2018

But no, they’re still not people. From ScienceDaily: An international team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen, Germany, and the University of Oxford have revealed that New Caledonian crows are able to create tools by combining two or more otherwise non-functional elements, an ability so far observed only in humans and great apes. … The researchers presented eight New Caledonian crows with a puzzle box they had never encountered before, containing a small food container behind a door that left a narrow gap along the bottom. Initially, the scientists left some sufficiently long sticks scattered around, and all the birds rapidly picked one of them, inserted it through the front gap, and pushed the food Read More ›

Astrophysicist Ethan Siegel offers two scenarios where it wouldn’t: The second way out is to assume that the past isn’t written, and your actions do matter. The Universe, as it exists today, is not bound to the state its in right now if you travel back to the past. In a way, every action you take creates a new, alternate history for the Universe. You can kill your own grandpa before your parents are conceived; you can prevent your parents from meeting and falling in love; you can kill Hitler before World War II or assassinate Brutus and Cassius and Marc Antony before they assassinate Caesar. In short, you can change history. The only thing you have to give up, Read More ›

Evolution theory held that women’s pelvises should have been shaped by the obstetrical dilemma (birthing babies with big heads safely) and thus should tend to be uniform. But The shape of a mother’s birth canal is a tug-of-war between two opposing evolutionary forces: It needs to be wide enough to allow our big-brained babies to pass through, yet narrow enough to allow women to walk efficiently. At least that’s been the common thinking. But a new study reveals birth canals come in a variety of shapes in women around the world. Erica Tennenhouse, “Birth canals are different all over the world, countering a long-held evolutionary theory” at Science Paper. (open access) Funny, the things that happen when people actually test Read More ›

Credit:  cfact.org

From ScienceDaily: For many years, it was thought that sperm do not retain any histone packaging and therefore could not transmit histone-based epigenetic information to offspring. Recent studies, however, have shown that about 10 percent of histone packaging is retained in both human and mouse sperm. “Furthermore, where the chromosomes retain histone packaging of DNA is in developmentally important regions, so those findings raised awareness of the possibility that sperm may transmit important epigenetic information to embryos,” Strome said. When her lab looked at C. elegans sperm, they found the sperm genome fully retains histone packaging. Other researchers had found the same is true for another commonly studied organism, the zebrafish. “Like zebrafish, worms represent an extreme form of histone Read More ›

In a study of mice forced to inhale large doses of nicotine carried large epigenetics signatures that affected their offspring: The result might explain why the experiments also found the male mice’s offspring—and grandoffspring—exhibited abnormal behavior and learning impairments. “Until now, much attention had been focused on the effects of maternal nicotine exposure on their children,” Florida State University’s Pradeep Bhide, who led the study, tells The Boston Globe in an email. “Not much had been known about the effects of paternal smoking on their children and grandchildren. Our study shows that paternal nicotine exposure can be deleterious for the offspring in multiple generations.” Kerry Grens, “Nicotine’s Effects Passed On Through Generations of Mice” at The Scientist Paper. (open access) Read More ›

To hear the multiverse enthusiasts tell it, many worlds theory offers no problems. But you probably sensed that that wasn’t very likely: It says that our unique experience as individuals is not simply a bit imperfect, a bit unreliable and fuzzy, but is a complete illusion. If we really pursue that idea, rather than pretending that it gives us quantum siblings, we find ourselves unable to say anything about anything that can be considered a meaningful truth. We are not just suspended in language; we have denied language any agency. The MWI — if taken seriously — is unthinkable. Its implications undermine a scientific description of the world far more seriously than do those of any of its rivals. The Read More ›

Geobiologist Alexis Templeton thinks it matters: We humans tend to see the world as a solid rock coated with a thin layer of life. But to scientists like Templeton, the planet looks more like a wheel of cheese, one whose thick, leathery rind is perpetually gnawed and fermented by the microbes that inhabit its innards. Those creatures draw nourishment from sources that sound not only inedible, but also intangible: the atomic decay of radioactive elements, the pressure-cooking of rocks as they sink and melt into the Earth’s deep interior—and perhaps even earthquakes. And the implications for finding life on Mars? Finding that life will be a challenge. With existing technologies, a probe sent to Mars could drill no more than Read More ›

