Category: Biology
Coffee!! When science nerds go bad …
| February 17, 2011 | Posted by O'Leary under Biology |
… nice kids at Baylor begin to sound like Lady Gaga and look like the broom closet before Tidy Up day: “The video contradicts the idea that science is straightforward,” Shim said. “For a lot of jobs, I think, time in equals output, but in science you have to sit there and struggle. Endless troubleshooting… more
Lab rats, take heart! You may be next to get liberated …
| February 16, 2011 | Posted by O'Leary under Biology |
According to this paper, ScienceDaily (Feb. 14, 2011) — New research shows that all not mammals are created equal. In fact, this work shows that the animals most commonly used by scientists to study mammalian genetics — mice — develop unusually quickly and may not always be representative of embryonic development in other mammals. Hmm.… more
Bill Nye (“The Science Guy”) Weighs in on Science Education
| February 10, 2011 | Posted by DonaldM under Biology, Darwinism, Education, Evolutionary biology, Intelligent Design, Science, science education |
Dr. Cornelius Hunter recently posted on some findingsfrom the NCSE (the National Center for the Selling of Evolutioner, I mean, Science Education, on how many biology teachers are reluctant to teach evolution. Now, TV personality Bill Nye “The Science Guy” has given us his two cents worth on this controversy. In the interview he’s asked… more
New Book on Alfred Russel Wallace and the ID Connection
| January 29, 2011 | Posted by Flannery under Biography, Biology, Books of interest, Intelligent Design |
![250px-Alfred_Russel_Wallace_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_14558[1]](http://www.uncommondescent.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/250px-Alfred_Russel_Wallace_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_1455815.jpg)
In my new book, Alfred Russel Wallace: A Rediscovered Life, I take the reader on a journey from 19-century England, to the wilds of the Amazon River Basin, to the Malay Archipelago, and back to the highly charged scientific climate of Victorian London. Wallace’s story is one of discovery, from shocking Charles Darwin with his… more
Different species show identical patterns?
| January 17, 2011 | Posted by O'Leary under Biology, Darwinism, Science |
At honest broker of media releases ScienceDaily (Jan. 11, 2011), we learn that “Catfish Study Reveals Multiplicity of Species” — Peer into any stream in a South American rainforest and you may well see a small shoal of similar-looking miniature catfish. But don’t be fooled into thinking that they are all the same species. Promise,… more
They said it: NSTA’s radical redefinition of Science
| January 10, 2011 | Posted by kairosfocus under Atheism, Biology, Darwinism, Education, Evolution, Expelled, Philosophy |
We have all heard of the NCSE, but the National Science Teachers Association [of the US], NSTA, has proposed a new definition of the nature of science, in a declaration signed off by its Board of Directors, as long ago as July, 2000. Excerpting: All those involved with science teaching and learning should have a… more
He said it: As a butcher eyes a sheep, so the Darwinists eyed paleontologist Steve Gould (1941-2002)?
| January 1, 2011 | Posted by O'Leary under Biology, Darwinism |
David Berlinski recalls Gould’s tetchy relationship with the iron rice bowls of the Darwin establishment: Of course, if the fossil record does not fit the theory, it is always possible to adjust the theory to fit the record. In science, an enterprising theoretician has several degrees of freedom within which to maneuver before the referee… more
Coffee!: Things can’t just be weird, can they? I mean …
| December 26, 2010 | Posted by O'Leary under Biology, Darwinism |
From Live Journal via Mark Shea, originally at Why Evolution is True (Jerry Coyne’s site), we have the Brazilian Treehopper, also this model … And if you think that’s weird, see these. The funny part is the proposed Darwinian explanation: A first guess is that it’s a sexually-selected trait, but those are often limited to… more
Coffee with the squirrels today: They don’t give their kids mating advice
| December 22, 2010 | Posted by O'Leary under Biology, Darwinism |
Staff writer Lesley Ciarula Taylor explains for Toronto Star readers “Why female red squirrels aren’t choosy about their mates”: Guelph scientists have solved the puzzling question of why female squirrels are rampantly promiscuous, sleeping with an average of 10 males in one day. It almost entirely depends on how many guys show up. That’s the… more
From the quote mine: The misunderestimated virtues of skepticism
| December 9, 2010 | Posted by O'Leary under Biology, Darwinism |
And look who’s talking, too: Our theory of evolution has become one . . . which cannot be refuted by any possible observations. Every conceivable observation can be fitted into it. It is thus `outside of empirical science’ but not necessarily false. No one can think of ways in which to test it. Ideas, either… more
Secular Humanists Despise Each Other and Humanity
| November 24, 2010 | Posted by Clive Hayden under Biology, Culture, Darwinism, Education, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Religion, Science |
A friend of mine referred me to this article at superscholar.org about the recent 30th anniversary conference that The Center For Inquiry held in Los Angeles this past October. There seems to be a lot of disagreement among the influential in the movement advocating secular humanism. Despite calls for unity at the conference, a significant… more
“Evolution Readiness” and Other Tools for Teaching Evolution in Our Schools
| November 24, 2010 | Posted by Clive Hayden under Biology, Culture, Education, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Science |
Education Week has this article expounding on the fruitfulness of campaigns designed to educate our youth in the theory of evolution. When a federal court in 2005 rejected an attempt by the Dover, Pa., school board to introduce intelligent design as an alternative to evolution to explain the development of life on Earth, it sparked… more
William Dembski Debates Cristopher Hitchens Nov. 18th
| November 17, 2010 | Posted by Clive Hayden under Biology, Culture, Darwinism, Education, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Religion, Science |
Dr. William Dembski will be debating Christopher Hitchens at the Prestonwood Baptist Church Nov. 18th, 2010. “Does a Good God Exist?” will be the topic debated. The debate will be held from 8:40 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. There will be a live webcast of the debate. Dr. William Dembski, Research Professor in Philosophy at Southwestern… more
Coffee!: But then cats have a more subtle method for everything, don’t they?
