Talk: What if the discoveries of science actually lend support to belief in God?
Chemistry
Burning a brick in Fluorine — physical/chemical properties in action
In the demonstration below, a bit of acetone has been put on the corner of the brick to get the process started: This demonstrates the remarkable effects of inherent, embedded, intelligible structural, quantitative properties of fluorine and other elements and molecules. With lesser materials, we can see similar, even more spectacular effects: Notice, the table […]
Remembering quasicrystals as formerly an object of ridicule
It’s conventional to recall a famous person putting down an idea that turns out later to be correct. In reality, the majority of putdowns come from people who would never have an original idea themselves, who are frightened by the concept in principle.
Rob Sheldon on the Canadian lab “solving” the origin-of-life problem
Only a physicist could look at an insoluble biochemistry problem and say, “We’ve built a chamber which we can change the temperature and gas content. PV=nRT, and poof!
Can a computer simulation show that helium compounds exist on Earth?
That could impact our understanding of early Earth. Helium is the second most abundant element in the universe but finding it on Earth is tricky. So researchers resorted to a computer simulation and found a promising possible compound: Helium-bearing compounds have, until very recently, been considered unlikely to exist under the physical conditions on or […]
“Undeniable” author Doug Axe on the recent “directed evolution” Nobel for chemistry
Doug Axe, Intro of recalls current CalTech winner Frances Arnold: In a conversation in her office one day, I said that I wanted to do work on protein evolution. She was skeptical, for pragmatic reasons. “Is that the kind of work that people will want to fund?”, she asked. I smile recalling that, but up […]
Prime numbers are not “nearly as scattershot” as previously thought
From researchers at Princeton: The seemingly random digits known as prime numbers are not nearly as scattershot as previously thought. A new analysis by Princeton University researchers has uncovered patterns in primes that are similar to those found in the positions of atoms inside certain crystal-like materials. The researchers found a surprising similarity between the sequence of […]
Bacteria make complex antibiotics that give chemists “cold sweats”
From Josh Bloom at American Council for Science and Health: I recently wrote about three of the deadly neurotoxins being produced by cyanobacteria (aka blue-green algae) during an ongoing algae bloom in South Florida (See Florida’s Deadly Algae Bloom – Why Is It So Dangerous?). The toxins range from structurally simple and easy for organic […]
What is Randomness? Part 2: Directionality
From David Nguyen at Think Tank Learning: See also: What is Randomness? Part 1, with David Nguyen: Contextual bias
Experimental physicist Rob Sheldon on the recent merely “plausible” origin of life find
Yes, re this recent item (paper, public access), Rob Sheldon, our physics color commentator writes, — I’m no chemist, my last class being Organic Chem in college, but I’ll take a stab at this paper. Like most of these Origin-of-Life papers, the chemistry is awesome, the interpretation, well, a bit pretentious. OOL Theories: Among the favorite […]
Guest Post — Template-Assisted Ligation: A New OOL Model
Dr E. Selensky occasionally requests that UD posts an article on his behalf. What follows is his latest: ______________ Arguably, the RNA world model is excessively complex: it operates too complex structures and involves too complex interactions. The origin of life, some researchers believe, must have been simpler.In an attempt to close the gap between […]
Is OOL Part of Darwinian Evolution?
Recently I had a lengthy discussion with an acquaintance about evolution and the various concepts and claims that we find under the heading of the word “evolution.” At one point I brought up the origin of life and he promptly insisted: “that’s not part of evolution.” “Perhaps,” I offered, “but consider that the origin of […]
On the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for designing molecular machines ….
Awarded to Drs. Frasier Stoddart, Ben Feringa, and Jean-Pierre Sauvage. From Akshat Rathi at Quartz: Stoddart’s inspiration came from nature. All life is powered by tiny biological machines that nature has had billions of years to perfect. The most fundamental processes of life, such as translating genetic code to make proteins or ensuring that cellular […]
Brazilian chemist explains how intelligent design informs his science
We talk to Marcos Eberlin, Thomson Mass Spectrometry Lab, Brazil: 1. Enezio tells me you are interested in the concept of design in nature. Do you relate it to your work in mass spectrometry or to other, larger issues, or both? J. J. Thomson, the father of mass spectrometry—the man who discovered the electron and won the Nobel […]
Miserable Creatures
Imagine if atheistic materialism was actually true and humans are nothing more than biological automatons – complexly programmed and reactive robots that behave and think in whatever manner happenstance chemical interactions dictates at any given time. Let’s think about what would actually mean. There would be no way for a biological automaton to determine whether […]