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
Read More

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
Read More

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
Read More

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
Read More

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
Read More

More on the Panda’s Thumb: Imperfection or Masterpiece?

Ailurarctos, Ailuropoda, Ailuropodinae, bears, biologists, biology, Chinese scientists, deletions, diploidal genome, DUOX2, Engineering, Evolution, genera, geneticists, giant panda, insertions, Intelligent Design, Mendelian recombination, mutations, neo-Darwinian theory, Panda's Thumb, phenotype, physiological traits, positively selected genes, Qinling panda, researchers, Roland Slowik, species, stasis, Ursidae
I would like to express my appreciation as a geneticist and biologist for the work on the molecular investigations and many other topics in the panda’s biology. Source
Read More

Assuming Design, Researchers Achieve a Breakthrough in Understanding Circulatory System

age, BIO-Complexity, biology, blood, blood vessels, circulatory system, Evolution, evolutionary theory, Gheorghe Pop, Gregory Sloop, heart, hematocrit, Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine, Intelligent Design, John St. Cyt, Medicine, Netherlands, Radboud University Medical Center, red blood cells, Reductionism, Research, researchers, shear stress, sports anemia
The authors also explain how the standard evolutionary framework misdirected earlier researchers. Source
Read More