What was the ecological state at the beginning of creation? Were perfectly suited plants and animals created for a perfect world, did these plants and animals adapt to a fallen world, or were they all created in a way that anticipated a fallen world? Put another way, did animals physically adapt to a postlapsarian (after... Continue Reading →
Can human footprints made in wet sand dunes be preserved as fossils? The discovery of up to thirty-five human (1) footprints on the roof of a small coastal cave says “yes.” Footprints on the roof of a cave? How does that happen? I wondered that too when I first heard about this remarkable discovery. The... Continue Reading →
So how long can DNA or even cells survive in the environment once an organism dies? This has been a topic of considerable debate in the scientific literature since the advent of high-throughput DNA sequencing techniques. This growing field of scientific inquiry is fascinating to me and promises to shed new light on old questions. I have... Continue Reading →
How different is the surface of Mars today compared to one thousand, a hundred thousand or a million years ago? The photo below was snapped by the Curiosity Rover which has spent several years trekking across an ancient lake-bed inside a large crater on Mars. It is a barren, forbidding but strangely familiar and beautiful... Continue Reading →
It has been a while since I've been able write. There has been quite a bit of news the last two weeks and I thought I would briefly comment on a few items that are relevant to my most recent posts: The Salt Chronometer Since I published my series on the salty seas (Part I,... Continue Reading →
The Toba volcano is found near the center of Sumatra, Indonesia. It has been estimated that at least 2800 cubic kilometers of material was thrown into the air during the explosion or series of explosions. To put that in perspective the Krakatoa volcano threw just over 2 cubic kilometers of material into the air some of which circled the globe causing dazzling sunsets in Europe.
Naturalis Historia 