Devolution, of which this is an example, may be more common than we suppose and will probably have precisely the effect of creating “exceptions” like this. Note that we are told, “they likely steal energy from their host using some type of proteins.” It makes sense that many devolved creatures are parasites. They can afford to throw away equipment if they are using the host’s toolbox anyway.
Suzan Mazur interviews virologist Luis Villareal on COVID-19
Virologist Luis Villarreal: All of these RNA viruses exist as quasispecies, which is a population of variants that hover around the average.
Michael Behe doesn’t answer his critics?
From ENST: West was surprised to realize just how voluminous Behe’s record of answering critics actually is.
Researchers: Earliest evidence of animals at 635 mya turns out to be common algae
This find, if it checks out, leaves more time for the evolution of algae but less for the evolution of animals. Which returns the Cambrian explosion to its “remarkable” status.
Has a plant evolved a camouflage color to avoid humans?
If humans stopped picking them, would the green ones just start becoming more numerous again?
Busting the paradigm without busting your career?
A Cornell U psych prof warns against letting the career lardbellies know in so many words that you plan to shake things up a bit.
The CORRECT way to understand the mysterious Utah monolith
Why rush to conclude intelligent design?, asks philosopher and photographer Laszlo Bencze. He writes us to recommend a proper Darwinian view of the problem, a sort of desert version of Darwin’s “warm little pond” origin of life.
Darwin’s notebooks apparently stolen – But wait!
A proper Darwinian response would say that the books evolved away from the Library “daily and hourly” during those twenty years. Seriously, we sure hope they get them back.
Hmm. The Milky Way’s oldest stars are out of place
Researchers: Their orbits are also very circular, similar to the orbit of the Sun. This is surprising and goes against predictions of current galactic evolution models.
Jonathan Bartlett on ending the war on math
Bartlett: Math teaches students how to think more clearly in all areas of life but it mostly performs this function silently, invisibly…
Science historian Michael Flannery: Darwinism can’t be distanced from racism
You just have to read what Darwin actually said, as Michael Flannery quotes, while dealing with a typical attempt to sanitize Darwin’s record.
Gizmodo asks experts to name the biggest science frauds of the past 50 years
Dr. Hesselmann’s probably right but how depressing. In a world where so much research that doesn’t involve fraud fails replication, it’s just a fact that most published research papers in many fields are probably wrong or at least sloppy. So why bother with fraud? But not exactly a good look for science.
Engineer Stuart Burgess on “bad design” in nature
Burgess: Some of the biological elements called bad design are actually ones that systems engineers value quite a bit and use in their work frequently.
Film clip on the probability of a protein forming by chance passes 500k views
xcerpt: Putting the probabilities together means adding the exponents. The probability of getting a properly folded chain of one-handed amino acids, joined by peptide bonds, is one chance in 10^74+45+45, or one in 10^164 (Meyer, p. 212). This means that, on average, you would need to construct 10^164 chains of amino acids 150 units long to expect to find one that is useful.
Futurist George Gilder: Humans don’t treat physical and chemical forces or clock pulses the way computers do
As one of the fundamental dimensions of the universe, time doubtless has a regular flow. But people stuck behind a flock of Canada geese crossing a road don’t experience time in the same way as people rushing to complete a report in time for the Big Board Meeting in two hours.