Over at Why Evolution Is True, New Atheist Professor Jerry Coyne has posted a letter he received from one of his regular readers, Ben Goren, regarding a major theological flaw which (he claims) undermines not only Christianity, but any religion that worships a God (or gods) who is both omniscient and good: why doesn’t such a being (or beings) assist the police, firefighters and ambulance workers by calling 911 whenever someone is in danger? Goren writes: Imagine you find yourself in one of any number of calamitous situations — somebody you’re with clutches her chest in pain and falls to the floor; you hear, coming from the far end of a dark alley, the voice of a frightened old man Read More ›

At Huffington Post, Suzan Mazur interviews neuroscientist David Edelman on Paradigm shift “YES)”and origin of 3D organismal form”: Neuroscientist David Edelman, who’s currently on the faculties of the University of San Diego and the University of California, San Diego, and is the son of late Nobel laureate Gerald Edelman, says he agrees that an evolution paradigm shift needs to happen. Driver, this is our stop. Can we get out now? Anyway, Suzan Mazur:  … From your perspective as a neuroscientist, is there a paradigm shift underway in evolutionary thinking? David Edelman: I think there should be a shift. . . . The Modern Synthesis was a scientific reckoning — or coming to terms — among great thinkers: George Gaylord Simpson, Read More ›

 From Wood’s Hole: Ancient rocks harbored microbial life deep below the seafloor, reports a team of scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Virginia Tech, and the University of Bremen. This new evidence was contained in drilled rock samples of Earth’s mantle – thrust by tectonic forces to the seafloor during the Early Cretaceous period. The new study was published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The discovery confirms a long-standing hypothesis that interactions between mantle rocks and seawater can create potential for life even in hard rocks deep below the ocean floor. The fossilized microbes are likely the same as those found at the active Lost City hydrothermal field, providing potentially important clues about Read More ›

Every so often, we run posts linking to people speculating about what happened before the Big Bang. Pop science mag New Scientist offers to tell us the latest speculations, if we will but sign up eventually to pay something like US$22-$49 to discover, According to the big bang theory – our best explanation for why space is expanding – everything exploded from nothing about 13.8 billion years ago. Cosmologists have been able to wind things back to within a tiny fraction of a second of this moment. But now they’re stuck. Of course, any further attempt at discovery means assuming that 1) a Big Bang happened 2) anything at all happened before the Big Bang 3) our brains are shaped Read More ›

From ScienceDaily: Key molecular process in brain is different in males and females For 20 years, Woolley actively avoided studying sex differences in the brain until her own data showed her that differences between females and males were real. Her discovery, reported in 2012, that estrogens decreased inhibitory synaptic transmission in the brains of female rats but not in males, changed her thinking. … “We don’t know whether this finding will translate to humans or not,” Woolley said, “but right now people who are investigating endocannabinoids in humans probably are not aware that manipulating these molecules could have different effects in males and females.” That’s especially important if one is seeking medical treatment for a disease. “Being a scientist is Read More ›

Pizza, sliced: (Relevant to, is a finite whole greater than any of its proper parts?) BTW, Euclid, opening remarks: Axioms. i . Things which are equal to the same, or to equals, are equal to each other. ii . If equals be added to equals the sums will be equal. iii . If equals be taken from equals the remainders will be equal. iv . If equals be added to unequals the sums will be unequal. v . If equals be taken from unequals the remainders will be unequal. vi . The doubles of equal magnitudes are equal. vii . The halves of equal magnitudes are equal. viii . Magnitudes that can be made to coincide are equal. ix . Read More ›

From ScienceDaily: New research predicts that Earth has more than 1,500 undiscovered minerals and that the exact mineral diversity of our planet is unique and could not be duplicated anywhere in the cosmos. Wouldn’t that b bad news to the cosmos-a-minute/fund us!! crowd? Minerals form from novel combinations of elements. These combinations can be facilitated by both geological activity, including volcanoes, plate tectonics, and water-rock interactions, and biological activity, such as chemical reactions with oxygen and organic material. Nearly a decade ago, Hazen developed the idea that the diversity explosion of planet’s minerals from the dozen present at the birth of our Solar System to the nearly 5,000 types existing today arose primarily from the rise of life. More than Read More ›

