It’s official, we did not descend from Chimpanzees

Some people still have a huge misunderstanding about evolution. Evolution does not say we came from Chimpanzees or any other modern day monkeys.

The evidence suggests that we and modern monkeys had a common ancestor, which was not a human and also was not a monkey. The confusion, of course, comes from the fact that our common ancestor would have looked like a type of monkey to us. But it wasn’t. Got it?

Gradual changes over huge amounts of time can have amazing results.

Richard Dawkins clears up the misunderstanding of Evolution that is all too common: If we descended from Chimpanzees, then why are there still Chimpanzees? Dawkins explains that we DID NOT descend from Chimpanzees—we both share a common ancestor.

NASA orbiter returns first shots of Apollo moon sites

NASA’s lunar orbiter has returned its first pictures of the Apollo moon landing sites. The images — showing the missions’ lunar module descent stages accented by their shadows from a low sun angle — may at least prove to die-hard conspiracy theorists that NASA went to considerable lengths to relocate its secret movie studio in the Nevada desert.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) was able take pictures of five of the six Apollo sites between July 11 and 15. The yet un-depicted Apollo 12 site is expected to be photographed in coming weeks.

The initial pictures are somewhat lacking in detail because they were taken before the spacecraft reached its final mapping orbit. NASA says future images of the Apollo sites will have two to three times greater resolution

“The LROC team anxiously awaited each image,” said LROC chief investigator Mark Robinson of Arizona State University. “We were very interested in getting our first peek at the lunar module descent stages just for the thrill — and to see how well the cameras had come into focus. Indeed, the images are fantastic and so is the focus.”

NASA explains that LRO’s elliptical orbit made the image resolution for each site slightly different but were all around four feet per pixel. With the deck of the Apollo decent stage at about 12 feet in diameter, they fill a total of about nine pixels. But because the sun was low to the horizon at the time, small variations to the Moon’s topography create long shadows, allowing the relics to better stand out.

The Apollo 14 landing site had particularly advantageous lighting conditions at the time, allowing details such as the astronaut footpath between the module and instrument package to be visible.

To view the complete collection of the first Apollo landing site images, check here or here.

via NASA orbiter returns first shots of Apollo moon sites • The Register.

Pretty cool… although there are some people who feel we should not be leaving footprints and other junk on the moon. I’d like to see the high resolution images. How is the moon buggy doing, for example?

Four lunar rovers were built, one each for Apollo missions 15, 16, and 17 , and one that was used for spare parts after the cancellation of further Apollo missions. – wiki

Here are some nifty shots from the moon of Apollo 17.  Image 1: Apollo 17 ascent stage blasts off from the Moon. Image 2: Apollo 17 descent stage patiently awaiting a return visit [NASA].

How do scientists decide which animal genome to sequence next? – By Christopher Beam – Slate Magazine

In the July 16 issue of Nature, genetic researchers announced that they had finished sequencing the genomes of two species of parasitic flatworms that cause the disease known as snail fever. The flatworm is just the latest in an expanding list of sequenced genomes that now includes the human, the fruit fly, the mouse, the cat, the duck-billed platypus, various bacteria, and hundreds of other species. How do scientists decide which genome to sequence next?

They follow the money. The National Institutes of Health, which helps fund at least half of the nation’s genome-sequencing research, regularly receives project proposals from scientists. In a white paper, researchers explain why they want a particular organism sequenced—why it’s useful, what they hope to learn, etc.  …

If you have enough money, you can always fund your own sequencing. But the vast majority of funding comes from government agencies.  …

How much does sequencing cost? The original Human Genome Project cost $300 million and took more than a decade. But that project established a template that made every subsequent undertaking quicker. These days, you can get a complete individual human genome sequenced for about $50,000. (That doesn’t include the fixed costs of the sequencing machine, lab space, etc.) But that cost is plummeting. One independent company will sequence part of your genome—usually the parts related to particular genetic diseases—for $5,000. And some genetic scientists predict that sequencing an entire genome will soon cost $1,000 and take 20 minutes.

via How do scientists decide which animal genome to sequence next? – By Christopher Beam – Slate Magazine.

