Creationism in Crisis - Jumping Jehosaphat! It's Giant Kangaroos 30,000 Years Before 'Creation Week'!

Protemnodon viator

Impression of South-eastern South Australia during the Pleistocene
(~500 thousand years ago)

Peter Schouten

We found three new species of extinct giant kangaroo – and we don’t know why they died out when their cousins survived

Archaeologists have re-assesses the fossils of giant kangaroos that lived in the Pleistocene along with other megafauna such as giant goannas (an Australian lizard) or Megalania, Varanus priscus, that grew to 4 meters (about 13 feet) long and went extinct about 40,000 years ago along with much of the megafauna. One of these kangaroos, the short-faced kangaroo Procoptodon goliah grew to three metres (9.5 feet) and probably weighed over 250 kilograms (about 550 lbs).

Why these large animals went extinct and what part if any the arrival of Homo sapiens played any part in it is a matter of debate, but what is not a matter for debate is whether or not they existed and when. Their discovery is explained by Isaac A. R. Kerr, a Research Assistant in the Palaeontology Laboratory, Flinders University, Australia in an open access article in The Conversation. His article is reprinted here, reformatted for stylistic consistency, under a Creative Commons license:

How Science Works - Tracking How Great Tits In An Oxfordshire Wood Are Responding To Climate Change

Wytham Wood, Oxfordshire, UK

Early morning, Wytham Wood

The great tits in this Oxford wood are adapting their breeding times as climate changes – here’s how

This article caught my eye because it concerns the birds in a wood which is local to me - Wytham Wood, near Oxford, to which I have licensed access. This is reputedly the most intensively studied area of woodland in the world, belonging, as it does, to Oxford University.

Wytham Woods form an iconic location that has been the subject of continuous ecological research programmes, many dating back to the 1940s. The estate has been owned and maintained by the University of Oxford since 1942. The Woods are often quoted as being one of the most researched pieces of woodland in the world, and their 1000 acres are designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

The wooded parts of the Wytham Estate comprise ancient semi-natural woodland (dating to the last Ice Age), secondary woodland (dating to the seventeenth century), and modern plantations (1950s and 60s). The fourth key habitat is the limestone grassland found at the top of the hill. Other smaller habitats include a valley-side mire and a series of ponds.

The site is exceptionally rich in flora and fauna, with over 500 species of plants, a wealth of woodland habitats, and 800 species of butterflies and moths.

https://www.wythamwoods.ox.ac.uk/

Through intensive observation over successive years, researchers are able to measure changes in behaviour of species such as the Great Tit, Parus major with some of the best examples of observational biology in the form of research papers. For example, a few years ago a team of researchers showed that the British race of Great tits were diverging from their European relatives with changes in the beaks probably reflecting the fact that we in Britain provide feeding stations for birds to sustain them through the winter much more frequently than other Europeans, so the British Great tits are evolving so they can get the food in the bird feeders in British gardens.

In the following article, ecologist, David López Idiáquez, a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Behavioural and Evolutionary Ecology, University of Oxford, explains how their research is measuring how Great tits are responding to climate change. His article is reprinted here from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license, reformatted for stylistic consistency, with photographs from Internet sources:

Creationism in Crisis - When Earth Was Flooded, According To Creationist Mythology, Australian Aboriginal People Were Making Pots And Campfires And Sailing To Pacific Islands

View across excavation to Blue Lagoon and reef flat.

Photograph: Ian J. McNiven.

Aboriginal people made pottery and sailed to distant offshore islands thousands of years before Europeans arrived

Sometimes you wonder whether creationists ever stop to think whether what they believe is rational, then you realise that most of them are from America where parochial ignorance and cultural chauvinism are the norm. They can believe, for example, that a global flood which left ancient cultures intact and their artifacts just where they left them, and which failed to lay down the predictable global layer of sediment full of jumbled fossils was still a global flood because er... Grand Canyon.

So, news that Australian archaeologists have unearthed potshards from 6,500 years ago in a shell midden which can be accurately dated (unlike potshards), will almost certainly pass unnoticed by the majority of American creationists.

But for those few who are interested in the truth, here is an article by Sean Ulm Sean Ulm, Director, ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous and Environmental Histories and Futures, James Cook University, Ian J. McNiven, Professor of Indigenous Archaeology; Chief Investigator, ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity & Heritage, Monash University and Kenneth McLean, Director, Walmbaar Aboriginal Corporation, Indigenous Knowledge describing how they found this evidence. Their article is reprinted here under a Creative Commons license, reformatted for stylistic consistency:

Creationism in Crisis - How Multicellularity Evolved - With New Genetic Information

Brown Algae

Evolved within past 200,000 years

Green Alaga, Stigeoclonium sp.

