21Mar 2025 by Post

Origin of Life: A “Simple” Worm’s Challenge

Animal Algorithms, atheists, behaviors, brain, C. elegans, chaos, directed evolution, Eric Cassell, human brain, intelligence, Intelligent Design, Irreducible Complexity, Journal of Neurochemistry, lab animals, Life Sciences, natural selection, order, origin of life, random mutation, Richard Dawkins, simplicity, specified complexity, touch response
Were there ever life forms that were so simple that they could merely self-assemble, as our official doctrine of the origin of life proposes? Source
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14Mar 2025 by Post

Microbes as “Moral Agents”? Bioethicist Says Yes

Artificial Intelligence, babies, bioethics, computer software, Endangered Species Act, fish, gestating human babies, human exceptionalism, image of God, insects, invertebrates, Jeff Sebo, life, Life Sciences, mammals, microbes, moral agents, moral patients, moral responsibility, NYU, philosophers, plants, The Moral Circle, universe
Only a philosopher could claim seriously that humans owe significant moral duties to microbes. Source
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28Feb 2025 by Post

Biologist Michael Levin: A Farewell to Physicalism

Andreas Wagner, biology, Daniel Dennett, David Deutsch, Discovery Institute, DNA, emergence, Engineering, environment, Evolution, flatworms, frogs, George F. R. Ellis, Günter Bechly, Harvard University, Life Sciences, material world, materialism, mathematics, Max Tegmark, Michael Levin, morphogenesis, mysterian, mysticism, naturalism, numerosity, philosophies, physical world, planarian flatworms, Platonism, Platonists, preprint, Richard Sternberg, Roger Penrose, spooky, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, teleology, Tufts University, University of Zurich, Werner Heisenberg
Levin proposes a “radical Platonist view in which some of the causal input into mind and life originates outside the physical world.” Source
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25Nov 2024 by Post

Francis Collins Employs Climate Change as a Cudgel

catastrophism, Christians, Climate, climate change, climate scientists, cold-related deaths, David Legates, denial, Department of Energy, earth, Europe, Francis Collins, guilt by association, heat-related deaths, Holocaust deniers, human flourishing, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, John Christy, Judith Curry, Life Sciences, NASA, oil industry, Patrick Michaels, Physics, Earth & Space, Richard Lindzen, Ronan Connolly, Roy Spencer, Technology, temperature, The Road to Wisdom, William Happer, Willie Soon
Collins identifies as a Christian, but he seems to have missed a glaring instance of design in the Earth system. Source
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22Sep 2024 by Post

Pond Scum Is Our Equal: That’s Nature Rights for You

China, Climate Week, Culture & Ethics, earth goddess, fossil fuels, grass, human race, human thriving, Life Sciences, Luddism, mining, mosquitoes, natural gas, nature rights, nonhuman beings, Pachamama, pipeline construction, pond scum, resources, Rights of Nature Tribunal, scallops, self-loathing, squirrels, trees
Now, a “tribunal” will be held in New York to promote the rights of nature and undermine public support for fossil fuels. Source
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16Sep 2024 by Post

Embrace the Chaos: How Cells Harness Disorder for Function

Alex Holehouse, AlphaFold, antibiotics, ATP synthase, biophysicists, botanis, Brownian motion, Caltech, car jacks, cell's, conformations, cytoplasm, Duke University, electrostatic conditions, eric hedin, Gabriella Heller, Intelligent Design, intrinsically disordered proteins, kinesin, Life Sciences, Maxwell’s demon, MIT, molecular machines, noncoding RNAs, nucleus, pollen grains, proteins, Robert Brown, Robert Shedinger, Scotsmen, socket wrenches, solubility, The Scientist, Washington University
In three classes of examples, cells are shown to manipulate chaotic forces toward functional purposes. Source
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