First Moon Landing video: 2,534,057 views. Moon Landing Hoax Wires Footage: 1,740,604 views

The Genesis enigma: How DID the Bible describe the evolution of life 3,000 years before Darwin?

On the fourth day, Genesis famously becomes confusing. On the first day, remember, God has already created light, and made Day and Night. But it isn’t until day four that he makes the lights in heaven, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser the night.

Hang on – so he made ‘Day’ three days before he made the Sun? Houston, I think we have a problem.

Yet the writers of Genesis were just as well aware as us, surely, that the sunrise causes the day. You don’t need a degree in astronomy to work that one out. What on earth did they mean?

Here, The Genesis Enigma comes up with a stunningly ingenious answer. For Parker argues that day four refers to the evolution of vision.

Until the first creatures on earth evolved eyes, in a sense, the sun and moon didn’t exist. There was no creature on earth to see them, nor the light they cast.

When Genesis says: ‘Let there be lights… To divide the day from the night,’ it is talking about eyes.

‘The very first eye on earth effectively turned on the lights for animal behaviour,’ writes Professor Parker, ‘and consequently for further rapid evolution.’

Almost overnight, life suddenly grew vastly more complex. Predators were able to hunt far more efficiently, and so prey had to evolve fast too – or get eaten.

The moment that there were ‘lights’, or eyes, then life exploded into all its infinite variety.

And yet again, that’s what Genesis says happened, and in the correct environment too. In the sea.

For on the very next day of Creation, the fifth day: ‘God said, “Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life.”‘

That is exactly what happened. Life that had hitherto been lived in the dark, by simple, slow-moving, worm-like creatures, erupted into dazzling diversity. We know all about it from the world famous Burgess Shale fossils.

They were discovered in the summer of 1909 by one Charles Doolittle Walcott, on holiday with his family in the Canadian Rockies. Walcott began to chip away at the shale with his geological hammer, and quite by chance stumbled upon one of the greatest finds in all science.

For the shale records what happened on our planet around 508 million years ago, long before the first dinosaurs: the ‘Cambrian expolosion,’ which most scientists now think was indeed the direct result of the evolution of vision.

The life-forms discovered look like nothing else: fabulous, phantasmagoric, alien beings. One had five eyes, and a long wavy snout with jaws on the end. Another looked like an octopus with its head stuck in a beaker, and another can only be described as ‘a swimming pea with a pair of beady eyes, bull’s horns, a pair of “hands” and a fish’s tail.’

Others resemble balls of spines, vase-shaped pin-cushions, or badminton shuttlecocks with chameleon-like tongues. Anyone who doubts the power of evolution by natural selection only has to look at the Burgess Shale fossils.

How does Genesis describe the teeming aquatic life of the Cambrian explosion? ‘And God said, “Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life.” ‘ Immediately following the creation of vision.

via The Genesis enigma: How DID the Bible describe the evolution of life 3,000 years before Darwin? | Mail Online.

Nice try, but this ignores a number of things, including the pre-Genesis writings which evolved into the Genesis story.

Children traumatised by ‘War of Worlds’ abduction of teacher

The 370 children at Southway Junior School, in Burgess Hill, west Sussex, saw a ’spaceship’ crash near their school and then aliens grabbed a member of staff as part of the performance.

The ‘alien invasion’ show, which was supported by Sussex Police, took place without parents being informed, leaving some furious that they had to comfort their terrified children.

The event was designed to “develop youngsters writing skills” and fire their imagination – but some children were left traumatised by the show.

Southway School admitted that a number of parents complained after their children returned home in a “state of shock”.

Youngsters had to be reassured that the abducted member of staff was safe and well after he was carted off by the aliens.

Police contributed to the invasion by providing sirens and flashing blue lights to signify the landing of the craft just before morning classes on July 10.

