Another Nail in the Coffin of ID: Scientists Figure Out How Bees Fly

[Rosco T.]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20060110/sc_space/scientistsfinallyfigureouthowbeesfly

Scientists Finally Figure Out How Bees Fly
Sara Goudarzi
Special to LiveScience
LiveScience.com
Tue Jan 10, 9:00 AM ET

Proponents of intelligent design, which holds that a supreme being rather than evolution is responsible for life's complexities, have long criticized science for not being able to explain some natural phenomena, such as how bees fly.

Now scientists have put this perplexing mystery to rest.

Using a combination of high-speed digital photography and a robotic model of a bee wing, the researchers figured out the flight mechanisms of honeybees.

"For many years, people tried to understand animal flight using the aerodynamics of airplanes and helicopters," said Douglas Altshuler, a researcher at California Institute of Technology. "In the last 10 years, flight biologists have gained a remarkable amount of understanding by shifting to experiments with robots that are capable of flapping wings with the same freedom as the animals."

(more at link)

[Poll_Blind]

1. Whoa, did ID folks believe that bees flew through...magic?

I shouldn't be suprised if they did. Instead of seeking out answers which is hard they provide answers that they make up which is easy. I'm afraid I see very little desire to perform mental exertion of any sort on the side of the Intelligent Design folks.

PB

[underpants]

4. I wish they had ID when I was in school

Math tests would have been a breeze-I could have just written "God did it" for every problem.

[Poll_Blind]

6. God made it so! So that now you would realize that you do not...

...wish to subject your children to the burden of empirical knowledge. 8^)

PB

[matt819]

11. Do I have to explain everything to you folks!?

Bees fly because god wills it to be so. Jeez, I would have thought you'd know that.

And, while there's really no connection, other than in my mind (I live out in the country), what about maple syrup? I mean, really. Do you really think man had the idea of tapping trees, getting sap, and boiling it down to maple syrup? Give me a break. That would be just crazy. How else to explain it then? God.

And the vaccine for polio? God, again.

Oh, and the combustion engine? You got it. God.

Green grass, blue skies? Right again. God. Very busy.

Volcanos? Very tricky, that. Very, very complicated, that molten earth stuff. Has to be God. Mother Nature, even if she is God's Gal Friday, could not have come up that on her own. After all, that mother part? She's a girl, for goodness sake.

AIDS? It had been years since God had smote anyone, so that's God again. Or the CIA. One and the same? Enquiring minds want to know!

You know, life is just so much easier this way.

Speaking of which, I hope someone asks Alito about whether he's a believer in intelligent (sic) design.

[Canuckistanian]

14. It's what I've always said

ID is pure, unadulterated intellectual laziness.

Whenever they run into any unexplained phenomena, they throw up their hands and say, "God did it" and that's the end of the inquiry.

A true ID scientist (if such an animal should appear) should immediately ask "Then how did he do it? What was the thinking behind it? Why?"

Speaking personally, I'd think that a whole branch of science would be devoted to asking who this God person is, exactly what is his purpose on Earth and what are his capabilities to help us?

[Kingshakabobo]

2. Aint nuthin but fancy librul book learnin is all. n/t

[Lerkfish]

3. I laugh at both sides on this one.

proving how bees fly does not prove/disprove a supreme being.

Too many people, scientists and religious nuts, waste all our time trying to disprove the other using things that simply aren't going to do so.

[ret5hd]

7. i really think you've got it wrong...

scientists don't try to disprove religion...science says religion is outside the purvue of science, neither provable nor disprovable. In fact, the only mention in the article of intelligent design is the editorializing of the journalist. The closest the scientists come is this statement:

They are also pleased that a simple thing like bee flight can no longer be used as an example of science failing to explain a common phenomenon.

Hardly science trying to disprove religion.

[Lerkfish]

8. thanks for disagreeing without being rude...

I'm speaking in generalities, so all that I said may not apply in this case.

maybe a more accurate statement would be that both religious zealots and antireligious zealots try to use science to disprove religion and religion to disprove science.

That's more accurate than blaming the scientists, so I stand corrected.

[montana_hazeleyes]

5. I was thinking when I saw this,

How in the world are they going to be able to ID us by finding out how bees fly?

LOL! I must really be getting paranoid. lol

[yellowdogmi]

9. Want to borrow

my tinfoil hat?
:tinfoilhat:

[montana_hazeleyes]

12. Thanks

Looks like I could use one right about now. LOL

[Kber]

13. How about mini robot cams

that can, using the techniques of bee flight, easily fly into our homes, offices and bedrooms?

Seriously, there was a NOVA special on it last week.

[montana_hazeleyes]

15. Oh my!

I hadn't heard of that. I bet they'd mostly have them fly into our bedrooms because these wingnuts seem to be so obsessed with sex. (Other people's that is).

[rman]

10. Yeah right, as though ID explains how bees fly.