The main topic of a recent Science article is a claim that life on Earth was jumpstarted by a very early hit by a moon-size object that precipitated a metallic hailstorm. But while sketching that scenario, which wowed a 2018 conference in Atlanta in October, Robert F. Service also recounts some of the more interesting […]
Intelligent Design
Women’s March falling apart before the anti-Semitism gets to science?
They’re all busting up, quarrelling.
Can DNA survival change the meaning of extinction?
Actually, it is widely suspected that the red wolf is, generally, a hybrid of wolf and coyote that appears from time to time and thus can’t go extinct unless one of the two parent groups does.
Researchers: Termites protect their ecosystem against drought
You’d almost think the system was designed to be stable over a range of climate conditions while slowly changing over time.
Social science hoax papers: Putting a respectable face on persecuting the hoaxers
Sexton: Similarly, the experts Singal contacted said the use of fake data still counts as data fabrication even if the dataset was obviously meant to be part of a satirical hoax. So there may be two grounds on which this IRB could decide to punish Boghossian.
Some Indian scientists nix Newton and Einstein
The BBC is now reporting on a trend in India to identity politics in science: The 106th Indian Science Congress, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, runs from 3-7 January. The head of a southern Indian university cited an old Hindu text as proof that stem cell research was discovered in India thousands […]
Eric Holloway: Atheists, agnostics more skeptical of evolution now
The editors of the new journal, Communications of the Blyth Institute, are looking for contributors with expertise in the relevant areas.
Evangelicals waving goodbye to Adam and Eve?
It is a sign of significant loss of cultural confidence when people are willing to reconfigure their “deepest convictions” even when the evidence against them isn’t “compelling.” Almost always that’s because what they call their faith is not actually among their deepest convictions.
Historian: Darwinists kept the “flat earth” myth going, to attack opponents of their views
From Mike Keas’s new book: “The reason for promoting both the specific like about the sphericity of earth and the general lie that religion and science are in natural and eternal conflict in Western society is to defend Darwinism.”
Heard at The Conversation: Enough with the “war on science” rhetoric!
A group of communications profs says it has the opposite of its intended effect: National Geographic’s March 2015 cover story provided a thoughtful discussion around the question of “Why Do Many Reasonable People Doubt Science?” The actual cover, however, simply said “The War on Science.” That article never actually uses the term “war on science” […]
Worms challenge idea that complexity just arises from simplicity
Maybe it’s the other way around in many cases.
Mike Behe’s new book, Darwin Devolves: “Absolutely convincing” or “omits contrary examples”
From two people, from very different perspectives. First, German biologist Wolf-Ekkehard Lönnig and Nathan Lents, author of a “bad design” book.
Jerry Coyne: Just sign Chicago “Statement on Principles of Free Expression”
Good for him but what will be really interesting to see now is how many of his fellow Darwinian evolutionary biologists join him in protest. People tend to think the mob is coming for someone else, someone who “deserves” it.
The amoeba that might be smarter than your computer
Nature is full of intelligence but mostly it does not resemble human intelligence. In some ways it works better than computer intelligence.
Be more afraid of the hype vendors than of the AI
The release of the Top Ten over hyped AI stories of 2019 has led the way for further promising ones, including this one, says engineer and philosopher Jonathan Bartlett: Was the machine cleverand sneaky or was it just programmed wrong? You decide. First, just to be clear, at Mind Matters we have nothing against AI. […]