Diana Goss, the headteacher, informed pupils that an alien craft had crashed near the school and pupils were encouraged to “follow a trail of debris” before stumbling across the UFO.

A member of staff was then abducted by aliens before the children were sent back to class.

One parent, who did not want to be named, said he daughter had come home in tears.

She said: “God only knows what the school was playing at.

“I mean to shock children into thinking that the aliens have landed and have abducted a teacher is just a little too much for seven-year-olds.

“My daughter was deeply upset by it all and came home looking shell shocked.

“She wasn’t sure what had happened and really wanted to know that everything was going to be alright.”

Another parent said: “By all accounts it sounds like something out of that film Mars Attacks or War of the Worlds. I don’t know what the school was thinking.” …

via Children traumatised by ‘War of Worlds’ abduction of teacher – Telegraph.

Perhaps the school was attempting to teach critical thinking, which is not at all a bad idea considering the fact that they will grow up in a world full of hoaxes.

A Lightning Bolt Hits Water, So Close You Can See Its Streamers

It’s pictures like these that make me a) want to do more photography, b) feel more in awe of nature than I already am, and c) wonder how the photographer didn’t pack up his gear and run away screaming. But thank goodness the talented storm chasers didn’t run away, they actually witnessed a very rare event, up close.

This astounding image was shot by photographers Francis Schaefers and Daniel Burger when they were chasing a thunderstorm along a beach in Vlissingen, the Netherlands. Chasing a storm along a beach. The best bit of the SpaceWeather.com article comes right at the end, where it says that Schaefers and Burger took a series of shots from “underneath a balcony where they figured the lightning wouldn’t reach.”

Let me emphasise that last bit: underneath a balcony.

Balls of steel comes to mind. For me, nothing less than a reinforced bunker surrounded by lightning rods will do.

Anyway, back to why this image is so fantastic. When lightning strikes the ground, if you are able to get the timing perfect, you might be able to capture ‘upward streamers’ rising from the ground to meet the leading edge of the bolt, as NASA lightning expert Richard Blakeslee explains:

It’s hard to imagine if this streamer phenomenon has been observed to reach out from water before, but this Dutch example must be very rare. It’s hard enough to photograph lightning streamers on solid ground, let alone on the surface of a body of water.

In case you weren’t already amazed, check out this shot. It’s called The Cruise You Don’t Want to Take for very obvious reasons:

via A Lightning Bolt Hits Water, So Close You Can See Its Streamers | Astroengine.com.

Barack Obama to be asked not to extradite UFO hacker Gary McKinnon

Barack Obama is to receive a personal plea from peers, MPs and mental health experts to halt the extradition of a British computer hacker who suffers from a form of autism.

Campaigners will call on the US president to let Gary McKinnon face trial in his home country for breaking into Nasa and Pentagon networks, rather than sending him to America where he could be jailed for up to 60 years in a high-security prison. They will say that the 43 year-old has Asperger syndrome – a type of autism that makes him shy and prone to obsessive behaviour – and warn that his condition would likely deteriorate were he to be taken away from his home and family then jailed abroad.

The letter is being written by the National Autistic Society, a leading charity, and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Autism, a cross-party alliance of MPs and peers that lobbies for better support for sufferers. A spokesman for the society said: “The group are intending to write to Barack Obama. ”The letter hasn’t been drafted yet but it will be finalised in the next couple of days. It may involve asking MPs for signatures.”

David Burrowes, Mr McKinnon’s local MP in Enfield Southgate, said: “We need to take it further and call upon Barack Obama himself to take action as the pleas have fallen on deaf ears so far.” Chris Grayling, the shadow home secretary, added: “I think it would be a good idea. I hope that even if the UK authorities feel unable to look again at the case, if it was legally possible for the US to do so, that would be a sensible position to take.”

Mr McKinnon admits that he hacked into 97 US computers from a bedroom in north London between 2001 and 2002 and left a message on one machine saying: “I will continue to disrupt at the highest levels.” He says he was looking for evidence to show that the authorities have covered up the existence of UFOs.

via Barack Obama to be asked not to extradite UFO hacker Gary McKinnon « Derren Brown Blog.

