Prize Winning Catholic Biologist Creationists Can’t Stand Kenneth Miller wrote the biology textbook often targeted by creationists who want to toss it from public schools. Oh, and now he’s won one of the Catholic Church’s top prizes. Brown University biologist Kenneth Miller, one of America’s leading advocates, has just received one of America’s oldest and most prestigious awards—from the Roman Catholic Church. At commencement on May 18, the University of Notre Dame will honor Miller with the 2014 Laetare Medal, an award given annually to a Catholic “whose genius has ennobled the arts and sciences, illustrated the ideals of the Church and enriched the heritage of humanity.” The award was first given in 1883 and previous recipients include former President Read More ›

Paul Nelson poses question to Nick on Paul Nelson Day and a report of Nick Matzke’s response to Paul Nelson

From the National Center for Selling Evolutionism (NCSE) NCSE is delighted to congratulate Zack Kopplin, recently named as the winner of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology’s 2014 Howard K. Schachman Public Service Award. In a March 24, 2014, press release, Jeremy Berg, president of the ASBMB and director of the University of Pittsburgh’s Institute for Personalized Medicine, commented (PDF), “Zack has been a true champion of science education, which has become all the more important in these times where educational standards are being debated. … Zack has tirelessly fought for the teaching of evolution in classrooms.” Among Kopplin’s achievements is the launch of the campaign, now in its fourth incarnation as Senate Bill 175 (PDF), to repeal Read More ›

DNA Skittle was a DNA visualization program pioneered by John Sanford to help identify design features of DNA that are recognizable to the human visual system. The program is available for free, but the Skittle developers need help with ensuring it is usable through internet channels. Can you spare 10 minutes and review the product and post comments here at UD or: CEU DNA Skittle Feedback. If you want an account at CEU just post here at UD that you want an account, and I’ll have a temporary password emailed to you (your UD profile email) using your UD handle as your CEU username. Here is the first round of feedback the Skittle team needs: Are all the buttons functional Read More ›

Not too many months ago I ran across Richard Dawkins’ statement that life got its start when, somehow, on the early Earth a self-replicating molecule formed.  I nearly fell out of my chair laughing.  I had read the quote before, and he has repeated the idea in various writings and interviews, but after having studied the issues with abiogenesis in a bit more detail, in particular the concept of a self-replicating molecule to kick off the origin of life, the idea struck me as particularly preposterous. In this post, I want to follow up on the other recent thread regarding abiogenesis.  This time, however, I want to focus on the matter of self-replication. The Abiogenesis Paradigm As mentioned, the idea Read More ›