Can Evolutionary Theory Improve Scientific Practice?
January 29, 2021
Need better science? Let the Darwin Party take over. They'll give the next reformers an even bigger mess to clean up.
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Teachers Squeamish About Evolution
May 20, 2016
It may be the only game in town, but evolution-only education isn't turning biology professors into cheerleaders for Darwin.
Darwin Debate Published by Nature
October 13, 2014
Two teams, both committed evolutionists, duked it out in Nature over whether Darwin's mechanism is adequate to explain the diversity of life.
Is Science Free of Miracles?
September 21, 2014
"No miracles" is a favorite phrase by an evolutionist who finds that perplexing problems always "yield to evolutionary thinking."
Evolution News From Down Unda
December 18, 2009
Australia and New Zealand contain some of the most unique and distinctive flora and fauna in the world. Evolutionary explanations for some of these animals and plants have come to light in the press recently. Koala: Did you know there are extinct koalas? Science Daily reported about work by Aussie biologists to understand the evolution […]
Evolutionary Explanations Assume Evolution Explains
December 4, 2009
The facility with which some evolutionary biologists appeal to almost magical powers of evolution to explain anything and everything is revealed in some recent science articles. Whatever needs explaining is due to evolution – evidence or not. These four examples can be considered representative of the genre. The evolution of shopping: Both PhysOrg and Science […]
Science Awards Young Darwinist
October 19, 2009
A young PhD has been awarded grand prize in an essay contest by Science Magazine for studying a complex system and deciding it evolved one way or another.1 Richard Benton won the Eppendorf Grand Prize for Essays on Science and Society, beating out two others who studied neurons but failed to give pre-eminence to evolutionary […]
I.D. Defeated by Triumphant Press Release
September 14, 2009
As if having withstood a terrorist attack, “Evolution [is] still scientifically stable,” announced a Monash university press release. After a threat from a non-Darwinian explanation, “An international team of researchers, including Monash University biochemists, has discovered evidence at the molecular level in support of one of the key tenets of Darwin’s theory of evolution.” […]
Useless Evolution
September 12, 2009
Most people think of evolution producing useful traits. But isn’t it also supposed to get rid of useless ones? Science Daily reported work by researchers trying to figure that out. The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in Durham, North Carolina sponsored a team seeking to explore the removal of useless traits by natural selection […]
Permian Extinction Recovery Story Stretches Credibility
September 4, 2009
It goes without saying that Darwin’s theory fits hand in glove with the geological dating scheme, but how reliable is the latter? The textbook age names – Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, Eocene and all the rest – have taken on their own life as assumed truths. Every once in awhile, though, papers are published that require […]
Emergence of Genetic Code Touted
August 31, 2009
Most origin-of-life researchers have acknowledged the extreme improbability of the genetic code arising by chance. Their approaches to get around this problem have varied considerably since the Miller experiment succeeded in generating a few amino acids. Despite the celebrations that 1953 experiment generated (05/02/2003), it did not even begin to approach the problem of solving […]
How the Girl Evolved Fear of Spiders
August 29, 2009
Today’s Evolutionary Just-So Story is brought to you by New Scientist: “Girls Are Primed to Fear Spiders.” Once upon a time, while cavemen were out hunting and gathering, the women back home had to learn to avoid dangerous animals. David Rakison of Carnegie Mellon University put this all into evolutionary terms for the rest of […]
Return of the Peppered Mice
August 28, 2009
Slight changes in the coat color of deer mice is the latest triumph of evolutionary theory, if we are to believe the BBC News and New Scientist. The BBC announced, without apologies to Jonathan Wells, that “A tiny pale deer mouse living on a sand dune in Nebraska looks set to become an icon of […]
Does Evolution Produce Winners?
August 25, 2009
Referees at UCLA are calling the shots in an unusual sport: the evolution game. Mammals, birds and fish swept the medals. The losers? crocodiles, alligators, and a “living fossil” reptile called the tuatara. According to the judges, the more the biodiversity, the more a group wins points; the more their species go extinct or remain […]
Did Evolution Create Genetic Proofreading?
August 9, 2009
Protein manufacture in the cell is such a critical operation, there are numerous error-checking mechanisms the cell uses to get it right. One of the most amazing is the careful association of DNA codons with amino acids, and the “proofreading” or “spell checking” that ensures fidelity. How could spell checking evolve? Science Daily […]