From ScienceDaily: A perennial topic in human evolution is, what gave humans an advantage? A logical response to the question is: Name just about anything and someone will make a case out of it. A little while ago, it was meat.  This time, it’s starch. People with more copies of the AMY1 gene — and corresponding higher concentrations of the amylase enzyme in their saliva — were found to digest starchy carbohydrates faster. They also displayed a higher blood glucose response to foods containing starch such as bread and pasta, but not sugary foods. As sugary foods shouldn’t be digested by amylase, the lack of an association indicates the difference in starch digestion observed was due to differences in the enzyme Read More ›

Eric Holloway argues at Mind Matters that design theorist William Dembski makes a convincing case, using accepted information theory principles relevant to computer science: When I first began to look into intelligent design (ID) theory while I was considering becoming an atheist, I was struck by Bill Dembski’s claim that ID could be demonstrated mathematically through information theory. A number of authors who were experts in computer science and information theory disagreed with Dembski’s argument. They offered two criticisms: that he did not provide enough details to make the argument coherent and that he was making claims that were at odds with established information theory. In online discussions, I pressed a number of them, including Jeffrey Shallit, Tom English, Joe Read More ›

It’s almost as if transactivism was a specific test of whether fact and evidence really matter in science today: In August, Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island was criticized for removing a news release about a peer-reviewed study published in PLoS One by one of its academics—Lisa Littman, a physician and researcher at Brown’s School of Public Health. Littman’s article, titled “Rapid-onset gender dysphoria in adolescents and young adults: A study of parental reports,“ discusses the phenomenon by which social media and peer pressure seem to have fuelled the recently observed trend by which young teenagers (typically girls) suddenly declare themselves transgender. The paper infuriated transgender activists, who claim that the entire notion of rapid-onset gender dysphoria (ROGD) is a Read More ›

Sabine Hossenfelder, author of Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray, tells us of one solution that would eliminate the need for dark matter: To explain the EDGES [Experiment to Detect the Global Epoch of Reionization Signature] result, dark matter would need a stronger interaction with normal matter than presently assumed. If so, that could shift the temperature between gas and radiation and give rise to more absorption. However, a more strongly interacting type of dark matter is difficult to make compatible with other observations that rule out such interactions. Stacy McGaugh – the modified gravity dude – had the brilliant idea to see what the absorption signal from the first stars would look like if there was just no Read More ›

The abstract of a new paper, “Species as Models” by Jun Otsuka of Kyoto University (PhilSci Archive, 2018): This paper argues that biological species should be construed as abstract models, rather than biological or even tangible entities. Various (phenetic, cladistic, biological etc.) species concepts are defined as set-theoretic models of formal theories, and their logical connections are illustrated. In this view organisms relate to a species not as instantiations, members, or mereological parts, but rather as phenomena to be represented by the model/species. This sheds new light on the long-standing problems of species and suggests their connection to broader philosophical topics such as model selection, scientific representation, and scientific realism. More. Readers may be able to explain what light it Read More ›

The wondiwoi was spotted by an expedition led by amateur botanist Michael White, who spends vacations looking for rare flora: The Wondiwoi tree kangaroo had not been collected, seen, or reported since that first sighting [in 1928]. Despite weighing up to 35 pounds, tree kangaroos are remarkably cryptic, often remaining totally hidden high in the forest canopy. On one of the final days of their expedition, having had no luck spotting one, the crew started to head down. That was when the hunter “spotted a kangaroo 30 meters [90 feet] up,” Smith says. “After a lot of scrambling around trying to get my lens to focus on the animal peeking out from behind the leaves, I got a few half-decent Read More ›

While Saudi Arabia is in the news, I have a question for our subjectivist friends.  In the United States it is considered morally wrong to execute a person for being a homosexual.  In Saudi Arabia it is considered morally right to execute a person for being a homosexual. As I understand subjectivist reasoning, morality is subjective and culturally determined.  If you were in Saudi Arabia I assume you would attempt to get them to change their mind about executing homosexuals.  I am curious.  How would you argue for that?  I can imagine a subjectivist (let’s call him “Bob”) making a number of arguments, and a probable response from a Saudi: Bob: Executing people because they are homosexual is morally reprehensible. Read More ›