08Jun 2025 by Post

Engineered Complexity in the Microbial World

adaptations, bacteria, biology, Carolyn Hovde, Conference on Engineering in Living Systems, Dustin Van Hofwegen, E. coli, engineered complexity, Engineering, Evolution, evolutionary leap, genetic mechanisms, ID The Future, innovation, Intelligent Design, Jonathan Witt, Journal of Bacteriology, microbes, Podcast, Scott Minnich, University of Idaho
On a classic episode of ID the Future, host Jonathan Witt speaks with molecular biologist and professor Dustin Van Hofwegen about his research into the engineered complexity in microbial life. The two sat down at the yearly Conference on Engineering in Living Systems to discuss the event, which brings together biologists and engineers to study how engineering principles can be applied to living things, as well as Hofwegen’s article in the Journal of Bacteriology, co-authored with Carolyn Hovde and Scott Minnich, based on research conducted at the University of Idaho.  Hofwegen shares his research on the famous decades-long E. coli evolution experiment conducted by Richard Lenski, which showed the sudden appearance of an ability to utilize citrate after many generations. However, Van Hofwegen’s own Read More › Source
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14May 2025 by Post

Eavesdropping in the Platonic Academy 

algorithms, Andreas Wagner, Aristotle, biology, C.H. Waddington, Casey Luskin, creationists, demiurge, Denis Noble, DNA, Erwin Schrödinger, Evolution, evolutionary biology, Günter Bechly, Hans Driesch, Harvard University, Intelligent Design, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Lars Löfgren, Michael Levin, microbes, Philosophy of Science, Plato, Plato's Revenge, Platonism, René Descartes, René Thom, Richard Sternberg, Robert Rosen, sequoia trees, Summer Seminar on Intelligent Design, theoretical biology, Tufts University, University of Zurich, vitalism
I can relate to the paleontologist Günter Bechly, who, after hearing Sternberg lay out his thesis, lay awake unable to sleep as he considered the implications. Source
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14Mar 2025 by Post

Microbes as “Moral Agents”? Bioethicist Says Yes

Artificial Intelligence, babies, bioethics, computer software, Endangered Species Act, fish, gestating human babies, human exceptionalism, image of God, insects, invertebrates, Jeff Sebo, life, Life Sciences, mammals, microbes, moral agents, moral patients, moral responsibility, NYU, philosophers, plants, The Moral Circle, universe
Only a philosopher could claim seriously that humans owe significant moral duties to microbes. Source
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15Nov 2024 by Post

Fossil Friday: New Research on How Delicate Soft-Bodied Organisms Can Be Perfectly Preserved

arthropods, bacterial decay, Burgess Shale, Cambrian Explosion, Charles Doolittle Walcott, China, clay mineralogy, Devonian Hunsrück Shale, digestive tracts, Emu Bay Shale, Evolution, eyes, Fossil Friday (series), fossils, Intelligent Design, Kangaroo Island, Karl Popper, microbes, mudslides, paleontologists, paleontology, preservation, South Australia, taphonomic processes, Theodosius Dobzhansky, turbidites, Waptia fieldensis
All the just-so-stories of macroevolution are completely dispensable in real (experimental) biology. Source
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18Nov 2023 by Post

Mimetic Behavior in the Scientific Community

Alfred Wegener, Anthony Fauci, arXiv, Budapest, CDC, childbed fever, Continental Drift, Evolution, firefighters, geologists, government, Ignaz Semmelweis, insane asylum, Medicine, mental health, microbes, mimesis, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, nurses, Pangaea, philosophers, police, propaganda, René Girard, transit workers, Vaccines
Sometimes the suppression comes from the government. The restriction on doctors' freedom to use promising treatments during the pandemic was unprecedented. Source
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21Oct 2022 by Post

Beneficial Borgs Have Landed

Aliyah Kovner, archaea, Borgs, Colorado, Crested Butte, CRISPR-Cas9, Darwinian theory, DNA, East River, Evolution, gene splicing, genes, genetic information, greenhouse gases, heavy metals, Intelligent Design, Jennifer Doudna, Jillian Banfield, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, methane, Methanoperedens, microbes, Nature (journal), Star Trek, storage lockers, toxins
Borg theory represents a major paradigm shift about how genetic information is stored and shared. Source
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29Aug 2022 by Post

Rare Earth: How Vital Minerals “Evolve”

astrobiology, Astrobiology Magazine, biological activity, calcium, carbon, Carnegie Institute, chlorine, Dirk Schulze-Makuch, earth, elements, hydrogen, intelligence, Intelligent Design, magnesium, Mars, microbes, minerals, NASA, nitrogen, origin of life, oxygen, phosphorus, Physics, Earth & Space, potassium, Robert Hazen, selenium, Stephen Jay Gould, sulfur, The Privileged Planet, Titan, Washington State University
It's intriguing that life as we know it depends on a seemingly un-natural distribution of minerals. Source
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05May 2022 by Post

Watch: Michael Behe Corrects Darwin’s Detour with a Cumulative Case for Intelligent Design

bacteria, bears, beauty, biochemistry, biology, bugs, Charles Darwin, detour, Evolution, factory, functionality, insects, intelligent being, Intelligent Design, irreducibly complex systems, Lehigh University, Michael Behe, microbes, molecular machinery, mosaic, planthopper, purpose, Secrets of the Cell, tiles
For thousands of years, the design of life was acknowledged by scientists and non-scientists, philosophers and physicians, religious and non-religious. Source
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04Aug 2021 by Post

Diatoms, an Evolutionary Mystery, Come into Nano-Focus

archaea, bacteria, beauty, Blaise Pascal, Caltech, Coscinodiscus, Cristobal Vila, Current Biology, diatoms, electron microscope, Engineering, eukaryotes, frustules, Germany, God Hypothesis, Gothic cathedrals, Intelligent Design, Izabela Zgłobicka, Life Sciences, light microscope, Michael Gross, microbes, Nature by Numbers, Nature Scientific Reports, photosynthetic algae, Poland, purpose, Zachary Aitken
The jewels of the microbial world, when seen with new nano-scale imaging techniques, look like Gothic cathedrals. Source
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