From ScienceDaily: Cell signals that trigger wound healing are surprisingly complex The researchers were testing two prevailing hypotheses for the wound-response trigger. One is that damaged and dying cells release proteins into the extracellular fluid which surrounding cells sense, causing them to boost their internal calcium levels. This increased calcium concentration, in turn, triggers their transformation from a static to a mobile form, allowing them to begin sealing off the wound. The second hypothesis proposes that the trigger signal spreads from cell to cell through gap junctions, specialized intercellular connections that directly link two cells at points where they touch. These are microscopic gates that allow neighboring cells to exchange ions, molecules and electrical impulses quickly and directly. “What is Read More ›

Here: The event will essentially consist of debates about the Theory of Intelligent Design (TDI) and Evolution Theory highlighting points and counterpoints about its theoretical assumptions, the development of Science and implications for society, promoting the scientific debate between the naturalist worldview and the advances of physics, chemistry and modern biochemistry on the origin of life and the universe. And to know that Intelligent Design is not necessarily opposed to the idea of evolution, evolution can mean several things: change over time, common ancestry, and it may mean that non-directed processes have produced all changes over time. Design is not challenging the idea of change over time, but is challenging the idea that these changes that have occurred over time Read More ›

An interesting discussion, still absolutely open, has taken place in the last few days between Gordon Davisson and me on the thread: What? Only an “extremely occasional” mutation is beneficial? But Darwinism… ? Some very good friends, like Dionisio, Mung and Origenes, seem to have appreciated the discussion, which indeed has touched important issues. Origenes has also suggested that it could be transformed into an OP. Well, I tought that it was probably a good idea, and luckily it did not require much work. 🙂   So, here it is. Gordon Davisson’s posts are in italics. It’s a bit long, and I am sorry for that! I thank in advance Gordon Davisson for the extremely good contribution he has already Read More ›

Adam and Eve have certainly been in the news a lot lately. Recently, Joshua Swamidass distanced himself from Christian evolution group BioLogos over their insistence that Adam and Eve could not possibly have existed. Meanwhile, British plant geneticist Richard Buggs posted a letter he had sent in May to BioLogos’ Dennis Venema, taking issue with the claim that a population of 10,000 is required, as stated in Dennis Venema and Scot McKnight, Adam and the Genome: I was a bit surprised that you categorically state in your book that the past human effective population size has definitely never dropped below 10,000 individuals and say that this is a fact of comparable scientific certainty to heliocentrism. Most people working in the Read More ›

Proof found that we are not living in an AI simulation? From Cheyenne MacDonald at Daily Mail: Theoretical physicists have discovered that it is impossible, by principle, to simulate a quantum phenomenon that occurs in metals – and, ultimately, something as complex as the entire universe. … As the number of particles required for the simulation increased, the researchers found the simulation itself became far more complex. … While the computer simulation theory continues to gnaw at the minds of many, with people such as Elon Musk backing the idea, the new study suggests it would be impossible to generate the illusion of reality in this way. More. But once we go down the road of thinking that all this Read More ›

From the Babylon Bee: ENCINO, CA—Speaking to reporters Tuesday, television personality Bill Nye announced his plans to spend the evening of Halloween roaming his upscale Los Angeles neighborhood dressed as an actual scientist. “I’ve always wanted to be a real scientist, and I have the perfect costume,” said Nye, best known for playing the title role on the 1990’s Saturday morning children’s program Bill Nye The Science Guy. “I already have a lab coat and bow tie that make me look super science-y.” … “I’ll have to be careful what I say that night,” he added. “My costume is so convincing, people might believe that my personal opinions about a multitude of topics are actual scientific facts.” More. Sure. When Onions Read More ›

ENV brings a post by Robert J. Marks, co-author of Introduction to Evolutionary Informatics, to our attention.  Marks writes: Will A.I. ever achieve consciousness? A show-stopping reason that artificial intelligence and robots will never gain the higher abilities of humans is because features such as consciousness, understanding, sentience and creativity are beyond the reach of what we currently define as computers. Alan Turing invented the Turing Machine in the 1930s. The Church-Turing thesis states that anything that can be done on a computer today can be done on Turing’s original machine. It might take a billion or a trillion times as long, but it can be done. Therefore, operations that can’t be performed by a Turing Machine can’t be performed by today’s supercomputers. Read More ›

From Heather Heying ( Bret Weinstein’s wife, also a biologist) at Wall Street Journal: The revolution on college campuses, which seeks to eradicate individuals and ideas that are considered unsavory, constitutes a hostile takeover by fringe elements on the extreme left. Last spring at the Evergreen State College, where I was a professor for 15 years, the revolution was televised—proudly and intentionally—by the radicals. Opinions not fitting with the currently accepted dogma—that all white people are racist, that questioning policy changes aimed at achieving “equity” is itself an act of white supremacy—would not be tolerated, and those who disagreed were shouted down, hunted, assaulted, even battered. Similar eruptions have happened all over the country. What may not be obvious from Read More ›

