Category: Irreducible Complexity
Attempt to explain the assembly of the bacterial flagellum, “a complex process involving more than 70 genes”
| April 27, 2018 | Posted by News under Intelligent Design, Irreducible Complexity |
From Phys.org: Many bacteria are equipped with a flagellum, a helical propeller that allows bacteria to travel. The flagellum is assembled in a highly organized manner involving the stepwise addition of each of its internal parts. However, there are many open questions as to how this orderly construction is achieved. In a study published in […]
Jonathan McLatchie vs. Keith Fox: Has ID stood the test of time?
| February 24, 2018 | Posted by News under Design inference, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Irreducible Complexity |
Saturday 24th February 2018 – 02:30 pm Seems to be up now in EST. Audio:Premier Christian Radio: A bacterial flagellum acts as the outboard motor on a bacteria. But is the complex arrangement of parts that enable it to do its job a result of design or evolution? Michael Behe first opened the debate on […]
The bombardier beetle, the toad, and – after all these years – Mike Behe
| February 8, 2018 | Posted by News under Books of interest, Culture, Darwinism, Intelligent Design, Irreducible Complexity |
From Susan Milius at ScienceNews: In a lab face-off, 43 percent of Pheropsophus jessoensis bombardiers escaped alive after being swallowed by toads, a pair of researchers at Kobe University in Japan report February 7 in Biology Letters. These lucky beetles were vomited up — in one case, 107 minutes after being gulped — covered with […]
Answering DiEb: Just what is “search” in a sense relevant to ID?
For some time now, objector DiEb has been raising the question, what do we mean by speaking of “search” in the context of evolutionary search. At 311 in the parody thread, she [IIRC] remarks: >>Search is a central term in the work of Dr. Dr. William Dembski jr, Dr. Winston Ewert, and Dr. Robert Marks […]
Recent paper: A serious consideration of pathway complexity in life forms
| December 11, 2017 | Posted by News under Design inference, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Irreducible Complexity, Origin Of Life |
Abstract: (public access)One thing that discriminates living things from inanimate matter is their ability to generate similarly complex or non-random structures in a large abundance. From DNA sequences to folded protein structures, living cells, microbial communities and multicellular structures, the material configurations in biology can easily be distinguished from nonliving material assemblies. Many complex artefacts, from […]
Another axe lying at the root of the Tree of Life
| November 22, 2017 | Posted by News under Intelligent Design, Irreducible Complexity, Tree of life |
A brand new early eukaryote (“its own eukaryotic lineage”) From Katarina Zimmer at The Scientist: From an aquarium at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, California, scientists have identified a unicellular species that could shed light on how eukaryotes evolved, they report in Current Biology this week (November 22). The tiny organism—named Ancoracysta […]
Evolution as a Ralph’s Supermarket Store
| November 11, 2017 | Posted by PaV under Evolution, Evolutionary biology, Intelligent Design, Irreducible Complexity |
Over at the The Skeptical Zone there’s a reference to a post from Larry Moran’s blogsite. The question of irreducible complexity is revisited, and, torn to shreds in the eyes of evolutionary thinkers. For them it seems sufficient to simply announce the “presence” of some needed ingredient of the putative IC system of proteins in […]
Flagellum gives bacteria a sense of touch. Behe is right.
| October 27, 2017 | Posted by News under Cell biology, Intelligent Design, Irreducible Complexity |
Irreducible complexity. From ScienceDaily: Although bacteria have no sensory organs in the classical sense, they are still masters in perceiving their environment. … Swimming Caulobacter bacteria have a rotating motor in their cell envelope with a long protrusion, the flagellum. The rotation of the flagellum enables the bacteria to move in liquids. Much to the […]
Intelligent design and the origin of the visual cycle
| October 24, 2017 | Posted by News under Cell biology, Intelligent Design, Irreducible Complexity |
From commenter Otangelo Grasso, some thoughts: The irreducible process of phototransduction, 11 cis retinal synthesis, and the visual cycle, essential for vertebrate vision http://reasonandscience.heavenforum.org/t1638-origin-of-phototransduction-the-visual-cycle-photoreceptors-and-retina#5753 William Bialek: More Perfect Than We Imagined – March 23, 2013 Excerpt: photoreceptor cells that carpet the retinal tissue of the eye and respond to light, are not just good or […]
What is the term “surprisingly complex” doing in science PRs about life forms these days?
