Evolution Acceptance Chart

Source: Gallup Poll

As you can see, America ranks 33rd with a 39% acceptance rating. I wouldn't buy too much into it since they polled only 1,484 people living here.

Another Adult Stem Cell Breakthrough

A review was conducted of 23 patients who underwent implantation of mesenchymal stem cell allograft for revision foot or ankle surgery. Composed of viable mesenchymal stem cells derived from cadaveric donor tissue, the graft had osteogenic, osteoinductive, and osteoconductive properties, and was capable of direct new bone formation at the site of implantation. In all of the cases, radiographic new bone formation was observed at the area of implantation and a 91.3% union rate was observed, and no evidence of graft rejection or complications associated with implantation were recorded. Wilcoxon rank sum tests were used to determine whether gender, diabetes, chronic renal insufficiency, neuropathy, number of previous surgeries, and smoking were associated with time to healing. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient was calculated in an effort to identify the influence of continuous numeric variables on the time to bone healing. Based on the outcomes observed in this retrospective study, it appears that mesenchymal stem cell allograft is a beneficial biological adjunct to bone healing, and serves as a suitable bone autograft substitute in revision foot and ankle surgery. - The Journal of Foot and Ankle Surgery

Far too many scientific terms, but this sounds promising.

Counter View on CO2 Levels

Award-winning physicist Dr. Will Happer coined the phrase “CO2 famine” and branded claims about man-made global warming as “mistaken” today at a Congressional hearing. Happer, who has published over 200 scientific papers, made his thoughts known during the Environmental and Public Works Full Committee Hearing. Entitled “Update on the Latest Global Warming Science,” the hearing afforded Happer the opportunity to make several eyebrow-raising claims.

“The increase in CO2 is not a cause for alarm and will be good for mankind,” Happer said.“Children should not be force-fed propaganda, masquerading as science.” Happer is a professor in the Department of Physics at Princeton University. He was also the former Director of Energy Research at the Department of Energy from 1990 to 1993. However, Happer was reportedly fired by former Vice President Al Gore in 1993 for not agreeing with Gore’s scientific views. - Examiner.com

Not surprised by that.

Obama Executive Order on Embryonic Stem Cells

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama will soon issue an executive order lifting an eight-year ban embryonic stem cell research imposed by his predecessor, President George W. Bush, a senior adviser said on Sunday.

"We're going to be doing something on that soon, I think. The president is considering that right now," Obama adviser David Axelrod said on "Fox News Sunday."

In 2001, Bush limited federal funding for stem cell research only to human embryonic stem cell lines that already existed. It was a gesture to his conservative Christian supporters who regard embryonic stem cell research as destroying potential life, because the cells must be extracted from human embryos.

Something Bush actually did good is going to now be reversed. Not good.

Intelligent Design a "Cultural Phenomenon"

The Vatican has admitted that Charles Darwin was on the right track when he claimed that Man descended from apes.

A leading official declared yesterday that Darwin’s theory of evolution was compatible with Christian faith, and could even be traced to St Augustine and St Thomas Aquinas. “In fact, what we mean by evolution is the world as created by God,” said Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture. The Vatican also dealt the final blow to speculation that Pope Benedict XVI might be prepared to endorse the theory of Intelligent Design, whose advocates credit a “higher power” for the complexities of life.

Organisers of a papal-backed conference next month marking the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species said that at first it had even been proposed to ban Intelligent Design from the event, as “poor theology and poor science”. Intelligent Design would be discussed at the fringes of the conference at the Pontifical Gregorian University, but merely as a “cultural phenomenon”, rather than a scientific or theological issue, organisers said. - Times Online

This will make many people very happy.

Cancer Cure?

ROME, JAN. 22, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Imagine a medicine that has a staggering 75% success rate in treating cancer, and yet is a natural and ethical product, owned by a nonprofit company headed by devout Catholics.

Too good to be true? That's what I thought. The medical world is not short of bogus cancer "cures." Treatment for the disease is a multi-billion dollar industry that has led to questionable or unproven methods springing up throughout the world.

Yet this little-known product, which works by rebuilding the body's own adult stem cells and destroying tumour cells, already has a 25-year track record as a highly effective cancer treatment. Called CellAdam, it is most effective in preventing the early stages of cancer. But it also impedes the malignant process, and has an analgesic effect in the hopeless stage of an advanced tumour. Because of its natural composition, it has none of the hallucinogenic effects you get with morphine. The ingredients simply include a fatty acid complex extracted from soy and sunflower.

Let's get this out there!

