Michael J. Behe's Blog, page 91

March 25, 2022

Imagine that! A whole new family of helpful proteins discovered in the lung

Randomly evolved, after billions of flops:

“In this new study, we have identified a new family of proteins in blood vessels in the lung called T2R, or bitter taste receptors. These are the same proteins found in the tongue which sense any bitter substances and tell us that they taste unpleasant. In blood vessels in the lung, we show that these bitter taste receptors are able to regulate how our blood vessels function when stressed.

“Most intriguingly, when we stimulate these proteins, we have found that they offer protection against fluid leak. These findings indicate that this new family of proteins in blood vessels could offer a new avenue of drugs to reduce fluid leak into the lung, and therefore help to treat patients with respiratory distress.”

Anglia Ruskin University, “Discovery could pave way for new lung treatment” at ScienceDaily (March 23, 2022)

The paper is open access.

You may also wish to read: We have a backup sense of smell to protect the lungs “Our noses have specialized cells that give us a sense of the vapors around us by detecting the presence of chemicals and sending signals to the brain. New research is now explaining how our lungs also have such chemosensors. These sensors send signals not to the brain but to the nearby tissues causing a fast response… ”

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Published on March 25, 2022 08:03

At Mind Matters News: Are birds really smarter than reptiles?

Scientists clash over how to measure animal intelligence: brain volume, brain organization, numbers of neurons… :

It used to be: Dog vs. cat, Who’s smarter? Now it’s Bird vs. reptile: Who’s smarter? Experts on the fascinating world of animal intelligence are locked in a debate over whether number of neurons or brain volume indicates intelligence (cognitive capacity):

In previous work, [Pavel] Němec and colleagues showed that birds have high neuronal densities. “They basically compensate, with these densely packed neurons, [for] the fact that they have relatively small brains in absolute terms, but they have just as many neurons as mammals,” he says. But they didn’t know whether that was true of reptiles as well. In the new study, the researchers found that reptiles have very low neuronal densities, with an average neuron number 20 times lower than that of birds or mammals of similar body size.

SOPHIE FESSL, “REPTILES ARE THE REAL BIRD BRAINS” AT THE SCIENTIST (MARCH 22, 2022)

So that measure would favor the birds, But some don’t want number of neurons to simply replace brain size as a simple measurement…

It’s true that brain size is not a very good measurement. Lemurs with brains 1/200 the size of chimps’ pass same IQ test. And even lizards can be smart.

Might there be another way of looking at it? From recent reports about bird smarts in the science literature, here’s the standard reptiles must beat or match:

…

➤ Australian magpies outwit scientists by helping each other remove tracking devices:

During our pilot study, we found out how quickly magpies team up to solve a group problem. Within ten minutes of fitting the final tracker, we witnessed an adult female without a tracker working with her bill to try and remove the harness off of a younger bird.

Within hours, most of the other trackers had been removed. By day 3, even the dominant male of the group had its tracker successfully dismantled.

DOMINIQUE POTVIN, “ALTRUISM IN BIRDS? MAGPIES HAVE OUTWITTED SCIENTISTS BY HELPING EACH OTHER REMOVE TRACKING DEVICES” AT THE CONVERSATION (FEBRUARY 21, 2022)

…

PBS, offers a detailed but inconclusive discussion about what the birds could have been thinking. But the main point is that they were able to perceive the situation clearly enough to act in concert to remove the trackers at all.

News, “Are birds, with more neurons, really smarter than reptiles?” at Mind Matters News (March 24, 2022)

Takehome: Scientists clash over how to measure animal intelligence:… Taking all that into consideration, to beat the birds, the reptiles must outdo an impressive list of recently noted accomplishments. Will the reptiles win?Match? Stay tuned?

You may also wish to read: Spiders are smart; be glad they are small Recent research has shed light on the intriguing strategies that spiders use to deceive other spiders — and prey in general. Invertebrates like spiders and octopuses can be smarter than we used to think and we are only beginning to discover their many strategies. (Denyse O’Leary)

and

Even lizards can be smart. If you catch them at the right time. But can we give machines what the lizard has by nature? What is it that we want machines to be and do under our guidance that these—often seemingly strange—life forms are and do spontaneously? The life forms do those things to stay alive. Does it matter then that machines are not alive?

