Oxygen, Evolution’s Achilles Heel

Earth Atmosphere

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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Ancient Microbe Resistance

Microbe ResistanceA 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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Gene Duplication-Driven Evolution

gene duplication
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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Ancient DNA Stability

Jurassic ParkPristine 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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Human Georgian Skull Fuels Controversy

Georgian Skull For more than two decades, international teams of paleoanthropologists have been discovering human-like fossils from a medieval archaeological site in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia known as Dmanisi.

A new human Georgian skull further fuels the dilemma. In 1991, David Lordkipanidze of the Georgian National Museum in Tbilisi discovered the first four human-like fossils.

Increased archaeological interest in this Georgian site began in 1936 following the discovery of ancient and medieval artifacts.

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