Via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Macroalgal deep genomics illuminate multiple paths to aquatic, photosynthetic multicellularity: Molecular Plant

What are the main types of algae and how do they differ? Algae are classified into several main groups based on their characteristics, including pigmentation, cellular structure, and mode of reproduction. The main types of algae include:

1. Diatoms (Bacillariophyta):
   • Diatoms are single-celled algae characterized by their unique glass-like silica cell walls called frustules.
   • They are typically found in freshwater and marine environments.
   • Diatoms are important primary producers and play a significant role in the global carbon cycle.
2. Green Algae (Chlorophyta):
   • Green algae encompass a diverse group of algae that are mostly freshwater but also found in marine and terrestrial environments.
   • They contain chlorophyll a and b, giving them a green color, similar to land plants.
   • Green algae can be unicellular, colonial, filamentous, or multicellular, with a wide range of morphologies.
3. Red Algae (Rhodophyta):
   • Red algae are predominantly marine algae, although some species can also be found in freshwater.
   • They contain pigments like chlorophyll a and various accessory pigments, including phycobiliproteins, giving them shades of red, pink, or purple.
   • Red algae often have complex multicellular structures and are important contributors to coral reef ecosystems.
4. Brown Algae (Phaeophyta):
   • Brown algae are primarily marine algae, commonly found in cold-water habitats.
   • They contain chlorophyll a and c, along with fucoxanthin, which gives them their characteristic brown color.
   • Brown algae can range from small filamentous forms to large, complex seaweeds like kelps.
5. Blue-Green Algae (Cyanobacteria or Cyanophyta):
   • Despite being called algae, cyanobacteria are actually prokaryotic organisms, classified within the domain Bacteria.
   • They are photosynthetic and often form colonies or filaments.
   • Cyanobacteria can be found in diverse habitats, including freshwater, marine environments, soil, and even extreme environments like hot springs.
   • Some cyanobacteria can produce toxins under certain conditions, leading to harmful algal blooms (HABs) and posing risks to aquatic life and human health.

These main types of algae differ in their pigmentation, cellular structure, habitat preferences, and ecological roles. While some are beneficial and essential for ecosystem health, others can become problematic under certain conditions, such as nutrient pollution or climate change. Understanding the characteristics and ecological functions of different types of algae is crucial for managing and conserving aquatic ecosystems.

Today’s refutation of creationists dogma comes in the form of an open access paper just published in the Cell Press journal, Molecular Plant. Research biologists have revealed how multicellularity evolved several times independently in algae, and how many of the new genes were acquired initially by viruses.

This gives the lie to creationist claims that new information can't arise in the genome because of some half-baked confusion of information with energy and a nonsensical assumption that new genetic information would need to come from nothing.

And of course, like about 99.99% of the history of life on Earth, it all happened in that very long period of pre-'Creation Week' history between Earth forming in an accretion disc around the sun and creationism's little god creating a small flat planet with a dome over it in the Middle East out of nothing, according to creationist mythology

In information provided by Cell Press ahead of publication, the scientists at New York Abu Dhabi University and Technology Innovation Institute, United Arab Emirates, said:

A deep dive into macroalgae genetics has uncovered the genetic underpinnings that enabled macroalgae, or "seaweed," to evolve multicellularity. Three lineages of macroalgae developed multicellularity independently and during very different time periods by acquiring genes that enable cell adhesion, extracellular matrix formation, and cell differentiation, researchers report April 12 in the journal Molecular Plant. Surprisingly, many of these multicellular-enabling genes had viral origins. The study, which increased the total number of sequenced macroalgal genomes from 14 to 124, is the first to investigate macroalgal evolution through the lens of genomics.

This is a big genomic resource that will open the door for many more studies. Macroalgae play an important role in global climate regulation and ecosystems, and they have numerous commercial and ecoengineering applications, but until now, there wasn't a lot of information about their genomes.

Alexandra Mystikou, co-first author
Division of Science and Math
New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Macroalgae live in both fresh and seawater and are complex multicellular organisms with distinct organs and tissues, in contrast to microalgae, which are microscopic and unicellular.

There are three main groups of macroalgae -- red (Rhodophyta), green (Chlorophyta), and brown (Ochrophyta) -- that independently evolved multicellularity at very different times and in very different environmental conditions.

Rhodophytes and Chlorophytes both evolved multicellularity over a billion years ago, while Ochrophytes only became multicellular in the past 200,000 years.

To investigate the evolution of macroalgal multicellularity, the researchers sequenced 110 new macroalgal genomes from 105 different species originating from fresh and saltwater habitats in diverse geographies and climates.

