Why Systems Biologists Now Assume Life Is Optimally Designed

"poor design", bioinformatics, biological structures, biologists, biosphere, Dan Graur, ENCODE, engineers, Eva Balsa-Canto, Evolution, fitness landscape, human body, Human Errors, human genome, Intelligent Design, Julio R. Banga, Junk DNA, knee, Living with Darwin, Nathan Lents, Nikolaos Tsiantis, optimality, pelvis, Philip Kitcher, scientific materialism, teleology, whales, Wikipedia
Purported examples of poor design usually represent opinions resulting from armchair critics’ limited understanding of the technical literature. Source
Read More

Optimality Recognized in Core Biological Infrastructure

"poor design", amino acids, Athel Cornish-Bowden, biology, biology textbooks, carbon, constraints, development, Drosophila, elements, embryology, Erika DeBenedictis, glycolysis, human engineers, human genome, Intelligent Design, María Luz Cárdenas-Cerda, metabolism, Michael Denton, natural amino acids, optimality, Pareto optimality, Princeton University, TEDx talk, William Bialek
I will begin with an example from embryology, then turn to metabolism, and finish with the breadth of chemical space covered by the natural amino acids. Source
Read More

Listen: Biochemist Michael Behe Puts Coronavirus in a Helpful Scientific Perspective

Andrew McDiarmid, chimpanzee, Clorox wipes, coronavirus, Evolution News, Facebook, human genome, ID The Future, Intelligent Design, Lehigh University, Medicine, Michael Behe, Neil Shubin, Podcast, Social media, virosphere, viruses
What to do during a full-country shutdown? Sit at home and stare at increasingly toxic Facebook and other social media, as I’m sorry to say I did for too long on Sunday? Fortunately there’s an alternative to blithe reassurances and doomsday handwringing: Michael Behe! On a new episode of ID the Future with host Andrew McDiarmid, the Lehigh University biochemist and intelligent design advocate puts coronavirus in an objective scientific perspective. I found that oddly comforting, and I think you will, too. He explains what a virus is, what makes this one special, how viruses originated (no one knows), what he meant in a post at Evolution News about a “storm” in the virosphere, and more. 8 Percent Virus? Meanwhile, as Andrew McDiarmid notes, evolutionary biologist Neil Shubin has a…
Read More