. . . after 70 years, two hundred fourteen days on the throne, and at age ninety-six. Her Husband, Prince Consort Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, passed on a year ago. Her Majesty was the most admired political and personal figure in the UK. She was immediately succeeded by Charles, Prince of Wales, who may choose Read More…
Culture
Apparently, scientists are the only ones exempt from the fact that we evolved to have biases…
When science becomes a substitute for religion or philosophy, it must bear the weight of being a certain kind of truth. The trouble is, science isn’t that kind of truth.
Another, more nuanced, look at the Rosalind Franklin story
We’ve all heard the story, probably: That Rosalind Franklin (1920–1958) should have shared the Nobel Prize for the double helix with Francis Crick (1916–2004) and James Watson. Science writer Nicholas Wade has gone into the story in considerable detail and finds to be much more complex.
At Mind Matters News: Researchers: Distrust of science is due to tribal loyalty
There seems to be no recognition that researchers, however fiercely competitive among themselves, also have a tribal loyalty that skews their judgment.
At Mind Matters News: Researchers: If we tell folks more about science, they trust less
Generally, the remedy for loss of trust after widespread failures is reform of the system, not reform of its doubters. Post-COVID, scientists should take heed.
Cancel Culture comes for the James Webb Space Telescope
If we’re so lucky that the Woke promise to boycott science altogether and picket NASA instead, we accept their offer!
Letter at The Guardian: Darwin got sexual selection wrong
Heather Remoff is the author of What’s Sex Got To Do With It? (2022). She seems like another witness to the fact that one can question Darwin today without getting cancelled.
At Mind Matters News: Can we eliminate the idea of function from the study of life?
The term “function” in life forms is linked historically with the idea that life forms show evidence of design. Therefore, philosopher Emmanuel Ratti and molecular biologist Pierre-Luc Germain argue, biologists shouldn’t use it … The problem with their position is not that it is opposed to intelligent design theory but that it is in conflict with the self-evident nature of life forms.
The Woke without their makeup …
After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Roe (abortion on demand everywhere) unconstitutional, the elite Woke have been rampaging generally – but against one judge in particular. Mr. Justice Clarence Thomas is black and, wouldn’t you know …
At Mind Matters News: What’s hot and what’s not in Darwinblogs
Casey Luskin: We’ve seen a decline in the amount of high quality science writing from blogs like Panda’s Thumb. Some old voices in the Darwin blogosphere have diminished and some new ones have popped up. Jerry Coyne certainly is one of the ones that has really popped up on his very popular blog.
Why Darwinism can be taught in schools but not ID
Terry Scambray: Ah, the mantra that Americans are addicted to sugary noble lies about their biological and cultural uniqueness is itself a noble lie that the intelligentsia continually uses against their fellow Americans. It is repeated, for example, when dreadful events occur like the Kennedy assassination or 9/11, the epithet suggesting that Americans can’t stand the truth so they conjure up fantasies which declutter a complicated, messy world full of loose ends.
What would really happen if an infinite number of monkeys typed for an infinity…
Not what Darwin’s bulldog Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895) thought: The works of Shakespeare…
Sabine Hossenfelder tackles trans women in women’s sports
And ends by saying that childhood genetic engineering will probably bring an end to high achiever sports altogether.
At Evolution News: How Science Fueled the White Supremacist Mass Murderer in Buffalo, NY
West: Unfortunately, the Buffalo shooter’s evolutionary racism is not an outlier among recent mass killers. Arguments drawn from evolution have been prominent in the ideologies of many mass shooters in recent years, including Anders Breivik in 2011, a Norwegian mass murderer cited as a role model by the Buffalo shooter. Other shooters smitten by Darwinian evolution have included the Columbine High School shooters in 1999, Finnish shooter Pekka Eric Auvinen in 2007, the Holocaust Memorial Museum shooter in 2009, and the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooter in 2019.
Michael Egnor muses on some shaky arguments for abortion
Egnor: “if the fetus is a part of the mother’s body, then all pregnant women are chromosomal mosaics. That is, they are organisms that have two sets of genomes. Chromosome mosaicism is a rare disorder and is not synonymous with pregnancy.”