Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

A note on layer-cake communication systems and protocols

There is a live exchange on the molecular nanotech communication systems in the cell that is trying to reduce them to Chemistry; where a chemical reaction is a physical process. Accordingly, I beg to remind one and all regarding layered communication systems and protocols: This is an elaboration of the general communication system: Here is how Yockey summarised it: Where, the standard genetic code [one of about two dozen dialects] reads like: The double helix: As was noted by Crick, right from the outset: In context: Now, we can see for ourselves just how desperate objectors to the design inference must be in the face of the point that D/RNA expresses a string data structure carrying a prong-height-based alphanumeric, 4 Read More ›

Stunning Levels of Ignorance Regarding the Genetic Code

ID critic Ed George was asked the following question: “Are you suggesting that the genetic code works through a series of chemical reactions?” His response: “Duh!” When asked to elucidate, he wrote the following comment: DNA is a chemical (deoxyribonucleic acid). It interacts with other chemicals (e.g., transcriptase) to form yet other chemicals (e.g., RNA) that reacts with other chemicals (e.g., amino acids) to form other chemicals (e.g., proteins). This is admittedly overly simplified, but there is nowhere in this process that does not involve chemical reactions. It is astonishing that someone who purports to be able to describe how DNA works (even on a simplified basis) would display such ignorance. Every educated person — theist, atheist, materialist, monist, dualist, Read More ›

What? Mutations not random? An “enigmatic in-built self-preserving organization”?

Researchers: Our calculations reveal an enigmatic in-built self-preserving organization of the genetic code that averts disruptive changes at the physicochemical properties level. Read More ›

Journalist Dances on the Grave of Virus Victim

This news article reports the death of an Ohio resident who was skeptical of the efficacy of lockdowns. The liberal media never seems to tire of celebrating the death or misfortune of those who disagree with them. It is tragic that they have sunk to new lows. Is it any wonder that the media is the most distrusted institution in the country (even lower than Congress for goodness sake)? Let’s take a look at the logic implicit in this story. This guy was a skeptic of lockdowns. He died. Therefore, his skepticism was unwarranted. **face palm** As a matter of logic, this man’s death is one data point. We do not extrapolate from a single data point to a population Read More ›

5th Study: CFR Way Lower than Previously Reported

Yet another study, this one out of Germany, confirms what was reported in Palo Alto, Los Angeles, Boston and New York. This one arrives at an infection rate of 15% (10X the previously thought number) and a CFR of .37%. One wonders how orthomyxo will spin this (either “don’t believe it” or “it is what I have always been saying” is my guess).

California v. Florida: COVID-19 Response and Results

Much has been written about In this article, Keith Carlson compares California (first in the nation with drastic lockdown measures that are not yet lifted) with Florida (lockdown started two weeks later and is already easing). This is the summary: California’s population is 39.5 million, Florida’s is 21.5 million. The average age in each state is: California, 36, Florida, 42—Floridians an average of six years older. As of April 23, California had 33,261 one cases and 1,268 COVID-19 deaths; Florida had 27,869 cases and 867 deaths. Meaning, 0.08 percent and 0.1 percent of those states’ populations were infected. California’s death-per-infected rate: 3.8 percent, Florida’s: 3.1 percent, with an equally small percentage of each state’s population having died, less than 0.005 percent. California’s 39.5 million people are spread out Read More ›

When beliefs don’t depend on reason…

Miriam Schoenfeld: Let’s work with a hypothetical example. Suppose I’m raised among atheists and firmly believe that God doesn’t exist. I realise that, had I grown up in a religious community, I would almost certainly have believed in God. … UD News: An alternative approach is Thomas Aquinas’s Five Ways, as explained by Michael Egnor: Arguments for God’s existence can be demonstrated by the ordinary method of scientific inference. Read More ›

Panpsychism hits popular science mags

If consciousness is intrinsic to the nature of the universe, to say that consciousness evolved would be like saying that photons evolved: “The photon has the characteristics it does in order to maximize its chances of survival and passing on its genes.” Um, let’s go back to the top of the page, shall we? … Read More ›

Remember convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and Harvard’s Evolutionary Dynamics lab?

The serial sex offender had an office at Harvard and visited dozens of times. It was likely a way Epstein was currying influence with Harvard, the way he did with many science notables. Darwinism was a sure bet. The Washington Post offers a few more details. Read More ›

OWID — Covid patterns

Let’s look at daily confirmed cases: and at a seven-day rolling average for deaths: South Korea seems to have beaten this wave. Several advanced countries show a stubborn plateau, which is reflected in the linear ongoing growth. It is not confined to the US, we need to learn from the Koreans; who BTW are HCQ users. The “mesa” for China underscores the observation that Chinese data has to be regarded with care. END