At Phys.Org today, a press release indicates that scientists have fashioned a type of stand-in for natural cells which can ‘mimic’ some of their functions/properties. The title of the PR is: “Scientists create artificial cells that mimic living cells’ ability to capture, process, and expel material.” Should we add this to the Miller-Urey experiment as a new piece of the puzzle as to how life started? Well, first of all, the limitations of the Miller-Urey experiment have been spelled out elsewhere, but should be well-known by now. Second, here’s what we read at Phys.Org: To design the cell mimics, the researchers created a spherical membrane the size of a red blood cell using a polymer, a stand-in for the cellular Read More ›

As I explained in a previous post, “Critical Race Theory,” with its denial of objective morality and neutral principles of justice, is essentially metaphysical materialism applied to race relations.  While CRT has received a lot of media attention in recent days, “critical studies” of various stripes have been around for a long time.  I was first exposed to them when I was in law school in the 80’s and learned about critical legal theory (“CLT”).  Proponents of CLT (often called “Crits”) assert that the law is just another tool oppressors use to victimize the oppressed.  Harvard’s The Bridge project summarizes CLT as follows: A family of new legal theories, launched since 1970, share commitments to criticize not merely particular legal Read More ›

The story about Rolling Stone’s “update” (which should have been called a retraction) is here.