Discovery Institute's Blog, page 179

RIP, Jagger, But Dogs Can't Be "Murdered"

An awful person poisoned "Jagger," a prize-wining Irish Setter. The killing wasa terrible cruelty and a serious crime of animal abuse. I hope the criminal is caught and suitably punished.

But it wasn't "murder." Only human beings can be murdered, which is defined as an illegal homicide with malice aforethought.

Yet, the international media are all over this story, frequentlycalling Jagger's killing a "murder." The Us story is just one example:

A canine competing in the Crufts Dog Show in Birmi...

More on Junk DNA and the "Onion Test"

The Onion Test, which ENV referred to last week, has been debated for years. See "Onion Exposé: Carl Zimmer on Why 'Junk DNA' Had Better Be Real." There may be some very good reasons for onions to have large genomes.

Let's start with an analogy. My son tells me the computer game StarCraft will play on just about any old piece of computer hardware in the house. However, he says, when you go to download the game from the website, it takes up 15 gigabytes of space. Evidently, in order to be comp...

Finally, a Detailed, Stepwise Proposal for a Major Evolutionary Change?

A reader asks about an essay by Nick Matzke on the evolution of the flagellum:

I just stumbled across a detailed proposal for the evolution of the bacterial flagellum by Nick Matzke. This is the first time I've seen any such stepwise proposal for a major evolutionary change. Most of it was written in 2004, and he conspicuously avoids you in his bibliography. I note that Matzke didn't get his PhD until 2012. I was wondering if any ID people ever responded.

Let me give a brief response. When th...

Information for Students about the Scientific Dissent from Darwinism List

A public school science instructor recently contacted Discovery Institute to let us know that the required biology curriculum in the teacher's district includes an inaccurate article from the National Center for Science Education (NCSE). Titled "Why Teach Evolution?," the article attempts to frame the debate over Darwinian theory as one of science versus religion. The article tells students that opposition to evolution is religiously based, and denies that there is a real scientific debate ov...

Pumping for Life: What the Sodium-Potassium Pump Accomplishes

Editor's note : Engineers and physicians have a special place among the thinkers and scholars who have elaborated the argument for intelligent design. Perhaps that's because, more than evolutionary biologists, they are familiar in very practical ways with the challenges of designing or maintaining a functioning complex system on the order of a jet airplane, or the human body. With that in mind, Evolution News & Views is delighted to present this series, "The Designed Body." Dr. Howard Glicksm...

More Thoughts on Google and "Trustworthiness"

Last week, I commented on the proposal by a Google team to introduce "trustworthiness" as a criterion in Web searches. See "In Determining Truthfulness, a Google Team Would Like to Do Your Thinking for You." I noted the potential for bias that this "fix" to existing algorithms would bring with it -- a worrisome prospect, perhaps, for Web source not in line with the politically progressive perspective favored by many Google employees.

How worrisome, exactly? For that we need to wade into some...

Human Rights for Flies

The UK Green Party has joined the war on humans. The Party's election platform calls for expanding the UN's Declaration on Human Rights to all sentient life forms. From the Telegraph story:

Article Five of the UN Declaration on Human Rights, banning "inhuman" treatment, is extended to all sentient life forms.

The same prison sentences for the murder and kidnap of humans will apply to crimes involving elephants, monkeys, and whales.

Flies are sentient.

The Greens also want to stop all economic g...

Politics Professors: How to Reduce Evolution Denial

Despite several generations of relentless indoctrination, funded by hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, some high school students -- and even some college graduates -- still doubt evolution.

They don't doubt evolution in the sense of minor changes within existing species. In the 1930s, evolutionary biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky called this "microevolution," and nobody doubts it. But many people doubt what Dobzhansky called "macroevolution" -- the evolution of all living things from co...

Mantis and Mosquito: Bug Physics

Engineers could learn a thing or two by observing the dynamical brilliance of insects.

Mantis Momentum

It's a safe bet that when Strauss wrote the Blue Danube waltz, he wasn't picturing a praying mantis leaping like a ballerina. But the tune fits. Watch the video of a mantis jump, via New Scientist -- it will make you chuckle! Behold the elegant move a juvenile mantis makes while jumping in slo-mo to a rod placed by researchers. They wanted to learn how the bugs jump so unerringly to a target....

Why Evolutionary Theory Cannot Survive Itself

Editor's note: ENV is pleased to share the following excerpt from Nancy Pearcey's new book, Finding Truth: Five Principles for Unmasking Atheism, Secularism, and Other God Substitutes. A Fellow of Discovery Institute's Center for Science & Culture, Pearcey is a professor and scholar-in-residence at Houston Baptist University and editor-at-large of The Pearcey Report. She is author of the 2005 ECPA Gold Medallion Award winner Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity an...