Craig Venter, the maverick American biologist and businessman captured worldwide attention by announcing the creation of “the first synthetic species,” nicknamed “Synthia.” Venter has the credentials. In 2000, Venter, along with Francis Collins of the National Institutes of Health, jointly announced the complete mapping of the human genome.
In a 60-Minute CBS interview with Steve Kroft (pictured right), in the aired TV segment entitled “J. Craig Venter: Designing Life,” CBS touted that Venter’s new synthetic species “gets its genetic instructions from a synthetic chromosome made by man, not nature.”
Even the California-sponsored website “Understanding Evolution” skirts around the mysterious transformation of the butterfly known as metamorphosis – a butterfly nightmare.
Depictions of mystical butterfly symbols embellished Egyptian, Chinese, and Greek cultural expressions for over 3,500 years. Why is the evolution industry silent on butterfly metamorphosis?
The October 2009 special edition of the journal Science (cover pictured right below) entitled Ardipithecus ramidus, kindly known as “Ardi,” featured a series of 11 papers by 47 authors from 10 countries – launching the Ardipithecus ramidus (pictured left) saga.
With an estimated age of 4.4 million years, Ardi is considered the oldest hominid skeleton ever discovered, predating Lucy and casting unexpected clues into the increasingly complex human evolution jigsaw puzzle.
The unexplainable saga, however, actually began nearly 15 years ago.
The evolution industry is celebrating 100 years of fruit fly genetic research. Charles W. Woodworth, at the University of California, Berkeley, at the turn of the twentieth century, was the first to use the fruit fly as a model in the study of genetics.
During the twentieth century, Drosophila melanogaster, the common fruit fly, was one of the most studied organisms in biological research, particularly in genetics.
The fruit fly model seemed to emerge as one of the first laboratory-induced speciation events.
Darwin, Then and Now, the Most Amazing Story in the History of Science, chronicles Darwin's life, how he developed his hypothesis, specifically what he said, and what scientists have discovered since the publication of The Origin of Species in 1859.
The book traces the rise and fall of evolution's popularity as a scientifically valid theory. With over 1,000 references from Darwin and scientists, Darwin Then and Now retraces developments in the most amazing story in the history of science.
Darwin Then and Now is an educational resource focusing on understanding the intersection of evolution and science to develop basic skills for analyzing and assessing the theory of biological evolution.
Craig Venter, the maverick American biologist and businessman captured worldwide attention by announcing the creation of “the first synthetic species,” nicknamed “Synthia.” Venter has the credentials. In 2000, Venter, along with Francis Collins of the National Institutes of Health, jointly announced the complete mapping of the human genome.
Jerry Coyne
The October 2009 
The evolution industry is celebrating 100 years of fruit fly genetic research. 
