This week the Discovery Channel is launching a new show called "Curiosity". It is purported to be a five year deal to explore the most tantalizing and provocative questions of science and technology. The first episode, hosted by Stephen Hawking, is entitled, "Did God create the Universe?" With all these things in the air, I found myself unable to ward off the parody demons. To the tune of 'Jesus Loves Me'.
Darwin loves me this I know
Stephen Hawking tells me so
Say goodbye to right and wrong
all the weak to feed the strong
Chorus:…
Self adapters will survive
and the fittest stay alive
Progress Darwin’s all about
Till our bright, hot sun burns out
Chorus: …
Nature red in tooth and claw
Is life’s only certain law
Thankfully for Stephen’s sake
We still often that law break.
Chorus: ...
Once again, I can't resist quoting the close of Steven Turner's Creed:
If chance be the Father of all flesh,
disaster is his rainbow in the sky,
and when you hear
State of Emergency!
Sniper Kills Ten!
Troops on Rampage!
Whites go Looting!
Bomb Blasts School!
It is but the sound of man worshiping his maker.
1 comment:
I just read a quote off NPR. Interesting, there's this poisonous rat that evolved. Yet so, in the next two paragraphs it's clearly hardwired that way. I guess I just thought those two (evolved/hardwired) were mutually exclusive.
Here's the quote off NPR (http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/08/03/138959210/biologist-explain-how-an-african-rat-makes-itself-poisonous?ft=1&f=1001):
"This is the first mammal that is borrowing a deadly poison from a plant and slathering it on itself without dying," Jonathan Kingdon, of Oxford University in England told MSNBC. "This is an extraordinary thing to have evolved."
And here is their explanation for how the rat does it:
They found that to make its poison fur, the rat — which averages about 14 inches (36 cm) long — chews the bark of the A. schimperi and licks itself to store the resulting poisonous spit in specially adapted hairs. This behavior is hardwired into the animal's brain, similar to nitpicking behavior of birds or self-bathing of cats, the researchers suspect.
"What is quite clear in this animal is that it is hardwired to find the poison, it is hardwired to chew it and it is hardwired to apply it to the small area of hairs," Kingdon said. The animals apply the poisonous spit only to the specialized hairs on a small strip along its back. When threatened, the rat arches its back and uses specially adapted muscles to slick back its hair and expose the strip of poison.
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