In graduate school I had an evolution professor who made the absurd claim that he had solved the protein folding problem—one of the most challenging conundrums in molecular biology. And did he have any examples? No, that was left to the student. It was embarrassing. At another time he referenced a proof of evolution. But again, it was a hollow claim. Unfortunately this sort of phony science is what evolution is all about. The latest example is in how evolutionists are handling epigenetics.  Read more

First Iceball Earth is back (as a theory), now the volcanic vent as well. Seems to be Origin of Life Week around here. From Quanta: The biochemist David Deamer proposes that life evolved from a collection of interacting molecules, probably in a pool in the shadow of a volcano. Deamer (Ucal Santa Cruz) … thinks that volcanic landmasses similar to those in Iceland today would have made a hospitable birthplace for his proto-cells. Freshwater pools scattered across steamy hydrothermal fields would be subject to regular rounds of heating and cooling. That cycle could have concentrated the necessary ingredients — including both lipids and the building blocks for RNA — and provided the energy needed to stitch those building blocks into Read More ›

From ScienceDaily: Many researchers believe that Earth’s early oceans were very hot, reaching 80̊ Celsius, and that life originated in these conditions. New findings may prove the opposite to be true. Harald Furnes, Professor Emeritus at the Department of Earth Science, has analysed volcanic and sedimentary rocks in the Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa. The volcanic rocks were deposited at depths of 2 to 4 kilometres. “We have found evidence that the climate 3.5 billion years ago was a cold environment,” says Furnes. … Furnes thinks some researchers may have difficulties accepting the new knowledge of an early, cold Earth. A paradigm shift in Earth Science is not to be expected, but he thinks the climate of the early earth Read More ›

From ScienceDaily: Today, most researchers agree that the oxygenation of Earth’s atmosphere happened in two major steps: the first during the so-called Great Oxidation Event about 2.5-2.4 billion years ago, and the second during the Late Neoproterozoic Era around 750 to 540 million years ago. The latter is thought to have been the cause for the emergence of animals during the so-called ‘Cambrian explosion’ around 540 to 520 million years ago. An international team of researchers led by Professor Robert Frei from the Department of Geoscience and Natural Resource Management at the University of Copenhagen has just released a study indicating evidence for the presence of small concentrations of oxygen on Earth already 3.8 billion years ago. The researchers analysed Read More ›

Remember, from last Saturday, “A lot of science writers are tweeting about duck sex now, so that’s a plus.” Now, from Digg: On balance, Neil deGrasse Tyson has done an immense amount of work raising the public’s awareness around science. But peel back the veneer of his good fight against anti-science and you’re left with something that isn’t exactly pro-science. Starting a feud with B.o.B. over why the Earth isn’t flat doesn’t promote science, nor does it “convert” non-believers. Endlessly tweeting about scientifically incorrect things in ‘Star Wars’ isn’t getting anyone to thumb through a research paper. More. Gosh, Digg’s Cool score is pretty high. So is Tyson going to join Dawkins on the C list of retro science stars? Read More ›

Biophysicist Cornelius Hunter debates “Is Evolution Compelling.” Cornelius Hunter versus Michael Ruse, March 11, 2016. Note: Hunter often writes here at Uncommon Descent. We are trying to get vid of Ruse too. See also: Steve Meyer vs. Lawrence Krauss in Toronto this Saturday, live-streamed Follow UD News at Twitter!

After reading about how AlphaGo managed to trounce Lee Se-Dol 4-1 in a series of five games of Go, I had a feeling of déjà vu: where have I read about this style of learning before? And then it came to me: pigeons. Both computers and pigeons are incremental learners, and both employ probabilistic algorithms (such as the various machine learning algorithms used in artificial intelligence, and the computation of relative frequencies of positive or negative reinforcements, which is what pigeons do when they undergo conditioning) in order to help them home in on their learning target. Of course, there are several differences as well: computers don’t need reinforcements such as food to motivate them; computers learn a lot faster Read More ›

Pro ID Steve Meyer. No ID Larry Krauss. As noted here, and live streamed: Note: The University of Toronto has been fairly open-minded in hosting these types of events. One remembers – with some distress – a disgraceful scene at U Texas Amarillo (2013) where the admin totally caved to some nondescript Darwin troll displaying his asshat. But, come to think of it, Toronto is a world class city (Economist ranks it best place to live) and it is a long way from Amarillo. Maybe it should stay a long way away. Presser below: Lawrence M. Krauss, Stephen C. Meyer and Denis O. Lamoureaux discuss origins of the universe in public event News Release Thursday, March 17, 2016 FOR IMMEDIATE Read More ›