| November 13, 2010 | Posted by O'Leary under Biology |
This from the Beeb: How cats lap water: … cats use their tongues to delicately draw up water without breaking the surface of the liquid. The scientists, who published their study in the journal Science, say this differs from dogs, who employ a messy scooping action to quench their thirst. [ ... ] While humans… more
The Limits of Self Organisation
| October 13, 2010 | Posted by Richard Johns under Biology, Darwinism, Informatics, Mathematics, Natural selection, Self-Org. Theory |
I’m writing to tell people about a paper of mine that was published in Synthese last month, titled: “Self-organisation in dynamical systems: a limiting result”. While the paper doesn’t address intelligent design as such, it indirectly establishes strict limits to what such evolutionary mechanisms as natural selection can accomplish. In particular, it shows that physical… more
World-record genome
| October 11, 2010 | Posted by William Dembski under Biology, Genomics |
SCIENCE: “Now THAT’s a genome. A rare Japanese flower named Paris japonica sports an astonishing 149 billion base pairs, making it 50 times the size of a human genome—and the largest genome ever found. Until now, the biggest genome belonged to the marbled lungfish, whose 130 billion base pairs weighed in at an impressive 132.83… more
The Panda’s Thumb Goes After Casey Luskin Yet Again
| August 12, 2010 | Posted by DonaldM under Biology, Cosmology, Darwinism, Design inference, Education, Evolution, Evolutionary biology, Intelligent Design, Legal, Peer review, Philosophy, Science |
Casey Luskin, Program Officer in Public Policy and Legal Affairs for the Discovery Institute, has recently published an article entitled ZEAL FOR DARWIN’S HOUSE CONSUMES THEM:HOW SUPPORTERS OF EVOLUTION ENCOURAGE VIOLATIONS OF THE ESTABLISHMENT CLAUSE in the Liberty University Law Review. Luskin continues to be a favorite target of the anti-ID crowd over at The… more
Is Craig Venter’s Synthetic Cell Really Life?
| July 23, 2010 | Posted by DonaldM under Biology, Chemistry, Darwinism, Design inference, Evolution, Evolutionary biology, Intelligent Design, Origin Of Life, Religion, Science, The Design of Life |
Bioethicist Gregory Kaebnick, Ph.D., has an interesting take on the recently announced synthetic cell created by a team of researchers led by J. Craig Venter at the J. Craig Venter Instititute (JVCI). In a recent article in The Scientist entitled Is the “Synthetic Cell” about Life?, Kaebnick writes: …the technical accomplishment is not quite what… more
The Dwarfs are for the Dwarfs!
| July 9, 2010 | Posted by DonaldM under Biology, Cosmology, Culture, Darwinism, Evolution, Evolutionary biology, Intelligent Design, Peer review, Philosophy, Physics, Religion, Science |
A friend directed me to this fun little article from the Jewish World Review. I’m not a regular reader of JWR, so missed this wonderful little piece from Paul Greenberg, in which he recalls the Sokal Hoax of 1996. For those not familiar with it, the Sokal Hoax was an article written by Professor Alan… more
Sternberg Plasters Matheson
| June 13, 2010 | Posted by scordova under Biology, Darwinism, Science |
“I think this will come to be a classic story of orthodoxy derailing objective analysis of the facts, in this case for a quarter of a century…The failure to recognize the full implications of this-particularly the possibility that the intervening noncoding sequences may be transmitting parallel information in the form of RNA molecules-may well go… more