I have a new favorite thing to think about: chimerism. The Discovery Health Channel ran this documentary last week:

I Am My Own Twin – Thursday, May 19, 10-11m e/p In this riveting documentary, cameras follow the stories of individuals who were born with an extraordinarily rare condition. Sometimes in early pregnancy, two embryos fuse together creating one fetus in the womb resulting in a baby with two distinct sets of DNA. In the most severe cases, this can result in a person who is half black and half white, has different colored eyes, and has split male and female genitals. These babies are called Chimeras, after the Greek mythological being who is a hybrid of three different life forms.

What I want to know is how do people who believe human life begins at conception deal with two fertilized eggs becoming one person?

The twentieth century is ‘nothing but a theory’

A county in Georgia is following a court order to “remove evolution ‘disclaimers’ from science textbooks”:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/24/AR2005052400285.html . I’m glad to hear that, because it indicates that someone, somewhere is being a bit more reasonable about this.

For those looking for more science ammo in this fight, Scientific American has an excellent list of “answers to creationist nonsense”:http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000D4FEC-7D5B-1D07-8E49809EC588EEDF. It answers the most common creationist (or “Intelligent Design”) misconceptions in a clear, decisive fashion. Yay, science!

*UPDATE*: Scientific American seems to have moved the article behind their Wall of Subscription, so here are a couple “alternate”:http://www.angelfire.com/ok5/pearly/htmls/gop-evolution.html “links”:http://www.swarthmore.edu/NatSci/cpurrin1/textbookdisclaimers/wackononsense.pdf if you’re still interested in reading the whole thing.