WS-JW,
Thank you for the link. I am in the process of downloading everything from his lectures. He is a very engaging speaker, excellent, I would say. Beats the hell out of those like Hovind. However, if you are using him for scientific information you are in a sad position. His PhD notwithstanding, he is so wrong on so many points. I would be forgiving on some (as his area is chemistry) points on biology, but he makes statements in his own field that are so wrong that I have to wonder about his credibility.
The first one I downloaded was his “The Turtle God’s Handiwork” At the beginning of that he talks about sperm whales. In the first five minutes he makes a multitude of gross errors. First ones are biological, calling giant squid giant octopuses. The two are quite importantly different. Then he says that the whale finds its prey not by sight but by a system just like radar but using clicks instead (as if this were amazing, it’s called sonar!!). Then he tells how a whale brings its squid to the surface to kill it by giving it the bends! Nitrogen does not bubble out of the blood in any organism except air-breathing tetrapods. He should know this (as a chemist), probably does but is now lying. He then says that sperm whales are immune to the bends and Shell Oil is researching how. First they are not:
Cumulative sperm whale bone damage and the bends – Innovations Report Sperm whales suffer damage from quick decompression (the link explains why and how).
He then proposes how sperm whales do this by suggesting that like nitrogen fixing plants they have bacteria in their blood to convert nitrogen to other forms (fix it). As a chemist he has got to see the multiple flaws with this. He also mentions that plants use the rete mirabile to do this bacterial reaction, in reality (and I am sure he knew this) the rete mirabile is the structure fishes with swim bladders use to add or lose air to their swim bladders. Nothing at all to do with nitrogen fixation. In short, if this is your source for anti-evolutionary thought, you need to keep looking. The guy is (was) a liar and a fraud.
Doctor Bashir: "Of all the stories you told me, which were true and which weren't?"
Elim Garak: "My dear Doctor, they're all true"
Doctor Bashir: "Even the lies?"
Elim Garak: "Especially the lies"
™ Version 4.2