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Published on March 25, 2022 07:40

March 24, 2022

Fine tuning of the universe: “Who Ya Gonna Believe Me or Your Own Eyes?”

This is the first post in a series from Steve Meyer’s chapter in The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith: Exploring the Ultimate Questions About Life and the Cosmos (2021):

Since the 1950s and 1960s, physicists have discovered that the laws and constants of physics and the initial conditions of the universe have been finely tuned to make life in the universe (and even basic chemistry) possible. To many physicists, this discovery has suggested the activity of a fine-tuner or super-intellect — i.e., an actual designing intelligence. Yet other physicists now argue that the fine-tuning of the physical parameters of the universe manifests the appearance, but not the reality, of design. For example, physicist Lawrence Krauss has argued that cosmological fine-tuning does not provide evidence of intelligent design, but instead, “the illusion of intelligent design.”

Stephen C. Meyer, “What Is the Evidence for Intelligent Design and What Are Its Theistic Implications?” at Evolution News and Science Today (March 23, 2022)

So Larry Krauss argues “cosmological fine-tuning does not provide evidence of intelligent design, but instead, ‘the illusion of intelligent design.’” Isn’t that a misuse of the concept of illusion?

Doesn’t it amount to saying, Who Ya Gonna Believe Me or Your Own Eyes?

If cosmologists must insist that fine-tuning of our universe can be explained by an infinity of flopped universes out there (and ours just happens to work), whatever is going on, it’s not science.

Meyer is the author of The Return of the God Hypothesis.

You may also wish to read: Jordan Peterson’s reflections on Twitter on reading Steve Meyer’s Return of the God Hypothesis

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Published on March 24, 2022 19:38

Do galaxies retain a memory of the entire universe?

If so, we could use our galaxy as a model:

Imagine if you could look at a snowflake at the South Pole and determine the size and the climate of all of Antarctica. Or study a randomly selected tree in the Amazon rain forest and, from that one tree—be it rare or common, narrow or wide, young or old—deduce characteristics of the forest as a whole. Or, what if, by looking at one galaxy among the hundred billion or so in the observable universe, one could say something substantial about the universe as a whole? A recent paper, whose lead authors include a cosmologist, a galaxy-formation expert, and an undergraduate named Jupiter (who did the initial work), suggests that this may be the case. The result at first seemed “crazy” to the paper’s authors. Now, having discussed their work with other astrophysicists and done various “sanity checks,” trying to find errors in their methods, the results are beginning to seem pretty clear. Francisco Villaescusa-Navarro, one of the lead authors of the work, said, “It does look like galaxies somehow retain a memory of the entire universe.”

Rivka Galchen, “What Can We Learn About the Universe from Just One Galaxy?” at The New Yorker (March 23, 2022)

If galaxies somehow retain a memory of the entire universe, the significance is probably greater than just the fact that we can use our galaxy as a model.

You may also wish to read: Templeton tries to wish away fine-tuning of the universe. So there you have it, folks. Fine-tuning is either a fluke or a multiverse. No other possibility is conceivable. Maybe science is about eliminating the concept of intelligence from the universe.

and

At Mind Matters News: Prof: Fine-tuning in nature is due to the mind of the universe Panpsychists (or cosmopsychists) are permitted to make arguments that would be banned if made by, say, intelligent design advocates. Some change is afoot.

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Published on March 24, 2022 19:24

So why aren’t the RNA OOL researchers in the running for the Nobel Prize?

If heady claims about making great gains in origin of life studies checked out?

The research paper itself avers, “These results support the capability of molecular replicators to spontaneously develop complexity through Darwinian evolution, a critical step for the emergence of life.”

If the scientists had accomplished such an astonishing feat, the team leads would almost certainly receive a Nobel Prize. So, did they accomplish it? Unfortunately, these claims do not even remotely resemble the reported experimental results.

Brian Miller, “Fact Check: Did University of Tokyo Researchers Explain the Origin of Life?” at Evolution News and Science Today (March 22, 2022)

More like it:

What did the research team accomplish? The answer is nothing of significance. The investigators provided the machinery required to externally drive replication. The RNAs did not replicate either themselves or each other. Nor did they directly perform any biologically relevant function. The acquired mutations solely tweaked the translated replicases to perform their pre-existent function with different speeds on different host variants and nonfunctional RNAs, or they disabled the replicases. Only the numbers of variant RNAs and the speed of replication changed. The functional complexity of the system did not increase, and nothing novel emerged.

The experiment has no relevance to what could have transpired on the early earth (here, here, here). RNAs hundreds of nucleotides in length could not have formed. Even if they did, the probability that their sequences encoded a functional replicase is infinitesimal. And none of the components required for protein translation existed before the appearance of autonomous cells…

Brian Miller, “Fact Check: Did University of Tokyo Researchers Explain the Origin of Life?” at Evolution News and Science Today (March 22, 2022)

When a story is the one people need to believe, they don’t ask for detailed demonstrations of how it could have happened that way. Chances are, they don’t even want them because then they would be responsible for knowing that it didn’t really happen.

The paper is open access.

You may also wish to read: OOL claim: RNA molecule develops complexity following Darwinian evolution. Bottom line: A lot of the machinery that supposedly spontaneously created complexity was in fact borrowed. We’re told that James Tour gets quite angry about what amounts to cheating in the claims about origin of life.

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Published on March 24, 2022 07:57

Quote of the Day

The quote of the day comes from commenter AaronS1978. In a comment to my last post, Aaron brings to our attention MMA fighter Fallon Fox, a man posing as a woman and fighting in the woman’s division. He has smashed the faces of multiple woman. Aaron writes that in our brave new world:

beating the crap out of a woman is OK as long as you think you’re a woman

Where are the feminists?

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Published on March 24, 2022 07:33

New use for “junk DNA”: Controlling fear

As the genome responds to traumatic experiences:

A piece of “junk DNA” could be the key to extinguishing fear-related memories for people struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and phobia, according to a study from The University of Queensland.

An international research project, led by the Queensland Brain Institute’s Associate Professor Timothy Bredy, discovered the new gene while investigating how the genome responds to traumatic experiences.

“Until recently, scientists thought the majority of our genes were made up of junk DNA, which essentially didn’t do anything.” Dr. Bredy said.

“But when researchers began to explore these regions, they realized that most of the genome is active and transcribed.”

University of Queensland, “‘Junk DNA’ could be key to controlling fear” at Phys.org (March 22, 2022)

Okay, why, until recently, did researchers think that “the majority of our genes were made up of junk DNA, which essentially didn’t do anything”?

Because that vast sunken library of dead information (sheer randomness and waste) was a slam dunk for Darwinism, as politically powerful theistic evolutionist Francis Collins was quick to point out in The Language of God. (2007). To say nothing of atheist cultural icon Richard Dawkins here, Darwinian evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne (here), and unidirectional skeptic Michael Shermer (here). Notice how that history is quietly being erased. Otherwise, it would be necessary to acknowledge that what many regarded as a correct prediction from Darwinism is not true.

So now what about fear?

“Our findings suggest that long non-coding RNAs provide a bridge, linking dynamic environmental signals with the mechanisms that control the way our brains respond to fear,” Dr. Bredy said.

“With this new understanding of gene activity, we can now work towards developing tools to selectively target long non-coding RNAs in the brain that directly modify memory, and hopefully, develop a new therapy for PTSD and phobia.”

University of Queensland, “‘Junk DNA’ could be key to controlling fear” at Phys.org (March 22, 2022)

Here’s the proposed mechanism:

Graphical abstract. Credit: Cell Reports (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2022.110546

Certainly worth pursuing in terms of addressing PTSD and phobias, as the authors note.

The paper is open access.

You may also wish to read: A new, useful, description for (former) junk DNA… ? “the large proportion of our genome that does not instruct our cells to form proteins” The phrase is a bit longish, of course, but concision is usually a product of usage. It’s better than “non-coding DNA” because it’s more specific and limited as a privative. That is, there is a specific thing that that vast mass of DNA does not do. The longish phrase does not come with the implication that it doesn’t do anything.

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Published on March 24, 2022 07:24

Yes, Lia Thomas is Causing Harm

Some have responded to my last post by saying “take a chill pill dude” (not kidding; one commentator actually resorted to that inanity). They argue that I should settle down because Lia Thomas’ posing as a woman to crush real women in athletic competitions does not harm anyone. Nonsense. He is causing harm. Former collegiate swimmer Jenna Stocker writes this about her swimming career:

Whether on a court, rink, or in my case, a pool, the ultimate goal is to win. The drive to be the best in my sport and my events — distance freestyle — is why I rode my bike through the snow for predawn practices at the University of Minnesota. It is why I swam countless laps, pushing myself through the silence of my own thoughts staring at a bottom of a pool. It is why I spent my college years forgoing other activities, parties, even internships in pursuit of my dreams.