The researchers identified several metabolic pathways that distinguish macroalgae from microalgae, some of which may be responsible for the success of invasive macroalgal species.

Many of these metabolic genes appear to have been donated by algae-infecting viruses, and genes with a viral origin were especially prevalent in the more recently evolved brown algae.

They found that macroalgae acquired many new genes that are not present in microalgae on their road to multicellularity.

For all three lineages, key acquisitions included genes involved in cell adhesion (which enables cells to stick together), cell differentiation (which allows different cells to develop specialized functions), cell communication, and inter-cellular transport.

Many brown algal genes associated with multicellular functions had signature motifs that were only otherwise present in the viruses that infect them. It's kind of a wild theory that's only been hinted at in the past, but from our data it looks like these horizontally transferred genes were critical factors for evolving multicellularity in the brown algae.

David Nelson, co-first author
Division of Science and Math
New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Creationism in Crisis - Another Mystery Solved By Science - Giant Ichthyosaurs From 250 Million Years Before 'Creation Week'

A reconstruction of a gigantic ichthyosaur - floating dead on the surface of the ocean.

© Image: Marcello Perillo/University of Bonn

Do some mysterious bones belong to gigantic ichthyosaurs? — University of Bonn

The thing about disagreements in science is that they aren't used as an excuse for persecution and schism, based on the notion that the side with the most power or the most followers wins as though truth can be determined by violence or opinion polls. In science, disagreements lead to discovery because in scientific debate the fact are, or should be, neutral, so they can referee the debate. The side with the evidence wins and the losers graciously accept that they were wrong.

This is the case of the long-standing disagreement in palaeontology over the mystery of giant bones which regularly turn up in deposits on Europe, which were first discovered in 1850 by the British naturalist Samuel Stutchbury, who reported finding a large cylindrical bone in Aust Cliff, near Bristol, UK. Similar fossils have also been found at sites around Europe, including Bonenburg in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany and Provence, France. Stutchbury assumed they were from an extinct crocodile-like land animal, labyrinthodontia, but others disagreed. Other candidates were long-necked sauropods and an as yet unidentified, large dinosaur.

Not the mystery may have been solved by two palaeontologists working at the University of Bonn, Germany. They have published their findings, open access, in the journal PeerJ and explain it in a Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität Bonn news release:

Creationism in Crisis - How An Early Jawless Fish Was Feeding - About 400 Million Years Before 'Creation Week'

Rhinopteraspis dunensis

Artistic reconstruction - via Wikipedia

Fossil of Rhinopteraspis dunensis

Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, Germany

3D mouth of an ancient jawless fish suggests they were filter-feeders, not scavengers or hunters - University of Birmingham

Today's incidental refutation of creationism comes to us from an international team of palaeontologists led by scientists from the University of Birmingham. They have shown how an early jawless fish was feeding, almost 400 million years before creationism's little pet god decided to create a small flat planet with a dome over it in the Middle East, in what creationists refer to as 'Creation Week'.

The researchers have used CT scanning techniques to construct a 3D image of the mouth-parts of Rhinopteraspis dunensis, an early, heavily-armoured boney fish that lived some 380 million years ago.

Creationism in Crisis - News Structure Evolved in Just 36 Years - 'Macro-Evolution' in Progress

Italian Wall Lizard, Podarcis sicula

Italian Wall Lizard, Podarcis sicula

Rapid large-scale evolutionary divergence in morphology and performance associated with exploitation of a different dietary resource | PNAS

Because of the regularity with which creationists demand evidence of 'macro-evolution' claiming that it has never been observed, I had decided to repost an expanded version of this article I originally wrote in 1918, to include more of the scientific evidence reported in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS).

It's another one of those 'non-existent' things that creationists must dread being shown.

No. This time it's not yet another of those 'missing' transitional fossils or intermediate forms. This time it's yet another example of something else 'impossible' and 'never observed'. It's yet another example of observed rapid evolution, including the evolution of new structures.

Creationism in Crisis - How A Complex Organ Evolved Naturally

Spotted dolphins, Stenella frontalis

Toothed whale echolocation organs evolved from jaw muscles | Hokkaido University

There is nothing a creationist fraud likes more than an organ or process that can be presented as 'irreducibly complex' because it will only work if all components are present and in the right place. They can sell this to their dupes as an example of something they claim couldn't have evolved gradually because it only works when all components are assembled, with no functional intermediate stages, so it must have been 'intelligently designed' - by the locally-popular god, obviously.