Re “Evidence of life 3.95 billion years ago found in Canada,” Michael Marshall notes at New Scientist: His [spokesman Komiya’s] only evidence for the existence of life is the unusual ratio of carbon isotopes, and this may not be definitive. “There are many ways in which abiotic processes can produce such an imbalance, so to conclude that it is evidence for life is simply not justified,” says Sutherland. Sutherland says a set of chemical reactions known as the Fischer-Tropsch process could be responsible. This process makes organic compounds from hydrogen and carbon monoxide, and show a similar bias towards carbon-12. It is known to occur naturally, for instance in meteorites. Komiya’s team assumed these reactions were not responsible for their Read More ›

From Megan Gannon at LiveScience: BERLIN—As expected by many, the 2017 Nobel Prize for physics went to three scientists who helped detect gravitational waves, ripples in space-time predicted by Einstein. “This year’s prize is about a discovery that shook the world,” said physicist Thors Hans Hansson, announcing the winners from Stockholm. … On Sept. 14, 2015, LIGO’s two extremely sensitive instruments in Washington state and Louisiana simultaneously observed a faint gravitational-wave signal. The ripples in space-time came from a pair of two massive black holes that spiraled into each other 1.3 billion years ago. More. Our physics color commentator Rob Sheldon is, however, left with more questions than answers: The Nobel was awarded because the waves were finally seen–after 10 Read More ›

60 years ago origin of life (OOL) researches practically wet themselves with excitement over Miller-Urey.  Now everyone knows Miller-Urey, while perhaps mildly interesting, had nothing to do with OOL, because the early earth’s atmosphere was weakly reducing and the M-U reaction simply does not occur in such an atmosphere. No worries.  We get this from a new Proceedings of the National Academy of Science paper: As to the sources of nucleobases, early Earth’s atmosphere was likely dominated by CO2, N2, SO2, and H2O. In such a weakly reducing atmosphere, Miller–Urey-type reactions are not very efficient at producing organics. One solution is that the nucleobases were delivered by interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) and meteorites. This is amusing.  You can’t get nucleobases Read More ›

One after whom an informal logical fallacy is named, too. From Glenn Branch at National Center for Science Education: At a recent meeting of NCSE’s board of directors, Kenneth R. Miller was elected as president, replacing Francisco J. Ayala, whose term on the board expired. Miller is Professor of Biology and Royce Family Professor for Teaching Excellence at Brown University; his honors include the AAAS’s Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology as well as NCSE’s Friend of Darwin award. He testified for the plaintiffs in Kitzmiller v. Dover. His books include Finding Darwin’s God (1999) and Only a Theory (2008). More. A friend wrote to ask, But wait, isn’t Miller a creationist? [?] Oh yes, of course, the Read More ›

You know, that non-PC nerd who was warned that it wasn’t safe for him to go back to teach and eventually settled for $500k. From Eric Owens at Daily Caller: School officials at the 4,000-student school received approximately 120 incident reports involving 180 students during the days-long series of protests, reports The Olympian, the main newspaper in the town surrounding Evergreen State. “Of those 180 students, approximately 80 were found responsible for their actions,” Evergreen State spokeswoman Sandra Kaiser told The Olympian. “They received sanctions ranging from formal warnings, community service and probation, to suspension.” Read the rest of the story, it gets crazier. Then: Last month, school officials announced that Evergreen State is now facing a $2.1 million budget Read More ›

Earlier this evening, physicist Rob Sheldon responded to Geoscience Research Institute senior scientist Tim Standish’s view that no life form would likely thrive in the lava bath of very early Earth. The discussion concerns recent fossil finds thought to be about four billion years old. Standish replies, Yes, cyanobacteria are a good candidate, but I still believe they probably can’t really survive in the actual absence of other life. For example, the absence of phosphate is recognized as a problem for the origin of life, one that various solutions have been proposed for. Are cyanobacteria also phosphate solubilizers? I’m not asking a rhetorical question, I really don’t know, but I’m willing to bet that they can’t really live and thrive with only water, Read More ›

Earlier today Senior Scientist at the Geoscience Research Institute Tim Standish  responded to my question regarding a recent claim that life from 3.95 billion years ago was spotted in Newfoundland. I wrote to ask, On a practical basis, how did these earliest organisms even stay alive? Rob Sheldon writes to defend the idea, at least in principle, if very primitive life forms arrived on comets bombarding Earth: There is one type of life that can survive in a bath of water, sunlight, carbondioxide and nitrogen. That is to say, without any other life forms or sources of organic material or dissolved nitrate. It’s cyanobacteria, and some of the most common forms, are also the smallest. These organisms have the ability to Read More ›