Fence Lizard Adapting to Fire-Ant Attacks

Assistant Professor of Biology Tracy Langkilde has shown that native fence lizards in the southeastern United States are adapting to potentially fatal invasive fire-ant attacks by developing behaviors that enable them to escape from the ants, as well as by developing longer hind legs, which can increase the effectiveness of this behavior.

---

"Not only does this finding provide biologists with an example of evolution in action, but it also provides wildlife managers with knowledge that they can use to develop plans for managing invasive species," said Langkilde. The results will be described in a paper to be published later this month in the journal Ecology. - Science Daily

This one goes out to Matt Hurton, special.

Gender Bending in Rivers

The cocktail of gender-bending chemicals entering rivers and streams is more potent and harmful than anyone realised, it has been revealed.

Scientists have found an entirely new class of chemicals that is changing male fish into females – and which could be contributing to the soaring rate of infertility and defects in men.

They have yet to find the source of the chemicals, known as anti-androgens, but believe they could come from pesticides, industrial pollution or pharmaceutical drugs. - Mail Online

Wow, so cool!

No Breast Cancer For This Baby

The first baby in the UK tested before conception for a genetic form of breast cancer has been born.

Doctors at University College London said the girl and her mother were doing well following the birth this week.

The embryo was screened for the altered BRCA1 gene, which would have meant the girl had a 80% chance of developing breast cancer.

Women in three generations of her husband's family have been diagnosed with the disease in their 20s. - BBC News

We probably wouldn't have heard about this if the baby did have the gene. That'd be eugenics. And wrong.

Galileo Upgraded to Hero Status

The Vatican is recasting the most famous victim of its Inquisition as a man of faith, just in time for the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s telescope and the U.N.-designated International Year of Astronomy next year.

Pope Benedict XVI paid tribute to the Italian astronomer and physicist recently, saying he and other scientists had helped the faithful better understand and “contemplate with gratitude the Lord’s works.”

In May, several Vatican officials will participate in an international conference to re-examine the Galileo affair, and top Vatican officials are now saying Galileo should be named the “patron” of the dialogue between faith and reason.

It’s quite a reversal of fortune for Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), who made the first complete astronomical telescope and used it to gather evidence that the Earth revolved around the sun. Church teaching at the time placed Earth at the center of the universe. - Macon.com

Poor Galileo.

Tech. Improves Spinal Surgery

ScienceDaily (Dec. 23, 2008) — Using a three-dimensional (3D) image-guided system to help place screws in the spines of patients results in safe and accurate surgery with a decrease in the number of misplaced screws, and subsequent injuries, seen in more traditional operations, say neurosurgeons at Mayo Clinic in Florida.

In the Dec. 9 online edition of the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine, Mayo physicians published the largest study yet using 3D image-guided technology to place screws in the spine for spinal fusion procedures. The screws are used to stabilize the spine in patients who suffer from collapsed discs or compressed nerves.

Less than 1 percent of the screws were misplaced in the study.

Hole Found In Earth's Magnetic Field

LOS ANGELES -- Recent satellite observations have revealed the largest breach yet seen in the magnetic field that protects Earth from most of the sun's violent blasts, researchers reported Tuesday. The discovery was made last summer by Themis, a fleet of five small NASA satellites.

Scientists have long known that the Earth's magnetic field, which guards against severe space weather, is similar to a drafty old house that sometimes lets in violent eruptions of charged particles from the sun. Such a breach can cause brilliant auroras or disrupt satellite and ground communications.

Observations from Themis show the Earth's magnetic field occasionally develops two cracks, allowing solar wind a stream of charged particles spewing from the sun at 1 million mph to penetrate the Earth's upper atmosphere. - Washington Post

Brian Li would have posted this...except he hasn't written in months.

Palm Pilots May Bridge Gap

ScienceDaily (Dec. 11, 2008) — Palm Pilots already perform a variety of functions, and in the future, they may be used as a therapeutic tool that benefits people with personality disorders. In a new study, a University of Missouri researcher used Palm Pilots as electronic diaries to record and analyze mood variability in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and found that the devices helped bridge an important communication gap between therapists and patients.

BPD is said to affect only about 2% of the population.

Allergies = Prevents Cancer?

ScienceDaily (Oct. 30, 2008) — There may be a silver -- and healthy -- lining to the miserable cloud of allergy symptoms: Sneezing, coughing, tearing and itching just may help prevent cancer -- particularly colon, skin, bladder, mouth, throat, uterus and cervix, lung and gastrointestinal tract cancer, according to a new Cornell study.

