie — replete with the prospect of a flooded New York City, an inundated Florida, more and nastier hurricanes, worsening droughts, retreating glaciers and disappearing ice sheets — mostly got the science right, said all 19 climate scientists who had seen the movie or read the book and answered questions from The Associated Press.

More… ➡

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Scientists urge evolution lessons

Tuesday, June 27th, 2006

The world’s top scientists have joined forces to call for “evidence-based” teaching of evolution in schools.

A statement signed by 67 national science academies says evidence on the origins of life is being “concealed, denied, or confused” in some classes.

It lists key facts on evolution that “scientific evidence has never contradicted”.

These include the formation of Earth 4.5 billion years ago, and the onset of life at least 2.5 billion years ago.

“We know of schools in various parts of the world where the children are told that the Earth is about 8,000 years old,” said Yves Quere, co-chair of the Inter Academy Panel on International Issues, the global network of science academies.

More… ➡

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Study: Earth ‘likely’ hottest in 2,000 years

Saturday, June 24th, 2006

Panel: ‘Warmth is unprecedented for at least the last 400 years’

WASHINGTON (AP) — It has been 2,000 years and possibly much longer since Earth has run such a fever.

The National Academy of Sciences, reaching that conclusion in a broad review of scientific work requested by Congress, reported Thursday that the “recent warmth is unprecedented for at least the last 400 years and potentially the last several millennia.”

A panel of top climate scientists told lawmakers that Earth is heating up and that “human activities are responsible for much of the recent warming.” Their 155-page report said average global surface temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere rose about 1 degree during the 20th century.

This is shown in boreholes, retreating glaciers and other evidence found in nature, said Gerald North, a geosciences professor at Texas A&M University who chaired the academy’s panel.

The report was requested in November by the chairman of the House Science Committee, Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-New York, to address naysayers who question whether global warming is a major threat.

More… ➡

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LETTER TO MEMBERS OF CONGRESS RE: INTELLIGENT THOUGHT

Thursday, June 22nd, 2006

Last week, the sixteen scientists who contributed essays to Intelligent Thought: Science Versus The Intelligent Design Movement, wrote a letter that was addressed individually and sent with a copy of the book to every member of Congress.

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June 16, 2006

To Members of Congress:
We, the authors and editor of Intelligent Thought, are sending you a copy of the book in hopes that you will consider its message. The book is largely about Intelligent Design (ID), the latest incarnation of creationism. ID is a movement that threatens American science education and with it American economic predominance and credibility.

To full text: ➡

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The individuals who signed this letter include the following (who are among the very brightest and most articulate men and women of science on the planet today):

Scott Atran
Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique
Paris,
Department of Psychology
University of Michigan

John Brockman
Publisher and Editor
Edge (www.edge.org)
New York City

Jerry Coyne
Department of Ecology and Evolution
The University of Chicago

Richard Dawkins
Oxford University Museum

Daniel Dennett
Center for Cognitive Studies
Tufts University

Marc D. Hauser
Departments of Psychology and Organismal and Evolutionary Biology
Harvard University

Nicholas Humphrey
London School of Economics
London, UK

Stuart Kauffman
The Institute for Biocomplexity and Informatics
The University of Calgary,
The Santa Fe Institute
Santa Fe, New Mexico

Seth Lloyd
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Techology

Steven Pinker
Department of Psychology
Harvard University

Lisa Randall
Department of Physics
Harvard University

Scott Sampson
Utah Museum of Natural History and
Department of Geology and Geophysics
University of Utah

Neil Shubin
Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy
The University of Chicago,
The Field Museum, Chicago

Lee Smolin
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Frank Sulloway
Institute for Personality and Social Research
The University of California, Berkeley

Leonard Susskind
Department of Physics
Stanford University

Tim White
Department of Integrative Biology and
Human Evolution Research Center
The University of California at Berkeley

Posted in Religion, Religion - The Wrong Way, Science | No Comments »

Norway building ‘doomsday vault’ to protect seeds

Monday, June 19th, 2006

OSLO, Norway (AP) — It sounds like something from a science fiction film — a doomsday vault carved into a frozen mountainside on a secluded Arctic island ready to serve as a Noah’s Ark for seeds in case of a global catastrophe.

But Norway’s ambitious project is on its way to becoming reality. Construction began Monday on the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, designed to house as many as 3 million of the world’s crop seeds. ➡

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There’s a mystery at the edge of our solar system

Monday, June 19th, 2006

30 Years of Pioneer Spacecraft Data Rescued:
The Planetary Society Enables Study of the Mysterious Pioneer AnomalyPasadena, CA, —There’s a mystery at the edge of our solar system.  Two spacecraft, Pioneers 10 and 11, which were launched to Jupiter and Saturn more than 30 years ago, are hurtling towards the edge of our solar system — but at a slower than expected rate.  Called the “Pioneer Anomaly,” the effect of this slowing is small, but measurable, and so far unexplained.  ➡

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Big crater seen beneath ice sheet

Sunday, June 4th, 2006

What appears to be a 480km-wide (300 miles) crater has been detected under the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. The scientists behind the discovery say it could have been made by a massive meteorite strike 250 million years ago.

The feature at Wilkes Land was found by Nasa satellites that are mapping subtle differences in the Earth’s gravity. ➡

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Steep dive in albatross numbers

Sunday, June 4th, 2006

Albatrosses on islands in the South Atlantic are being pushed to the brink of extinction, according to research. ➡

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