From 3 Tags: Scientists have sequenced the oldest human DNA ever, extracted from 430,000-year-old samples of fossilised tooth and a thigh bones, found in Spain’s Sima de los Huesos, which translates to “pit of bones”. In doing so, the team from Germany has found evidence that the ancient ancestors of modern humans must have split from the ancestors of Neanderthals hundreds of thousands of years earlier than we thought, which means it might be time for us to redraw the human family tree. Located in the Cueva Mayor-Cueva del Silo cave system in north-central Spain, the Sima de los Huesos archaeological site contains the largest and oldest collection of human remains ever discovered, with more than 6,500 fossilised bone fragments Read More ›

From David Klinghoffer at Evolution News and Views: Stump your Darwinist friends by asking them to explain, in evolutionarily adaptive terms, biological features like the precise pattern of the maple leaf or of an angiosperm flower. “That’s a fantastically serious challenge to Darwinism,” says Discovery Institute biologist Michael Denton in this brief but delightful video conversation — a “nightmarish scenario.” Why? Because Darwinism by definition must justify such features, including the taxa-defining novelties, as having been seized upon by natural selection because they were adaptive. I mean, that pattern specifically and not some other. It’s the specificity that’s the problem. More. Worse, Denton is too old to be denied a degree or fired. Note: Some friends will find the challenge Read More ›

From ScienceDaily: Pioneering Rutgers scientist helps reconstruct an ancient East African landscape where human ancestors lived 1.8 million years ago Our human ancestors, who looked like a cross between apes and modern humans, had access to food, water and shady shelter at a site in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania. They even had lots of stone tools with sharp edges, said Gail M. Ashley, a professor in the Rutgers Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences in the School of Arts and Sciences. But “it was tough living,” she said. “It was a very stressful life because they were in continual competition with carnivores for their food.” To say nothing of them and the carnivores’ becoming each others’ food sources. During years of Read More ›

And when they do… Seriously, from Amy Harmon at New York Times: Handful of Biologists Went Rogue and Published Directly to Internet On Feb. 29, Carol Greider of Johns Hopkins University became the third Nobel Prize laureate biologist in a month to do something long considered taboo among biomedical researchers: She posted a report of her recent discoveries to a publicly accessible website, bioRxiv, before submitting it to a scholarly journal to review for “official’’ publication. And what about the “name” journals? Researchers say they participate in the process in large part because the imprimatur of highly selective journals like Science, Nature and Cell has come to be viewed as a proxy for quality science. Like a degree from certain Read More ›

From Mustafa Akyol at New York Times: The scarcity of intellectual freedom under self-described Islamic states has received criticism from many corners, from Islamophobic conservatives to Muslim liberals. In response, the authorities who censor books or ban blogs usually shrug. They typically think that freedom of speech is a Western invention to which they don’t have to subscribe. In Malaysia, the government brazenly condemns “liberalism” and “human rights-ism.” These censors like to think that by protecting believers from dangerous ideas they are doing a great favor to Muslim societies. They are doing the opposite. Their thought-policing only helps enfeeble and intellectually impoverish Muslims: When Muslim minds aren’t challenged by “dangerous” ideas they cannot develop the sophistication needed to articulate their Read More ›

From ScienceDaily: Although traditionally viewed as a predator of insects, researchers have become increasingly aware that spiders are not exclusively insectivorous. Some spiders have been shown to enrich their diets by occasionally feasting on fish, frogs or even bats. A new study by Zoologists from the University of Basel, Brandeis University (US) and Cardiff University (UK) now shows evidence of spiders eating plant food as well. “The ability of spiders to derive nutrients from plants is broadening the food base of these animals; this might be a survival mechanism helping spiders to stay alive during periods when insects are scarce”, says lead author Martin Nyffeler from the University of Basel in Switzerland. “In addition, diversifying their diet with plant is Read More ›

Maybe. From Nature: The tyrannosaurs of the late Cretaceous period (80 million to 66 million years ago) are among the biggest carnivores to have walked the Earth. But their predecessors — who lived as far back as 170 million years ago, in the Jurassic period — were much smaller; they were generally no bigger than a horse. They also had proportionally smaller heads and longer arms, and lacked the sense of smell and ability to hear low-frequency sound of later tyrannosaurs. A 20-million-year gap in the fossil record, from 100 million years ago to the time of the giant tyrannosaurs’ appearance, has made it difficult to trace how the keen-sensed giant carnivores evolved. But fossil fragments found in the Kyzylkum Read More ›