As opposed to junk food for the mind on the brain: Last night I taught a two hour class called ‘Navigating Neuroscience’ for the Guardian Masterclass series and I had the interesting challenge of coming up with a two hour course on some key concepts to help people make better sense of brain science, how it’s discussed, and its changing place in society. As part of that, I recommended some books to give interested non-specialists a good critical introduction. I added a book after hearing some of the questions and I’ve included the list below. I’ve mentioned some of them before on Mind Hacks in their own right, but I thought they’re worth mentioning as a set. The books have Read More ›

At Evolution News & Views, Michael Denton, author of Evolution: Still a Theory in Crisis (2016), offers, Natural Life: Cosmological Fine-Tuning as an Argument for Structuralism After being in the cold for most of the past 150 years, overshadowed by the “cult of the artifact,” the traditional notion that life is an integral part of the natural order has found renewed support in the revelation of 20th-century physics and cosmology that the laws of nature are uniquely fine-tuned to a remarkable degree to generate environmental conditions ideal for life as it exists on earth. The 20th-century cosmological evidence that the universe is fine-tuned for life is based on the observation that if the various fundamental forces and constants which determine Read More ›

Well, at least those who think it isn’t are making their views clearer. From science writer Michael Brooks at New Scientist: Ah, the naivety of the older generation. Nearly 500 eminent astronomers, biologists, chemists, physicists and earth scientists have been surveyed to identify the “core traits of exemplary scientists”. Their answer? Honesty is critical, second only to curiosity, and we ought to do more to instil it in those considering science careers. Why dishonesty anyway? Because it gets the job done. Raymond De Vries at the University of Michigan and colleagues have argued that data manipulation based on intuition of what a result should look like is “normal misbehaviour”. They see such common misbehaviours as having “a useful and irreplaceable Read More ›

Bradshaw: What I’ve seen in a shockingly large slice of the Australian palaeo-science literature is not just sloppy, it’s downright disingenuous. It’s probably also funded, so … it’s kind of like a failing public school system where true causes can never be acknowledged in such a way as leads to positive change. From climatologist and conservationist CJA Bradshaw at Conservation Bytes, (offering outcome analysis for biodiversity policies), At risk of sounding a bit like a broken record (I wonder if the Millennials understand the meaning of that expression), the complex interplay of changing climatic conditions and the sudden appearance of an extremely efficient predator (humans) is likely to have operated rather differently around the world. This is because the variation Read More ›

A reader writes to ask why Dr. Joseph Kuhn didn’t get the same treatment: at Baylor University Medical Center for a 2012 article, “Dissecting Darwinism,” as Bill Dembski got at Baylor U in 2000?: William Dembski was already a research fellow for the Seattle-based Discovery Institute when he was approached by Baylor University President Robert Sloan in 1996. Sloan had read some of Dembski’s work and thought that Dembski could help with his project of promoting the integration of faith and learning on campus. … But the honeymoon ended when the Polanyi Center established its website in January 2000. When “other groups with evolution-bashing agendas began linking up their Websites … An e-mail frenzy at Baylor spread to other schools. Read More ›

Readers may recall former Biologos leader Karl Giberson (see, for example, But at this point who cares what Darwin’s Christianhuffs at Huffpo?). Giberson now describes himself as a former evangelical. From the Gospel Coalition, which is unsymathetic but treisto be charitable, some thoughts on his most recent book, Saving the Original Sinner: Giberson’s irritation with the concept of basic beliefs and their implications connects with another aspect of Saving the Original Sinner. Complaining of evangelical “heresy hunts,” he also disparages the place of confessional statements in institutional life. Why? The fact is some—perhaps all—of the individuals Giberson casts as victims challenged and contradicted commitments to which they’d subscribed at their hiring. This doesn’t mean in every case they were entirely Read More ›

Laszlo Bencze Philosopher and photographer Laszlo Bencze wrote late last week to say, Today’s Wall Street Journal has an article about a Nashville record producer titled “Dave Cobb Puts the Live in the Studio” (February 10, 2016, (paywall)). Midway through the article he describes a technique he used with a country band “to break the ice and steer them toward unexpected sounds”: Mr. Cobb sent them on a hunt through the dollar bins of vinyl record stores. “He was like, ‘Pick out three or four records you definitely never heard or artists you never heard of,’” recalls Ms. Price. “We’d come in every day and we’d just drop the needle and see if any track or any groove inspired us. Read More ›

From the article: Biologists say they have solved the riddle of how a tiny bacterium senses light and moves towards it: the entire organism acts like an eyeball. … Despite being just three micrometres (0.003mm) in diameter, the bacteria in the study use the same physical principles as the eye of a camera or a human. This makes them “probably the world’s smallest and oldest example” of such a lens, the researchers write in the journal eLife. Cyanobacteria, including the Synechocystis species used in the study, are an ancient and abundant lifeform. They live in water and get their energy from photosynthesis – which explains their enthusiasm for bright light. … “Cyanobacteria are 2.7 billion years old, so it’s much Read More ›