Creationist guru Michael J Behe, used the example of the E. coli flagellum for that purpose, confident that his target dupes would not be aware that almost all the components of the proton motor were present in the Type III secretory system and only needed a few minor changes to function as a hugely advantageous organ of motility. The process of exaptation of redundant structures is quite sufficient to explain how 'irreducibly complex' structures can evolve.

What are the current theories of how the Escherichia coli flagella evolved? The evolution of Escherichia coli flagella is a subject of ongoing research and debate among biologists. While there isn't a single universally accepted theory, there are several hypotheses and models proposed to explain the evolution of bacterial flagella, including:

1. Co-option Hypothesis: This hypothesis suggests that the flagellum evolved from pre-existing structures that were repurposed for motility. Some researchers propose that the flagellum shares ancestry with the Type III secretion system (T3SS), a needle-like structure used by bacteria to inject toxins or other proteins into host cells. According to this hypothesis, mutations and selective pressures led to the transformation of T3SS components into flagellar components.
2. Selective Advantage Hypothesis: This hypothesis proposes that the early ancestors of bacteria acquired flagella as a means of enhancing their ability to move towards favorable environments or away from harmful ones. The ability to move towards nutrient-rich areas or away from toxic substances would have provided a significant selective advantage, leading to the evolution and refinement of flagellar structures over time.
3. Genomic Evidence: Comparative genomics studies have provided insights into the evolution of flagella by examining the genetic sequences of various bacterial species. By analyzing similarities and differences in flagellar genes across different organisms, researchers can infer evolutionary relationships and trace the origins of flagellar components.
4. Modular Evolution: Some researchers propose that the flagellum evolved through a process of modular evolution, where individual components or substructures of the flagellum evolved independently before being integrated into a functional motility apparatus. This model suggests that the flagellum may have originated from the sequential addition and modification of simpler structures, such as proto-flagella or pili.
5. Evolutionary Intermediates: Studying the flagella of diverse bacterial species can provide insights into the evolutionary intermediates that may have existed during the transition from non-motile to motile forms. By identifying and characterizing these intermediates, researchers can gain a better understanding of the stepwise process by which flagella evolved.

Overall, while there is still much to learn about the precise evolutionary history of E. coli flagella, ongoing research efforts continue to refine our understanding of how these remarkable structures originated and diversified over time.

Just such an example of exaptation of redundant structures has just been revealed by researchers working Hokkaido University, Japan, who have shown that the complex echolocation system used by the toothed whales such as dolphins and orcas evolved out of the muscles and jaw bones that had previously been used to chew food but were redundant due to evolutionary changes which meant the whales swallowed their food whole.

The team have published their findings in the journal Gene. It is explained in a Hokkaido University news release: Toothed whale echolocation organs evolved from jaw muscles

Genetic analysis finds evidence suggesting that acoustic fat bodies in the heads of toothed whales were once the muscles and bone marrow of the jaw.

Toothed whale echolocation organs evolved from jaw muscles

Genetic analysis finds evidence suggesting that acoustic fat bodies in the heads of toothed whales were once the muscles and bone marrow of the jaw.

Illustration of the body plan of a toothed whale, with a cross section of the head showing the melon (dark yellow) and the extramandibular fat bodies (light yellow) which are key organs for using sound such as echolocation.

Hayate Takeuchi, Takashi Fritz Matsuishi, Takashi Hayakawa. Gene. January 20, 2024

Dolphins and whales use sound to communicate, navigate and hunt. New research suggests that the collections of fatty tissue that enable toothed whales to do so may have evolved from their skull muscles and bone marrow.

Scientists at Hokkaido University determined DNA sequences of genes which were expressed in acoustic fat bodies—collections of fat around the head that toothed whales use for echolocation. They measured gene expression in the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) and Pacific white-sided dolphin (Lagenorhynchus obliquidens). Their findings were published in the journal Gene.

The evolution of acoustic fat bodies in the head—the melon in the whale forehead, extramandibular fat bodies (EMFB) alongside the jawbone, and intramandibular fat bodies (IMFB) within the jawbone—was essential for sound use such as echolocation. However, little is known about the genetic origins of those fatty tissues.

How Eyes Evolved - A Worm's Eye View

Vanadis cf. formosa

Photo: Michael Bok

Marvelous eyes, but you be the judge of this sea critter’s beauty. Vanadis is a byname of the Norse goddess of love, Freya.

Photo: Michael Bok

Mediterranean marine worm has developed eyes "as big as millstones"; – University of Copenhagen

Creationists love to cite the eye as an example of irreducible complexity' which could not have evolved by Darwinian step-wise evolution because anything less than a whole eye can't function as an eye.

