The question isn’t whether Darwinism can “explain” this, but whether Darwinism is even relevant any more. It may have been relevant in the days of the Central Dogma, but … in the story about bacterial “spite” or long range planning among horses, Darwinism is only explaining itself – in increasingly bizarre ways.
Genetics
Plant genetics: Getting past Arabidopsis
From ScienceDaily, we learn: “Enzymes for Cell Wall Synthesis Conserved Across Species Barriers” (July 14, 2011): Due to its short lifecycle and biological simplicity, Arabidopsis is extremely useful for research, but lacks economic potential. Persson and his colleagues would therefore like to apply the knowledge gained from the research on this plant to other more Read More…
Redwood trees’ genes differ from top to bottom
From “Environs Prompt Advantageous Gene Mutations as Plants Grow; Changes Passed to Progeny” (ScienceDaily, July 5, 2011) we learn: If a person were to climb a towering redwood and take a sample from the top and a sample from the bottom of the tree, a comparison would show that the two DNA samples are different.Christopher Read More…
Epigenetic signatures: Another blow to the “it’s in yer genes” industry
At ScienceDaily (July 1, 2011), we learn, “Adult Stem Cells Carry Their Own Baggage: Epigenetics Guides Stem Cell Fate”: Adult stem cells and progenitor cells may not come with a clean genetic slate after all. That’s because a new report in the FASEB Journal shows that adult stem or progenitor cells have their own unique Read More…
Adam and Eve: Atheist Michael Ruse helpfully explains what some Christian news operations miss
That their existence is part of the foundation of Christianity. Anglican Curmudgeon usefully points out the reasons that an “evolutionary” interpretation of Christianity is impossible, citing atheist (and former Christian) Michael Ruse’s arguments in From Monad to Man: Let me be open. I think that evolution is a fact and that Darwinism rules triumphant. Natural Read More…
New York Times electrifies corpse of “it’s in your genes” – even while admitting that it’s sort of like, not true
“In Genetic Basis for Crime: A New Look” New York Times (June 19, 2011) , Patricia Cohen tells us Researchers estimate that at least 100 studies have shown that genes play a role in crimes. “Very good methodological advances have meant that a wide range of genetic work is being done,” said John H. Laub, Read More…
Amazing science news: Genes have been proven not to exist.
Specifically, the “genes” that make someone a bad driver or unfaithful spouse do not exist. Geneticist Steve Jones points out that we are just not finding the genes headline writers need. 2011 being the centenary of the death of Darwin’s cousin eugenicist Francis Galton (one consequence of Darwinism as a public religion is the innumerable Read More…
“and possibly a new trait …” Or maybe not?
Here’s a story, “Leaky Genes Put Evolution on the Fast Track, Pitt and UW-Madison Researchers Find” (Eurekalert, Jun 15, 2011) where The team traced the development of a unique feature in a species of fruit fly that began with low-level gene activity and became a distinct feature in a mere four mutations as an existing Read More…
Average child has 60 genetic mutations?
From “We Are All Mutants: First Direct Whole-Genome Measure of Human Mutation Predicts 60 New Mutations in Each of Us,” (ScienceDaily, June 12, 2011), a study involving four adults and one child, we learn: Each one of us receives approximately 60 new mutations in our genome from our parents. This striking value is reported in Read More…
Looking for the ultimate knot that explains the sweater
Senior scientist at the Biologic Institute, Ann Gauger, reflects on “Life, Purpose, Mind: Where the Machine Metaphor Fails”, Evolution News & Views (June 1, 2011): Up until now, the materialist, reductionist method has been very successful, because cells can be ground up, probed, measured and tested in a way that life forces or agency can’t Read More…
Ninety-nine per cent chimpanzee rides again? In a Christian rag? Well, maybe only 96%?
Dennis Venema, Biologos’s senior fellow for science, and biology chair at Canada’s evangelical Trinity Western University, would have us know (p. 25) that the chimp genome(total genetic heredity encoded in DNA), which was fully mapped by 2005,displays “near identity”with the human genome as detailed by Collins’s team, with a 95 to 99 percent match depending Read More…
Happy 50th birthday, genetic code!
And many more! A friend writes to say, Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Nirenberg and Matthaei experiment , which was the first step in cracking the full 64-codon genetic code. The first codon that was cracked was that UUU=phenylalanine. And from The Scientist: On May 27, 1961, Heinrich Matthaei, a postdoc working with NIH Read More…
Crocodiles swam to North America?
This charming tale, “Crocodiles swam the Atlantic to reach America” should be true, but some are undecided. Michael Marshall explains for New Scientist (11 May 2011), “Millions of years before Vikings crossed the Atlantic, crocodiles swam thousands of kilometres from Africa to colonise the Americas,” … all four American species are most closely related to Read More…
So new genes don’t lead to new species?
In “Zoologger: Clone army steals genes from other species” (New Scientist, 23 May 2011), Michael Marshall discusses the way clams steal genes from other clams. And how some life forms don’t have sex at all: The poster children for asexuality are bdelloid rotifers, tiny animals that have gone without sex for 80 million years. But Read More…
How many fields other than human evolution can cheerfully tolerate the following level of vagueness?
In “Out-of-Africa migration selected novelty-seeking genes” (New Scientist, 06 May 2011), Aria Pearson tells us, “AS HUMANS migrated out of Africa around 50,000 years ago and moved across the planet, evolution may have latched onto a gene linked to risk-taking and adventurousness.” Once treated skeptically, the idea “stands up to rigorous analysis,” due to minor Read More…