03Apr 2020 by Post

The “Why” of the Fly “Y”: Reflections on “Junk” DNA

Alison Nguyen, axioms, Carmen Sapienza, chromosomes, DNA, Doris Bachtrog, Drosophila melanogaster, Emily Brown, euchromatin, Evolution, Francis Crick, fruit fly, genetics, heterochromatic proteins, heterochromatin, Junk DNA, Leslie Orgel, nucleus, organism, phenotype, repetitive sequences, Richard Dawkins, RNA, The Selfish Gene, transposable elements, W. Ford Doolittle, Y chromosome
In April 1980, almost exactly forty years ago, the journal Nature published a pair of highly influential articles on the topic of what has become known as “junk” or “selfish” DNA. Both reflected the key concept of The Selfish Gene, the highly influential 1976 book by Richard Dawkins, namely, that organisms are merely DNA’s way of making more DNA. The first was authored by W. Ford Doolittle and Carmen Sapienza and titled “Selfish genes, the phenotype paradigm and genome evolution.”1 The second was authored by Leslie Orgel and Francis Crick and titled “Selfish DNA: the ultimate parasite.”2 Together they posited an easy-to-grasp way to conceive of “excess” nucleotides along chromosomes — repetitive sequences in general and transposable elements in particular. In short, it was proposed that most such DNA elements…
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29Mar 2020 by Post

An Artist Examines Evolution

Albert Einstein, artists, Asa Gray, Atheism, Charles Darwin, Chris Augusta, Christianity, Creativity, Darwinism, David Berlinski, David Gelernter, Eric Metaxas, Evolution, evolutionary theory, Hannah Arendt, Hoover Institution, Intelligent Design, Jonah Goldberg, Jordan Peterson, materialists, Merion West, Michael Flannery, multiverse, Percy Shelley, Peter Robinson, Stephen Meyer, string theory, The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, The Return of the God Hypothesis, William Graham
Merion West is an online news source that dubs itself “a journal where all perspectives are welcome.” They tout the fact that they have been rated by Media Bias/Fact Check as a “Least Biased” source.  Generally, their articles seem to have deeper analysis than you will find in much of the mainstream media. For example, recent headlines include, “The Fraught Relationship Between Religion and Epidemiology,” “The Critics of ‘Social Justice,’ from Jonah Goldberg to Jordan Peterson,” and “Hannah Arendt’s Concept of ‘Impotent Bigness.’” They regularly interview newsmakers, and authors often include professors in relevant fields and others well qualified to comment.  Left, Center, or Right Articles are explicitly labeled by viewpoint: left, center, or right. This makes for interesting reading. To date, I haven’t seen much about evolution and intelligent…
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28Mar 2020 by Post

Why Studying Evolution Will Likely Challenge Your Kids’ Faith

Apologetics for Parents, Bible, Christian Apologetics, Christianity, ChristianMomThoughts, Doubts, Evidence, Evolution, God, Kids, Natasha Crain, theology, truth
By Natasha Crain I saw the following post in a Christian Facebook group: My daughter is starting her second semester of college tomorrow. She got ahold of her syllabus and found the following quote from the professor. “Except to one whose reason is blinded by unquestioning adherence to fundamentalist doctrine of creation, the evidence of the fossil record, with that of anatomy, embryology, biochemistry and genetics, compels a single conclusion: evolution is a fact.” Any suggestions on how she should approach this? If this is his daughter’s first time hearing about evolution (or at least secular views of it), it’s going to be a tough semester. Any suggestions on how she should “approach this” are at least a couple of years late. I hear or see questions like this all…
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26Mar 2020 by Post

Ancestor of All Animals in 555-Million-Year-Old Ediacaran Sediments?

annelids, arthropods, bilaterian animals, Buddenbrockia plumatellae, burrowing, Cambrian Explosion, Cambrian News, China, cnidarians, Deuterostomia, Ediacaran animals, Evolution, Germany, habitus, Helminthoidichnites, Ikaria wariootia, incertae sedis, microbial mats, mortichnia, Nephrozoa, PNAS, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Protostomia, Scyphozoa, South Australia, UC Riverside, University of California, Xenacoelomorpha, Yilingia spiciformis
For my series of articles about alleged Ediacaran animals predating the Cambrian explosion there is a new candidate that deserves a closer view: New research on Ediacaran fossils was just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by a team of scientists from UC Riverside (Evans et al. 2020), and it has already made global news headlines including, “Ancestor of all animals identified in Australian fossils” (University of California 2020) and the even more sensational, “Fossil hunters find evidence of 555m-year-old human relative” (Davis 2020). What did those scientists discover and are their far-reaching conclusions really justified?  Grains of Rice The authors of this study looked at fossil layers from the National Heritage Nilpena site in the Flinders Range of South Australia, which are slightly older than…
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25Mar 2020 by Post

Are Humans “A Plague on the Earth”?

