“There are multiple trade secrets among paleontologists. Chief among them is that Darwin’s insistence on gradualism was motivated by his understanding that the dramatic jumps found in the fossil record imply intervention. Darwin hoped that time would reveal his desperately needed transitional fossils. It has not… “
At Mind Matters News: If reality is fundamentally mathematical, why the war on math?
Perhaps we all need to recall something: The Iron Ring of the Canadian engineers is forged from the steel of a bridge that collapsed and cost 75 lives. That ring is intended as a warning, not a training manual. It turns out that in the real world, right or wrong answers in math do matter.
Surprise! Cue Shock! Study finds “bias” in biomedical journals
The rest of the news release goes on to minimize the problem and soften the blow — not the usual approach in media (for good reason). Lost somewhere in the snow: “Some of these authors, the researchers said, are also on the editorial boards of the journals.”
What the Miller-Urey experiment got wrong
Miller and Urey produced simple amino acids but then nothing happened. Apparently, the containers you use to try to make life in a test tube matter. When life got started, they always used Teflon.
Horizontal gene transfer: Bacteria apparently despise the selfish gene
Researchers: “Cooperation is ubiquitous in bacterial populations. Bacteria produce and share public goods, providing indiscriminate benefits to their neighbors at cost to themselves.” It makes sense but it isn’t yer old biology teacher’s evolution.
At Mind Matters News: British government moves to protect octopuses from cruelty
Researchers are probing why some invertebrates are as smart as vertebrates. It seems that there is no straightforward evolutionary path to smartness.
Here’s a new short on epigenetics
A short movie which describes why the identical twins Lucky Lyle and Troubled Tim end up with totally different personalities. Is it environment or genetics? Or perhaps both?
A Tour of Directed Mutations
Many people think that directed mutations don’t exist. This video explores both the theory behind directed mutations (what is meant by “directed”, how is selection involved, etc.) as well as the mechanics and specifics of many different types of directed mutations. It’s a lot to take in but well worth your time.
Eric Cassell on the mystery of Monarch butterfly migration
There exists no evolutionary model that satisfactorily explains its origin. That by itself does not prove that gradual evolution didn’t produce such programming, but the lack of such a model should at least give the open-minded pause for reflection.
At Mind Matters News: Does science disprove free will? A physicist says no
Apart from simple laws governing neurons, we have no clue what laws the mind follows, though it does show complex nonlinear dynamics.
Laszlo Bencze offers a thought experiment on whether a random mistake can create information
Bencze: Even in this rare case of a random mistake seemingly creating information (Elizabeth Bishop’s poem, The Man-Moth), the ability of an intelligent agent to notice and respond was critically important.
At Mind Matters News: A Darwinian biologist resists learning to live with panpsychism
The differences between panpsychism and naturalism are subtle but critical. As panpsychism’s popularity grows, insight will be better than rage and ridicule.
The American Christians did not “wage war on” Darwin either — not at first
Incidentally, he notes a coalescence among some Christian thinkers today between Darwin and the much-ridiculed William Paley (19th century design proponent). Yes? That whirring sound you hear is Darwin spinning in his grave, reaching unthinkable speeds…
Christianity vs. Darwinism: The war that never took place?
Seth Hart has the story about the many Christian thinkers who embraced Darwinism early on. One guesses that by the time most Christian thinkers discovered what Darwinism really was (Social Darwinism undoubtedly helped them see… ), many were heavily compromised and it was too late to back out.
Why did the evangelical Christian world go nuts for Christian Darwinism a decade ago?
Contra Trendy Christians: It makes sense that all humans would descend from a single couple. If you had to account for something like, say, human consciousness, isn’t it easier to address that if we all belong to the same family of origin? Would you prefer to explain the development of human consciousness assuming that we come from multiple different ones? Darn good thing if someone can prove its true genetically.