How a Briton launched the space race in the 1640s

Forget Sputnik and Apollo 11 – the space race really began almost 400 years ago, according to an academic.

John Wilkins, a British inventor, drew up plans in the 1640s to send a manned wooden ‘chariot’ to the Moon propelled by gunpowder, feather wings and springs.

Convinced the Moon was inhabited by a race of people called the Selenites, he was determined to visit them to set up trade links.

Records show that Wilkins, who was Oliver Cromwell’s brother-in-law, experimented with flying machines in the gardens of Wadham College, Oxford, around 1654.

Allan Chapman, an academic based at the college, claims Wilkins should be acknowledged for establishing the ‘Jacobean space programme’.

‘His ingenuity was enormous,’ he said. ‘He saw his flying chariot as being the space version of Drake’s, Raleigh’s and Magellan’s ships.

‘This was a honeymoon period of British science. The vacuum had not yet been discovered. In 1640, flying to the Moon was a heroic possibility.’

Wilkins, who was initially a vicar on the Northamptonshire village of Fawsley, before becoming warden of Wadham College, Oxford, outlined his theories in ‘A Worlde in the Moone’.

Discussing his belief that the moon was inhabited, Wilkins said: ‘I must needs confesse, though I had often thought with my selfe that it was possible there might be a world in the Moone, yet it seemed such an uncouth opinion that I never durst discover it, for feare of being counted singular and ridiculous.

‘But afterward having read Plutarch, Galilæus, Keplar, with some others, and finding many of mine owne thoughts confirmed by such strong authority, I then concluded that it was not onely possible there might bee, but probable that there was another habitable world in that Planet.’

He proposed many theories, or ‘prepositions’, including the moon had no light of its own, instead reflecting sunlight.

Some were later proved wrong, including that the celestial body had seas and an atmosphere.

Wilkins is the only person to have headed a college at both the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge.

He is also credited with designing the first airgun, a mileage recorder, a prototype for the pneumatic tyre and a ‘rainbow machine’.

By 1670, scientists knew a Moon landing was way off.

‘They’d made so many discoveries in physics and astronomy in 30 years that they could see that flying to the Moon was not on,’ said Dr Chapman.

As it turned out, Wilkins was a little over 300 years ahead of his time – Apollo 11 landed on the Moon in 1969 – an anniversary celebrated on Monday.

via How a Briton launched the space race in the 1640s | Mail Online.

I would not be surprised if the idea of flying to the moon goes back much farther than the 1640s.

Was ancient Earth a green planet?

Earth’s landmasses in the late Precambrian probably weren’t pleasant, but at least they were green. A new analysis of limestone rocks laid down between 1 billion and 500 million years ago suggests that there was extensive plant life on land much earlier than previously thought.

The plants were only tiny mosses and liverworts, but they would have had a profound effect on the planet. They turned the hitherto barren Earth green, created the first soils and pumped oxygen into the atmosphere, laying the foundations for animals to evolve in the Cambrian explosion that started 542 million years ago.

It was already known from genetic evidence that mosses and liverworts probably evolved around 700 million years ago, but up till now there was little sign that they had colonised land to any great extent. The assumption was that terrestrial life consisted of patchy bacterial mats and “algal scum” until the mid-Ordovician, 475 million years ago, when land was first invaded by modern-looking vascular plants.

Paul Knauth of Arizona State University and Martin Kennedy of the University of California, Riverside, examined the chemical composition of all known limestones dating from the Neoproterozoic era, which stretched from 1 billion years ago up to the start of the Cambrian. Knauth says the balance of carbon-12 to oxygen-18 in the limestones is “screaming” that they were laid down in shallow seas that received extensive rainwater run-off from a land surface thick with vegetation.

via Was ancient Earth a green planet? – environment – 08 July 2009 – New Scientist.