Discovery Institute's Blog, page 201

Thinking Differently About Biology

Five family members from the GabT-like protein family. The first three are very similar. These enzymes are considered by current standards to be homologous, that is, evolutionarily derived.

The five enzymes shown above are clearly related in structure, especially the three on the left. Yet none of the others can replace BioF2's function in the cell, even when mutated and made in large amounts. Why is that? Probably because each enzyme is a structural whole, whose sequence is made to work toge...

Your Computer Doesn't Like You

Actually, your computer doesn't dislike you, either. Your computer has no opinion about you at all, because it has no opinions whatsoever.

This is news to Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk, who -- as Erik J. Larson has commented here -- recently have warned humanity that computers are on the verge of acquiring minds and could take over the world and end mankind.

Computers, of course, cannot "take over the world and end mankind," because computers have no intelligent agency at all. Intelligence, a...

New Study Reveals DNA Organization in the Nucleus; Plus Highly Recommended Video

OK, this is really cool. We knew the nucleus had to be organized into compartments with particular chromosomes taking up particular regions. Now, using an elegant new technique, Rao et al. in a collaboration between the Center for Genome Architecture at Baylor College of Medicine, Rice University in Houston, Texas, and the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, have mapped which bits of DNA are close to each other, or nearest neighbors in the nucleus. The research, reported on in The S...

Massive Genetic Study Confirms Birds Arose in "Big Bang"-Type of "Explosion"

The evidence for intelligent design just keeps getting stronger. It's long been known that the Cambrian explosion isn't the only explosion of organisms in the fossil record. There's also something of a fish explosion, an angiosperm explosion, and a mammal explosion. Paleontologists have even cited a "bird explosion," with major bird groups appearing in a short time period. Frank Gill's 2007 textbook Ornithology observes the "explosive evolution" of major living bird groups, and a paper in Tr...

See It: Today at 5 PM Pacific, Stephen Meyer Meets the Platonic Ideal of an Interviewer

That would be Eric Metaxas, who combines illumination with much amusement. The subject: Darwin's Doubt. The two were recorded in a great conversation at the Union League Club in Manhattan some time back, but if you missed it you can catch the discussion today at 5 PM Pacific/8 PM Eastern on the NRB Network.

Watch for the fuss Eric makes about having Tom Wolfe (who's working on a book on evolution) in the audience.

Here's the information you'll need to find NRB and other ways to see the progra...

"Unintelligent Design," You Say? An Automotive Parable

I am trained as a satellite experimentalist -- triple-ought screws, gloves, alcohol rinse, Kimwipes by the crate. In grad school I worked on my 1979 Chevy Nova: timing light, dwell meter, feeler gauges, half-inch socket set, etc. The past five months, I've been trying to change the head gasket on a 2001 Chrysler PT. I have never, ever encountered such bizarre engineering. They have crammed a 2.4L engine into a 1L hood. Every single bolt requires thirty minutes to extract -- jacking up the en...

Your Computer Can't Remember a Darned Thing

Some years ago my family and I were vacationing in San Antonio. We bought my son a toy musket in the Alamo gift shop. At the airport for the return home, my wife suggested that we inform the TSA that we were carrying a musket in our checked baggage. I felt it was unnecessary -- it wasn't a gun, it was a toy, and there are probably hundreds of toy guns brought home from Texas vacations every day in checked baggage. My wife insisted, and I quipped, glancing at my daughter who was carrying her t...

Hypocrisy of Atheist Activist Groups Draws Attention, as It Should

Strangely, the Freedom From Religion Foundation has failed to respond to the sporting offer from Discovery Institute's Dr. John West, tendered in these pages, of a $10 Starbucks gift card OR a free DVD of Privileged Species if only FFRF corrected its own hypocrisy.

Along with the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, the group has been calling for a professor at Georgia Southern University, Tom McMullen, to be censored for allegedly promoting theism to his students -- even as FFR...

Stephen Meyer's Dangerous Idea: Counsels Theistic Evolutionists and Others to "Do Their Homework" on the Design Question

Warren Cole Smith of World Magazine came through our Seattle offices recently -- it was good to see him. He interviewed Stephen Meyer, Center for Science & Culture director and author of Darwin's Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design. Dr. Meyer spoke very directly and incisively, I think, to World's primarily Evangelical Christian readership.

He explained the mission of Discovery Institute -- where's the link between George Gilder and intelligent design...

In Explaining Proteins (and Life), Here's What Matters Most

University of Toronto biochemist Larry Moran and I continue to disagree about what constitutes an assumption versus a fact, what a straw man argument is, and what matters most in the explanation of biological diversity (see here,here,here, andhere). The conversation began with the publication of our latest paper, which Larry has avoided discussing. In spite of differences, though, there are some things we agree on.

Of Straw Men

Larry Moran accuses me of having constructed a straw man argument...