18Sep 2025 by Post

For Criticizing Her Field, Physicist Sabine Hossenfelder Gets Canceled by Her Institution

academic research, affiliation, cancel culture, conspiracy theorists, David Lindley, Eric Weinstein, Germany, Joe Rogan, John Horgan, Johns Hopkins University, language, paper mill, physics, Piers Morgan, pseudocience, Sabine Hossenfelder, Scientific Freedom, Sean Carroll, string theory, Team Cancel, tone policing, Wall Street Journal
Her parting words: “A lot of research [in] the foundations of physics is now pseudocience. It hasn't followed the scientific method for decades.” Source
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18Apr 2025 by Post

High Bird Intelligence Is Consistent with Design, Not Evolution

abstractions, animal intelligence, birds, brains, chickadees, cockatoos, common sense, crows, Evolution, evolutionary biology, Germany, Giacomo Gattoni, human exceptionalism, humans, intelligence, Intelligent Design, logic, mammals, Maria Antonietta Tosches, Neuroscience & Mind, Niklas Kempynck, Onur Güntürkün, problems, ravens, Ruhr University Bochum, Science (journal), vertebrates, Yasemin Saplakoglu, zoology
A discussion of animal intelligence that refuses to acknowledge human exceptionalism becomes a script for suppressing discussions we need to have. Source
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28Dec 2024 by Post

No. 5 Story of 2024: New Evidence Against Dino-Bird Ancestry

Alan Feduccia, antitrochanter, birds, dinosaur-bird hypothesis, dinosaurs, Evolution, evolutionary biology, Fossil Friday (series), fossil record, Germany, Hesperornis gracilis, iliac, ischium, Jurassic Park, Karlsruhe, Late Cretaceous, marine birds, microraptorids, paleontology, paleornithologists, penguins, phylogenetics, Temporal Paradox, theropod dinosaurs, troodontids, University of North Carolina, vertebrates
Few hypotheses in evolutionary biology have become as popular among lay people as the postulated ancestry of birds from bipedal dinosaurs. Source
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26Aug 2024 by Post

Darwinian Death: Euthanasia Meets Eugenics

agnostics, atheists, Culture & Ethics, disabilities, Edward Tylor, Ernst Haeckel, Essays of the Birmingham Speculative Club, eugenics, euthanasia, Evolution, F. H. Bradley, Fortnightly Review, Francis Galton, Germany, Hans-Walter Schmuhl, Ian Dowbiggin, illnesses, International Journal of Ethics, Judeo-Christian tradition, Lionel Tollemache, Natural History of Creation, Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschichte, Nick Kemp, Punishment, self-murder, self-redemption, The Cure for Incurables, The Wonders of Life, usefulness, World War I
One powerful influence on the early euthanasia movement was eugenics ideology, which emerged first in the 1860s under the leadership of Francis Galton. Source
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11Jun 2024 by Post

Darwin Devotion Detector: Take the Test Now

adaptation, atheists, Charles Darwin, chimpanzee, common descent, Darwin Day, Darwin Devotion Detector, eugenics, Evolution, free will, genes, Germany, humanzee, Intelligent Design, J.B.S. Haldane, Jane Austen, Judge John E. Jones, Kitzmiller v. Dover, Kolkata, Love, Meaning, meme theory, natural selection, population growth, purpose, rape, Richard Dawkins, secular saint, United States, value
A tongue-in-cheek questionnaire that nonetheless provides real insight into the extent to which Darwinian ideas have captured our thinking. Source
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17Jun 2023 by Post

Researchers: Neanderthals Invented Process to Produce Birch Tar

23andMe, antiseptic, birch tar, birch wood, Clive Finlayson, Germany, Gibraltar Museum, glue, Homo sapiens, Human Origins, insect repellent, intelligence, Michael Shermer, Middle Palaeolithic, missing link, Neanderthals, Neuroscience & Mind, paleontology, Patrick Schmidt, ScienceAlert, University of Tübingen
The tar can be used for glue, bug repellent, and killing germs. This finding tracks growing recognition of Neanderthals as intelligent. Source
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07Jun 2023 by Post

Scientists Are Skeptical that Intelligence in Homo naledi “Erases Human Exceptionalism”

ABC News, archaeologists, Archaeology, Associated Press, Australia, bioRxiv, burial, cave art, chimpanzees, fire use, Germany, Gibraltar, Griffith University, hominids, Homo naledi, human exceptionalism, Human Origins, intelligence, Kenya, Lee Berger, María Martinón-Torres, Maxime Aubert, Michael Petraglia, National Research Center on Human Evolution, Natural History Museum, Neanderthals, New York Times, Newsweek, paleontology, Phys.org, preprint papers, Rising Star Cave, Science News, Silvia Bello, skeletons, Spain, The Conversation, Wall Street Journal
Berger et al.’s claims about the species have been disputed and their idea that it lived 2-3 million years ago was exaggerated by a factor of 10. Source
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26May 2023 by Post

Fossil Friday: A Dinosaur Feather and an Overhyped New Study on the Origin of Feathers

amber, amniotes, biological novelty, biology, birds, chicken embryos, Eastern Kentucky University, Encyclopedia Britannica, Evolution, feathers, Fossil Friday, fossil record, Francis Collins, Germany, homology, integumental structures, Intelligent Design, Karl Giberson, keratin, mammal hairs, ontogenetic pathway, ontogeny, paleontology, radii, rami, reptile scales, scales, Stuttgart Natural History Museum, The Language of Science and Faith, theropod, theropod dinosaurs
Feathers, which are the most complex integumental structures known in the animal kingdom, without doubt required coordinated changes in numerous genes. Source
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