2011

Also, from Stephen Battersby (New ScientistJune 21, 2011), we learn: , “Largest cosmic structures ‘too big’ for theories”: We know that the universe was smooth just after its birth. Measurements of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB), the light emitted 370,000 years after the big bang, reveal only very slight variations in density from place to place. Gravity then took hold and amplified these variations into today’s galaxies and galaxy clusters, which in turn are arranged into big strings and knots called superclusters, with relatively empty voids in between. On even larger scales, though, cosmological models say that the expansion of the universe should trump the clumping effect of gravity. That means there should be very little structure on scales Read More ›

Catching up with the news from outer space, from New Scientist’s Vanessa Thomas and Richard Webb (June 13, 2011), we learn that spiral galaxies are a headscratcher for cosologists: Easy as these spiral beauties are on the eye, for cosmologists they are becoming something of a headache. As we survey the spiral galaxies around us more closely, nagging doubts are creeping in that some of the largest, most luminous examples in fact look rather too perfect. What’s more, many of them seem to be in entirely the wrong place. How can a galaxy be in the “wrong” place? Doesn’t anyone enforce our rules out there? – (Registration required)

At Eurekalert, we learn about “The mechanics of speciation: Model examines factors that contribute to the emergence of new species” (24-Jun-2011). And we learn that sympatric speciation – a key current claim – is “not impossible.” Read More ›

Welcome news from ScienceDaily (June 24, 2011), for people who are fed up with Genes Rule contending with Environment Rules:

Effects of Stress Can Be Inherited, and Here’s How

“There has been a big discussion about whether the stress effect can be transmitted to the next generation without DNA sequence change,” said Shunsuke Ishii of RIKEN Tsukuba Institute. “Many people were doubtful about such phenomena because the mechanism was unknown. Our finding has now demonstrated that such phenomena really can occur.” Read More ›

The latest edition of The Reasoner (Volume 5, Number 7 – July 2011),

a monthly digest highlighting exciting new research on reasoning, inference and method broadly construed. It is interdisciplinary, covering research in, e.g., philosophy, logic, AI, statistics, cognitive science, law, psychology, mathematics and the sciences,

is available for download. Articles of interest: Read More ›

“… the most complex animal group, the chordates, were represented at the beginning, and they did not go through a slow gradual evolution to become a chordate.”

The Darwin circus wagons should have halted there at Chengjiang and been repurposed as hot dog stands for public convenience. But too much had been invested. Paul Chien, chairman of the biology department at the University of San Franciscos explained some while back to Leadership University the significance of the Chinese Cambrian era fossils,

Chien: In some ways there are similarities between the China site and the other famous site, the Burgess Shale fauna in Canada. But it turns out that the China site is much older, and the preservation of the specimens is much, much finer. Even nerves, internal organs and other details can be seen that are not present in fossils in any other place.

RI: And I suppose many of these are probably soft-tissue marine-type animals?

Chien: Yes, including jellyfish-like organisms. They can even see water ducts in the jellyfish. They are all marine. That part of western China was under a shallow sea at the time. Read More ›

At ScienceDaily we learn, “Scientists Uncover an Unhealthy Herds Hypothesis” (June 24, 2011), Biologists worldwide subscribe to the healthy herds hypothesis, the idea that predators can keep packs of prey healthy by removing the weak and the sick. This reduces the chance disease will wipe out the whole herd, but could it be that predators can also make prey populations more susceptible to other predators or even parasites? Biologists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have discovered at least one animal whose defenses against a predator make it a good target for one opportunistic parasite. In principle, that should be no surprise; most defense strategies carry a cost, for water fleas or nations. That’s because while growing larger keeps Daphnia Read More ›

Bernard Wood asks “Did early homo migrate into or out of Africa?” (Science June 17, 2011):

The origin of our own genus remains frustratingly unclear. Although many of my colleagues are agreed regarding the “what”with respect to Homo, there is no consensus as to the “how” and “when” questions. Until relatively recently, most paleoanthropologists (including the writer) assumed Africa was the answer to the “where” question, but in a little more than a decade discoveries at two sites beyond Africa, one at Dmanisi in Georgia and the other at Liang Bua on the island of Flores, have called this assumption into question.

