Happy New Year! No. 1 Story of 2024: Nobel Prize for Function of “Junk DNA”

Autonomous University of Madrid, Bill Dembski, C. elegans, Current Science, David Coppedge, Evolution, Gary Ruvkun, gene regulation, Intelligent Design, Jonathan Wells, Junk DNA, Karolinska Institutet, microRNA, miRNA, National Cancer Institute, Nicholas Robine, Nobel Committee, Nobel Prize, Richard Sternberg, Robert Sarnovsky, roundworm, Subhash Lakhotia, The Conversation, The Myth of Junk DNA, Victor Ambros
That so-called genetic junk would turn out to be functional was a prediction of intelligent design going back to the 1990s. Source
Read More

Soul Survives Death? ER Doc Faces Skepticism

Baram Elahi, brain function, cardiac arrest, clinical death, Closer to Truth, consciousness, death, doctors, Faith & Science, John Eccles, Lord Kelvin, Lucid Dying, near-death experiences, Neuroscience & Mind, Nobel Prize, physics, post-death consciousness, Psyche, Robert Lawrence Kuhn, Sam Parnia, skepticism, soul
In discussion with Robert Lawrence Kuhn, Dr. Sam Parnia stuck to his clearly defined evidence, avoiding religious digressions. Source
Read More

The Big Bang Simplified

Albert Einstein, astronomy, Big Bang, big squeeze, calculus, Discovery Institute Press, earth, General Theory of Relativity, Georges Lemaȋtre, gravitational attraction, gravitational theory, In the Beginning, Intelligent Design, Isaac Newton, Jean-Pierre Luminet, mathematics, Nicolaus Copernicus, Nobel Prize, philosophy, physics, Physics, Earth & Space, special theory of relativity, The Big Bang Revolutionaries, universe
Since very few people understand Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, for most of us the Big Bang seems very mysterious and counterintuitive. Source
Read More

My Dinner with Steven and Louise Weinberg

Atheism, atheists, attorney, Austin, Baylor University, Christianity, Faith & Science, faith and science, Intelligent Design, Jesus, Law, law professor, Louise Weinberg, naturalism, Nobel Prize, Phillip E. Johnson, physicists, physics, Physics, Earth & Space, scripture, Steven Weinberg, The First Three Minutes, The Nature of Nature, theism, theists, University of Texas, Waco
Weinberg was holding court, going on about how much he knew about the origin of the universe and how atheism was the only intellectually viable option. Source
Read More

Secrets of Active Transport Become Visible

active transport, anion, aquaporins, cation, cell membrane, chloride channels, chloride ions, concentration gradient, cornucopia, Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane conductance Regulator, death, disease, entropy, Evolution, Intelligent Design, ion channels, irreducibly complex structures, life, Maxwell’s demon, natural forces, Nobel Prize, non-life, osmosis, passengers, passive transport, PNAS, potassium channels, residues, Roderick MacKinnon, Second Law of Thermodynamics, selectivity filters, sodium channels, unnatural selection, wildfire smoke, X-ray machines
TSA workers at airports could never boast of this much quality control in their authentication protocols. Source
Read More

Fruit Fly Eyes and More Surprises for Darwin

apoptosis, biology, body systems, Charles Darwin, circulation, convergent strategies, courtship, Current Biology, descending neurons, digestion, Drosophila melanogaster, Evolution, feedback control, fine control, Flight, fluctuating asymmetry, fruit flies, Hermann J. Muller, Intelligent Design, jointed appendages, Marco Milán, muscular, natural selection, neurons, Nobel Prize, odors, ommatidia, PLOS Biology, reproduction, saccades, sharp turns, Stephen Crane, timing, visual system
Don’t swat too quickly! There’s more awe in that little fly than might be apparent from  a cursory glance. Source
Read More

No. 7 Story of 2023: Exhibition on the Bible and Science Opens in Nation’s Capital

Anthony Schmidt, Arno Penzias, Arthur Holly Compton, Bible, biology, Buzz Aldrin, Cambridge University, Catholic priest, Charles Townes, communion, cosmology, Deborah Haarsma, DNA, Evolution, Faith & Science, Fred Hoyle, Georges Lemaître, Guillermo Gonzalez, humans, Intelligent Design, James Gordon, Jeffrey Williams, Johannes Kepler, John Ray, Leslie Wickman, Melissa Cain Travis, Museum of the Bible, Nancy Pearcey, Nicholas Copernicus, Nobel Prize, On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, Ota Benga, Pentateuch, Psalms, Robert Jastrow, Science and Scripture, Signature in the Cell, St. George Jackson Mivart, Stephen Meyer, The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of Creation, Thinking God’s Thoughts, Total Truth
Tracing the development of science over two millennia, the exhibition challenges a popular misconception about the relationship between the Bible and science. Source
Read More

More on Roger Penrose and Fine-Tuning

Anthropic Principle, chicken feed, fine-tuning, Fire-Maker, gravitational constant, Guillermo Gonzalez, initial entropy, Intelligent Design, intelligent observers, Jay Richards, multiverse, multiverse theory, Nobel Prize, physics, Physics, Earth & Space, Robert Lawrence Kuhn, Roger Penrose, The Edge of Evolution, The Privileged Planet, william lane craig, YouTube videos
Penrose offers as an alternative to design only that maybe some very different kind of life might be possible without the fine-tunings we see in our universe. Source
Read More

I Just Want to Say One Word to You: Graphene

aluminum, Ariel Malik, Avadain, batteries, Bradley Larschan, cement, COSM 2023, Dustin Hoffman, electric vehicles, electronics, entrepreneurs, George Gilder, graphene, James Tour, Kevin Wyss, Medicine, mice, modernity, Nobel Prize, Physics, Earth & Space, plastics, Rice University, spinal cord, technological applications, The Graduate
Graphene was first characterized in 2004 when two researchers took graphite and exfoliated individual sheets of graphene using scotch tape. Source
Read More