by Richard William Nelson | May 8, 2014
Charles Darwin wrestled to understand the interplay between instincts and natural selection. By observing ants, he hoped to connect the two. In The Origin of Species, Darwin argued –
“We shall, perhaps, best understand how instincts in a state of nature have become modified by selection by considering… the slave-making instinct of certain ants.”
Ant instincts have emerged as a problem for Darwin, however, along with his other major issue, the lack of transitional links. As Darwin explains in his introduction to The Origin of Species –
“The most apparent and gravest difficulties on the theory… namely, first, the difficulties of transitions… [and], secondly, the subject of Instinct.”
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by Richard William Nelson | Apr 20, 2014
In The Origin of Species, Charles Darwin envisioned that “extinction and natural selection go hand in hand.” Extinction, however, was a relatively new concept, only emerging in revolutionary France following the publication of the Essay on the Theory of the Earth in 1813 by French naturalist Georges Cuvier.
“All these facts, consistent among themselves,” Cuvier argued, “seem to me to prove the existence of a world previous to ours… And what revolution was able to wipe it out [extinction]?”
Cuvier was a renowned French scientist who established the study of extinction as a distinct field of inquiry. When completed in time for the 1889 World’s Fair, his name was one of the only seventy-two names inscribed onto the Eiffel Tower.
Elizabeth Kolbert explains in The Sixth Extinction (2014) that the discovery of extinction made evolution seem “as unlikely as levitation,” an issue Darwin conveniently overlooked.
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by Richard William Nelson | Apr 3, 2014
Oxygen is one of life’s most essential atomic elements. As molecular biologist Michael Denton highlights in his book “Nature’s Destiny: How the Laws of Biology Reveal Purpose in the Universe,” oxygen is the key element for “one of the most important chemical reactions on Earth.”
While oxygen is the third most abundant chemical element in the universe, after hydrogen and helium, oxygen is the most abundant chemical element by mass in the Earth’s biosphere, air, sea, and land, adding one more agonizing Achilles Heel to the theory of evolution.
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by Richard William Nelson | Mar 20, 2014
Over the past two decades, a treasure trove of fossils has been unearthed in China. Some of the world’s most exquisitely preserved feathered dinosaurs, birds, reptiles, and mammals have been recovered near the quiet northeastern China village of Daohugou.
Chinese farmers first discovered the trove near this Inner Mongolian village in 1998. The following summer, two distinct salamander species were recovered. Since then, the now-infamous fossil site has been named the Daohugou Biota and has yielded more than 30 different vertebrate taxa (groups). The treasure trove of scientific evidence, however, further upends Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution “by means of natural selection.”
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by Richard William Nelson | Mar 6, 2014
A new study challenges the time-honored validity of microbial resistance as an example of biological evolution.
Christina Warinner of Harvard University led an international research team that investigated ancient microbes extracted from fossilized human teeth. The team included thirty-two investigators from twelve institutions in seven countries.
By comparing the microbes on fossilized human teeth, the research team found ancient microbial resistance using the exact molecular mechanisms of microbial resistance, as seen in today’s microbes.
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by Richard William Nelson | Feb 21, 2014
New fossil discovery in China stuns Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution acting through “slight successive changes.” An international team led by geologist Ryosuke Motani from the University of California, Davis, published a paper in the PLOS journal earlier this month on new evidence of reptile embryos that challenges previous evolution paradigms.
Bordering on the Yangtze River in eastern China, just north of Chaohu City, Motani’s team discovered by accident what is thought to be the oldest known reptile. While working systematically through a slab of entombed fossils looking for a ray-finned fish known as Saurichthys, the workers accidentally fractured the slab.
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by Richard William Nelson | Feb 7, 2014
New Jersey U.S. Representative Rush Holt, a Democrat, introduced on the House floor a resolution to designate Charles Darwin’s birthday, February 12th, as a national holiday. In a Huffington Post interview, Holt said the day should symbolize “the importance of science in the betterment of humanity.”
“It was his thirst for knowledge,” Holt continued, “and his scientific approach to discovering new truths that enabled him to develop the theory of evolution.” Fortunately, most of the representatives doubted Holt’s assertions. In the U.S. courts, however, evolution by natural selection is a proven scientific theory. Known as the “father of evolution,” Darwin must have been an exceptional scientist. For good reasons to be discussed, however, the answer to “Was Darwin a scientist?” is one of the evolution industry’s best back-story secrets.
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by Richard William Nelson | Jan 23, 2014
Charles Darwin‘s first reference to a “gene” appears in the 4th Edition of The Origin of Species in 1866. Since then, the gene has emerged as the essential molecular mechanism driving Darwin’s theory.
This intersection of natural selection with Gregor Mendel‘s theory of genetic inheritance was later known as the Modern Evolutionary Synthesis, also referred to as The Modern Synthesis, primarily based on Julian Huxley’s 1942 book, Evolution: The Modern Synthesis.
A gene mutation-driven evolution theory gained increasing popularity. However, by the 1960s, the model began encountering challenges as it was being applied using emerging genomic technologies.
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by Richard William Nelson | Jan 9, 2014
Pristine preservation of DNA is of critical importance in the study of ancient DNA. The structural integrity of the DNA molecule, contrary to the Jurassic Park tale, is not infinitely stable.
Damage to the DNA molecule in living organisms occurs naturally from normal metabolic and hydrolytic processes and from environmental factors such as ultraviolet light and radiation.
Damage to DNA in mammalian cells is known to occur 1 million times daily. While living organisms can identify and correct these damages, the evolutionary industry has been reticent to address the stability of ancient DNA in the fossil record.
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by Richard William Nelson | Dec 30, 2013
The genomic revolution is an increasingly challenging, long-standing orthodoxy in human evolution. An international team of geneticists headed by Matthias Meyer (pictured right below) of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany reported in the journal Nature earlier this month.
The team studied the mtDNA of 28 fossilized hominins estimated to be 400,000 years old from the Sima de Los Huesos cave in northern Spain‘s Sierra de Atapuerca Mountain range (pictured left).
Meyer’s team, which included legendary Swedish geneticist Svante Paabo, analyzed the genetics of these fossils collected during the 1970s. The study report, entitled “A mitochondrial genome sequence of a hominin from Sima de Los Huesos,” unexpectedly concluded that the fossils were genetically similar to the Denisovans, even though they morphologically resembled Neanderthals. Sima de los Huesos means “Pit of the Bones.”
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Charles Darwin wrestled to understand the interplay between instincts and natural selection. By observing ants, he hoped to connect the two. In The Origin of Species, Darwin argued –
A new study challenges the time-honored validity of 
New Jersey U.S. Representative 
The genomic revolution is an increasingly challenging, long-standing orthodoxy in human evolution. An international team of geneticists headed by 