They even misquote Darwin who, so they claim, admitted the evolution of the eye could not be explained, as though the entire unifying theory of biology rests on the opinion of one man who wrote his books about 160 years ago. But in their usual intellectually and morally bankrupt way, what they fail to do is to give the whole quote in the context in which Darwin used it to show that his theory of evolution was fully capable of explaining how something as complex as an eye could have evolved. It was typical of his style that he would set out a problem for biology, then show how his theory solved that problem. (see the full quote later).

Creationism in Crisis - Evolution Of Improved Hearing In Mammals - 165 Million Years Before 'Creation Week'

Artist's impression of Feredocodon chowi.

© Chuang Zhao

Reconstruction of Feredocodon chowi (right) and Dianoconodon youngi (left).

© Chuang Zhao

New Fossils Change Thinking on Early Mammal Evolution | AMNH

Some 165 million years before their god created the small flat planet with a dome over it that Creationists love hearing about, early mammals were evolving into modern mammals, complete with the tiny bones called ossicles that are essential for hearing. These three small bones transmit sound across the inner ear to the auditory sense organ, the cochlea.

Changes in the mammalian dentition were key to freeing these parts of the jaw joint, according to an analysis of two Jurassic-era mammal fossils which are the subject of articles in Nature. These analyses fill a gap in our understanding of the evolution of mammalian dentition and provide evidence of the transition from part of the jaw to the auditory ossicles - the stapes, malus and incus.

Like almost all of the history of life on earth, this all happened in the very long 'pre-Creation' age when 99.99% of Earth's history happened. The discovery was made by a research team that included Jin Meng of the American Museum of Natural History. Their findings are explained in an American Museum of Natural History press release.

Malevolent Designer News - How Creationism's Divine Malevolence Creates Genetic Defects

UC Irvine-led research team builds first tandem repeat expansions genetic reference maps – UCI News

Creationists assure us that creating new genetic information is impossible without magic performed by the magic creator because they have been sold some half-baked notion that genetic information follows the same laws of physics as energy, so can't be created according to the Third Law of Thermodynamics.

The fact that this is demonstrably wrong since gene duplication is readily observable doesn't stop them trotting out the same refuted claims time after time, but then to a creationist, having a claim refuted is not seen as a reason not to try to get away with it again later. You'll see this repeatedly as an apologist fraud such as William Lane Craig, Ken Ham or Michael J Behe will be comprehensively refuted in a public debate one day, only to try the self-same argument a day or two later on a different opponent in front of a different audience.

Sadly for creationists, however, this tactic leads them down a cul-de-sac where they are left arguing that DNA duplication must have been intelligently designed and, so they will also claim, evidence of intelligent design is evidence that their favourite god (and no other!) exists.

Creationism in Crisis - Researchers Have Discovered An Essential Step In The Evolution Of Walking

Tiktaalik reconstruction

Tiktaalik, (artist's impression)

In the evolution of walking, the hip bone connected to the rib bones | Eberly College of Science

From the day its discovery was announced, Tiktaalik has been a major embarrassment for creationists because not only does it refute the claim that there are no intermediate forms, but it also belies the claim that the Theory of Evolution can't make predictions.

Not only is it intermediate between fully aquatic lobe-finned fish and terrestrial tetrapod, but its discoverers predicted exactly where it would be found in the geological column and promptly went and found it there, exactly were predicted in Canada's Ellesmere Island.

But that embarrassment is about to become even more acute.

Researchers at Penn State's Eberly College have shown that Tiktaalik's ribs were attached to its pelvis and that fact helped in the evolution of walking. The research team, co-led by Tom Stewart, assistant professor of biology in the Eberly College of Science at Penn State and Neil H Shubin, one of the discoverers of Tiktaalik, have published their findings open access in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS). It is also explained in a Penn State Eberly College news release by Sam Sholtis:

Creationism in Crisis - A Rainbow On Another Planet! Did God Flood That One Too?

WASP-76b showing its 'glory'

© ESA, work performed by ATG under contract for ESA.
CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Each glory is unique, depending on the composition of the planet’s atmosphere and the colours of the light from the star that illuminates it. WASP-76 (the «Sun» of WASP-76b) is a yellow and white main sequence star like our Sun, but different stars create glories with different colours and patterns.

© ESA, work performed by ATG under contract for ESA. CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

CHEOPS detects a "rainbow" on an exoplanet - Medias - UNIGE

Scientists working at the CHEOPS space telescope control centre in the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, working in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the University of Bern (UNIBE), have discovered something which should ring alarm bells in the minds of Bible literalists.

It is the discovery of a rainbow in the atmosphere of an exoplanet known to science as WASP-76b.

