Irresistible! An epigenetic couch potato mouse
Ethan Siegel’s claim at Forbes: Why we’ll never exactly solve general relativity. Rob Sheldon responds
Female fish mate OUTSIDE their species?
Drug developers try producing chirality
Climate Change: How to Lie without appearing to Lie
Here’s almost 40 years of climate models, starting in 1971–when “Global Cooling” was feared, to the Hansen models in the 1980’s, the first in 1981 and the second in 1988, and the last ones by the IPCC, Assessment Reports (AR) from the 1990’s to about 2010. Notice that the decadal rate of temperature increase remains almost the SAME for the entire 40 year period! And notice how the early models–mostly in the 1970’s when ‘cooling’ was in vogue, are very close to actuals. It’s only when super-duper “climate change models” were devised in the 90’s and later on that the sizable deviations occur. So, here’s the ‘lie’: these authors claim that climate change models actually stack up quite well to Read More ›
Researcher: Horseshoe crab vision 400 mya was same as today
At Nature: A call for a more questioning attitude in science education?
Miracles: Can They Happen?
A few days ago we had a post on Science, Miracles, and Benny Hinn, highlighting portions of Bill Dembski’s new online book The Faces of Miracles. It seems appropriate this time of year to consider miracles. After all, in the Christian world, this month we’re celebrating an event that can only be described as a miracle: the virgin birth of Christ. So what exactly do we mean by the term “miracle”? In the book, In Defense of Miracles: A Comprehensive Case for God’s Action in History, Richard Purtill provides this definition: A miracle is an event that is brought about by the power of God that is a temporary exception to the ordinary course of nature for the purpose of Read More ›
What? Harmful bacteria “masquerade” as red blood cells?
Researchers: No, you can’t escape a black hole
Blood feeding evolved independently about 100 times despite being a very complex trait
Did a million years of rain pave the way for the dinosaurs?
The issue of epistemic rights and duties
Back in 2007, “todangst ” of the “rational response squad” atheistical site wrote: To say that I am within my ‘epistemic rights’ to hold to a claim, I am saying that I violate no epistemic responsibilities or obligations in believing in my claim. (Rights and responsibilities go hand-in-hand.) An epistemic obligation is an intellectual responsibility with respect to the formation of, or holding to, my beliefs. The basic obligations would include 1) Not forming a belief dishonestly, through self deception. 2) Not misrepresenting how we can to hold a belief (claiming a belief came through reason, when in fact it was inculcated into us in infancy, and merely verified afterwards) 3) Not forming a belief irresponsibly (for example, seeking only Read More ›