The Scientific American columnist is unimpressed by two recent books on the subject, cosmologist Sean Carroll’s Something Deeply Hidden and science writer Tom Siegfried’s The Number of the Heavens.
Author: News
Denyse O'Leary is the News blogger for Uncommon Descent
Are there universal laws of ecology?
Sounds promising. If physics depends on mathematics and chemistry depends on physics and biology depends on chemistry, why could not be laws be derived that help us understand ecology? But then Malthus betrays the authors, as he misled Darwin.
An argument for the necessity of design in the universe
Arvay: Would not the multi-verse itself have to have parameters? Would not those also, have to fall within narrow ranges? And what principle of physics defines how many constants there are? What defines what ranges those parameters must have? What law of nature decides what the laws of nature must be? (That would be circular causation!) What governs the dice?
Yesterday was the 160th anniversary of Darwinism
To judge from Darwinism’s lobbyists and followers in recent decades, who want to make a living putting rubes in their place, without embracing eugenics, Darwin has certainly paid off. But the genome map is killing all that.
David Berlinski chats with Ben Shapiro
Did we mention? Darwinism’s over. People who make their living off it better think of some other way to seem smart.
Douglas Axe on the central weaknesses of Darwinism today
Axe: Then again, if you simply value scientific honesty, you ought to be moved by the fact that thousands of professional Darwinists laboring for 160 years have not explained the origin of a single complex functional feature of life with the degree of rigor expected in all serious sciences.
Douglas Murray: Is Darwinism toxic to Christianity?
And if Darwinism isn’t a correct statement of origins anyway, where does that leave all these theistic evolution fudgers in the cold light of the morning? They won’t come off looking any better than the creationists or the Darwinists, however they tried to position themselves.
Human evolution? Some Silicon Valley greats hope to merge with machines
In neuroscientist Michael Graziano’s envisioned world, In his envisioned world, individuality is no longer a term that has any meaning.
Medical scientists take near death experiences more seriously now and here’s why
Today, we know much more about what happens to people when they die—and what we are learning does not support materialism.
Ancient city Ur was much bigger than thought
A declassified spyplane pic accidentally discovers this fact? So why be dogmatic about the far past? Wait till we have mapped the whole planet before splintering more lecterns.
We’re always hearing about crises, in science and other areas. Can the Intellectual Dark Web help?
Douglas Murray, for example, challenges sessile campus organisms
The ultimate fate of a black hole: Can a hologram within a hologram provide a hint?
Some physicists think that information might escape a black hole via an escape route that involves a higher dimension.
Cilia are more complex than thought
“Before this work, everyone assumed these proteins inside cilia just stabilize the structure, which is true for a subset of the proteins, especially when you consider the forces produced by the continuous beating of the cilia,” Zhang said. “But based on how they are arranged inside this structure, we believe these proteins are doing many more things.”
At Nature: Doubt and diversity are okay in science
This retired historian of science thinks it might even be okay to question the “biological ‘species’ concept”.
Odd beetle characteristic predates insects
It’s as if there is an intelligence underlying nature, the way a good novelist builds in backstory and plot structures that can be developed later.