WASP-76b is an exoplanet discovered in 2013 and confirmed in 2016 by a team of astronomers led by Neale P. Gibson using data from the Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) project. It belongs to the class of exoplanets known as "hot Jupiters," which are gas giants similar in size to Jupiter but with much higher temperatures due to their close proximity to their parent stars. Here are some key characteristics of WASP-76b:

1. Discovery: WASP-76b was discovered using the transit method, which involves observing the slight dimming of a star's light as an orbiting planet passes in front of it. This dimming effect is periodic and can be used to infer the presence and characteristics of the planet.
2. Physical Characteristics: WASP-76b is approximately 1.8 times the size of Jupiter but significantly more massive. It has a high surface temperature, estimated to be around 2,400 degrees Celsius (4,350 degrees Fahrenheit). This extreme heat is due to the planet's close orbit around its host star, WASP-76, which is located about 640 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Pisces.
3. Atmospheric Composition: One of the most intriguing features of WASP-76b is its atmospheric composition. Observations using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile revealed the presence of iron and titanium vapor in the planet's atmosphere. This finding is significant because it provides insights into the atmospheric chemistry and physical processes occurring on hot Jupiter exoplanets.
4. Extreme Conditions: The extreme temperature and atmospheric conditions on WASP-76b make it an inhospitable world, unlikely to support life as we know it. Its atmosphere is thought to be dominated by high-speed winds and extreme atmospheric dynamics, which may lead to unusual weather patterns and atmospheric phenomena.
5. Importance for Exoplanet Research: WASP-76b is one of many exoplanets discovered in recent years that are helping astronomers better understand the diversity of planetary systems beyond our solar system. Its unique atmospheric composition and extreme conditions make it a valuable target for further study, particularly in the field of exoplanet atmospheres and planetary formation theories.

Overall, WASP-76b represents a fascinating example of the diverse range of exoplanets that exist in our galaxy and provides valuable insights into the atmospheric characteristics and physical processes occurring on these distant worlds.

The reason this should set alarm bells ringing in the minds of Bible literalists, is because they believe that 'the' rainbow was sent by the god of the Bible to show believers that he wouldn't ever inflict another genocide on the planet because, although being omniscient and perfect, he regretted the time he did it in a fit of temper and flooded the planet to a depth that covered the highest mountains.

Or so the tale goes.

Before about 4,000 years ago, obviously, sunlight wouldn't have been diffracted into its component colours by passing through raindrops, or so those who didn't understand how rainbows are formed wrote.

And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth.

And I will establish my covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.

And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.

Genesis 9: 8-17

Apparently, God is so forgetful that he needs the rainbow to remind him not to lose self-control and commit genocide again.

But the question for creationists is, did God commit genocide on another planet too and put a rainbow there to remind him not to do it again? If not, how do rainbows form on another planet if they only appear on Earth because God puts them there?

If he did commit genocide on another planet, this means there must have been life there too, yet WASP-76b is far too hot to sustain life as we know it, being a 'hot' Jupiter-like gas giant which orbits its sun (WASP-76) closer than mercury orbits ours.

How this discovery was made is the subject of a news release by the University of Geneva:

Evolution in Action - New Study Finds Evidence for Evolution Of A New, Nitrogen-Fixing Cell Organelle

Composite of catalized reporter deposition fluorescence in situ hybridization (CARD-FISH) images showing the range of sizes of the different UCYN-A sublineages.

Cornejo-Castillo, F.M., et al (2024)

Transmission electron micrograph images of the C. parkeae stage of B. bigelowii. Light microscopy images (A,C) and corresponding TEM images are shown (B,D) for strain MK90-06. Usually, one endosymbiont is found per cell in the posterior of the cell (A,B); however, some of the cells had two endosymbionts per cell during cell division (C,D). Scale bars represent 5 μm in (A and C), and 2 μm in (B and D). E, endosymbiont; G, Golgi apparatus; M, mitochondrion; N, nucleus; P, plastid; and Py, pyrenoid.

Suzuki, Shigekatsu, et. al, (2021)

Evolution in action? New study finds possibility of nitrogen-fixing organelles – Rhody Today

Most biologists now accept the Endosymbiosis Theory which explains how simple prokaryote cells became complex eukaryote cells by a single-celled prokaryote such as an archaea incorporating other single-celled prokaryotes inside its cell membrane. This may have been by engulfing them as prey or by being parasitised by them. Whatever the mechanism, a symbiotic relationship ensued which progressed to the extent that the incorporated cell's DNA was transferred to the host genome and the incorporated cell became a cell organelle.