Meanwhile, Anne Gibbons asks, Who was homo habilis? And was it really homo? (Science June 17, 2011): Read More ›

In a previous post, I misidentified Mathgrrl with another anonymous contributor to Uncommon Descent, and accused Mathgrrl of making uncivil and ungentlemanly remarks on a certain evolution forum. It now turns out that this identification was incorrect. I would like to apologize to Mathgrrl.

A bid by Darwinists to acquire rights to the Expelled documentary on the ID theorists has failed. From TOAF:

Combined with the funds the Foundation already had on hand, we had just over $50,000 available to bid on the film (and pay the 10% buyer’s premium). The winning bid, however, was $201,000. Because all of the bidders were anonymous, we do not know identity of the winning bidder.

Film probably went to business interest. More later.

Update, just in: Walt Ruloff and his associates, who were the original producers of EXPELLED, won the auction. More later.

Timeline

Talk origins were trying to buy Expelled “The reason given is so they can then release unpublished material, but equally they could prevent future sales of the film.”

10 June 2011 Expelled film to be sold due to bankruptcy. That was not a surprise.

There is a hiatus in significant coverage at this point because the companies that owned various aspects of Expelled lost touch with the people featured in it – for reasons still unexplained – despite the fact that the film was doing well.

23 October 2008 Expelled #1 in documentaries, #11 in DVDs Read More ›

Apparently so. And not what was predicted. t Access Research Network, British physicist David Tyler reflects on new atheist claims about how beliefs arise, as opposed to verifiable facts on the same subject (“Science as the saviour of humanity” 06/27/11):

Here are some data of relevance to these questions. We have a trend of increasing secularism in the UK and in the US. Are there discernible trends relating to superstitions? In the UK, during the National Science Week in 2003, a survey was undertaken of superstitious behaviour. The first two findings are as follows:”* The current levels of superstitious behaviour and beliefs in the UK are surprisingly high, even among those with a scientific background. Touching wood is the most popular UK superstition, followed by crossing fingers, avoiding ladders, not smashing mirrors, carrying a lucky charm and having superstitious beliefs about the number 13.” Read More ›

That their existence is part of the foundation of Christianity. Anglican Curmudgeon usefully points out the reasons that an “evolutionary” interpretation of Christianity is impossible, citing atheist (and former Christian) Michael Ruse’s arguments in From Monad to Man: Let me be open. I think that evolution is a fact and that Darwinism rules triumphant. Natural selection is not simply an important mechanism. It is the only significant cause of permanent organic change. And that bias permeates his subsequent investigation into the conflicts, particularly when it comes to considering monogenism, the idea that current humans are the descendants of a single set of original parents. Citing the work of evolutionary biologist and Dominican priest Francisco Ayala, Ruse writes (pp. 75-76): Francisco Read More ›

According to a Reuters story published by The Guardian (27 June 2011), we may expect to encounter alien civilisations within twenty years: Russian scientists expect humanity to encounter alien civilisations within the next two decades, a top Russian astronomer said on Monday.”The genesis of life is as inevitable as the formation of atoms … Life exists on other planets and we will find it within 20 years,” said Andrei Finkelstein, director of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Applied Astronomy Institute, according to the Interfax news agency. Speaking at an international forum dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial life, Finkelstein said 10% of the known planets circling suns in the galaxy resemble Earth. If water can be found there, then so Read More ›

In “Quantum Magic’ Without Any ‘Spooky Action at a Distance” (ScienceDaily, June 25, 2011), we learn:

Quantum mechanical entanglement is at the heart of the famous quantum teleportation experiment and was referred to by Albert Einstein as “spooky action at a distance.” A team of researchers led by Anton Zeilinger at the University of Vienna and the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information of the Austrian Academy of Sciences used a system which does not allow for entanglement, and still found results which cannot be interpreted classically.

Gets better: Read More ›

While many people today think that “purpose” is an ill-founded biological category, most people aren’t aware of its historical significance in the history of biology. The “doctrine of creation” has been a formalized version of the idea of purpose in biology, and is at least in name still adhered to by theistic evolutionists (hence why they are now calling themselves “evolutionary creationists”). In the case of the evolutionary creationists, their use of the doctrine of creation is primarily a post-hoc mode of storytelling. However, historically, the doctrine of creation has been foundational to the making of modern biology. It is difficult to see, given its historical pedigree, why all-of-a-sudden trying to use the idea of purpose within biology is somehow Read More ›