Emily Morales January 17, 2020 Even with just ten steps, there are countless ways to fail in making a kirigami star. Embryogenesis – natures complex expression of kirigami, and being possessed of literally thousands of steps, yields an unlimited number of possibilities for failure! While most concede that kirigami is carried out by intelligent agents, Read More…
Yes, Jerry. Split brains are weird, but not the way you think
Neurosurgeon Michael Egnor, who knows some details about the brain, responds: What is most remarkable about these patients is that after the surgery they are unaffected in everyday life, except for the diminished seizures.
At Evolution Institute, of all places, evolutionary psychology is savaged
Philosopher of biology Subrena E. Smith: Furthermore, evolutionary psychological hypotheses turn on inferences about hypothetical structures for which there is a dearth of empirical support, and there is no evidence that the minds of our prehistoric ancestors possessed this sort of architecture.
Writing Science Fiction Helps Students Understand Science Better
A recent study published in Issues in Teaching Earth Science suggests that having student write a science fiction story incorporating a concept helps them understand the concept better. Students in an introductory college geology course engaged in one of two exercises to learn more about the concept of cross cutting relationships, a major principle in Read More…
Theoretical biologist quit over growing panpsychism, it turns out
In 2012, Italian theoretical biologist Marcello Barbieri resigned as editor of the journal Biosemiotics because he felt that research in this area had become unscientific.
Giant squid genome map offers some surprises re its giant brain
“‘For a long time, we thought that having a lot of protocadherins was only found in vertebrates, so we were really surprised when we found more than 160 of them in the octopus genome,’ said Albertin, in reference to her 2015 paper on the subject.”
Home-schooled Christian students as tomorrows science leaders? Jonathan Wells responds
Jonathan Wells: I have consistently found that these two groups [home-schooled students or students from private Christian schools] are among the brightest and most interested of attendees, and they raise most of the best questions.
Short ID film tackles homology
That is, Darwinians argue that similar structures in life forms are powerful evidence of common ancestry. Is that so? It’s part of an occasional series called Long Story Short.
Two mysterious blobs of hot rock at the edge of Earth’s core are “massive anomalies”
At Quanta, it’s suggested they might be linked to extinction events.
Sabine Hossenfelder makes it to Slashdot
Hossenfelder: What we have here in the foundation of physics is a plain failure of the scientific method. All these wrong predictions should have taught physicists that just because they can write down equations for something does not mean this math is a scientifically promising hypothesis.
Wow. Panpsychism gets a respectful hearing at Scientific American
Can you imagine that years ago? But the fact is, materialists are out of ideas about consciousness and don’t know where to go.
Thinking More Deeply About Causation
Most people (including experts) tend to have a one-level view of causation. That is, they have a static idea of what the subject matter is, and then they look to see how the pieces bounce around within that static structure. That more or less works for physics. It totally fails everywhere else.
At Aeon: Airing doubts about the Darwinian view of human nature
The Twitter mob must be at lunch or something. An entire industry of bestselling Darwindrivel is disrespected and this prof still has her JOB?
Granville Sewell: Darwinism as a form of losing one’s mind
In an age when objectivity is becoming science’s enemy in the United States and massive corruption is a norm in its former science competitor Russia, scientists can still make a virtue out of being true to Darwin. Wherever that lands them.
Will home-schooled Christian students be the science leaders of tomorrow?
It will be interesting indeed if the legacy of the thought traditions that provided a basis for science in the western world ended up being carried on mainly by devout Christians. While the official science world continues to mires and beclown itself in a war on objectivity.