More on the Panda’s Thumb: Imperfection or Masterpiece?

Ailurarctos, Ailuropoda, Ailuropodinae, bears, biologists, biology, Chinese scientists, deletions, diploidal genome, DUOX2, Engineering, Evolution, genera, geneticists, giant panda, insertions, Intelligent Design, Mendelian recombination, mutations, neo-Darwinian theory, Panda's Thumb, phenotype, physiological traits, positively selected genes, Qinling panda, researchers, Roland Slowik, species, stasis, Ursidae
I would like to express my appreciation as a geneticist and biologist for the work on the molecular investigations and many other topics in the panda’s biology. Source
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Earth Left “A Path of Tools” to Scientific Discovery

Anthropic Principle, biology, cell's, devolution, earth, Evolution, Fire-Maker, fossil record, Guillermo Gonzalez, Intelligent Design, Irreducible Complexity, Jonathan Witt, Michael Denton, physics, Physics, Earth & Space, scientific discovery, The Farm at the Center of the Universe, The Privileged Planet
The fine-tunings for scientific discovery and technological progress are very interesting to me and not just because they defeat the anthropic principle. Source
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An Astonishing Life-Friendly Coincidence: The Properties of the Nonmetal Atoms

advanced life, amine, Atheism, biochemistry, biology, carbon, carboxyl, cell's, Charles Tanford, covalent bonds, environmental fitness, hydrogen, hydrophilic force, hydrophobic force, hydroxyl, Intelligent Design, Michael Denton, nitrogen, oxygen, periodic table of elements, Physics, Earth & Space, proteins, teleological arguments, The Miracle of the Cell, theism, universe
It is well established that there are far more ways in which the universe might have been that are non-conducive to life than there are life-friendly ways. Source
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Fossil Friday: Darwin’s Abominable Mystery Corroborated Once Again

abominable mystery, angiosperms, biological novelty, biology, Charles Darwin, diversification, Early Cretaceous, Evolution, flowering plants, Fossil Friday, genomes, Intelligent Design, jumps, Las Hoyas, Late Jurassic, Lower Cretaceous, Montsechia vidalii, nature, Nature (journal), paleontology, Philip Donoghue, Spain
This notorious discontinuity in the fossil record did not get any smaller with 160 years of research since Darwin, but instead became more and more acute. Source
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Is Vitalism Making a Comeback? 

"God of the gaps", Andrea Roli, argument from ignorance, biology, blacks, élan vital, Ernst Mayr, Evolution, Evolution “On Purpose”, Huffington Post, Intelligent Design, Irish immigrants, Jacques Monod, James Barham, James Shapiro, Kardashian family, Peter Corning, Racism, Samir Okasha, Stuart A. Kauffman, University of Chicago, vital force, vitalism
For proponents of ID, there is a natural temptation to respond to this sort of explanation with derision. I suspect this reaction may be short-sighted. Source
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