Yesterday I blogged about how the National Park Service is selling a young-Earth creationist book about the Grand Canyon in its stores. Today the Washington Post wrote an article on the subject. It contains a response from the National Park Service, which I find pretty unbelievable. They claim that they are in fact reviewing the matter. The review was supposed to be done in February, but it’s been delayed while lawyers at the Interior and Justice Departments “tackle the issue.” No deadline is set for the decision, and the book will continue to be sold until one is made.

Continue reading “Further Adventures in Geological Cowardice” →

David Appell points to some depressing news about how our government deals with science.

Continue reading “Ignorance For Sale, Thanks To Your Tax Dollars” →

A lot of readers have commented on my recent post about a study that suggests we all share a common ancestor who lived 2,300 years ago. Some people doubted that isolated groups could share such a recent ancestry.

Continue reading “More on Common Ancestors” →

In March, I wrote a post on some tantalizing new findings about the secrets of human evolution lurking in our genome. In brief, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania studied a gene called MYH16 that helps build jaw muscles in primates. In our own lineage, the gene has mutated and is no longer active in jaw muscles. Perhaps not coincidentally, we have much smaller, weaker jaws than other apes. The researchers estimated that the gene shut down around 2.4 million years ago–right around the time when hominid brains began to expand. They suggested that shrinking jaw muscles opened up room in the hominid head for a larger brain.

Continue reading “Biting the Dust” →

Contempt is never wise in biology. The creature that you look down on as lowly, degenerate, or disgusting may actually turn out to be sophisticated, successful, and–in some cases–waiting to tell you a lot about yourself. That’s certainly the case for lice.

Continue reading “If These Lice Could Talk” →