Researchers: What’s Evolutionary Debris to You Is Unexplored Territory to Us

centromeres, DNA, Evolution, evolutionary processes, gene expression, Genome Research, human genome, Intelligent Design, Joe Felsenstein, John Avise, Junk DNA, Laurence Moran, Nicholas Matzke, nucleic acids, repetitive elements, researchers, RNA, T. Ryan Gregory, telomeres, transposable elements
From a new, open-access article, “Implications of the first complete human genome assembly.” Source
Read More

Unexplained — Maybe Unexplainable — Numbers Control the Universe

Carl Sagan, Contact (novel), Cosmos (magazine), electromagnetism, extraterrestrials, Fibonacci sequence, fine structure constant, Golden Ratio, Intelligent Design, Jordan Ellenberg, Laurence Eaves, Paul Davies, physics, Physics, Earth & Space, pi, Planck’s constant, quantum mechanics, relativity, Richard Feynman, University of Nottingham, Wolfgang Pauli
Richard Feynman called 1/137, the fine structure constant, “a magic number that comes to us with no understanding by man.” Source
Read More

Design Inference: Stone Structures Were Intelligently Arranged, Though We Don’t Know by Whom

Archaeology, Argument from Reason, Bedouins, chimps, crows, design filter, Design Inference, designer, Evolution, fairy circles, geoglyphs, geometric structures, Intelligent Design, John West, Jordan, Live Science, Middle East, Namibia, Nazca Lines, Peru, Saudi Arabia, Syria, World War I, Yemen
There are hundreds of these structures. They extend over much of the Middle East: Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. Source
Read More

Are Birds Really Smarter than Reptiles?

animal behavior, babies, birds, brain size, brain volume, cognitive capacity, Cornell University, cuckoo, Diane Colombelli-Négrel, eggs, facial recognition, fairy wrens, intelligence, Intelligent Design, lemurs, lizards, Malurus cyaneus, neurons, Neuroscience & Mind, Pavel Němec, penguins, reptiles, The Scientist
Scientists clash over how to measure animal intelligence: brain volume, brain organization, numbers of neurons…? Source
Read More

The Logic of Design Detection

Archaeology, Complexity, cryptography, design detection, DNA, Evolution, insurance fraud, Intelligent Design, probability, Rosetta Stone, scientific method, Signature in the Cell, specification, The Design Inference, What Is the Evidence for Intelligent Design? (series), William Dembski
Editor’s note: This article is an excerpt from a chapter in the newly released book The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith: Exploring the Ultimate Questions About Life and the Cosmos. We are presenting Dr. Meyer’s chapter as a series, in which this is the third post. Find the full series so far here. In The Design Inference, mathematician William Dembski explicates the logic of design detection. His work reinforces the conclusion that the specified information present in DNA points to a designing mind.  Dembski shows that rational agents often detect the prior activity of other designing minds by the character of the effects they leave behind. Archaeologists assume that rational agents produced the inscriptions on the Rosetta Stone. Insurance fraud investigators detect certain “cheating Read More › Source
Read More

Fact Check: Did University of Tokyo Researchers Explain the Origin of Life?

Darwinian evolution, enzymes, Evolution, Intelligent Design, investigators, molecular machinery, mutations, Nature Communications, Nobel Prize, nucleotides, origin of life, parasites, press release, Qb virus, replicase, replication, Ribosome, RNA, Ryo Mizuuchi, translational machinery, tRNA, University of Tokyo
The research paper avers, “These results support the capability of molecular replicators to spontaneously develop complexity through Darwinian evolution.” Source
Read More

Redwoods, Grasshoppers: New Designs in Well-Studied Species

Alana Chin, axial leaf, biology, Christopher Stockey, coastal redwoods, Darwinism, design reasoning, Evolution, grasshoppers, Intelligent Design, Joel, leaf types, Life Sciences, lions, mammals, Methods in Ecology and Evolution, narrative gloss, Northern California, Old Testament, Orthoptera, peripheral leaf, photosynthesis, Sequoia sempervirens, teeth, trees, UC Davis
If redwoods are a byword for great stature, grasshoppers represent the opposite. And what insect could be more common or familiar? Source
Read More