Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

Sequencing oldest DNA ever from mammoths provides a window into limits on recovering DNA

At Smithsonian Magazine: That Mammuthus columbi originated as a new species, born of a hybridization event, “has major implications for our understanding of the population structure of Pleistocene megabeasts,” MacPhee says. The ancestors of the woolly mammoth and the Krestova mammoth had diverged from each other for about a million years before a population produced a hybrid that was different from both, giving rise to Mammuthus columbi. Read More ›

A Twitter mob made a mistake when it went after an AI industry giant

Pedro Domingos: In my confrontation with the AI cancel crowd, I was particularly helped by the fact that several of the ringleaders are (or call themselves) professional AI ethicists. Some of them are even well-known within their field. When they serially engaged in childish and unethical behavior in full view of their colleagues, they did my job for me. Read More ›

Some thoughts from a reader on Behe’s vindication at Lehigh

Remember, these same authors wrote a scathing review of Darwin Devolves in the journal Evolution. Now, somehow, they must hold their position of opposing Darwin Devolves, while presenting compelling evidence to support Darwin Devolves. Quite a conundrum! Read More ›

Behe vindicated (still not cited) at his own LeHigh University

One might ask: If things go downhill that way and “directionality and progress in evolution may be illusory,” what is the source of intelligent designs? An intelligence in or beyond nature? We’ll take either as an answer, to start a discussion. Read More ›

At The Guardian: What to do about the Political Incorrectness of Darwin’s Descent of Man

We don’t think Darwin should be Cancelled either because we don’t live in the Year Zero. But if some were minded to Cancel Darwin, this would not be a very good argument against it. Read More ›

At Nature Heredity Mike Behe vindicated but not cited

At Nature Heredity: Discoveries during the subsequent two decades have continued to support the idea that loss of function contributes to adaptation (Murray 2020), with cases of adaptive or beneficial loss of function being discovered across diverse organisms, genes, traits, and environments.” Read More ›

Farewell to Tom Bethell (1936–2021), one of the earliest modern Darwin skeptics

Laszlo Bencze, writes to say, “I am very saddened to hear of Tom Bethell’s death. Not only was he pivotal in my turning away from Darwinism due to his 1976 Harper’s article which I clipped from the magazine and still have but we also became friends during one of his visits to California." Read More ›

Does evolution help us understand why some species in the same genus are significantly smarter than others?

One could simply say, “Evolving more intelligence helped the animal to survive.” The trouble with that explanation is, many free-roaming life forms would probably survive more readily if they were more intelligent. But they do not develop greater intelligence on that account. There must be more to the story. Read More ›

Fighting back against Big Tech? Take a leaf from Seattle

West: "Unlike most political jurisdictions in the United States, Seattle expressly forbids discrimination on the basis of “political ideology.” Seattle defines political ideology expansively" Big Tech, take heed. Read More ›

W.E.Loennig: Are Birds Living Dinosaurs?

W.E.Loennig’s latest manuscript, “Are Birds Living Dinosaurs?” is, like all his earlier writings, characterized by great attention to scientific detail and willingness to engage with scientific critics (one in particular, in this case). I recommend not only this work, but many of his earlier works, which can be browsed here. I also highly recommend the German TV interview embedded above, which has English subtitles. The youtube English translation above has about 5000 views, the original German interview at the TV station has over 27,000. W.E.Loennig, who spent 25+ years at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne, may not be as well-known here in the US as some American ID proponents–possibly because never travels here—but he is Read More ›