This explains the origin of cell organelles such as the mitochondria which metabolise glucose to turn adenosine diphosphate (ADP) into adenosine triphosphate (ATP) which can then be used to power metabolic processes within the cell. Mitochondria have some similarities with rickettsia bacteria which strongly suggests they have evolved from free-living rickettsia.

Likewise, chloroplasts in plant cells were once free-living, photosynthesising cyanobacteria which became incorporated in what was to become algae, so giving rise eventually to almost all plant life.

And now we have evidence that another incorporation is evolving, in the form of nitrogen-fixing bacteria being incorporated as organelles into a marine alga, which gives the algae the ability to create ammonia and so nitrates directly from atmospheric nitrogen. This was discovered by researchers from the University of Rhode Island, the Institut de Ciències del Mar in Barcelona, the University of California at Santa Cruz and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They have published their findings, open access, in the journal Cell.

Although nitrogen is abundant, comprising about 79% of Earth's atmosphere, it exists as the diatomic gas dinitrogen (N₂) which is notoriously stable making molecular nitrogen almost an inert substance and requiring a lot of energy to break the N-N bond. However, some bacteria, the nitrogen-fixing bacteria, have evolved the ability to do this using the enzyme nitrogenase:

Malevolent Designer News - New Discovery Unravels Malaria Invasion Mechanism

Malaria-infected red blood cells

Photo: AdobeStock

Plasmodium falciparum in a blood smear.

New Discovery Unravels Malaria Invasion Mechanism

Medical science just took a step forward in the continuing arms race between it and creationism's divine malevolence to try to prevent its parasite, Plasmodium falciparum from killing 600,000 people, mostly children, a year, mostly in Africa.

Creationists who use the traditional excuse that it's not their god who designs parasites but another intelligent designer - Sin - should refresh their memories of Michael J Beh's 'proof' that their god exists by falsely claiming that anti-malarial drug resistance in P. falciparum must have been intelligently designed because the (wrong) mathematical model he used gave the infinitesimally small probability it was intelligently designed to give, so could not have evolved.

So, they can't have it both ways: if evidence of design in parasites, no matter how spurious, is evidence for their god then their god is responsible for the design of those parasites. If not, then Michael J Behe's carefully concocted 'proof' is nothing of the sort.

The alternative is the blasphemous claim that there is another supernatural deity with powers to create living things, over whom their god has no power or authority.

So, while creationists are struggling with trying to hold two mutually exclusive views simultaneously, biomedical scientists are trying to unravel the devilishly clever way this parasite overcomes our defences to do what creationists must believe it was designed to do - make us sick and increase the suffering in the world.

This is the latest breakthrough medical science has just announced.

It was made by researchers from by the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) and Griffith University’s Institute for Glycomics, led by Professor Gerd Pluschke of Swiss TPH. Their discovery concerns the way the parasite gains access to the red blood cells to begin their destruction. It is published, open access, in Cell Reports and is explained in a Swiss PTH news release:

Creationism in Crisis - A New Look at Bird Evolution - Not Whether, But How!

Wompoo fruit-dove from Queensland, Australia.

Credit: Daniel J. Field

A greater flamingo, Mallorca, Spain.

Credit: Daniel J. Field

We’ve had bird evolution all wrong - News - University of Florida

To a child-like black vs white creationist, science changing its mind is science admitting it was wrong - which means it's probably wrong this time too, so all of science can be dismissed as wrong. Unless of course, it's some pseudo-science purporting to support creationism, then it's absolutely incontrovertible proof of creationism, because there is nothing a creationist craves more than proof of creationism provided by the same science they despise so much when it refutes creationism yet again.

So, news that a team of researchers at Florida University have re-examined the genetic evidence for the evolution of birds and revised the family tree will be music to the ears of any creationist fraud looking for some science to misrepresent. However, this research does nothing of the sort, and merely confirms what we already know - that birds diversified from a common ancestor by an evolutionary process. The debate is never about whether that happened, but how and exactly when.

What misled taxonomists was a chunk of DNA that has remained more or less unchanged for some 60 million years. By a process which is poorly understood, this large chunk of DNA avoids recombination during the process of egg and sperm production. Using this section alone gave one family tree, which put doves and flamingoes as close cousins, but using the whole genome gave a different family tree which makes doves and flamingoes much more distantly related (though of course, still related by common ancestry).

The research team have published their findings, open access, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) and explain them in a University of Florida news release:

Creationism in Crisis - A Dinosaur Fossil In The 'Wrong' Place - But Not What Creationists Hoped For

Ajnabia odysseus

Artist's impression

Duckbill dinosaur discovery in Morocco – expert unpacks the mystery of how they got there

Here's something to excite creationists!

