Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

Peer Review On Trial

http://www.nature.com/nature/peerreview/index.html

Peer review is the bedrock of scientific publication (for Nature’s position on peer review, see our Guide to Authors). It is widely considered essential for improving submitted papers and enhancing the credentials of scientists as well as those of the journals in which they choose to publish.

But, like any process, peer review requires occasional scrutiny and assessement. Has the Internet bought new opportunities for journals to manage peer review more imaginatively or by different means? Are there any systematic flaws in the process? Should the process be transparent or confidential? Is the journal even necessary, or could scientists manage the peer review process themselves?

Nature’s peer review process has been maintained, unchanged, for decades. We, the editors, believe that the process functions well, by and large. But, in the spirit of being open to considering alternative approaches, we are taking two initiatives: a web debate and a trial of a particular type of open peer review. Read More ›

New Jersey Democrats Want Coulter’s Book Banned

This should help boost sales! Two New Jersey Democrats are pushing to have Ann Coulter’s new book “Godless: The Church of Liberalism,” banned from all bookstores in their state because she criticized four 9/11 widows known as “the Jersey Girls.” http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/6/10/235539.shtml

Open Letter by Edward Sisson on Cobb County Appellate Decision

Edward Sisson reviews the Cobb County appellate decision: A fundamental problem with the Appellate decision is that it appears to accept an implicit assumption that “those who endorse evolution” do so because they have made a rational, independent evaluation of the scientific data offered as evidence for its truth. But if, in fact, they endorse evolution because they have chosen to give unquestioning deference to science experts, it may be appropriate to treat their position as simply another religious position, rather than being a position divorced from religion. This may affect the application of the constitutional test, if it appears that the plaintiffs are in effect trying to support their own religious views by suppressing the Sticker. The court should Read More ›

A Prescient Comment

I’m not joking when I recommend Ann Coulter for the one to do the questioning if she’ll do it. I would guess she would since she’s a lawyer and it’s perfectly in line with the values she holds. A win-win situation. Guaranteed massive public discussion and endless play on TV, cable, magazines, and the internet. Talk about a poster girl for the cause. I’m surprised she hasn’t done a weekly column on it yet. She’s gotta be thinking about it even as we speak. Science, religion, politics, conservative values, activist judges, democracy thwarted… this issue has it all. It’s ripe for prime time. Carpe diem! Comment by DaveScot — May 17, 2005 @ 3:30 pm No wonder there was no Read More ›

Ann Coulter: The Wedge for the Masses

Having been a sounding board for Ann Coulter on chapters 8-10 of GODLESS, I’m happy to see the entire book now that it is out. Ann is taking Phillip Johnson’s message as developed in DARWIN ON TRIAL and REASON IN THE BALANCE and bringing it home to the masses. Critics will dismiss it for its hyperbole, lack of nuance, and in-your-face attitude. But she has the gist just right, which is that materialism (she calls it liberalism) dominates our culture despite being held by only a minority of the populace and has become an agenda among our elites (academy, scientists, media) for total worldview reprogramming. Close to half the book is devoted to science and evolution. I cannot help but Read More ›

New approach to SETI: Further confirmation of the utility of the Explanatory Filter

Here is an article about a new SETI telescope that searches light waves rather than radio waves. What kind of light are they looking for? Today’s laser technology makes it possible for petawatt (10^15W) lasers to emit highly collimated nanosecond optical pulses that briefly outshine the Sun by a factor of 10000. Because no known astrophysical source could put out a bright nanosecond optical pulse, some SETI searchers have concluded that looking for signals from technologically advanced aliens is more promising with optical telescopes than with radio telescopes. If we find nanosecond pulses, we can’t lose,” says Horowitz. “If it’s not from an alien civilization, at least we will have discovered an astrophysical phenomenon that no one anticipated. Not a Read More ›

Mike Gene’s new book

In the very first post for this blog, I noted that Mike Gene is someone you should know (go here). Mike has a new book coming out, THE DESIGN MATRIX. For a little video presentation on the book, go here. I’m eagerly awaiting its release.