Prof. Robert Marks, Editor-in-Chief of Bio-Complexity, offers the following vids, featuring computer scientist Winston Ewert’s work: (Part I, Part II, and Part III:   Part I: Paper. Dr. Winston Ewert, a Senior Research Scientist at both Biologic Institute and the Evolutionary Informatics lab, discusses the mathematical foundation for why we know Mount Rushmore is designed and Mount Fuji isn’t. The mathematical theory of algorithmic specified complexity is introduced and illustrated. A single complex snowflake, for example, displays essentially zero algorithmic specified complexity whereas two identical snowflakes earns a high algorithmic specified complexity. The model discussed by Dr. Ewert can also measure algorithmic specified complexity in units of bits in the context of poker. Dr. Ewert explains how a Royal Flush Read More ›

From ScienceDaily: “That’s a trait of ants,” Barden said. “Many ant species do that all the time. They’re always warring with either other individuals of the same species from different colonies or with different species.” … The fighting ants and others trapped in ancient Burmese amber from Myanmar are among the earliest known ants. “These early ants belong to lineages distinct from modern ants,” he said. “That is, they aren’t necessarily the direct ancestors of modern ants. They’re kind of their own branch doing their own thing.” The study also provides strong evidence that ancient ants — like modern ants — were social, according to Barden, who began a two-year, National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship in biology at Rutgers-Newark in Read More ›

From the Darwin Correspondence Project, a new and improved capability: Read and search the full texts of more than 8,500 of Charles Darwin’s letters, and information on 6,500 more. Discover complete transcripts of all known letters Darwin wrote and received up to the year 1871. More. The letters to and from Darwin for the year 1871 are online for the first time. See also, in honor of Evolution Sunday, when churches going extinct celebrate their status, Why do “Darwinists for God” need to pretend that Darwin was not an atheist? “… one of the strangest characteristics of the public Darwin cult is the felt need to pretend that Darwin was some kind of believer in God. Here’s just such an Read More ›

It seems atheist Dan Barker has built on a notorious remark by Mr Dawkins and has published a book bearing the title as headlined. The question immediately arises: is he right, or is he holding a responsibly justified belief even were it in error? A glance at the Amazon page for the book gives the following summary: >>What words come to mind when we think of God? Merciful? Just? Compassionate? In fact, the Bible lays out God’s primary qualities clearly: jealous, petty, unforgiving, bloodthirsty, vindictive—and worse! Originally conceived as a joint presentation between influential thinker and bestselling author Richard Dawkins and former evangelical preacher Dan Barker, this unique book provides an investigation into what may be the most unpleasant character Read More ›

“The Biology of the Baroque” is a documentary that explores the amazing patterns, order, and beauty in biology that go beyond what can be explained by Darwinian evolution. It features geneticist Michael Denton and is inspired by Denton’s new book Evolution: Still a Theory in Crisis (2016).   Note: Michael Denton’s Evolution: Still a Theory in Crisis (2016): Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #27,153 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) #10 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Science > Evolution #11 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Science > Biological Sciences > Biology #83 in Books > Science & Math > Evolution In honour of Darwin Day, we note a review by “Charley Read More ›

Remember this? Bees and ants provide clue to human suicides? Those eusocial behaviors, understood as part of what is called inclusive fitness in evolutionary biology, are adaptive. “The idea is if you give up yourself, which would include your genes, it can be evolutionarily speaking ‘worth it’ if you spare or save multiple copies of your genes in your relatives,” Joiner said. “It’s a net benefit on the gene level.” However, when the researchers look at human suicide in a modern context, they surmise that suicide among humans represents a derangement of the self-sacrificial aspect of eusociality. More. Notice the huge assumption everyone is asked to accept up front, that humans and social insects think similarly. A thesis that bizarre Read More ›

Apparently, the folks at Darwin Day are getting U.S. politicians to declare Darwin Day in their jurisdictions: “Humanists Around the World Celebrate Darwin Day to Promote Science and Evolution … Since 2011, the American Humanist Association has worked closely with members of Congress to introduce the Darwin Day resolution. Introduced on December 3, 2015, by Rep. Jim Himes (CT-04) with 20 co-sponsors and counting, U.S. House Resolution 548 would officially recognize February 12, 2016, as a national celebration of Charles Darwin, the theory of evolution and the advances of scientists around the globe. The Secular Coalition for America, of which the AHA is a member organization, worked with Senator Richard Blumenthal (CT) in the U.S. Senate to introduce a companion Read More ›