Center for Science & Culture, Charles Darwin, Culture & Ethics, Dallas Conference on Science & Faith, David Attenborough, Discovery Institute, Douglas Axe, Evolution, evolutionists, John West, morality, natural selection, plague, Sir David Attenborough, spirituality
Back in January in Dallas, Discovery Institute organized its major conference on science and faith, before a huge and appreciative audience. We are releasing videos of presentations from the Dallas conference, including today, John West, Associate Director of the Center for Science & Culture, on “Darwin’s Corrosive Idea.” This is well timed. I can’t help but think that how we respond to the present health crisis has a lot to do with how we, as individuals, saw reality before we gave a moment’s thought to the coronavirus. As Dr. West summarizes here, “Ideas really do have consequence.”  In the case of Darwin’s idea of unguided evolution and of a planet of life formed from blind, merciless material processes alone, West notes a range of consequences and impacts, on how we…
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24Mar 2020 by Post

Crisis in the Chemistry of Origins

biological information, biological molecules, biology, Charles Thaxton, chemical evolution, chemicals, Discovery Institute Press, DNA, Evolution, Francis Crick, James Watson, neo-Darwinian theory, nucleic acids, origins, prebiotic evolution, proteins, Roger Olsen, Stanley Miller, The Mystery of Life’s Origin, Walter Bradley
Editor’s note: As an alternative to what you are getting pretty much everywhere else in the media at the moment, Evolution News is proud to offer inspiration, pointing to purpose and meaning in life. The profoundest mystery and thus the deepest inspiration is life itself. Discovery Institute Press has just published a greatly expanded edition of the 1984 classic of intelligent design science literature, The Mystery of Life’s Origin. Below is an excerpt from the original introduction by Charles Thaxton, Walter Bradley, and Roger Olsen. Two monumental scientific reports appeared in 1953, both of which have subsequently received wide acceptance in the scientific community. One was the proposal by James Watson and Francis Crick of their double helical model for deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA. According to their now-famous model, hereditary…
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15Mar 2020 by Post

Listen: Jay Richards on Distinguishing Science from Scientism

consensus, Discovery Institute, Evolution, Heritage Foundation, ID The Future, Jay Richards, March for Science, Podcast, science, scientism, skepticism, Washington D.C
On a classic episode of ID the Future, hear a talk by Jay Richards, a Discovery Institute Senior Fellow. given at a Washington, D.C., event entitled “March for Science or March for Scientism? Understanding the Real Threats to Science in America.” Download the podcast or listen to it here. The event was hosted by Discovery Institute and the Heritage Foundation. Listen in as Dr. Richards discusses the issue of consensus in science, and when to doubt such a consensus. Photo credit: Bradhoc, via Flickr. The post Listen: Jay Richards on Distinguishing Science from Scientism appeared first on Evolution News.
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14Mar 2020 by Post

Biophysicist and Philosopher Kirk Durston on Experimental, Inferential, and Fantasy Science

abductive reasoning, biological information, Evolution, experimental science, fantasy science, historical sciences, ID The Future, inference to the best explanation, Kirk Durston
On a new episode of ID the Future, biophysicist and philosopher Kirk Durston continues a discussion with host Andrew McDiarmid about three types of science — (1) experimental science, (2) inferential science, and (3) fantasy science. Download the podcast or listen to it here. In this second of three episodes, Durston recaps the three types but focuses on inferential science. He explains how it involves, in the historical sciences, abductive reasoning (inference to the best explanation). He also describes how such reasoning can be used as we consider the best explanation for the origin of biological information, in such a way that it is rooted in observation. Photo credit: Martin Adams via Unsplash. The post Biophysicist and Philosopher Kirk Durston on Experimental, Inferential, and Fantasy Science appeared first on Evolution News.
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08Mar 2020 by Post

Just the Facts? Michael Flannery on Charles Darwin and Materialism

atheists, Brian Miller, Edward Aveling, Evolution, ID The Future, Ludwig Büchner, materialism, Michael Flannery, Plinian Society, Podcast, University of Edinburgh
On a classic episode of ID the Future, host Brian Miller interviews Michael Flannery on how Darwin’s background conditioned him to materialism, and how this influence shaped his development of the theory of evolution. Listen in to learn more about Darwin’s experiences at the University of Edinburgh with the Plinian Society, and his interaction with prominent atheists Edward Aveling and Ludwig Büchner near the end of his life. Download the podcast or listen to it here. Photo: Mural portrait of Charles Darwin, Sidney Street, Sheffield cc-by-sa/2.0 © Neil Theasby via Geograph. The post Just the Facts? Michael Flannery on Charles Darwin and Materialism appeared first on Evolution News.
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04Mar 2020 by Post

Episode 4 of Secrets of the Cell — Broken Wolves and other Evolutionary Conundrums

biochemistry, biological information, broken wolves, creative power, DNA, Dogs, E. coli, Evolution, Evolution News, genes, genetic function, Intelligent Design, Michael Behe, mutations, polar bears, Richard Lenski, Secrets of the Cell, wolves
On a new episode of Secrets of the Cell with Michael Behe, the famed biochemist and intelligent design proponent briefly examines several evolutionary icons. These are living species that are considered by Darwinists as slam-dunk evidence of unguided evolution’s creative power, but that turn out to be just the opposite: Dogs, for one, in their great variety descend from wolves. Atheist biologist Richard Dawkins and others have pointed to man’s best friend as confirmation that evolution creatively builds new species. Behe explains, though, that when the cell’s secrets are considered — biological information at the DNA level — we discover that dogs are broken wolves. Of course that doesn’t make them any less loveable. They evolved largely by losing genetic functions through mutation. As Dr. Behe explains, “The mutations don’t…
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