Let’s get this straight once and for all: Evolution by natural selection is not a theory. It is a fact!
Articles with Research
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A fossilized trilobite preserved in Burgess Shale • Photo by Smith609 (CC BY 2.5)
Accident or destiny?
For the first four billion years of Earth history, life was amebic and microscopic. Then, about 600 million years ago, with surprising swiftness, a myriad of multicellular organisms appear in the fossil record, in what has been called the Cambrian Explosion.
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Prayer of the heart
Last week the New York Times had a front page story on scientific tests of the efficacy of prayer. The gist of the story was that although much energy and money gone into testing the power of prayer, not much has come of it.
A reconstruction of how Ötzi may have appeared in life • South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Chipping away at the iceman mystery
Remember the iceman? A dozen years ago, a couple of hikers found a mummified body in a melting glacier high in the Alps, on the border between Austria and Italy.
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Good evidence makes science we can live with
Critics often complain that science is a closed shop, blindly committed to defending established “dogmas,” and unwilling to entertain ideas that fall outside accepted paradigms. Scientists will circle the wagons around accepted theories like evolution by natural selection, say the critics, and dismiss out-of-hand unorthodox ideas like creationism or homeopathy.
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Only mind knows if placebo works
Placebo Domino in regione vivorum, or “I will please the Lord in the land of the living.” This verse from the Latin Vulgate Bible brought the word placebo into the English language.
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Book celebrates the tree of life
Like all kids, my 18-month-old grandchild, Kate, is a fine taxonomist (one who classifies organisms into categories that reflect natural relationships).
Cedar waxwing • Photo by Patrice Bouchard on Unsplash
Making some sense of cosmic complexity
It was one of those unexpected encounters that brighten a day: a leafless winterberry tree covered with cedar waxwings busily gobbling the scarlet fruit.
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A real cool Jules Verne-like journey
It is a story right out of science fiction. Mysterious Island. Lost World. Journey to the Center of the Earth. Except in this case the story is true.
Skull of Australopithecus africanus • Photo by Emőke Dénes (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Tiny clues, big answers
Who am I? Where did I come from? Why am I here? To ask these questions is to be human.