Darwinism as Delusion By John A. Davison It is now 147 years since the publication of Darwin’s celebrated “On the Origin of Species,” yet not a single species has been observed to be formed through the mechanism he proposed. That mechanism, the natural selection of randomly produced variations is apparently incompetent to transform contemporary species even into a new member Read More ›

John A Davison A Prescribed Evolutionary Hypothesis 1. Introduction2. The Prescribed Evolutionary Hypothesis3. The Indirect Evidence4. The Direct Evidence5. Conclusion Abstract. I propose that phylogeny took place in a manner similar to that of ontogeny by the derepression of preformed genomic information which was expressed through release from latency (derepression) by the restructuring of existing chromosomal information (position effects). Both indirect Read More ›

by John A. DavisonProfessor Emeritus of BiologyUniversity of VermontMailing address: Apartment #1 234 Shelburne StreetBurlington, VT 05401 Introduction Few scientists question the reality of evolution. I assume, with the majority, that it has occurred. What else can be said concerning this most mysterious of all biological processes? There is little more of which one can be certain. No one knows Read More ›

By popular demand… Julian Huxley’s Confession by John A. Davison The history of any science often reveals aspects of that science that have escaped attention in the intervening years. As someone so wisely put it “The one thing we learn from history is that we don’t learn from history.” I present, in this brief essay, one particularly revealing demonstration of Read More ›

This is a preview of a paper by John A. Davison that will be appearing in Rivista di Biologia and ISCID Brainstorms. Do We Have an Evolutionary Theory? Dear Editors, The word theory has several definitions. To facilitate discussion I am going to define theory as follows. A theory sensu strictu is an hypothesis which, having been tested, has achieved a degree of support, thereby enabling it to make Read More ›

Ontogeny, Phylogeny and the Origin of Biological Information(2000) by John A. Davison Rivista di Biologia (Biology Forum), forthcoming This paper is dedicated to the memory of six great scientists William BatesonLeo S. BergRobert BroomRichard B. GoldschmidtPierre GrasséOtto Schindewolf No sadder proof can be given by a man of his own littlenessthan disbelief in great men.— Thomas Carlyle Contents 1. Introduction2. Epigenesis and Read More ›

AN EVOLUTIONARY MANIFESTO:A NEW HYPOTHESIS FOR ORGANIC CHANGE by John A. Davison, Ph.D. THIS TREATISE IS DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF SIX GREAT SCIENTISTS William BatesonLeo S. BergRobert BroomRichard B. GoldschmidtPierre GrasséOtto Schindewolf A dwarf standing on the shoulders of a giantmay see farther than a giant himself.— Robert Burton No sadder proof can be given by a man of Read More ›

Introduction As a physiologist I am fascinated by how things work. It is clear to me that Darwinism simply doesn’t work and so it isn’t interesting to me. The first section will summarize the evidence that Darwinian mechanisms have not produced new life forms and so must be abandoned. Since the devices involved in Darwinism are sexual in nature, it Read More ›

The “Blind Alley”: Its Significance for Evolutionary Theory John A. Davison Professor of ZoologyUniversity of VermontBurlington, Vermont 05405Telephone: (802) 656-2922FAX: (802) 656-2914 ABSTRACT Several scientists have apparently independently used the term “Blind Alley” to indicate that major evolutionary change has ceased. The failure to observe speciation through selection would indicate that obligatory sexual reproduction is incapable of producing progressive evolution. Read More ›

Uncommon Descent began in the summer of 2005 as my personal blog. Before that, I had a personal website, designinference.com. The latter site began in 2002 and was a place for my longer writings. But by 2005, blogging was the rage, and I jumped in with both feet at Uncommon Descent. The very name was at once a play on Darwin’s idea of common descent, but also a play on descent being a homophone of dissent. In 2004, I had edited an anthology for the Intercollegiate Studies Institute titled Uncommon Dissent, so the name Uncommon Descent tied in with my then current interests and activities. And it clearly called to mind that living organisms have an origin beyond the naturalistic causes of Darwinism, indeed, Read More ›

Let’s just watch: Notice, just the flapping, using gears and links [far simpler than the real bird]: Amazing. END

As fans of Dune will readily see, an ornithopter is a flapping wing flying machine, as a helicopter is a rotary wing flying machine. Where of course we have seen how Dragonflies are elliptical winged insects capable of up to 56 km/h speed. They also have pterostigmas that control flutter, gaining up to 25% speed [in gliding mode]. Then, there are airflow and wing flex sensors that indicate sophisticated, highly tuned control loop networks. These insects are capable of forward and reverse flight, hovering and sideways flight. They also have up to 97% success rate in predation. Such a natural model will of course inspire engineers. So, we can see here, a Dragonfly robot ornithopter: A clip: Resemblance to a Read More ›

The Dragonfly is amazing: As Fabian et al summarise: Animal wings deform during flight in ways that can enhance lift, facilitate flight control, and mitigate damage. Monitoring the structural and aerodynamic stateof the wing is challenging because deformations are passive, and the flow fieldsare unsteady; it requires distributed mechanosensors that respond to localairflow and strain on the wing. Without a complete map of the sensor arrays, itis impossible to model control strategies underpinned by them. Here, we presentthe first systematic characterization of mechanosensors on the dragonfly’s wings:morphology, distribution, and wiring. By combining a cross-species survey ofsensor distribution with quantitative neuroanatomy and a high-fidelity finiteelement analysis, we show that the mechanosensors are well placed to perceivefeatures of the wing dynamics relevant Read More ›

We have been using a 3-D printer-constructor formalism, and now we can use it to see how hill climbing leads to local trapping. Again, the core formalism: Now, let us modify by allowing some sort of local random mutation to d(E) case by case within an n-run, now seen as a generation, so E1 to En are all incrementally different, and in effect are a ring around E in a fitness landscape. From this, we can see a survival filter that on average selects for superior performance. This leads, naturally to hill-climbing, perhaps even to several related peaks in a chain on an island of function. But now, we see: Here, we see that hill climbing leads to peak trapping, Read More ›

Last time, we looked at how Kolmogorov Complexity can be used to quantify the information in functionally specific complex organisation, by using the formal idea of a 3-D universal printer and constructor, 3-DP/C: . . . it is but a short step to imagine a universal constructor device which, fed a compact description in a suitable language, will construct and present the [obviously, finite] object. Let us call this the universal 3-D printer/constructor, 3-DP/C. Thus, in principle, reduction of an organised entity to a description in a suitably compact language is formally equivalent in information terms to the object, once 3-DP/C is present as a conceptual entity. So, WLOG, reduction to compact description in a compact language d(E) is readily Read More ›