| October 5, 2017 | Posted by News under Darwinism, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Irreducible Complexity |
From ScienceDaily: Cell signals that trigger wound healing are surprisingly complex The researchers were testing two prevailing hypotheses for the wound-response trigger. One is that damaged and dying cells release proteins into the extracellular fluid which surrounding cells sense, causing them to boost their internal calcium levels. This increased calcium concentration, in turn, triggers their […]
New paper: A Complex Lens for a Complex Eye
| September 25, 2017 | Posted by News under Evolution, Intelligent Design, Irreducible Complexity |
Abstract: A key innovation for high resolution eyes is a sophisticated lens that precisely focuses light onto photoreceptors. The eyes of holometabolous larvae range from very simple eyes that merely detect light to eyes that are capable of high spatial resolution. Particularly interesting are the bifocal lenses of Thermonectus marmoratus larvae, which differentially focus light […]
Design Disquisitions-The Evolution of a Protein Transport Machine: Fazale Rana on Irreducible Complexity
| September 21, 2017 | Posted by Joshua G under Biology, Cell biology, Darwinism, Irreducible Complexity |
Michael Behe, Revolutionary, documentary now free online
| September 12, 2017 | Posted by News under Darwinism, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Irreducible Complexity |
Here. As we know, random changes and undirected natural processes routinely succeed in assembling functional equipment for a range of uses. Wait…it doesn’t work that way? The Revolutionary Behe website, at http://revolutionarybehe.com/, features more information about Dr. Behe’s research, other molecular machines, and evidence for intelligent design, and the stories of revolutionary scientists changing the […]
How can we measure specified complexity?
| August 10, 2017 | Posted by News under Complex Specified Information, Intelligent Design, Irreducible Complexity |
A friend asked about this common intelligent design concept. Specified complexity, also called complex specified information (CSI): Life shows evidence of complex, aperiodic, and specified information in its key functional macromolecules, and the only other example we know of such function-specifying complex information are artifacts designed by intelligent agents. A chance origin of life would exceed […]
Minnich and the Materialism
| June 12, 2017 | Posted by Eric Anderson under Intelligent Design, Irreducible Complexity, Naturalism |
Denyse recently linked to a presentation by Scott Minnich regarding the bacterial flagellum. Minnich is probably among the dozen or so leading experts in the world on the bacterial flagellum. Much of the information in his presentation will be familiar to followers of the issues, but a few points bear further examination. First a couple […]
Design Disquisitions: Peter S. Williams on Intelligent Design
| May 22, 2017 | Posted by Joshua G under Audio, Biology, Complex Specified Information, Darwinism, Design inference, Evolution, Food for thought, ID, Irreducible Complexity, Naturalism, Origin Of Life, Philosophy, Podcasts, Science |
In the latest post at Design Disquisitions I focus on the excellent work on ID by British philosopher Peter S. Williams. He has published several papers, and has many high quality articles and media presentations on the subject. His work was instrumental in initiating my change of mind from theistic neo-Darwinism to design. Highly recommended stuff! Peter […]
Design Disquisitions: A Dialogue Between Peter S. Williams & Denis Alexander
| April 23, 2017 | Posted by Joshua G under Biology, Christian Darwinism, Complex Specified Information, Darwinism, Design inference, Food for thought, ID, Intelligent Design, Irreducible Complexity, Philosophy |
Flagellum: Nature, it turns out, is an engineer
| April 17, 2017 | Posted by News under Irreducible Complexity |
From ScienceDaily: How nature engineered the original rotary motor The bacterial flagellum is one of nature’s smallest motors, rotating at up to 60,000 revolutions per minute. To function properly and propel the bacterium, the flagellum requires all of its components to fit together to exacting measurements. In a study published in Science, University of Utah […]
Laszlo Bencze: “Sculpting” of life forms is an accident, of course
| April 9, 2017 | Posted by News under Darwinism, Intelligent Design, Irreducible Complexity, Naturalism |
From a review by Jonathan Rosen of two books about owls at the Wall Street Journal: As both books detail, the anthropomorphic effect of the facial disc [of the owl] is an accident of evolution that has sculpted owl faces into satellite dishes that direct sound waves to their ears. (paywall) Our philosopher friend Laszlo […]
GP on the Origin of Body Plans [OoBP] challenge
. . . here (at 194) in his amazing engineering thread as he responds to Dionisio: >>Dionisio: Thank you for summarizing that interesting discussion. I will summarize it even more. 1) Nobody knows how morphogenesis is controlled and guided. 2) Moran is no exception to that. 3) “Experts” are no exception to that. 4) However, […]