These cancers, interestingly, involve organs that "interface directly with the external environment," said Paul Sherman, Cornell professor of neurobiology and behavior, who led the study. He and colleagues analyzed 646 studies on allergies and cancers published over the past 50 years, putting together "the most comprehensive database yet available" on allergies and cancers.

The study revealed "a strong relationship" between allergies and cancer in environmentally exposed tissues, Sherman said. This relationship seldom exists, he noted, between allergies and cancers of tissues that are not directly exposed to the environment, such as cancers of the breast and prostate, as well as myelocytic leukemia and myeloma.

Who would've thought!?

Attending Religious Services Dec. Risk of Death

ScienceDaily (Nov. 20, 2008) — A study published by researchers at Yeshiva University and its medical school, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, strongly suggests that regular attendance at religious services reduces the risk of death by approximately 20 percent.

The findings were based on data drawn from participants who spanned numerous religious denominations. The research was conducted by Eliezer Schnall, Ph.D., clinical assistant professor of psychology at Yeshiva College of Yeshiva University, and co-authored by Sylvia Wassertheil-Smoller, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology and population health at Einstein, as an ancillary study of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI).

The WHI is a national, long-term study aimed at addressing women’s health issues and funded by the National Institutes of Health.

It reduces stress and other things too.

Arctic Air Temps At Record High

Less summer ice - which deflects solar radiation - has resulted in a rise in both the ocean and atmospheric temperature.

	A boat skims through melting ice on the west coast of Greenland

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says autumn air temperatures in the region are at a record 5ºC (9ºF) above average.

The annual NOAA report, which monitors climate change, said there has been a near-record loss of summer sea ice, though not as much as last year which was the warmest on record for the Arctic, continuing a trend that began in the mid-1960s.

They also report a loss of surface ice in Greenland. - Telegram.co.uk

Mars is too close!

Royal Society Scientist Loses Post

The Rev Professor Michael Reiss, who was director of education at Britain's scientific academy as well as an ordained Church of England minister, sparked controversy last week when he suggested that pupils should learn about the idea that evolution is wrong and the Earth is only 10,000 years old.

He claimed just "banging on" about natural selection would not lead devout Christian or Muslim children to change their beliefs, and said creationism should be treated as a "world view" rather than a misconception.

Two Nobel laureates condemned his "dangerous" and "outrageous" views while the renowned zoologist and atheist Professor Richard Dawkins compared putting a clergyman in charge of education at the Royal Society to a Monty Python sketch. - Telegraph

In the words of Matt Hurton: "Teaching creationism is like teaching about magic fairies instead of gravity."

Arctic Sea Ice Shrinks

COMBINED NEWS SERVICES August 28, 2008 Arctic sea ice, which melts partly during each polar summer, has shrunk more this year than in any on record except for 2007, the National Snow and Ice Data Center has found.

Scientists said the data provided more ominous indications that a global warming "tipping point" in the Arctic seems to be happening before their eyes: Sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is now at its second lowest level in about 30 years.

With several weeks left of the melting season, the National Snow and Ice Data Center reported yesterday that sea ice in the Arctic now covers about 2.03 million square miles. The lowest point since satellite measurements began in 1979 was 1.65 million square miles, measured on Sept. 16, 2007. - Washington Times

This makes the global warming argument compelling, but like everything else there is strong evidence form both sides.

Hadron Collider Constructed In Switzerland

Swiss scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) have announced the start-up date for the world's largest particle accelerator which has caused controversy due to the slim possibility the device may create a black hole and destroy the Earth.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which has cost $10 billion, has been constructed under the city of Geneva on the French/Swiss border and is designed to slam together particles of matter to create conditions similar to those that existed shortly after the big bang.

But re-creating the conditions of the big bang has led some to hold fears the LHC could create a variety of doomsday scenarios including spawning many black holes on a micro scale which would join together and expand, rapidly enveloping the Earth and surrounding solar system. - Brisbane Times

Sweet, another waste of money!

NASA's Close Look Of Saturn's Moon's Geysers

Exquisite close-ups of fissures on a tiny frozen moon of Saturn will provide the latest clues in solving the riddle of how a 310-mile-wide ice ball could possibly be shooting geysers of vapor and icy particles.
Since the discovery of the jets in 2005, the moon, Enceladus, has jumped to near the top of the list of potential places for life in the solar system. A warm spot near Enceladus’s south pole powers the jets and may also melt below-surface ice into water, a necessity for living organisms.
On Monday, the NASA spacecraft Cassini made its latest flyby of Enceladus (pronounced en-SELL-ah-dus), passing 30 miles above the moon’s surface at 64,000 miles per hour. - New York Times

A classic example of messing with astronomers.