2012

A recent study of how phosphate groups regulate proteins uncovered a complex network of interactions. Kinases are proteins that add a phosphate group to a molecule, such as another protein, and phosphatases are proteins that remove the phosphate group. A protein is phosphorylated when a phosphate group is attached to a hydroxyl group in the side chain of a specific and particular amino acid out of the hundreds in the protein. Such phosphorylation controls the protein’s activity, for instance by altering the protein’s shape or attracting another molecule to bind to the protein. Furthermore, the kinase and phosphatase proteins themselves are regulated. It’s just a small bit, as the study helped demonstrate, of the cell’s immensely complex regulation network. Of course this Read More ›

In the contemporary scientific world we thus have the very unusual situation that one of science’s most influential theories, biological macroevolution, stands in such a close relationship to naturalistic philosophy that it can be deduced from it directly – that is, without even needing to consider any evidence, as the ancient arguments of Lucretius plainly show. This circumstance is extraordinary since it is very difficult to think of another scientific theory that is in a similar position. (Page 98) – John Lennox, quoted in Amanda Read, “Darwinocracy: The evolution question in American politics” (Washington Times, September 3, 2011). Oxford mathematician John Lennox is the author of God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?. Here’s an interview with him.

It has long since been known that the cells of organisms give off light but exactly how and why they do this has not been well understood. Evidence has suggested that this electromagnetic energy is more than merely a random by-product of metabolic processes but rather contains information which is transmitted and received by different cells. One recent study, for example, confirmed that some sort of non chemical information is transmitted between cells, in this case of the unicellular organism Paramecium caudatum. Different populations of the organism, separated by glass or quartz barriers which allow only certain frequencies of light, showed correlated activity. It appeared that one population can influence cell division and metabolic activities in neighboring populations. The barriers prevented Read More ›