It's a fossil out of place!

Sadly though, it's not out of place in the geological column - which would falsify evolution - but out of place geographically. It's the fossil of a duck-billed dinosaur in Morocco, North Africa, but it's closest relatives appear to be from Europe, which was a long sea voyage away at the time and no obvious island chain for them to island hop on.

And to add to the mystery, the European duck-billed dinosaurs didn't evolve in Europe, but in North America, so they must have got to Europe somehow.

When the news from science is relentless in its refutation of creationism, it would have been nice to find something to give the poor beleaguered fools a few crumbs of comfort, but it was not to be. This one is just as relentless s all the others.

Creationism in Crisis - An Evolutionary 'Family Tree' For All Living Birds

Male wood duck, Aix sponsa

After 10 years of work, landmark study reveals new ‘tree of life’ for all birds living today

The results of a ten-year study, published today in Nature will come as a huge disappointment for any creationists who find the courage to read it (and who have the ability to understand what they're reading - which for creationists is probably asking too much.

Those still under the delusion that mainstream biologists are abandoning the TOE in favour of creationism with its magic and a suppositional supernatural entity, will be especially disappointed. Not only does it show birds have been around for very much longer than creationists believe the universe has been it also shows that the team of scientists are firmly committed to the Theory of Evolution as the only scientific explanation for biodiversity.

Two of the biologists who co-authored the paper along with a large international team of biologists, Jacqueline Nguyen, Scientific Officer in Ornithology, Australian Museum, and ARC DECRA Fellow, Flinders University and Simon Ho, Professor of Molecular Evolution, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney, have described their findings in an article in The Conversation. Their article is reprinted here under a Creative Commons license, reformatted for stylistic consistency:

Malevolent Designer News - How Creationism's Divine Malevolence Designed The CCHF Virus To Kill Us

CCHF Virus

New study shows how the Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus enters our cells | Karolinska Institutet

Creationists traditionally have a schizophrenic attitude towards viruses. On the one hand, they blame them all on the biblical myth of 'The Fall', so betraying the fact that creationism is not a science like they claim it to be, but fundamentalist Christianity.

On the other hand, as we saw in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, they declared it to be their god's divine punishment for whatever their hobbyhorse was at the time - abortion, same-sex marriage, New Yorkers electing a Democrat, etc., etc., as though their god would inflict a punishment on the whole world for the actions of politicians in America or the way Americans in New York voted. Creationism is nothing if not parochial and ignorant!

How Science Works - Discovering How Planets Are Really Made - And Why The Bible Myth Is Wrong

Planets emerge from the dense disk of gas and dust encircling young stars.

Credit: NASA

Accretion disc

Our survey of the sky is uncovering the secrets of how planets are born

Look in the Bible for a description of how planets are formed, and you can search all day in vain. It simply isn't there. In fact, the very concept of planets and planetary orbits isn't there.

What the Bible myth describes is a childlike guess at the formation of the universe by people who thought the entire universe was the small part of Earth they lived and herded their goats on. So, they described it as a small, flat place, floating in the sea, with a dome over it (because that's what the sky looked like to them).

Stuck to that dome were the sun and moon as lamps, and what we now know are planets, stars and far-off galaxies, they thought were lights stuck to the underside of the dome. They even guessed that there must be pillars holding up the ground and that the stars could be shaken loose from the dome by earthquakes, when they would fall to Earth and could be stamped on by a goat, albeit a big goat!

Don't believe me? Find a Bible and read Genesis 1: 1-18 and Daniel 8:10. Nowhere will you find the words planet, orbit or accretion disc.

What you get is exactly what you might expect if you brought up a child to believe in magic and magic spirits but kept them away from any sources of information about science, geography, geology or cosmology, then, at about the age of 10, asked them to describe the universe and make up a story about how it was made. What you would get is what you get if you use a creationist form of deductive logic - you just look at it and describe what you think you see.

You get the result of ignorant intuition, which is about as far removed from what is really there and how it came to be the way it is as its possible to be.

We know this because we can compare the results of that method in the Bible with the results of scientific investigation and the scientific method used to describe how planets are really formed as part of the process of forming suns and planetary systems within galaxies which are themselves a tiny part of a vast universe consisting of trillions of galaxies, each with trillions of suns and probably several trillion planets in orbits around those suns, almost none of which is visible to someone standing on the surface of Earth and 'just looking'.

The following article by Christian Ginski, a Lecturer of astronomy at the University of Galway, Ireland described what we now know of hos planets are formed and just how many there might well be in the cosmos. His article is reprinted under a Creative Commons license, reformatted for stylistic consistency: