Michael J. Behe's Blog, page 102

Largest bacterium ever discovered is as big as a peanut

And its genome is encased in a membrane:

By definition, microbes are supposed to be so small they can only be seen with a microscope. But a newly described bacterium living in Caribbean mangroves never got that memo… Its threadlike single cell is visible to the naked eye, growing up to 2 centimeters—as long as a peanut—and 5000 times bigger than many other microbes. What’s more, this giant has a huge genome that’s not free floating inside the cell as in other bacteria, but is instead encased in a membrane, an innovation characteristic of much more complex cells, like those in the human body.

Elizabeth Pennisi, “Largest bacterium ever discovered has an unexpectedly complex cell” at Science (February 23, 2022)

Because it “blurs the line” between prokaryote like bacteria and eukaryotes like animals, a question naturally arose:

Aside from upending ideas about how big—and sophisticated—microbes can become, this bacterium “could be a missing link in the evolution of complex cells,” says Kazuhiro Takemoto, a computational biologist at Kyushu Institute of Technology.

Elizabeth Pennisi, “Largest bacterium ever discovered has an unexpectedly complex cell” at Science (February 23, 2022)

The proposed name is Thiomargarita magnifica.

Tim Standish of Loma Linda University offers us some thoughts about the question of whether magnifica is a missing link:

That was my initial thought as well, but then I put my brain into Darwinist mode and realized that from that perspective I could easily argue that because we see complexity increasing over time among eukaryotes (in reality, I’m not sure that we can), we would also expect the same thing in prokaryotes. Having done that exercise, however, the argument really doesn’t seem that persuasive, in fact it raises some problems:

1.If prokaryotes have the capacity to develop very complex cells, why didn’t they do what eukaryotes did and turn into multicellular organisms, assuming there is some sort of fitness advantage to doing so? Why would being multicellular increase fitness in eukaryotes and not bacteria or archaean? 2. It also occurred to me that when you look at eukaryotes, the most complex cells are not those that are found in what we consider to be the most complex organisms; the really complex ones seem to be single-celled protists, they also have some of the largest genomes. Thus, greater cellular and genome complexity may not be correlated with being multicellular. If that is the case, maybe the fixation on interpretation of morphological complexity–which isn’t the clearest trend anyway–among fossils is misguided. Why not see amoebas as the real triumph of evolution? 3. This raises the question of what being multicellular is really all about. If both prokaryotes and eukaryotes can evolve very complex cells with complex genomes and they thrive as single-celled organisms, why did one lead to multicellular organisms and not the other? Or, is this an example of a very hard discontinuity in biology illustrating the limits of evolution? I guess one could argue that becoming eukaryotic is how prokaryotes became multicellular, but doesn’t that sound quite teleological? I’m not uncomfortable with looking at this as an illustration of the limits of evolution. After about 4 billion years of evolution, is it reasonable to say that prokaryotes lack the potential to become multicellular via the Darwinian process? If this is true with these taxa, what other taxa are constrained in what can be achieved via evolution?

Curiously, that French guy, Didier Raoult, who found a giant virus got stifled because he wasn’t a Darwinist. Discovering things isn’t enough these days.

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Getting away from the AHA! Moment re the origin of life

At least this new approach gives scientists the advantage of working in the real world:

Traditionally, research into the origins of life too often has been performed in silos defined by a researcher’s specific expertise. Now that Earth’s earliest environments are coming into sharper focus, thanks to concerted efforts to understand Earth’s early rock record and the insights gained from numerical simulations, a more interdisciplinary approach in origins-of-life research is becoming increasingly possible.

Dustin Trail, Jamie Elsila, Ulrich F. Müller, Timothy Lyons and Karyn L. Rogers, “Rethinking the Search for the Origins of Life” at Eos (February 4, 2022)

The good news with the interdisciplinary approach is that a greater awareness of the sheer complexity of the situation will be forced on the researchers so perhaps we will be hearing fewer “lucky strike” origin of life theories. The bad news… well, they might want to talk to chemist James Tour about that.

You may also wish to read:

Did giant mountain ranges provide nutrients in early Earth’s history? According to the new thesis, the erosion of mountains provided nutrients that were hitherto unavailable, that helped life forms get started. Sounds like a rollout, actually.

and

Researchers: Poisonous cyanide may have been a harbinger of life 4 billion years ago Note the “may have” and “could have been.” That’s where a lot of origin of life studies are, really. Nothing wrong with that, of course, as long as it is not mistaken for “the findings of science.” It’s speculation, pure and simple. It would be a great hard sci-fi novel, maybe a flick. And fun for chemistry students!

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Two black holes’ cosmic dance

Just when we thought we lived in a dull universe:

Locked in an epic cosmic waltz 9 billion light years away, two supermassive black holes appear to be orbiting around each other every two years. The two giant bodies each have masses that are hundreds of millions of times larger than that of our sun, and the objects are separated by a distance roughly 50 times that which separates our sun and Pluto. When the pair merge in roughly 10,000 years, the titanic collision is expected to shake space and time itself, sending gravitational waves across the universe.

California Institute of Technology, “Colossal black holes locked in dance at heart of galaxy” at Phys.org (February 23, 2022)

If we could make it happen sooner, we could sell tickets.

A Caltech-led team of astronomers has discovered evidence for this scenario taking place within a fiercely energetic object known as a quasar. Quasars are active cores of galaxies in which a supermassive black hole is siphoning material from a disk encircling it. In some quasars, the supermassive black hole creates a jet that shoots out at near the speed of light. The quasar observed in the new study, PKS 2131-021, belongs to a subclass of quasars called blazars in which the jet is pointing toward the Earth. Astronomers already knew quasars could possess two orbiting supermassive black holes, but finding direct evidence for this has proved difficult. Reporting in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the researchers argue that PKS 2131-021 is now the second known candidate for a pair of supermassive black holes caught in the act of merging. The first candidate pair, within a quasar called OJ 287, orbit each other at greater distances, circling every nine years versus the two years it takes for the PKS 2131-021 pair to complete an orbit.

California Institute of Technology, “Colossal black holes locked in dance at heart of galaxy” at Phys.org (February 23, 2022)

As pundit once said, the universe is not only stranger than we know it is stranger than we can know.

The paper is open access.

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Can a now-lost continent shed light on the evolution of mammals?

Well, mainly of population replacements of mammals:

A team of geologists and palaeontologists has discovered that, some 50 million years ago, there was a low-lying continent separating Europe from Asia that they have named Balkanatolia. At the time, it was inhabited by an endemic fauna that was very different from those of Europe and Asia. Geographical changes 40 to 34 million years ago connected this continent to its two neighbors, paving the way for the replacement of European mammals by Asian mammals.

CNRS, “Balkanatolia: The forgotten continent that sheds light on the evolution of mammals” at ScienceDaily (February 22, 2022)

If this checks out, we can add Balkanatolia to the “lost continent” files. It would make a good documentary:

For millions of years during the Eocene Epoch (55 to 34 million years ago), Western Europe and Eastern Asia formed two distinct land masses with very different mammalian faunas: European forests were home to endemic fauna such as Palaeotheres (an extinct group distantly related to present-day horses, but more like today’s tapirs), whereas Asia was populated by a more diverse fauna including the mammal families found today on both continents.

We know that, around 34 million years ago, Western Europe was colonised by Asian species, leading to a major renewal of vertebrate fauna and the extinction of its endemic mammals, a sudden event called the ‘Grande Coupure’. Surprisingly, fossils found in the Balkans point to the presence of Asian mammals in southern Europe long before the Grande Coupure, suggesting earlier colonisation.

Now, a team led by CNRS researchers has come up with an explanation for this paradox. To do this, they reviewed earlier palaeontological discoveries, some of which date back to the 19th century, sometimes reassessing their dating in the light of current geological data. The review revealed that, for much of the Eocene, the region corresponding to the present-day Balkans and Anatolia was home to a terrestrial fauna that was homogeneous, but distinct from those of Europe and eastern Asia. This exotic fauna included, for example, marsupials of South American affinity and Embrithopoda (large herbivorous mammals resembling hippopotamuses) formerly found in Africa. The region must therefore have made up a single land mass, separated from the neighbouring continents.

CNRS, “Balkanatolia: The forgotten continent that sheds light on the evolution of mammals” at ScienceDaily (February 22, 2022)

The paper requires a subscription or fee.

You may also wish to read: Did giant mountain ranges provide nutrients in early Earth’s history? According to the new thesis, the erosion of mountains provided nutrients that were hitherto unavailable, that helped life forms get started. Sounds like a rollout, actually.

and

Researchers: Poisonous cyanide may have been a harbinger of life 4 billion years ago Note the “may have” and “could have been.” That’s where a lot of origin of life studies are, really. Nothing wrong with that, of course, as long as it is not mistaken for “the findings of science.” It’s speculation, pure and simple. It would be a great hard sci-fi novel, maybe a flick. And fun for chemistry students!

Copyright © 2022 Uncommon Descent . This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement UNLESS EXPLICIT PERMISSION OTHERWISE HAS BEEN GIVEN. Please contact legal@uncommondescent.com so we can take legal action immediately.
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We’re not your lab rats any more: Convoy update IV

The post “We’re not your lab rats any more” III — as the world fights back against a lab rat status in the COVID-19 “Trust the Science” Crazy — was getting too big (especially on cell phones). So go here for the whole story up to Canada’s Trudeau suddenly dumping the Emergencies Act aimed at the protestors against ridiculous COVID-19 rules.

Here, I (O’Leary for News) will just keep adding to the story as it unfolds in various countries, putting new items at the top. News added on our usual UD topics starts below this post in the stream.

—

Canada February 24, 2022

Just because the Emergencies Act has been lifted doesn’t mean that everything is going back to normal. Justin, Chrystia, and Karen are still in charge.

For one thing, it’s not just the federal government. Provincial governments can cash in: “Ontario shuts down 39 trucking businesses involved with Freedom Convoy. Overall, 27 seizure orders were issued to large truck operators from outside Ontario, banning them from operating any commercial motor vehicle within the province.” We can be sure that some will profit from competitors’ downfall and will not be slow to reward those who brought it about.

Ottawa Lawyer Says Convoy Protest Donors May Have Accounts Frozen, Despite RCMP’s Claims Otherwise Keeping people in suspense is a strategy, of course.

$7.8M Frozen: Targeting of Convoy Supporters’ Bank Accounts Draws Fire at Finance Committee “‘The ability for a financial institution—which by the way, is a third party to act as the judge and the jury without the opportunity for an individual to make any representation—I’m having a hard time understanding how that is compliant with the Charter,’ said Conservative MP Adam Chambers.” Well, it isn’t but the Charter is just a piece of paper now.

As for the Mounties: “CONFIRMED: Leaked RCMP chat shows members celebrating violence against freedom protesters. One of the RCMP members laughed off the trampling incident, stating they’ve “watched that horse video,” calling it “awesome,” and that “we should practice that manoeuvre.” As one commentator put it, “Now just regime thugs.”

We are told that, following the crackdown, posters appeared in Ottawa streets listing the names of residents whose donation information had been at GiveSendGo (Hat tip Krock at 477 at Convoy III):

An individual or a group of individuals are putting up posters around the Ottawa area with the names and email addresses of residents that donated to the Freedom Convoy cause.

The posters also include the donation amount. pic.twitter.com/UMCVoCJ329

— Marie Oakes (@TheMarieOakes) February 22, 2022

The poster creators are probably operatives rather than typical citizens.

Donors names were published on (since removed):

All the people in Ontario (and their names and addresses) who donated to freedom were today exposed on google maps. Complete breach of privacy.

This is a war people.

— CW 4 a New Republic of Alberta4All. Nothing Less. (@alberta_cw) February 22, 2022

A bit more information emerging about Chrystia Freeland, Trudeau’s hench (hat tip Jerry at 478 in the Combox at Convoy III: When boring people turn dangerous:

Years later, she is somehow Canada’s Finance Minister, and what another friend from our Russia days laughingly describes as “the Nurse Ratched of the New World Order.” At the end of last week, Minister Freeland explained that in expanding its Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) program, her government was “directing Canadian financial institutions to review their relationships with anyone involved in the illegal blockades.”

The Emergencies Act contains language beyond the inventive powers of the best sci-fi writers. It defines a “designated person” — a person eligible for cutoff of financial services — as someone “directly or indirectly” participating in a “public assembly that may reasonably be expected to lead to a breach of the peace.” Directly or indirectly?

Indirectly? … Spreading “misinformation,” maybe …?

Meanwhile,

Saskatchewan Premier Calls on Trudeau Government to End Federal COVID-19 Mandates

and

Trudeau Government Facing Lawsuits Over Emergencies Act “Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and two civil and constitutional rights groups say they will continue to pursue legal challenges of the Canadian government’s use of the Emergencies Act even after the measure was revoked on Feb. 23.” But of course. Otherwise, he will do it again, anytime he gets into a snit.

Punditry

Trudeau’s References to ‘Misinformation’ When Justifying His Emergencies Act Are Very Troubling:

Legacy media members and politicos were furious when the New York Times dared to report that protesters had been arrested at gunpoint in Ottawa. One CBC TV host called the Times’ story “false and incredibly dangerous rhetoric” while a CBC radio host called the report “BS.” Trudeau confidante Gerald Butts was enraged on Twitter as he called out the New York Times, implying they would lose Canadian subscribers.

Jesse Brown with Canadaland then published a story that included pictures of people who were indeed being arrested at gunpoint in Ottawa. Gerald Butts dismissed the story as “clickbait,” though the photographic evidence was pretty clear.

The New York Times and Canadaland are both liberal-friendly outlets. The issue that establishment media and Liberal loyalists had with the stories wasn’t inaccuracy, it was that the stories contradicted their own narrative.

Trudeau, of course, wants control of the news. The legacy Canadian media — who would not survive except for handouts from the taxpayer — would be happy to help, as it gets them out of actually reporting news (which is work).

A Canadian writer expressed relief when the Emergencies Act was withdrawn:

The feeling of hopelessness was compounded by the videos I watched from independent media coming out of Ottawa: a disabled Indigenous grandmother being trampled by mounted police, police officers beating citizens, hundreds if not thousands of un-identifiable policemen confronting protesters, the police chief intimidating residents, donors to the convoy being frozen out of society and out of their bank accounts at the behest of the petty, disgusting Prime Minister of Canada and his cronies for the crime of opposing him and his regime. There were so many vomit-level episodes here over the week, it would be difficult to list them all. I felt very dark, very sad, psychologically tormented and beaten down. I did lose sleep over it all.

And then as my deadline approached, news broke of the walking back of the Emergencies Act. I had a feeling last night that getting the Act passed in the Senate was not a slam dunk for Trudeau. I wondered, with all the terrible press from around the world, with the anger and rage of so much of the Canadian population and his utter humiliation on the world stage, how could he keep this up? I think the walk back was a combination of several factors: devastating polling, the legal action that was being launched by provincial and national civil liberties associations, the lawsuit being launched by the province of Alberta and the many public denunciations of Trudeau Tyranny. That, coupled with the inarguable fact that there was no emergency, sealed the deal.

But that’s hardly the end of the story. The same bad actors could do it again if they decide to reset Canada on different principles. Thorough inquiries are needed, which includes a vast replacement — not of average Canadians — but of people who should simply not have positions of power that go much beyond choosing shower curtains and what to order for pizza toppings.

Commentator Dennis Prager asks, “Is Canada becoming North America’s Cuba?”

“A senior government official said … police could gather the names and license plate numbers of people participating in a protest or an unlawful assembly and share that information with FINTRAC (Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada) …

“Banks have been granted immunity against legal action in the event of disputes over whether someone should have been denied financial services. ‘No proceedings under the Emergencies Act and no civil proceedings lie against an entity for complying with this Order,’ the regulations read.”

The majority of Canadians (56%), we are told, currently support this. But then the majority are still dependent on government-funded legacy media for information. Many will find out the hard way what living in a frozen Cuba is really like when it gets round to them. But the way things are going, it may not get round to them — not that they have done anything to deserve the break.

Typical: Joy Break: An Anti-Woke News ‘Freedom Convoy’ Protestor is a Good Samaritan for a Woke News Outlet

When covering the Freedom Convoy trucker camp in Arnprior, Ontario, a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s (CBC) van slid off the road and got stuck in snow. One of the protestors, Tyson Gareau, happened to be wearing a “Defund the CBC” hat. The CBC has been extremely hostile toward the truckers and the Freedom Convoy. But that didn’t stop Gareau from being the proverbial “Good Samaritan.”

CBC’s van slide off the road & got stuck in a ditch beside the protestors’ camp in Arnprior. A demonstrator named Tyson Garneau wearing a “defund the CBC” hat pulled us out knowing we were CBC journalists. He said he’d never leave anyone stuck like that. pic.twitter.com/tNaI2GQPsJ— Ashley Burke (@AshleyBurkeCBC) February 23, 2022

It’s a matter of honour on his part. It would be interesting to know if there was any sense of shame on theirs.

Lastly, some fun:

Ottawa Senators [ice hockey team] Change Name To

“The People’s Republic of Canada must shed the last vestiges of culture that celebrated freedom,” said Supreme Emperor of the North Trudeau. “Ottawa’s beloved team will be renamed as a tribute to my magnificent greatness!”…

In addition to the name change, the team will also adopt Justin Trudeau as their official mascot. The mascot costume will come in two varieties: standard and blackface.

—

World News, February 24, 2022

Iceland Lifts All COVID-19 Restrictions, Says People ‘Need to Be Infected’ Since Vaccines ‘Are Not Enough’ “Both domestically and at the border, all rules on quarantine, social gatherings, and school regulations regarding COVID-19 will be removed, Willum announced. This includes rules on a gathering limit of 200 people indoors.”

Britain has largely dumped the Crazy so the leadership can risk asking some hard questions: “Wuhan lab leak theory ‘accepted as likely behind closed doors at No 10’” Of course the Wuhan Level IV gaon-of-function lab is the most likely origin but never forget that it was once Woke Virtue to emphatically (if not hysterically) doubt that.

Australia

Police confirm use of controversial LRAD device at Canberra protest

What started out at the beginning of the week as the ‘stuff of conspiracy theories’ was eventually confirmed by Police.

Australian Capital Territory Policing admitted that they did use a Long Range Acoustic Device (also known as a LRAD) during the Canberra Convoy Freedom rallies outside Parliament House.

Yes, it’s come to this: The way things are going, when official sources tell us that something is a conspiracy theory, that could just mean that it’s something they think they can keep from people for now.

Premier Daniel Andrews reveals masks to be scrapped in most indoor settings but not for students in year 3 or above at primary school The least likely population at risk… Trust the Science, you ignoramus!

Also, students BANNED from chanting at rowing regatta “COVID-19 cited as the reason behind a call to put a lid on cheer.” Sure thing. Again, Trust the Science, you ignoramus!

and

Useless, complicit media attempts spin to fight back against public awareness of its failure to get the story right: “In a recent episode of Channel 10’s The Project, a segment aired that contained so much projection, it forced the show’s online team to disable all comments from social media posts about it. People saw through it.” That could be happening more now.

New Zealand gets ugly

She just oozes positively Trudeau-ian levels of insincerity, viciousness and entitlement. https://t.co/gqd4uejoTH

— Douglas Murray (@DouglasKMurray) February 21, 2022

Note: The correct usage is “Trudeaupian” levels of insincerity, viciousness and entitlement.

—

United States News, February 24, 2022

As convoys now head for Washington, D.C., some thoughts from Canada:

The truckers meeting in our Nation’s Capital are also protesting COVID restrictions, as well as increased gas prices and critical race theory.

Scranton businessman and vocal critic of the president Bob Bolus is leading the convoy from our area.

He said, “We’ll shut interstate systems down around the country and literally teach them, who are you going to arrest? We’re not coming there just to starve them, we’re going to choke you like a boa constrictor and you’ll have nothing. You’ll either listen to us and listen to one most important thing the ‘we the people.’

A word of friendly advice from Canada to Bob Bolus: Stick to one single issue. The reason people remained united in Canada, despite significant oppression by government, is that we all have one issue here only: End the Crazy. And we judge everything by whether government is doing that or not. Then we can all go home and do other things as we think fit.

For every Convoy I have witnessed here in Victoria, Canada, (now 3), I have seen either a stupid restriction dumped or else more people starting to act like they “get it” about the wittering bureaucrats thinking up rules because they don’t know what else to do — and keeping them in place because they don’t know how to climb down the tree they climbed up. Enough. The Panic should be over now.

So yes, Convoy! But stay peaceful and stick to ending the Crazy.

New Yorkers Hold Rally in Support of Canadian Truckers

The demonstrators chanted, “no vaccine mandates,” “stand with Canada,” “we will not comply, “freedom, freedom, freedom,” “my body, my choice, your vaccine you won’t force” and “coercion is not consent.”

The ages of attendees ranged from mid-20s through senior citizens and included a wide variety of heritages.

Like we said before, please keep it peaceful. Let the government engage in the rough stuff because they’re the ones with a lot to hide. Then, like Trudeau in Canada, they will likely face rebellion from within their own ranks. Eventually, if not sooner, they will face a purge of unsuitable government. Hey, it happened to your Luv Guv and his brother already…

Elite businesses are starting to dump the Crazy: These 3 major cruise lines are set to lift mask mandates as COVID cases drop:

Royal Caribbean plans to drop its indoor mask requirement for fully vaccinated passengers starting Friday. Carnival Cruise Line’s new policy, which will lift mask requirements in most venues, takes effect March 1.

A third cruise line, Norwegian Cruise Line, announced earlier this month that it would let passengers ditch their face masks starting March 1.

If you can afford tropical ocean air, you can at least buy it again now.

More serious medical stuff: Facts Matter (Feb. 22): CDC Caught Hiding Troves of Data: Not Publishing Critical Hospitalization, Booster, and Virus Data Many soourcfdeschose to market panic instead of demanding answers.

The Centers For Disease Control’s Lies Have Destroyed Its Legitimacy:

By refusing to acknowledge the harms of lockdowns, mask mandates, and vaccination, the Centers for Disease Control has brought everlasting shame to itself.

Last summer, guided by the CDC, President Biden claimed, “If you’re vaccinated, you’re not going to be hospitalized, you’re not going to be in the IC unit, and you’re not going to die.” Biden also spread misinformation about vaccinations preventing the spread of Covid-19 by stating, “You’re not going to get Covid if you have these vaccinations.”

Who is harmed the most by health misinformation produced by our president and his agencies? Those with low health literacy. Our rich-poor gap is growing in this country, and lying about health issues only exacerbates it.

There’s an old saying: Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me…

Five reasons why health professionals might not tell you what they themselves know about the situation: Loss of licences, jobs, grants, advancement, and social pressure. All that the coverups are doing is making the situation seem worse than it may actually be.

Worth noting: Big Pharma, domiciled in California, may be contributing to the Crazy there. Follow the money.

And, lastly, another American gets it:

Should we be surprised when all the “liberals” in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States turn out to be fascists in disguise? Should we be surprised that what they truly desire is to exert unlimited power over the lives of others? Of course not. The abuse of power, once power is attained, is practically universal. George Washington rejected absolute authority, and Cincinnatus returned it to the Roman Senate after just 15 days. But in every single other case in history, a dictator remains a dictator until he or his dynasty is killed off.

We are entering the post-Western democracy stage of history. And we’re further along than we thought. No one was shocked when Germany or Austria locked people in their homes during COVID—democracy in a European nation-state has always been a thin veneer. But it was shocking to read of people attempting to climb the fences at Australian COVID concentration camps and being hunted down by the police. It was shocking to see Canada’s party-line vote to prolong emergency powers so they can make protests illegal, imprison political enemies, and confiscate dissenters’ property.

The cost of “Trust the Science!” is pretty steep, it turns out.

At any rate, always remember, many of your neighbors still resolutely believe it:

What is remarkable is the partisan split. Republicans disapprove of Trudeau’s response to the truckers’ protest by an overwhelming 87% to 8%. Independents disapprove by a massive 74% to 21%. But Democrats actually say they approve of Trudeau’s conduct by 66% to 17%.

Most of these people may genuinely believe they are in danger without their masks and lockdowns. Dealing with their mental health status will not be easy.

You may also wish to read:

Let us listen to Dr. Robert Malone, dissenting expert, on the COVID-19 crisis

and, for what’s happening in suddenly famous Canada:

Convoy II : The police swoop in Ottawa: The Constitution? Old news now “Trust the science!” is starting to show its totalitarian face in Canada — but, as they slowly learn the facts, citizens are standing their ground, From the comments: “Canadians: ‘Be polite when you are being arrested.’ u guys rock!” (Sure, commenter. Canada belongs to the people of Canada. And this is how free people fight back. Serfs, by contrast, destroy things and attack people because they have no stake in a free and prosperous society.)

and

What I saw at the Freedom Convoy in downtown Victoria It was all friendly; people were having a good time. There was no violence; I heard no racial epithets and saw no racial insignia. So if media tell you that it is really about white nationalism, etc., remember that the legacy Canadian media are in fact supported to stay in business by the federal government. Because few depend on them for news any more.

You may also wish to read:

Let us listen to Dr. Robert Malone, dissenting expert, on the COVID-19 crisis

and, for what’s happening in suddenly famous Canada:

Convoy II : The police swoop in Ottawa: The Constitution? Old news now “Trust the science!” is starting to show its totalitarian face in Canada — but, as they slowly learn the facts, citizens are standing their ground, From the comments: “Canadians: ‘Be polite when you are being arrested.’ u guys rock!” (Sure, commenter. Canada belongs to the people of Canada. And this is how free people fight back. Serfs, by contrast, destroy things and attack people because they have no stake in a free and prosperous society.)

and

What I saw at the Freedom Convoy in downtown Victoria It was all friendly; people were having a good time. There was no violence; I heard no racial epithets and saw no racial insignia. So if media tell you that it is really about white nationalism, etc., remember that the legacy Canadian media are in fact supported to stay in business by the federal government. Because few depend on them for news any more.

Copyright © 2022 Uncommon Descent . This Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, the site you are looking at is guilty of copyright infringement UNLESS EXPLICIT PERMISSION OTHERWISE HAS BEEN GIVEN. Please contact legal@uncommondescent.com so we can take legal action immediately.
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What “Trust the Science” does with massive amounts of data: Withholds it!

By now, people should be wondering, has “science” lost the plot? What, exactly, is it for?:

A new bombshell article from the New York Times claims that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has been withholding massive amounts of data relating to COVID-19 from both the general public and state and local officials. If true, this story ought to be a major scandal…

What’s the CDC’s justification for hiding this information from the public as well as state and local officials? CDC spokesperson Kristen Nordlund told the Times that “it’s not yet ready for prime time.”

But it turns out that this explanation may not be the real answer after all:

John G. West, “Major Scandal: New York Times Reports CDC Withholding Massive Amounts of COVID-19 Data” at Evolution News and Science Today (February 22, 2022)

No, of course not. The real explanation is, as quoted by West from the source, “The agency has been reluctant to make those figures public, the official said, because they might be misinterpreted as the vaccines being ineffective.”

Well now, why might anyone think that?

And, inimitably, “Some outside public health experts were stunned to hear that information exists.”

From West again:

Again, this is scandalous if true. For the past two years, we’ve heard government officials complain ad nauseum about the spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories regarding COVID-19. Well, misinformation and conspiracy theories rise in inverse proportion to good data. If you really want to combat misinformation, you shouldn’t be hiding the data collected by the government. When data is hidden or missing, people start trying to fill the gaps by speculation. You pretty much guarantee misinformation and conspiracy theories when you withhold data.

John G., West, “Major Scandal: New York Times Reports CDC Withholding Massive Amounts of COVID-19 Data” at Evolution News and Science Today (February 22, 2022)

He goes on to point out other instances. The big question is, has secretiveness, deception, and a resulting hunger for authoritarian rule based on “science” has become a way of life in the upper echelons of a high-tech society?

And then the biggest questions looms: What to do about it?

At one time, it was just Darwin gibber in the schools and such-like stuff. Now it is getting more serious.

With any luck, what will come out of the COVID-19 crisis is a massive rethinking of what “science” is and what — when publicly funded — it is supposed to do.

You may also wish to read: Royal Society: Don’t censor misinformation; it makes things worse. While others demand crackdowns on “fake news,” the Society reminds us that the history of science is one of error correction. It’s a fact that much COVID news later thought to need correction was in fact purveyed by official sources, not blogs or Facebook or Twitter accounts.

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BREAKING/DEVELOPING: Russia invades Ukraine

Wikipedia initial map of the invasion, especially note a reported incursion from western Belarus and the main weight of reported bombings and incursions in the eastern trans-Dnieper region, the DonBass

BBC announces:

Russian forces have launched a military assault on neighbouring Ukraine, crossing its borders and bombing military targets near big cities.

A residential building in Chuguev was destroyed after it was shelled.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that Moscow’s response will be “instant” if anyone tries to take on Russia.

Ukraine has urged the UN “to do everything possible” to stop what it says is a full-scale war.

We could title this, the geostrategic price of weakness, starting with the USA. Recall here, my 2016 framework:

Of course as this seems overnight the fog of war is very much in effect and we need to bear in mind that we are unlikely to have a full or reliable picture. DEVELOPING, UPDATES TO FOLLOW

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Researchers: Poisonous cyanide may have been a “harbinger of life” 4 billion years ago

Unlike today:

Today, the colorless and deadly gas cyanide is known as a fast-acting poison and a chemical weapon. Four billion years ago, however, it may have been a harbinger of life. Chemists at Scripps Research have shown for the first time how cyanide could have enabled some of the earliest metabolic reactions to create carbon-based compounds from carbon dioxide. In addition to better understanding the evolution of life on Earth, this discovery gives scientists insight into the potential chemistry of life on other planets.

Scripps Research Institute, “New role for cyanide in early Earth and search for extraterrestrial life” at ScienceDaily (February 3, 2022)

Note the “may have” and “could have been.” That’s where a lot of origin of life studies are, really. Nothing wrong with that, of course, as long as it is not mistaken for “the findings of science.” It’s speculation, pure and simple.

There is no way of proving beyond a doubt what chemistry occurred on the early Earth, he adds. But the discovery of the new set of reactions allows a new set of hypothetical conditions that might be compatible with life. And that has implications for the search for life — in our planet’s past and elsewhere.

“It frees us up from saying there must be these metals and these extreme conditions,” says Krishnamurthy. “There could be life that evolves from this cyanide-based chemistry.”

Scripps Research Institute, “New role for cyanide in early Earth and search for extraterrestrial life” at ScienceDaily (February 3, 2022)

It would be a great hard sci-fi novel, maybe a flick. And fun for chemistry students!

The paper requires a subscription.

You may also wish to read: Did giant mountain ranges provide nutrients in early Earth’s history? According to the new thesis, the erosion of mountains provided nutrients that were hitherto unavailable, that helped life forms get started. Sounds like a rollout, actually.

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Researcher: Viruses are “smart” but the human immune system is smarter

How human RNA resists viral takeover:

In the Muller Lab, student researchers work with Muller studying how Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) hides for years inside the human body before seeking to gain control over human gene expression to complete the viral infection. At that point, people with a weakened immune system may develop Kaposi sarcoma cancer lesions in the mouth, skin or other organs.

The researchers use genome-wide sequencing, post-transcriptional sequencing and molecular biology to examine how the human cell or the virus knows how to prevent degradation.

“Viruses are very smart, that’s what I love to say,” Muller says. “They have lots of strategies to stick around, and they don’t do a lot of damage for a very long time, because that’s one way to hide from the immune system.

“But then, at some point — many, many years later — they reactivate. The way they do this is by triggering a massive RNA degradation event where the virus will wipe out the mRNA from the cell. That means the human system can no longer express the proteins that it needs to express, and that means also that a lot of resources are suddenly available for the virus.”

How and why some RNA are able to escape the viral degradation are questions Muller’s team — including lead author and graduate student Daniel Macveigh-Fierro and co-authors and undergraduates Angelina Cicerchia, Ashley Cadorette and Vasudha Sharma — has been investigating.

“We show that RNA that escape have a chemical tag on them — a post-transcriptional modification — that makes them different from the others,” Muller explains. “By having this tag, M6A, they can recruit proteins that protect them from degradation.”

University of Massachusetts Amherst, “Research advances knowledge of the battle between viruses and human cells” at ScienceDaily (February 18, 2022)

The paper requires a subscription.

It’s becoming harder for researchers to claim that there is no intelligence in nature. That’s probably why so many of them are embracing panpsychism. They want a way to include intelligence in nature without an intelligence outside nature. It won’t work but at least it makes more sense in relation to the evidence.

You may also wish to read: Neuroscientist: Even viruses are intelligent Antonio Damasio says, in the excerpt from his new book, that — based on the evidence — we cannot deny viruses “some fraction” of intelligence. Researchers who study viruses, including the one that causes COVID, note similarities between viral strategies and those of insects and animals.

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Mutations and macroevolution: The Central Dogma of biology turns out to be… unsupported?

Jonathan Wells has the story about problems no one is even trying to understand in the history of life as an alternative to just shutting up people who doubt some official stance:

Some modern biologists think that the sequence of amino acids specifies the final form of a protein, and that proteins specify the final form of an organism. This line of reasoning is sometimes called the central dogma of molecular biology, and it can be crudely summarized as “DNA makes RNA makes protein makes us.” In 1970, molecular biologist François Jacob wrote that an organism is the realization of a “genetic program” written in its DNA.2 Under this view, changes (mutations) in DNA sequences would change the genetic program and thus modify the organism in any number of ways. Molecular biologist Jacques Monod (who shared a 1965 Nobel Prize with Jacob) wrote that with this realization, “and the understanding of the random physical basis of mutation that molecular biology has also provided, the mechanism of Darwinism is at last securely founded. And man has to understand that he is a mere accident.”

Jonathan Wells on mutation, “Top Scientific Problems with Evolution: Mutation” at Evolution News and Science Today (February 16, 2022)

Well, that last point is, of course, the money shot, isn’t it? But what if mutations don’t really produce macroevolution, as implied above?

Since the 1970s, molecular biologists have performed comprehensive screens for mutations affecting embryo development in fruit flies, roundworms, zebrafish, and mice. Hundreds of mutations have been identified, but none of them change development in the fundamental ways needed for macroevolution. All the available evidence leads to the conclusion that no matter how much we mutate a fruit fly embryo, only three outcomes are possible: a normal fruit fly, a defective fruit fly, or a dead fruit fly. Not even a house fly, much less a roundworm, a zebrafish, or a mouse, can be produced via mutations.

Jonathan Wells on mutation, “Top Scientific Problems with Evolution: Mutation” at Evolution News and Science Today (February 16, 2022)

Meanwhile, in the United States, and doubtless in many other places, righteous science activists could probably get a court order against anyone teaching in a publicly funded school that evidence for macroevolution is missing. The fact that it is missing is an Unfact, so to speak.

Here’s Jonathan Wells’s whole series on scientific problems with evolution theory.

You may also wish to read: Evolution problems: “Species” is such a mess of a concept And evolutionary biologists keep looking for examples in nature, with meagre results. One way of attempting to demonstrate speciation is to seize on inconsequential genetic changes and inflate their importance.

and

Jonathan Wells on the fossil record as a problem, not a solution, for evolution theories. Where the needed transitional fossils are missing that matters most is researchers’ lack of willingness to be honest about what their absence means.

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