Darwin and the Swinging 1860s

Algernon Charles Swinburne, Charles Darwin, Darwin and the Victorian Crisis of Faith (series), Evolution, faith, Faith & Science, First Cause, First Vatican Council, Flower Power, Germany, Higher Criticism, information, Kulturkampf, Otto von Bismarck, Pope Pius IX, Roman Catholic Church, Secularism, Victorian England
The threat which such thinking posed to theistic beliefs was not lost on the Roman Catholic Church when Pope Pius IX convened the First Vatican Council of 1869. Source
Read More

No “Hopeful Monster,” Flower Demonstrates Evolution by Subtraction

APETALA3-3, Aquilegia coerulea, biology, Biston betularia, Chaetodipus intermedius, Charles Darwin, Colorado, Colorado blue columbine, Current Biology, Darwin Devolves, Evolution, evolutionary biologists, genetic information, Harrison Tasoff, hopeful monster, Intelligent Design, Jonathan Wells, Life Sciences, Michael Behe, petals, positive selection, saltation, Scott Hodges, sepals, spurs, Stephen Meyer, UC Santa Barbara, Zachary Cabin, Zombie Science
Evolutionary biologists at the University of California, Santa Barbara, noticed something peculiar about the columbines in a region of Colorado. Source
Read More

Top Scientific Problems with Evolution: Natural Selection

Artificial Selection, Bernard Kettlewell, biology, Charles Darwin, Darwin's Finches, Evolution, Galápagos Islands, Hugo de Vries, industrial melanism, Life Sciences, Macroevolution, Microevolution, mutations, natural selection, On the Origin of Species, peppered moths, Peter and Rosemary Grant, Theodosius Dobzhansky
When the drought ended and the rains returned, however, food was plentiful, and the average beak size returned to normal. Source
Read More

For Darwin Day, Topoisomerase Webinar With Biochemist Joe Deweese

amino acid sequences, animation, biology, Casey Luskin, cell duplication, Center for Science & Culture, Charles Darwin, chromosomes, complex and specified information, Darwin Day, DNA, enzymes, Events, Freed-Hardeman University, Intelligent Design, Joe Deweese, Life Sciences, molecular machines, replication, topoisomerase II, transcription, YouTube videos
This webinar will premiere a new molecular machine animation on the topoisomerase enzyme. Source
Read More

New Mode of Flight Found in Tiny Beetle

Adrian Malone, barbs, beetles, biology, bird feathers, Blepharida sacra, Charles Darwin, Chloe Tenn, Coleoptera, convergent evolution, electron micrograph, Evolution, flat bark beetle, flea beetle, Flight, froghoppers, insect wings, Intelligent Design, J.B.S. Haldane, Japan, larvae, Longitarsus anchusae, Matthew Bertone, miniaturization, Nature (journal), PLOS ONE, ptiloptery, Research, Sergey E. Farisenkov, The Scientist, Zookeys
A millimeter-sized beetle flies efficiently with feathery wings and a beat mode not seen before. Did it evolve by natural selection? Source
Read More

For Darwin, Timing Was Everything

Bible, Charles Darwin, Charles Darwin and the Ghost of Epicurus (series), Christianity, Christianity Not Mysterious, Culture & Ethics, Das Wesen des Christentums, David Hume, deism, demythologization, Enlightenment, Essays and Reviews, Evolution, faith, George Eliot, John Stuart Mill, John Toland, Ludwig Feuerbach, On Liberty, On the Origin of Species, Owen Chadwick, philosophy, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Samuel Wilberforce, secularization, The Essence of Christianity, Thucydides
Charles Darwin, as we saw yesterday, pulled off an intellectual coup against the major thinkers of the Western tradition. How did he do it? Source
Read More