Jenna Stocker

Now imagine that after all of that a man steps into the pool and beats her. Are you really going to say she has not been harmed?

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Published on March 24, 2022 06:59

March 23, 2022

Researchers: Sand dollars and sea biscuits emerged earlier than thought

They are using the “molecular clock” technique to determine that:

Their analyses suggest that the ancestors of modern echinoids likely emerged during the Early Permian, and rapidly diversified during the Triassic period in the aftermath of a mass extinction event, even though this evolutionary radiation does not seem to have been captured by the fossil record.

Additionally, the results suggest that sand dollars and sea biscuits likely emerged much earlier than thought, during the Cretaceous period about 40 to 50 million years before the first documented fossils of these creatures. The authors say this result is remarkable, as the tough skeleton of the sand dollars, their buried lifestyles, and their extremely distinct morphologies imply that their fossil record should faithfully reflect their true evolutionary history.

eLife, “Early evolution of sea urchins” at ScienceDaily (March 22, 2022)

One wonders if that technique is not too risky in the absence of a fossil record. But “earlier than thought” has been a good bet in principle. Not so good for the “long, slow process of evolution” stuff though.

The paper is open access.

You may also wish to read: Bryozoa add to Cambrian Explosion’s impact: 35 million years earlier than thought So they are complex and that much closer to the dawn of life. At ENST: In Nature News and Views, Andrej Ernst and Mark A. Wilson write, “Bryozoan fossils found at last in deposits from the Cambrian period.” They had been “conspicuously absent” till now.

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Published on March 23, 2022 20:14

Key groups of Cambrian creatures tolerated stressful shallow water environment, researchers say

The Cambrian Explosion, as excavated in Yunnan, China, is in the news again:

The 518-million-year-old Chengjiang Biota—in Yunnan, south-west China—is one of the oldest groups of animal fossils currently known to science, and a key record of the Cambrian Explosion.

Fossils of more than 250 species have been found there, including various worms, arthropods (ancestors of living shrimps, insects, spiders, scorpions) and even the earliest vertebrates (ancestors of fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals).

The new study finds for the first time that this environment was a shallow-marine, nutrient-rich delta affected by storm-floods…

“The Cambrian Explosion is now universally accepted as a genuine rapid evolutionary event, but the causal factors for this event have been long debated, with hypotheses on environmental, genetic, or ecological triggers,” said senior author Dr. Xiaoya Ma, a palaeobiologist at the University of Exeter and Yunnan University.

University of Exeter, “Modern animal life could have origins in delta” at Phys.org (March 23, 2022)

“now universally accepted as a genuine rapid evolutionary event”? So we’re past trying to pretend that it was in reality much slower? Okay…

Modern animal life could have origins in delta

Fish (Myllokunmingia). Credit: Dr Xiaoya Ma

Now, about the shallow, vs. deep, water:

The results of this study are important because they show that most early animals tolerated stressful conditions, such as salinity (salt) fluctuations, and high amounts of sediment deposition.

This contrasts with earlier research suggesting that similar animals colonized deeper-water, more stable marine environments.

“It is hard to believe that these animals were able to cope with such a stressful environmental setting,” said M. Gabriela Mángano, a palaeontologist at the University of Saskatchewan, who has studied other well-known sites of exceptional preservation in Canada, Morocco, and Greenland.

University of Exeter, “Modern animal life could have origins in delta” at Phys.org (March 23, 2022)

So these animals not only got started in a short period of time but were sophisticated enough to tolerate a stressful environment? The Cambrian gets more remarkable every time we dig into it.

The paper is open access.

You may also wish to read: Can the Cambrian Explosion be explained away by the earlier Ediacaran Explosion? David Klinghoffer: “Lukas Ruegger is the personable new intelligent design “explainer” whose videos take an approach similar to Khan Academy’s. The latter’s offering on evolution is replete with junk science, as Casey Luskin has detailed. Ruegger’s treatment of the subject is much better, and I appreciate his clarity and brevity.”

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Published on March 23, 2022 19:47

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