Archive for 1997

Bucky Beaver Lives Here

Despite the fine quality of their fur coats, they look a little dumpy. Their teeth also are a little too prominent to be pleasing – but their whiskers are cute. Certainly they are prominent Canadians. On formal occasions they go by the name Castor canadensis, but to their friends they are simply beavers. The plan of action for any beaver couple is to raise their young and to enjoy long healthy lives. This is not a surprising nor an unusual agenda. Nevertheless of all the wildlife creatures that make their home in most parts of North America, the beaver is fast becoming extremely unpopular. The fact is that beavers are the only animals in the world which can change the landscape to suit their own needs and desires. The trouble is that the beavers’ alterations often do not fit the plans of people living in the same area. Then again in other parts of the country, wildlife officials regard beavers as economical wetlands managers. Read the rest of this entry »

Dinosaur Disasters

It’s fun to go to a museum to view the mounted dinosaur skeletons. In the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta, the poses suggest tension. There are running dinosaurs, fighting dinosaurs, carnivorous dinosaurs about to kill herbivore victims, and others caught in the act of raiding dinosaur nests. The displays are actually stories without words. At a glance they communicate current scientific interpretations about dinosaur lifestyles. But these are not the really dramatic displays. It is the dinosaur skeletons still entombed in rock, which should rivet our interest. These artifacts cry out with information. Read the rest of this entry »

Endosymbiotic Theory: Telling It Like It Is

Evolutionists have long had a difficult time trying to account for the development of cells with nuclei. The first step, of course, is to agree on a suitable ancestor. The popular choice is bacteria (prokaryotes) which typically have only a single circular chromosome lying free in the cell. Unfortunately there are numerous structural and metabolic differences between the assumed ancestors and presumed descendants. Various theories have been proposed to explain how this new cell type might have developed, but none has proved extremely satisfactory. Thus the old theories tend to get recycled. An explanation is accepted for a while and later falls into disfavour as another old theory is retrieved from mothballs. The problem is that none of these theories fits the observed facts very well at all. Read the rest of this entry »

So You Want a New Pet?

Can you name an animal that is dainty as silk but devious besides? Probably not. From their pictures, we might imagine that octopuses are solid, scary and, like the majority of marine creatures, not too intelligent. The scary part of the picture is correct, especially if one is a crab or shrimp or abalone. Nevertheless octopuses are typically as insubstantial as a lady’s negligee and smart, smart, smart. Read the rest of this entry »

That Reminds Me…

Our new minivan is equipped with airbags. They seem a little scary. The car manual recommends that young children not sit in the front passenger seat, that adults like me push the seat as far back as possible, that one not lean forward over the dashboard etc. etc. How tedious! Just what are these things that lurk in the front of our vehicle? Everyone knows they are a safety device. But just the same airbags seem like a monster which is difficult to control. It’s almost like having a tiger by the tail. Read the rest of this entry »

The Extra Special Courtship of Horseshoe Crabs

Special eyes

Horseshoe crabs don’t look mysterious and enigmatic, but they are. Normally one would not expect any very deep questions to be evoked concerning creatures which resemble miniature tanks, moving with ponderous dignity across the beach. But these marine creatures with shells, these “crabs”, are not actually miniature when compared to other animals of the seashore. These animals weigh as much as 4.5 kg (10 lbs) and they may grow to be 60 cm (2 ft) long. To find one such specimen would be memorable enough – but where there is one, there are generally thousands or hundreds of thousands. At the appropriate time in the spring, some beaches along the Atlantic seaboard from Maine to Yucatan Peninsula, are invaded by thousands or even millions of these apparitions. Read the rest of this entry »

These Fish Wars Aren’t About Food

Symbols are powerful tools for communication. Is there anyone who does not know what the golden arches stand for, or the Nike “swoosh”? The Canadian maple leaf for example, and the Olympic five intertwined circles convey images in our minds of completely different institutions – the one a country situated just north of the United States, and the other an international body regulating competitions in amateur sport. In Canada the “crown” refers in symbolic terms to the authority of federal or provincial governments. In the 1960s a circle with an inverted Y inside conjured in everyone’s minds anti-nuclear messages typified by the “Ban-the-Bomb” slogan. In science, a circle with an arrow attached, borrows from Greek mythology. It is supposed to depict Mars (the war god’s) shield and by inference, the male gender. Similarly a circle with a handle was chosen to represent Minerva’s mirror, and by inference, the female gender. Most people recognize these symbols for male and female. Read the rest of this entry »