25Sep 2021 by Post

The Design Connection in Biological Tracking Systems

anatomy, antibiotics, biology, CELS 2021, Conference on Engineering in Living Systems, environmental conditions, Evolution, evolvability, information, Intelligent Design, irreducibly complex systems, neo-Darwinian evolution, physiology, sensors, switches, technological innovation, timescales, tracking systems, waiting times, Zoltan Szallasi
If organisms resulted from haphazard undirected processes, their design constraints would be few and highly flexible. Source
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31Aug 2021 by Post

Engineering Better Explains Adaptation than Evolutionary Theory

adaptation, anatomy, artificial limbs, CELS 2021, Conference on Engineering in Living Systems, design logic, Engineering, engineers, environment, Evolution, fitness, fitness landscape, fur color, genes, genotype, height, Intelligent Design, living systems, micro air vehicles, mutations, nanomachines, natural genetic engineering, operational gravity well, operational parameters, physiology
The genetic variation in any species is confined to a limited set of variables such as a finch beak’s thickness. Source
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21May 2021 by Post

Verdicts of “Poor Design” in Biology Don’t Have a Good Track Record

"poor design", An Introduction to Systems Biology, ARF, bioengineering, biological information, biology, Darwinian processes, diarrhea, Erez Ribak, Erika DeBenedictis, gut bacteria, INK4a, Intelligent Design, MIT, Müller cells, natural selection, neurons, optic nerve, photoreceptors, physiology, random mutation, Technion, TEDx talk, Uri Alon, vertebrate eye, vestigial organs
For years people cited the wiring of the vertebrate eye as evidence of “poor design” in biology. Source
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26Sep 2020 by Post

Intention, Agency, Even in “Simple” Life Is No Illusion

agency, bacteria, biology, illusion, Intelligent Design, intention, life, Life Sciences, Michael Denton, neutrophils, physiology, Purpose and Desire, Robert Crowther, Scott Turner, State University of New York College of Environmental Sciences, The Miracle of the Cell
As biologist Scott Turner explains, the appearance is not false but very real, a fact from whose profound implications most scientists veil their eyes. Source
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02Aug 2020 by Post

The Role of Lignin for Fire, Explained

Carboniferous Period, charcoal, conduction, convection, evaporative cooling, fire, Fire-Maker series, fire-making, fitness, Goldilocks, humus, industrial age, Intelligent Design, iron, Life Sciences, lignin, metallurgy, metals, nature, organic compounds, oxygen, photosynthesis, physiology, plant cells, pottery, radiation, steam engine, trees, wood, woody plants
Without lignin, there would be no woody plants, no wood, no coal, no charcoal, no fire, no pottery, and certainly no iron or metallurgy. Source
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02Jan 2020 by Post

Care for Appetizers? Electric Proteins, Spidey Sense, and More

anatomy, appetizers, Arizona State University, Barry Scott, Biomimetics, centipedes, cilia, electricity, electron transport, gene repression, genes, genomes, Intelligent Design, Irreducible Complexity, Joubert syndrome, Junk DNA, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Massey University, materials science, metabolism, Michael Behe, miRNA, orb webs, photosynthesis, physiology, Siam News, sliders, spiders, Stuart Lindsey, swimming, Tohoku University, University of North Carolina, University of Otago, X-ray crystallography, Zheng-Yi Chen
Welcome to the second day of the New Year! Like tasty sliders, these short news stories should get the juices flowing for big developments in 2020. Electric Proteins Dr. Stuart Lindsey at Arizona State University is an expert in single-molecule dynamics in biomolecules. Older methods of observing protein structure, such as X-ray crystallography, only gave single snapshots of the highly dynamic world, he says, where proteins rapidly change conformations and interact in complex ways. Electron transport has been well known in the cases of photosynthesis and metabolism. But a few years ago, his team was astonished to find that a run-of-the-mill protein conducted electricity. The protein was acting like a wire! Further observations revealed that all proteins conduct electricity — even the ones that had “weren’t designed to do this”—…
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