Discovery Institute's Blog, page 74

Monarch Butterfly's Sun Compass Investigated in Flight Simulator

The amazing story of how Monarch butterflies navigate from Canada to Mexico is beautifully recounted in Metamorphosis, the Beauty and Design of Butterflies. "Here's a butterfly species that does something truly spectacular," Thomas Emmel says in the film. Flying over two thousand miles without an experienced leader who has made the trip before, millions of these artistically-colored flyers arrive on schedule in the same trees their grandparents or great-grandparents had wintered in the previ...

Intelligent Design Aside, from Templeton Foundation to the Royal Society, Darwinism Is Under Siege

Don't let anyone tell you the evolutionary paradigm isn't in serious turmoil. Science Magazine announces an $8.7 million project by the Templeton Foundation seeking an "evolution rethink." I'm trying to think of the last time I heard Science reporting on support for a "gravity rethink," or a "heliocentrism rethink." The gist of it:

For many evolutionary biologists, nothing gets their dander up faster than proposing that evolution is anything other than the process of natural se- lection, ac...

How Likely Is a "Terminator" Future?

Celebrity scientist Michio Kaku is the latest to throw his support behind the "Terminator is coming" mantra. From the story at CNBC:

The moment that humanity is forced to take the threat of artificial intelligence seriously might be fast approaching, according to futurist and theoretical physicist Michio Kaku.

In an interview with CNBC's "The Future of Us," Kaku drew concern from the earlier-than-expected victory Google's deep learning machine notched this past March, in which it was able to...

Pioneering Neuroscientist Wilder Penfield: Why Don't We Have Intellectual Seizures?

Wilder Penfield was a pivotal figure in modern neurosurgery. He was an American-born neurosurgeon at the Montreal Neurological Institute who pioneered surgery for epilepsy. He was an accomplished scientist as well as a clinical surgeon, and made seminal contributions to our knowledge of cortical physiology, brain mapping, and intraoperative study of seizures and brain function under local anesthesia with patients awake who could report experiences during brain stimulation.

His surgical spec...

Discovering Fire: How We Became Pyrophiles

Editor's note: With the approaching premiere of Fire-Maker: How Humans Were Designed to Harness Fire and Transform Our Planet, a new documentary from Discovery Institute featuring Michael Denton's work, we asked Dr. Denton for his comments on a well-timed new research article in Evolutionary Anthropology. See the trailer here:

In an interesting article, "The Pyrophilic Primate Hypothesis," recently published in Evolutionary Anthropology, the authors ask: How did hominins come to create, us...

The Diversity that Dare Not Speak Its Name

Georgetown University professor John Hasnas has a fine Wall Street Journal op-ed today, "The One Kind of Diversity Colleges Avoid," pleading for intellectual and philosophical diversity in faculty hiring, alongside the racial and sexual kind. There's something missing, though.

He begins:

Many universities are redoubling their efforts to diversify their faculties in response to last fall's wave of protests from student groups representing women and minorities. Yale, for example, has announced...

Darwin and Wallace Read Malthus Differently, and That Made a Big Difference

I cannot add anything to Wesley J. Smith's cogent analysis of Michael Shermer's recent article on Thomas Malthus. But since Shermer has brought up Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace's association with Malthus in the development of their theories of natural selection (I say theories because they were different), a few words are in order.

A straightforward Malthusianism did indeed, as Shermer suggests, promote a harsh laissez-faire, nature "red in tooth and claw," kind of socioeconomic s...

Premiering in May in Seattle, Get Ready for Fire-Maker with Michael Denton; See the Trailer Now!

Following the publication of Dr. Michael Denton's groundbreaking new book, Evolution: Still A Theory in Crisis, a new 22-minute documentary featuring his work will premiere in May. Fire-Maker: How Humans Were Designed to Harness Fire and Transform Our Planet explores an aspect of our everyday lives that we tend to take for granted: fire. See the trailer here:

Denton explains that, despite how commonplace it seems, fire defines life as we know it, and our mastery of it was one of the greates...

Yes, Repudiate Malthus

Scientific American has actually published a column that supports proper morality. And by Michael Shermer, no less!

Shermer identifies Malthusianism as one of the most destructive forces ever to infect science. From "Why Malthus Is Still Wrong":

On the negative side of the ledger are the policies derived from the belief in the inevitability of a Malthusian collapse. "The power of population is so superior to the power of the earth to produce subsistence for man, that premature death must in...

Science Ethics Are Too Important to Leave to "The Scientists"

A recent study shows that scientists are viewed as "amoral" by most of society. From the analysis in Pacific Standard, by Tom Jacobs:

So it seems suspicion of scientists is closely related to people's views about knowledge-seeking in general. While most of us see that as an unabashedly good thing, social conservatives view it as potentially threatening, as it may lead to questioning or disrupting the norms and values that keep society from falling apart.

In other words, many Americans feel t...