The Displacement Fallacy: Evolution’s Shell Game

Conservation of Information, David Thomas, Design Inference, displacement fallacy, Eugenie Scott, Evolution, evolutionary computing, fitness, Intelligent Design, mathematics, mount improbable, Nature (journal), Peter Robinson, pigeonhole principle, Richard Dawkins, shell game, simulation, Tesla, The Blind Watchmaker, Thomas Ray, Thomas Schneider, William Shakespeare
In a shell game, an operator places a small object, like a pea, under one of three cups and then rapidly shuffles the cups to confuse observers. Source
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Behe Vindicated Again: Sherpas Climb Everest Easier, Because Darwin Devolves

altitude, brown bears, climbing, Daisheng Song, Darwin Devolves, Darwinism, Evolution, genes, genetic information, genome, Han Chinese, hemoglobin, Himalayas, Intelligent Design, interfertility, loss of function, lowlanders, Michael Behe, Mount Everest, mount improbable, natural selection, Nepalese, oxygen, Phd2, PNAS, polar bears, positive selection, seal meat, Sherpa, super-athletes, Tibetans, Wikipedia
How can Tibetans survive high altitudes that leave lowlanders gasping? The answer is found in broken genes. A new paper on the Tibetan genome vindicates what Michael Behe said in Darwin Devolves: evolution breaks things, but sometimes, like in the case of polar bears, the result can allow organisms to thrive in specific environments. Yes, this follows on the heels of last week’s Behe vindication; see here. A team of 16 scientists, writing in PNAS, sought to understand the genetic basis for Tibetan high-altitude adaptation in more detail. Tibetans and Nepalese, many of whom serve as guides for lowlanders wanting to conquer Mount Everest, routinely carry heavy burdens at altitudes above 14,000 feet, the average elevation on the Tibetan plateau. In its entry on Sherpa people, Wikipedia notes, Many Sherpa…
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#4 of Our Top Stories of 2019: Apeman Waves Goodbye to Darwinian Gradualism

Afar region, Australopithecines, Australopithecus afarensis, Australopithecus anamensis, Belohdelie frontal, Charles Darwin, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Darwinian gradualism, Daspletosaurus, David Gelernter, Ethiopia, Franz Hilgendorf, Galápagos Islands, Germany, Globorotalia foraminifers, Homo (genus), Human Origins, Little Foot, Lucy, Michael Rasser, Modern evolutionary synthesis, mount improbable, MRD, National Geographic, Natural History Museum, Neo-Darwinism, Niles Eldredge, paleontology, Paranthropus, Richard Dawkins, Royal Society, Sabine Hossenfelder, stasis, Steinheim freshwater snails, Stephen Jay Gould, stickleback fish, Stuttgart, vertebrate, Yohannes Haile-Selassie
Editor’s note: The staff of Evolution News wish you a Happy New Year! We are counting down our top ten stories of 2019. If you haven’t done so yet, please take a moment now to contribute to our work in bringing you news and analysis about evolution, intelligent design, and more every day of the year. There is no other voice, no other source of information, like ours. Thank you for your friendship and your support! The following article was originally published here on September 6, 2019. A few days ago a sensational new paleontological discovery made headlines around the globe. After 15 years of searching, and the recovery of 12,600 fossils including 230 hominin remains (Leakey Foundation 2019), finally a rather complete skull has been found and described for…
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