2016

From Massimo Pigliucci at Aeon: The broader question then is: are we on the verge of developing a whole new science, or is this going to be regarded by future historians as a temporary stalling of scientific progress? Alternatively, is it possible that fundamental physics is reaching an end not because we’ve figured out everything we wanted to figure out, but because we have come to the limits of what our brains and technologies can possibly do? These are serious questions that ought to be of interest not just to scientists and philosophers, but to the public at large (the very same public that funds research in fundamental physics, among other things). What is weird about the string wars and Read More ›

From T’Mir Danger Julius at RealClearScience: But just because our classical electromagnetic theories are consistent with our observations, that does not imply that there are no magnetic monopoles. Rather, this just means that there are no magnetic monopoles anywhere that we have observed. Once we start to delve into the murky depths of theory, we begin to find some tempting arguments for their presence in the universe.More. It’s August. See also: Is fine-tuning a fallacy? Follow UD News at Twitter!

From Colin Barras at New Scientist: Early modern humans dressed for ice age success – Neanderthals, not so much. An analysis of animal remains at prehistoric hominin sites across Europe suggests modern humans clad themselves in snug, fur-trimmed clothing, while Neanderthals probably opted for simple capes. Even so, the finding suggests our extinct cousin was far more sophisticated than once thought. Some researchers argue that Neanderthals didn’t bother with clothes at all, others that they dressed in much the same way as early members of our species. Mark Collard at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, Canada, and his colleagues think the truth lies somewhere in between.More. A single find would overturn all this. See, for example, Neanderthal artwork found: “Academic Read More ›

Now that we think about it … From Independent: A quirk of evolution means a particular gene stays ‘switched on’ for longer than usual during snakes’ embryonic development Dr Rita Aires, from the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia (IGC) in Lisbon, Portugal, said: “The formation of different body regions works as a strong-arm contest of genes. Genes involved in trunk formation need to start ceasing activity so that genes involved in tail formation can start working. “In the case of snakes, we observed that the Oct4 gene is kept active during a longer period of embryonic development, which explains why snakes have such a long trunk and a very short tail.” An evolutionary change caused the Oct4 gene to be placed Read More ›

On stone tools. From ScienceDaily: How smart were human-like species of the Stone Age? New research reveals surprisingly sophisticated adaptations by early humans living 250,000 years ago in a former oasis near Azraq, Jordan. “What this tells us about their lives and complex strategies for survival, such as the highly variable techniques for prey exploitation, as well as predator avoidance and protection of carcasses for food, significantly diverges from what we might expect from this extinct species,” continues Nowell. “It opens up our ability to ask questions about how Middle Pleistocene hominins lived in this region and it might be a key to understanding the nature of interbreeding and population dispersals across Eurasia with modern humans and archaic populations such Read More ›

From ScienceDaily: Unlike humans, which are diploids — with two copies of each of their 23 chromosomes (one from each parent), — polyploids can have three, four or more copies of each chromosome. This makes them particularly prone to producing hybrids and, — in contrast to better-known hybrids such as the mule which is (the sterile product of a cross between a male donkey and a female horse), means that crosses between polyploids are often fertile. While hybrids might be expected to be a blend of the two parent species, the researchers found that they tended to have shorter and wider flower openings than both of the parent species which means that a wider range of pollinators can enter the Read More ›

From John Timmer at Ars Technica: Toward the end of last year, the people behind the Large Hadron Collider announced that they might have found signs of a new particle. Their evidence came from an analysis of the first high-energy data obtained after the LHC’s two general-purpose detectors underwent an extensive upgrade. While the possible new particle didn’t produce a signal that reached statistical significance, it did show up in both detectors, raising the hope that the LHC was finally on to some new physics. This week, those hopes have officially been dashed. Physicists used a conference to release their analysis of the flood of data that came out of this year’s run. According to their data, the area of Read More ›

A friend writes to urge that we have a look at the last book Wan-Ho wrote before she died: Meaning of Life and the Universe And added, “At the end of her life she seemed most fascinated by water, reflected in her science and art. She was inspired by the work of Emilio del Guidice:: See also: Mae Wan-Ho on electrons and consciousness