Writing Computer Programs by Random Mutation and Natural Selection

The first computer program every student writes is called a “Hello World” program. It is a simple program that prints “Hello World!” on the screen when executed. In the course of writing this bit of code one learns about using the text editor, and compiling, linking and executing a program in a given programming environment.

Here’s a Hello World program in the C programming language:

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Thinking about ID as a Theory of Causation

I think one of the biggest confusions about Intelligent Design is that it is a theory of origins. This has caused a tremendous amount of confusion on both sides of the fence. If Intelligent Design was a theory of origins, many of ID’s criticisms of ID would make much more sense. But I think that ID is really a theory of causation.

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ID’s Cultured Theological Despisers — Simon Conway Morris’s Boyle Lecture 2005 (#1)

Check out the transcript of Simon Conway Morris’s 2005 Boyle Lecture: http://www.stmarylebow.co.uk/?Boyle_Lectures:2005. He just can’t seem to leave ID alone: Rather it seems to me that Intelligent Design has a more interesting failing, a theological failing. Consider a possible analogy, that of Gnosticism. Where did this claptrap come from? Who knows, but could it be an attempt to reconcile orphic and mithraic mysteries with a new, and to many in the Ancient World a very dangerous, Christianity? So too in our culture, those given over to being worshippers of the machine and the computer model, those admirers of organized efficiency, such would not expect the Creator – that is the one identified as the engineer of the bacterial flagellar motor Read More ›

Facilitated variation — the “conceptual completion” of Darwin’s theory of evolution?

Marc Kirschner’s idea of “bias toward useful variations” sure sounds teleological. I personally am biased to score well on standardized tests. And the reason for this bias is that I’m an intelligent agent who knows how to take these tests and score high. So perhaps Marc Kirschner’s theory of facilitated variation is a form of ID? You think he would warm to that idea? Probably not.

Answers to Darwin’s dilemma
Evolution is biased toward useful variations that emerge from genetic similarities shared by all living organisms
By Marc Kirschner
(June 9, 2006)

Biologist Marc W. Kirschner is founding chairman of the systems biology department at Harvard Medical School where he and his colleagues study the temporal and spatial cues that affect embryonic development. With co-author John Gerhart of the University of California, Berkeley, he explores natural selection in the face of biology’s most recent discoveries in The Plausibility of Life: Resolving Darwin’s Dilemma, which was reviewed by University of California, Irvine evolutionary biologist Francisco J. Ayala in the April issue of Science & Theology News.

With the release of the genome sequence in 2000, biologists finally realized that 22,500 is the magic number of genes needed to produce each person. That number is only one-and-a-half times that of a fruit fly and only six times the number in a bacterium — the simplest organism living on this planet. Looking at those genes, it was found that 15 percent were quite similar to those of bacteria, 50 percent were similar to those of a fruit fly, and 70 percent of flies were similar to those of a frog.

Humans are incredibly complex. Each person’s body contains about a hundred trillion cells and has probably thousands of cell types. So the question naturally arises: How do you get variety out of so few genes? How can animals be so different when many of the genes are the same? In short, where does novelty come from? Read More ›

[UD Exclusive:] “The Strange Case of Steve Rissing” by Jerry Bergman

Steve Rissing is a biology professor at Ohio State University involved in attempting to deny a Ph.D. student, Mr. Bryan Leonard, his degree. The trigger for Leonard’s problems began when Rissing (a well known active opponent of anyone who questions Darwin), and a math and anthropology professor wrote a letter claiming that “There is evidence that Mr. Leonard’s dissertation committee has been improperly constituted and that his research may have involved unethical human-subject experimentation.” The letter was sent to Carole Anderson, interim dean of Ohio State’s graduate school, in a clear effort to prevent Leonard from earning his doctorate at OSU (Hall, 2005). The “experimentation” the letter refers to is actually Leonard’s normal state approved high-school student instruction! The objectors Read More ›