Sometimes UD’s comment exchanges are highly informative. In this case, in a Quote of the Day thread: DK, 15: >> [To WJM] [WJM to Seversky, 14:] If I can one minute decide for myself that a moral code is binding on me, and decide for myself the next minute that it is not, exactly how Read More…
Month: August 2015
Free chapter on macroevolution from $80 2012 book
From Evolution: Making sense of life by science writer Carl Zimmer and evolutionary biologist Doug Emlen: Science writer Carl Zimmer and evolutionary biologist Douglas Emlen have teamed up to write a textbook intended for biology majors that will inspire students while delivering a solid foundation in evolutionary biology. As .pdf, courtesy the Darwin in the Read More…
Pushback against accepting non-evidence-based science?
At Not Even Wrong, Columbia mathematician Peter Woit notes, Online media stories with skepticism about the multiverse continue to appear. The latest one is by Shannon Hall at Nautilus, with the title Is it Time to Embrace Unverified Theories? (I think it’s a general rule that the answer to all questions in titles is No). Read More…
Remember when red wine was heart healthy?
From CBS News: HARTFORD, Conn. – A University of Connecticut researcher known for his work on the benefits of red wine to heart health falsified his data in more than 100 instances, and nearly a dozen scientific journals are being warned of the potential problems after publishing his studies in recent years, officials said Wednesday. Read More…
Arguing for separate but same eel species
Because Darwin. From Science Nordic: Both groups breed in the same area in the Caribbean, the Sargasso Sea, but typically you would expect a long-term physical separation of the two, to allow them to develop in different directions. This makes them a great mystery of evolution. Now scientists have solved this puzzle. It turns out Read More…
Violence is Not a Bug of Materialist Metaphysics; It is a Feature
I have already featured the following from Seversky as our quote of the day: I do not hold that there are no binding moral principles. I say we are entitled to decide for ourselves which moral codes should bind us. This does not mean that abominations like the Nazis or Stalinist Russia or Pol Pot’s Read More…
Epigenetics: Lamarck, the evolution desk is yours again, if you like
At Evolution News & Views: Epigenetic change: Lamarck, wake up, you’re wanted in the conference room! To recap, Darwinism entails vertical transfer of genes from a common ancestor to descendants. Horizontal gene transfer means transfer of genes from one organism to another on contact, irrespective of the ancestry of either life form. HGT is a Read More…
Quote of the Day
Seversky I do not hold that there are no binding moral principles. I say we are entitled to decide for ourselves which moral codes should bind us. This does not mean that abominations like the Nazis or Stalinist Russia or Pol Pot’s Cambodia are inevitable. Those regimes imposed their policies by the most brutal violence Read More…
How did 20-30 myo salamander in amber get IN there?
From ScienceDaily: More than 20 million years ago, a short struggle took place in what is now the Dominican Republic, resulting in one animal getting its leg bitten off by a predator just before it escaped. But in the confusion, it fell into a gooey resin deposit, to be fossilized and entombed forever in amber. Read More…
World’s first flower (?) 125-130 mya
Montsechia/Oscard Sanisidro From Indiana University, Indiana University paleobotanist David Dilcher and colleagues in Europe have identified a 125 million- to 130 million-year-old freshwater plant as one of earliest flowering plants on Earth. The finding, reported today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, represents a major change in the presumed form of one Read More…
Can new genes arise from junk DNA?
From Quanta Magazine: Emerging data suggests the seemingly impossible — that mysterious new genes arise from “junk” DNA. Genes, like people, have families — lineages that stretch back through time, all the way to a founding member. That ancestor multiplied and spread, morphing a bit with each new iteration. For most of the last 40 Read More…
Re-thinking “adaptive radiation”
One of biology’s most important concepts, no? From Pos-Darwinista: A lizard lineage which has evolved over the last 19 million years has helped scientists to re-think one of the most important concepts of modern biology. ‘Adaptive radiation’ is recognised as a pillar of evolutionary science. It describes the development of new biodiversity, and is triggered Read More…
Without respect for fact, Wikipedia reform hopeless
Further to Wikipedia is a reliable source. – yrs, Easter Bunny (“Controversial,” we repeatedly find, means only that some powerful lobby doesn’t like the information presented. It often has nothing to do with whether the information was accurately or adequately sourced), From ScienceDaily: On Wikipedia, politically controversial science topics vulnerable to information sabotage As society Read More…
How Materialists Mutilate Language in the Service of Mutilating People
In a recent post I castigated Zachriel for his support of the practice of chopping little boys and girls into pieces and selling the pieces like meat in the marketplace. In response Popperian weighs in with this: The problem, which Barry seem to have difficulty grasping, is that all words are ultimately undefined. As Read More…
Wikipedia is a reliable source. – yrs, Easter Bunny
From RealClearScience: Wikipedia Wars: ‘Controversial’ Science Topics Are Edited More Often Than Uncontroversial Topics Blow us away again, will you? “Controversial,” we repeatedly find, means nothing more than that some powerful lobby doesn’t like the information presented. It often has nothing to do with whether the information was accurately or adequately sourced. Adam Wilson and Read More…