News

At Evolution News & Views, Michael Behe reviews the latest work from Richard Lenski’s long-term experiments with E. coli: Readers of my posts know that I’m a big fan of Professor Richard Lenski, a microbiologist at Michigan State University and member of the National Academy of Sciences. For the past few decades he has been conducting the largest laboratory evolution experiment ever attempted. Growing E. coli in flasks continuously, he has been following evolutionary changes in the bacterium for over 50,000 generations (which is equivalent to roughly a million years for large animals). Although Lenski is decidedly not an intelligent design proponent, his work enables us to see what evolution actually does when it has the resources of a large number of organisms over a substantial Read More ›

Ann Gauger posted an amusing facebook dialogue on the blog of the Biologic Institute: “Sometimes it might be a good idea to actually read what ID proponents write before critiquing it.” Click here to read the rest.

Michael Behe has a new blog post at Evolution News & Views responding to this paper that recently appeared in Science: A paper appeared recently in Science that reminded me of one of my favorite toys when I was a kid — a rolling-ball maze. Over the years I had a few different varieties, including two- and three-dimensional ones. The basic gist is that a person has to twist and turn the toy to roll a ball through a plastic, transparent maze from the entrance to the exit. Of course there are a lot of dead ends and blind alleys, so it’s pretty tricky, at least at first. Once you learn the path, it becomes trivial. Näsvall et al. (2012) do the same with a Read More ›

Evolutionary biologist Michael Lynch, of Indiana University Bloomington, has a new paper that has just been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), entitled “Evolutionary layering and the limits to cellular perfection.” From the abstract, Although observations from biochemistry and cell biology seemingly illustrate hundreds of examples of exquisite molecular adaptations, the fact that experimental manipulation can often result in improvements in cellular infrastructure raises the question as to what ultimately limits the level of molecular perfection achievable by natural selection. Here, it is argued that random genetic drift can impose a strong barrier to the advancement of molecular refinements by adaptive processes. Moreover, although substantial improvements in fitness may sometimes be accomplished via the emergence of novel cellular features Read More ›

Science Daily features an interesting report today, which you can read here: Humans share over 90% of their DNA with their primate cousins. The expression or activity patterns of genes differ across species in ways that help explain each species’ distinct biology and behavior. DNA factors that contribute to the differences were described on Nov. 6 at the American Society of Human Genetics 2012 meeting in a presentation by Yoav Gilad, Ph.D., associate professor of human genetics at the University of Chicago. Dr. Gilad reported that up to 40% of the differences in the expression or activity patterns of genes between humans, chimpanzees and rhesus monkeys can be explained by regulatory mechanisms that determine whether and how a gene’s recipe Read More ›

This new book looks interesting: About the Book The nature of scientific activity has changed dramatically over the last half century, and the objectivity and rigorous search for evidence that once defined it are being abandoned. Increasingly, this text argues, dogma has taken the place of authentic science. This study examines how conflicts of interest–both institutional and individual–have become pervasive in the science world, and also explores the troubling state of research funding and flaws of the peer-review process. It looks in depth at the dominance of several specific theories, including the Big Bang cosmology, human-caused global warming, HIV as a cause of AIDS, and the efficacy of anti-depressant drugs. In a scientific environment where distinguished experts who hold contrary Read More ›

Check it out here!

Glasgow Skeptics are hosting an event later this month, on Monday November 26th, featuring American evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne of the University of Chicago. His topic is “Why Evolution is True.” Although I would normally attend these events, unfortunately I am unable to make this one. I am told that it is hoped that the event can be recorded, so will likely be providing a review of the talk when it becomes available online.  The event begins @ 19:30 and takes place in the Admiral Bar (72a Waterloo Street, G2 7DA Glasgow, United Kingdom). You can read the full details here, or visit the facebook events page here. In addition, Coyne is giving a talk in Edinburgh on Friday the Read More ›

The judge of the Coppedge discrimination case has tentatively ruled against David Coppedge and in favor of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Discovery Institute’s John West reports on the story here.

Science Daily reports on a new study by Rebecca Martin of the University of Colorado which found that “Solar systems with life-bearing planets may be rare if they are dependent on the presence of asteroid belts of just the right mass.” The article reports, They suggest that the size and location of an asteroid belt, shaped by the evolution of the Sun’s protoplanetary disk and by the gravitational influence of a nearby giant Jupiter-like planet, may determine whether complex life will evolve on an Earth-like planet. This might sound surprising because asteroids are considered a nuisance due to their potential to impact Earth and trigger mass extinctions. But an emerging view proposes that asteroid collisions with planets may provide a boost Read More ›

For those of you who live in the Seattle area (which now includes me), the “Seattle Analytic Philosophy Club” are hosting an event on the 28th of November from 7pm till 9pm in Lake Hills Library (15590 Lake Hills Blvd, Bellevue, WA). Here’s the event description from the website: Is there a demarcation between science and pseudoscience? This is the “demarcation problem” made famous by Karl Popper. Popper’s thesis was that falsifiability differentiated science from pseudoscience. However, although Popper’s views are still popular among some scientists, they are widely rejected by philosophers. In fact, most philosophers believe that it is very difficult to find a strict demarcation between science and pseudoscience. This essay explains, in layman’s terms, why this is Read More ›

A new paper just published in the journal Science reveals how an SMC (structural maintenance of chromosome) complex called MukBEF “climbs” DNA in a manner similar to a rock-climber grabbing onto a handhold. The paper reports, Although ATP hydrolysis is essential for the activity of SMC complexes, its mechanistic importance has been unclear. Our data indicate that the minimal functional MukBEF complex acting at discrete chromosome positions is an ATP-bound dimer of MukB dimers, with ATP binding and head engagement being necessary for stable chromosome association and ATP hydrolysis required to release complexes from chromosomes. The observation that turnover of MukBEF complexes from chromosomes is slower than predicted from in vitro adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase) levels supports a model where ATP hydrolysis Read More ›

Scientific American features an article based on a new paper in Current Biology. Scientific American reports, A study on the development of priapulids or ‘penis’ worms throws doubt on a feature that has been thought for more than 100 years to define the largest branch of the animal tree of life. Members of this branch — the protostomes — have historically been defined by the order in which they develop a mouth and an anus as embryos. But gene-expression data suggest that this definition is incorrect, researchers report this week inCurrent Biology. […] Now, using molecular techniques to analyze gene expression, Hejnol and his team have revealed that a primitive protostome, the priapulid Priapus caudatus, develops like a deuterostome. These ‘living fossils’ look nearly identical Read More ›

Paul Nelson highlights an interesting paper that appeared relatively recently in the journal Protein Science entitled “The Levinthal Paradox of the Interactome.” The paper’s abstract reads, The central biological question of the 21st century is: how does a viable cell emerge from the bewildering combinatorial complexity of its molecular components? Here, we estimate the combinatorics of self-assembling the protein constituents of a yeast cell, a number so vast that the functional interactome could only have emerged by iterative hierarchic assembly of its component sub-assemblies. A protein can undergo both reversible denaturation and hierarchic self-assembly spontaneously, but a functioning interactome must expend energy to achieve viability. Consequently, it is implausible that a completely “denatured” cell could be reversibly renatured spontaneously, like Read More ›