Pack a lunch. Bring a towel to sit on. From our favorite physicist, Rob Sheldon: The “2-sigma” bump in data from CERN’s Large Hadron Collider was widely touted in early summer: “If the observations are confirmed, it will be revolutionary. This could mean nothing less than the fall of the Standard Model of particle physics (SM), which has passed every experimental test thrown at it since it was first put together over four decades ago.” Not everyone was so enthusiastic. One particle physicist, Sabine Hossenfelder, wrote in an article for Forbes: “If the bump goes away, this would catapult us into what has become known as the “nightmare scenario” for the LHC: The Higgs and nothing else. Many particle physicists Read More ›

Daniel Payne writes in How The Left Is Weaponizing The American Legal System: For quite some time the American Left has been busy turning American law into a partisan political weapon. Various progressive factions have undertaken a disparate and uncoordinated but still ideologically homogeneous effort to criminalize dissent using the courts and statutory law. By most traditional metrics, these efforts have been failures: the liberals have often lost, and the conservative targets have avoided jail time or crippling criminal or civil convictions or penalties. But the weaponization of our legal system should not be judged by traditional metrics. The point is not for liberals to “win” any particular lawsuit or legal enforcement so much as it is to use lawsuits and Read More ›

From Douglas Axe’s Undeniable, Only a very few research scientists have the opportunity to work against that disjointed view by openly studying life as something clearly and cleverly designed. I am one and can count the others on my fingers. There re more wwho would like to have this opportunity, as shown every now and then by a paper that gets past the policing system of an establishment science journal. A recent example isa description of the architecture of the human hand as being “the proper design by the Creator t perform multitude of daily tasks in a comfortable way.” Infractions like this always ” almost always bring a reprimand. Everyone must decide for himself or herself what they can Read More ›

Granville Sewell in Christianity for Doubters: The odea of a judgment after death is terribly difficult for our modern minds to take seriously. But, for me, the idea that there will be no final justice – no reward for generosity, kindness, mercy, and courage, and no punishment for selfishness, betrayal, arrogance, and cruelty—is even harder to accept. That would mean that those who are confident that they will never be punished for their corruption and cruelty will be proved right, while those who believe their unselfishness and sacrifices will someday be recognized are deluding themselves.Christianity for Doubters:, p. 50 Maybe the mathematician in him sees unjust judgement as somehow wrong? See also: Granville Sewell on resurrection as metamorphosis Follow UD Read More ›

 From Moshe Averick, author of Nonsense of a High Order: The Confused World of Modern Atheism: It is common for people to talk about the development of complx life forms from simple living organisms or higher animals like mammals andpromates evolving from primitive forms of life. Th use of these types of terms is an egregious and inexcusable distortion of the reality. It only adds insult to injury that it I mainly scientists—who supposedly pride themselves on their pinpoint precision terminology—who are the truly guilty parties in the perpetuation of this distorted view. With this understanding then we clear up the final point of confusion about the Argument from Design: there is no such thing as simple or primitive life. Read More ›

Waynesburg University (Pennsylvania) biology prof Wayne Rossiter, author of In the Shadow of Oz, offers some thoughts on Templeton’s bad investment, BioLogos (theistic evolution): Of particular importance is the title of the blog: Why Christians Don’t Need to Be Threatened by Evolution. “For too long Christians in North America have thought the Bible was in conflict with biological evolution. Yet many orthodox Christian theologians of the nineteenth century (including Charles Hodge and B. B. Warfield) saw no conflict in principle.” First, that depends on what you mean by evolution. All brands of Christianity incorporate some theory of diversification and speciation that we might call biological evolution. But, if by “evolution” we mean the Darwinian mechanism as scientists understand it, with Read More ›

In the Induction thread, we have continued to explore inductive logic, science and ID vs Evolutionary Materialism. Among the key points raised (with the help of Hilary Putnam)  is the issue that while Popper sees himself as opposed to induction, it is arguable that instead he has actually (against his intent) brought it back in once we reckon with the need for trusted theories to be used in practical contexts, and once we explore the implications of corroboration and success “so far” with “severe testing.” As comment 48 observed: However, testing and falsification pose further difficulties, and it is worth highlighting such by headlining comment 50 in the thread: That is, unless there is a key vulnerability of design or Read More ›