Not gain. Darwinism, as taught in school, is the claim that natural selection acting on random mutation generates huge levels of information, not noise. Here is what really happens: Ann Gauger of the Biologic Institute here: Microbiologist Ralph Seelke and I published a paper in 2010 where we demonstrated that cells always, or nearly always, take the easiest road to success. Given a choice between a simple two-step path leading to repair of two genes needed to make tryptophan, versus a one-step path that eliminated expression of the those genes, only one out of a trillion cells went down the path toward making tryptophan, even though that path would ultimately be much more beneficial. Why did this happen? The genes Read More ›

I ran into an old friend from grad school the other day, who told me about an experience he had recently while attending a mathematics meeting at an Ivy League university. During the lunch break, my imaginary friend recounted, I ran into two mathematicians who were debating the results from a talk just given by Dr. A. “Dr. C here believes he has found an error on page 17 of the proof of my main theorem,” explained Dr. A. I looked at the theorem a while, then pointed out that if you transform everything into another coordinate system things are much simpler, and in the new coordinate system it is obvious that the theorem is false. “Oh” said Dr. A, Read More ›

From ScienceDaily: Brain size and complexity vary enormously across vertebrates, but it is not clear how these differences came about. Humans and frogs, for example, have been evolving separately for 350 million years and have very different brain abilities. Yet scientists have shown that they use a remarkably similar repertoire of genes to build organs in the body. The key lays in the process that Blencowe’s group studies, known as alternative splicing (AS), whereby gene products are assembled into proteins, which are the building blocks of life. During AS, gene fragments — called exons — are shuffled to make different protein shapes. It’s like LEGO, where some fragments can be missing from the final protein shape. AS enables cells to Read More ›

From Eurekalert: Giant ‘sea scorpion’ fossil discovered The fossil of a previously unknown species of ‘sea scorpion’, measuring over 1.5 meters long, has been discovered in Iowa, USA, and described in the open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology. Dating back 460 million years, it is the oldest known species of eurypterid (sea scorpion) – extinct monster-like predators that swam the seas in ancient times and are related to modern arachnids. Lead author, James Lamsdell from Yale University, USA, said: “The new species is incredibly bizarre. The shape of the paddle – the leg which it would use to swim – is unique, as is the shape of the head. It’s also big – over a meter and a half long!” Read More ›

Further to the recent announcement of philosopher of biology Will Provine’s passing, here were many fields to which he contributed. With a colleague, he did a most interesting study of evolutionary biologists, 78% of whom he described as pure naturalist atheists like himself. Some of his many reflections on the true meaning of the Darwinism he espoused: Let me summarize my views on what modern evolutionary biology tells us loud and clear — and these are basically Darwin’s views. There are no gods, no purposes, and no goal-directed forces of any kind. There is no life after death. When I die, I am absolutely certain that I am going to be dead. That’s the end of me. There is no ultimate Read More ›

Insane Denial.  This time from Learned Hand: And I have no way to check whether a slice can be greater than the whole other than by testing it Romans 1:22 leaps to mind. UPDATE: LH can’t seem to stop himself. He added Example 2,794 this morning: I cannot therefore be logically, absolutely certain of anything—not even that A=A. And then over At The Skeptical Zone we get 2,795 from “Colin” (LH goes by “Colin” there): I am logically perfectly certain only that I can’t be logically certain about anything else. I invite our readers to read the rest of the comments in that post at The Skeptical Zone, where all of the denizens of that site pile on and spout Read More ›

Thank you to Allan MacNeill for the following announcement: Sorry about the placement of this, but Will Provine, perhaps the greatest historian of evolutionary biology of the 20th century, has died. He was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 1995, had it surgically removed and underwent chemo and radiation. The tumor returned about four years ago and eventually killed him. Here is a link to his FaceBook page announcing his passing: https://www.facebook.com/will.provine?fref=ts Will was an unusually generous, gentle, and kind man. He always invited creationists and ID supporters to his evolution class, and always treated them with the utmost respect. He was a mentor to me and to hundreds of other historians, philosophers, and practitioners of evolutionary biology and population Read More ›

Here: Pioneer behind controversial PubPeer site reveals his identity Since launching in 2012, the website PubPeer has become a hub for post-publication peer review — often via anonymous posts. More than 35,000 comments have been posted so far and in the process the site has become a vehicle for making allegations of misconduct, and has even attracted a lawsuit. One of the site’s previously anonymous founders has now revealed his identity — Brandon Stell, a neuroscientist at the French national science organization CNRS in Paris. … Will you ever require commenters to be open about their identities? I can’t see that ever happening, but I don’t want to talk in definitives. In an ideal world, we would all be very Read More ›