Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community
Category

Biology

Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
March 9, 2021
Categorized
Biology, Intelligent Design
Tagged
, ,

Sea slugs cut off their own heads and grow a new body

Denyse O'Leary
March 9, 2021
Biology, Intelligent Design
Gizmodo: Mitoh’s team suggested that autotomy in the wild could happen in Elysia atroviridis because the slug is regularly encumbered with planktonic parasites—perhaps leaving a parasite-ridden body behind to grow a new one is the easiest way of dealing with the infestation. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
November 13, 2020
Categorized
Biology, Intelligent Design, Mind
Tagged
, ,

A return of purpose to biology?

Denyse O'Leary
November 13, 2020
Biology, Intelligent Design, Mind
He turns out to be looking for a “bottom up” theory of agency—that is, a materialist one. And he admits that there is no such theory but he offers “a sketch of what a solution might look like.” One suspects that materialists will be offering such sketches centuries from now. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 25, 2020
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Biology, Medicine
Tagged
,

Is human biology too complicated for humans to understand?

Denyse O'Leary
July 25, 2020
Artificial Intelligence, Biology, Medicine
Craig Mundie’s dream is to build an AI that rivals human intellect to tackle problems in health care. He hopes to be able to customize medicine for every person by building a virtual proxy for every person. It’s almost like he is asking for biology to play tricks on him… Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 2, 2020
Categorized
Biology, Genetics, Genomics, Intelligent Design, Physics

Is biology “hiding its deepest mysteries”?

Denyse O'Leary
July 2, 2020
Biology, Genetics, Genomics, Intelligent Design, Physics
Physics was “hiding its deepest mysteries” thousands of years ago too before anyone uncovered laws for how it works. There are still mysteries in physics, of course, but they are now more basic. The laws are now known. Let's hope the same proves true for biology. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 30, 2020
Categorized
Biology, Cell biology, Intelligent Design
Tagged
, ,

Did cosmic rays cause right-handed DNA?

Denyse O'Leary
June 30, 2020
Biology, Cell biology, Intelligent Design
At Quanta: Many researchers believe the selection to be random: Those right-handed genetic strands just happened to pop up first, or in slightly greater numbers. But for more than a century, some have pondered whether biology’s innate handedness has deeper roots. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
June 19, 2020
Categorized
Biology, Fine tuning, Intelligent Design
Tagged
,

Discussion of fine-tuning at Journal of Theoretical Biology

Denyse O'Leary
June 19, 2020
Biology, Fine tuning, Intelligent Design
It would be nice to continue a civilized discussion of what fine-tuning means and implies in biology. Would incorporating an expectation of fine-tuning into biology hypotheses lead to quicker advances sooner? How will we test this—assuming that the village Darwin mob doesn’t storm the place, demanding that we shut down the discussion? Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
February 16, 2020
Categorized
Biology, Culture, Intelligent Design
Tagged
, , ,

Jerry Coyne takes a stand: Sex is binary

Denyse O'Leary
February 16, 2020
Biology, Culture, Intelligent Design
Jerry may well be brought down by this. Increasingly, “wokeness” rather than correct factual description, will confer academic esteem in science—thanks principally due to the progressivism (that Jerry has always supported) taking hold. Read More ›
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
February 5, 2020
Categorized
Biology, Culture, Darwinism, Intelligent Design
Tagged
, ,

The wholly accidental world of the placenta…

Denyse O'Leary
February 5, 2020
Biology, Culture, Darwinism, Intelligent Design
… in which we encounter the remarkable phenomenon of microchimerism ("These cells find their way into mother’s tissue and start acting like the tissue in which they find themselves. This process is known as feto-maternal microchimerism") Read More ›