At Creation-Evolution Headlines, we learn (July 11, 2011): Plants perform a wonder that has attracted the admiration of scholars from ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome to modern times: the ability to reproduce mathematically perfect patterns. This ability, called phyllotaxis, can be described mathematically with the Fibonacci Series and the Golden Angle. The beautiful spirals in Read More…
Author: News
Denyse O'Leary is the News blogger for Uncommon Descent
Remember the Stanford Prison Experiment?
… a theme on which psychology lecturers and pundits preached for decades, about how humans can easily be led to violate their moral standards if authorities tell them to? Maybe it’s so, but apparently the evidence, looked at in a fresh light, is much more equivocal. For one thing, the guard who took the led Read More…
Human evolution: “Some waited to leave till things got really tough” (Episode 3,492 approx)
From (ScienceDaily, July 13, 2011), we learn: “African and Non-African Populations Intermixed Well After Migration out of Africa 60,000 Years Ago, Genome Studies Show”: Researchers have probed deeper into human evolution by developing an elegant new technique to analyse whole genomes from different populations. One key finding from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute’s study is Read More…
Is Darwinism the enemy of liberalism?
In City Journal, (Spring 2011), New Republic editor Adam Kirsch offers an interesting reflection on Darwinism and liberalism, in his review of political thinker Francis Fukuyama’s latest, The Origins of Political Order : Yet since ideas have consequences, the ideological victory of liberalism would be nothing to scorn—if it were really assured. Ironically, however, The Read More…
Are exosomes the new “junk DNA”?
In “Exosome Explosion” (The Scientist , July 1, 2011), Clotilde Théry tells us “These small membrane vesicles do much more than clean up a cell’s trash—they also carry signals to distant parts of the body, where they can impact multiple dimensions of cellular life”: Secreted vesicles known as exosomes were first discovered nearly 30 years Read More…
Popcorn: How much of the genome is transcribed?
All? Some? None? Clark et al., The Reality of Pervasive Transcription: Current estimates indicate that only about 1.2% of the mammalian genome codes for amino acids in proteins. However, mounting evidence over the past decade has suggested that the vast majority of the genome is transcribed, well beyond the boundaries of known genes, a phenomenon Read More…
Last eukaryotic common ancestor had many “modern-like features”
At Design Matrix, blog for the book of the name, Mike Gene introduces us to the Last Eukaryotic Common Ancestor: Earlier I showed you that the last eukaryotic common ancestor (LECA) was quite modern-like in terms of its nuclear pore complex, mechanisms of transport through this complex, and the entire endomembranous system. Yet the modern-like Read More…
Fundamental physics increasingly dominated by “unsuccessful highly speculative research programs”?
At Not Even Wrong, (July 8, 2011), the blog for his book of the name, Columbia computer scientist Peter Woit goes after the defects of cosmic string theory and other bizarre cosmologies Here he notes a new book by Helge Kragh, Higher Speculations: Grand Theories and Failed Revolutions in Physics and Cosmology : I’ve always Read More…
Animal minds: A really smart lizard would conceal the extent of its knowledge ;)
In “Smart lizard solves a problem it’s never seen before” (New Scientist July 2011), Michael Marshall reports, Clever lizards have worked out how to unplug holes to reach food, suggesting that problem-solving is not the sole preserve of warm-blooded birds and mammals.
Anyone else for the myth of junk DNA? Richard Dawkins, for one
He certainly drew the desired Darwinian conclusion: “The amount of DNA in organisms,” Dawkins wrote in 1976, “is more than is strictly necessary for building them: A large fraction of the DNA is never translated into protein. From the point of view of the individual organism this seems paradoxical. If the ‘purpose’ of DNA is Read More…
Biophysics: Long DNA terminal repeats have wrapping function, researcher finds
In “Kinky genes: Biophysics of DNA affects how it works” (New Scientist, 08 July 2011), MacGregor Campbell reports DNA is typically a long double-helical strand that can expose its sequences of base pairs. These are translated by RNA and particles called ribosomes into proteins, which do the cell’s work. When not in use, DNA wraps Read More…
Mind: Put “neuro” in front of an abstract discipline and poof! – it becomes nonsense
In a recent review of Aping Mankind: Neuromania, Darwinitis and the Misrepresentation of Humanity, by MD neuroscientist Raymond Tallis, British journalist Robert McLuhan quotes Tallis on the current fad for identifying changes in brain function that are associated with thoughts and feelings as the explanation for those feelings. There are repeated references to new disciplines Read More…
NCSE stands firm: There is no evidence against (Darwinian) evolution
The source who reported on U.S. Darwin lobbyist Eugenie Scott’s recent talk in Scottsdale, Arizona, on why you can’t teach evidence against evolution, asked her for clarification. Now, when she says “evolution,” we are pretty sure she means Darwinism. Why? Let investigative journalist Suzan Mazur explain. Her story is consistent with another episode in the Read More…
Tom Bethell on the value of bad – but readable – books
Tom Bethell, author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science, offers his reason for reading Jacques “Chance alone is at the source ofevery innovation” Monod: Some of the most useful books are written by people we don’t agree with. Francis Crick is another. After the double helix and his Nobel Prize in 1962, his position Read More…
Darwin lobbyist Eugenie Scott on why you can’t teach evidence against evolution
Here. According to a source, round the 45 minute mark, she says U.S. courts have ruled that teachers cannot teach creationism or intelligent design. Then she says: 46:29 Okay, what else can you not do? I have a little asterisk here. You cannot teach evidence against evolution. There have been some court decisions that have Read More…