Judge rules against 'intelligent design' in class

Good news.

"Judge rules against 'intelligent design' in class."By By Kurt Kleiner. NewScientist.com news, 20 Dec 2005.

"Pennsylvania science teachers will not be forced to advocate "intelligent design" after a judge ruled that that the theory is really religion in disguise.

Judge John Jones of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania ruled that intelligent design - which bills itself as a scientific theory and states that life shows signs of being the work of an intelligent designer - is in fact reworked creationism...

...Jones also said that language in the school board statement that evolution is only a "theory" is misleading. It confuses the scientific and colloquial meanings of "theory". And by singling out evolution from all other scientific theories it suggests that there is some special doubt about the truth of evolution.

The judge stated that intelligent design cannot be considered science for a number of reasons. By depending on a supernatural cause it violates the basic ground rules of science that have been in place since the 16th century.

He also found that intelligent design relies on the "false dualism" that if evolution can be disproven, then intelligent design is proven. In any case, he found that intelligent design's criticisms of evolution have been largely refuted."

Read the complete article by Kurt Kleiner at New Scientist News.


See also "unconstitutional to teach ID as an alternative to evolution in a public school science classroom." By PZ Myers. Pharyngula, 20 Dec 2005. He features more of Judge Jones decision, including this:

"To be sure, Darwin's theory of evolution is imperfect. However, the fact that a scientific theory cannot yet render an explanation on every point should not be used as a pretext to thrust an untestable alternative hypothesis grounded in religion into the science classroom or to misrepresent well-established scientific propositions.

The citizens of the Dover area were poorly served by the members of the Board who voted for the ID Policy. It is ironic that several of these individuals, who so staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions in public, would time and again lie to cover their tracks and disguise the real purpose behind the ID Policy."


Related links:

"Kansas backs intelligent design in science lessons." By Gaia Vince. NewScientist.com news, 09 Nov 2005.

Ironically, see "BREAKTHROUGH OF THE YEAR: Evolution in Action." By Elizabeth Culotta and Elizabeth Pennisi. Science, 310 (5756): 1878 - 1879, 23 December 2005. DOI: 10.1126/science.310.5756.1878. Hat tip to Pharyngula.

First Observation of Tool Use in Wild Gorilla

Breuer T, Ndoundou-Hockemba M, Fishlock V (2005) First Observation of Tool Use in Wild Gorillas. PLoS Biol 3(11): e380
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0030380

Abstract - Descriptions of novel tool use by great apes in response to different circumstances aids us in understanding the factors favoring the evolution of tool use in humans. This paper documents what we believe to be the first two observations of tool use in wild western gorillas (Gorilla gorilla).

We first observed an adult female gorilla using a branch as a walking stick to test water deepness and to aid in her attempt to cross a pool of water at Mbeli Bai, a swampy forest clearing in northern Congo. In the second case we saw another adult female using a detached trunk from a small shrub as a stabilizer during food processing. She then used the trunk as a self-made bridge to cross a deep patch of swamp.

In contrast to information from other great apes, which mostly show tool use in the context of food extraction, our observations show that in gorillas other factors such as habitat type can stimulate the use of tools.

PLOS Biology

Cicada Moult

174sbaw-04dec2005.JPG
Originally uploaded by habitatnews.

Cicada moult on t-shirt. The mangrove is filled with the cry of cicadas.

Read abut moults on Ubin and Labrador.

Human health under threat from ecosystem degradation

Human health under threat from ecosystem degradation

Threats particularly acute in poorer countries

Excerpt:

"9 DECEMBER 2005 | BANGKOK/GENEVA -- The World Health Organization (WHO) is publishing a report, Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Health Synthesis, which represents an attempt to describe the complex links between the preservation of healthy and biodiverse natural ecosystems and human health.

"Over the past 50 years, humans have changed natural ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in any comparable period in human history," said Dr LEE Jong-wook, Director-General of the World Health Organization. "This transformation of the planet has contributed to substantial net gains in health, well-being and economic development. But not all regions and groups of people have benefited equally from this process."

Approximately 60% of the benefits that the global ecosystem provides to support life on Earth (such as fresh water, clean air and a relatively stable climate) are being degraded or used unsustainably. In the report, scientists warn that harmful consequences of this degradation to human health are already being felt and could grow significantly worse over the next 50 years."

Guns Germs And Steel

What a coincidence, I was just reading about how major diseases faced by humans are contracted due to close association with domesticated animals. Ever since certain animals are domesticated, their inclusion into our lives are a mixed blessing, on one hand they guarantee a source of food, security and companionship. On the other, they also transmit a host of diseases which could explode into epidemics.

A list of some human diseases and their sources
Measles - Cattle (rinderpest)
Tuberculosis - Cattle
Smallpox - Cattle(cowpox or other livestock with related pox viruses)
Flu - pigs and ducks (think avian flu)
Pertussis - pigs, dogs
Falciparum malaria - birds

These diseases thrive best in a human population that is sufficiently large and concentrated (which is a characteristic of a farming society.
In fact, Jared Diamond proposed that major diseases associated with dense populations and domesticated animals have a crucial role to play in history. These diseases have wiped out large numbers of native Americans who had no previous exposure (and thus no immunity) and allowed an easier conquest by the Europeans. For example, in 1520, an infected slave carrying small pox wiped out almost 50% of the Aztecs in Mexico. This paved the way for an easy conquest of the Aztecs by the Spaniards. By 1618, Mexcio’s initial population of 20 million had plummeted to 1.6 million. And small pox was a disease transmitted to humans via cattle.

See Jared Diamond's Guns Germs and Steel

"Fruit bats as reservoirs for Ebola virus"

Fruit bats - a reservoir for the Ebola virus

The deadly Ebola virus strikes human populations sporadically, so where does it come from, or rather where does it spend the rest of its time in, since its a virus and requires a host? Scientists recently report in Nature that "Fruit bats as reservoirs of Ebola virus" and that "bat species eaten by people in central Africa show evidence of symptomless Ebola infection." This conclusion is based on tests done in over a thousand small invertebrates close to where carcasses of apes killed by Ebola were found, within days of their deaths.

Now, what other viral host candidates exists for other diseases?

I was talking to Siva over the phone about mangroves when he mentioned the picture on the frontcover of "A guide to the Mangroves of Singapore II" which actually has a mosquito clearly filling its abdomen with the blood off the back of the mudskipper. He was chest-deep in water when the shot was taken.

An image from the Mangrove website:

References

Leroy, E. M., B. Kumulungui, X. Pourrut, P. Rouquet, A. Hassanin, P. Yaba, A. Delicat, J. T. Paweska, J.-P. Gonzalez & R. Swanepoel, 2005. Fruit bats as reservoirs of Ebola virus. Nature, 438: 575. doi:10.1038/438575a Bat species eaten by people in central Africa show evidence of symptomless Ebola infection.
"Fruit bats may harbour deadly Ebola.". By Debora MacKenzie. NewScientist.com news service, 30 Nov 2005.