Get Smart: Neanderthals Progress from Brute to Beaut

archeology, brain development, burial sites, cave walls, childhood development, cognitive functioning, Culture, DNA, Evolution, fossils, Friedrich Alexander University, genes, genetics, genome, human mind, Human Origins, Human Origins and Anthropology, Indiana University Bloomington, intelligence, Kyoto University, language, modern humans, Neanderthals, Nurnberg, paleontology, researchers, Scientific American, Tom Schoenemann
We must be ready to ask some questions about many of the evolution stories we have taken for granted. Source
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Is Government’s Relationship with Science “Crumbling”?

Andrea Gawrylewski, Armageddon, arXiv, autoethnography, Carole LaBonne, Colin Wright, COVID-19, Democrats, Gallup, government, Grant Witness, grants, H. Winet, hallucinations, Harvard University, Keir Starmer, Medicine, NIH, Northwestern University, political science, references, Republicans, Research, researchers, Science Alert, Scientific American, Scott Delaney, Today in Science, Vannevar Bush, Vitomir Kovanovic
The people who do not trust science today would probably like to be able to. And the people who do trust it may simply be unaware of the problems. Source
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Applying Scientific Method to the Origin of Life Yields Shaky Results

abiogenesis, assumptions, asteroids, bias, confidence, Evidence, experiments, Gerald Joyce, Intelligent Design, investigator intervention, James Tour, Long Story Short, meteors, methodological naturalism, Miller-Urey experiment, murder, natural causes, natural processes, naturalism, origin of life, polymerase, repeatability, researchers, ribozyme, RNA, Science and Culture Today, scientific reasoning, scientists, self-replicating molecules, Sol Spiegelman, suicide, tabloids, water droplets
Scientists are not, or should not be, tabloid headline writers. They should only make claims that are strongly supported by evidence. Source
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After K–T Extinction Event, Life’s Unexpected Rebound Was “Ridiculously Fast”

animals, Austin, birds, Chicxulub impact, coccolithophore, darkness, Darwinism, dinosaurs, ecosystems, Evolution, fauna, fisheries, Geology (journal), geophysics, global catastrophe, global winter, helium-3, humans, innovations, intelligent agent, Intelligent Design, K-T extinction event, mammals, naturalism, plankton, researchers, Science and Culture Today, Science Daily, spines, sudden appearance, University of Texas
Although the welfare of plankton may not be at the very top of most people’s minds, these tiny organisms fill an important ecological niche. Source
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On Evolution, Here Is What We Can Believe with High Confidence

adenine, biochemists, biology, E. coli, Evolution, First Rule of Adaptive Evolution, fitness, fossil record, gene, gene transcription, genes, genetics, genotype, homology, information, James Tour, lactose, Michael Behe, natural selection, promoter, random mutations, regulatory control, researchers, Rice University, S. cerevisiae, tryptophan, W303, When Can I Trust What Scientists Say? (series), yeast, YouTube videos
In a pair of YouTube videos, Rice University chemist James Tour and I reviewed more than ten recent studies of experimental evolution. Source
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Great Science Cancellation Continues: Here’s the Latest Victim

ABC, cancel culture, carbon dioxide, Casey Luskin, Charlie Kirk, Climate, climate change, comedians, Elsevier journals, entertainment industry, Environment & Climate, Evolution, evolutionary biologists, ideological differences, ideology, Jerry Coyne, Jimmy Kimmel, journals, lawsuits, Marcel Crok, peer-reviewed articles, physicists, Plato's Revenge, predictions, Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology, ratings, researchers, Richard Sternberg, Sabine Hossenfelder, Scientific Freedom, settled science, skepticism, Smithsonian Institution, Stephen Colbert, Stephen Meyer, The College Fix
In the domination of science by ideology, by the myth of “settled science,” the stakes couldn’t be more profound.  Source
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Research with Mice May Explain How the Placebo Effect Works

Adam Kovac, animals, brain, brain circuits, cruelty to animals, expectation, Gizmodo, humans, illness, imagination, medication, Medicine, mice, neurons, neuroscience, Neuroscience & Mind, pain, pain control, placebo effect, researchers, sugar pill, University of North Carolina
The mice had to be placed in a painful situation in order to trigger a placebo effect. With humans, it is often just a matter of communicating orally. Source
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