Judgment Day is the PBS Nova show about the Dover trial. You can now watch it online in 12 episodes [Judgment Day].
[Hat Tip: Monado at Science notes ( "Intelligent Design on Trial" comes to your computer)]
[Hat Tip: Monado at Science notes ( "Intelligent Design on Trial" comes to your computer)]
Crystal is graduated from Texas A&M University w/ a degree in agricultural leadership and development with an emphasis on genetics and bio-chemistry. She is currently a professional model.Here's her website [crystalnicole.com]. There's not much on her website about DNA or genomes. On the other hand, there's a lot of Crystal. I suspect science isn't her main interest in life.
[Hat Tip: Curious Cat and ScienceRoll]
Evolutionary psychology has two major flaws in my opinion. One is that it is almost always adaptationist even when no evidence of adaptiveness is available. Adaptation is, as G. C. Williams noted of group selection explanations, an onerous hypothesis, to be supported or not used. It is too easy to come up with "possible scenarios", let alone possible adaptations. Such explanations need to follow the evidence rather than use, as EvPsych does, a priori arguments from the self-evident truth of natural selection and the nature of evolution.I agree with John 100%, although I might add one or two other flaws. I'm not sure the Wilsons would agree, however. I wonder if John knows whether E.O. Wilson is as opposed to evolutionary psychology as he (John) is?
The second major flaw relates to this. On the (a priori) assumption that selection always favours modularity, EvPsychologists claim that most of the human behavioural repertoire and its underlying neurology is modular. Each module is, as the literature has it, "informationally encapsulated and domain specific", which roughly means that it does one thing well and only that thing, without hints from the rest of our cognitive and sensorimotor system.
[Photo Credits: AFP: Bangladesh cyclone dead number 2,200, millions destitute]
It used to be a rule -- actually, more of an assumption -- that the genetic machinery of living organisms was never intentionally wasteful or inaccurate. It turns out this isn't always true, either.I think you can already see why this award is so richely deserved but if you're still in doubt check out the posting [Adaptationomics Award #2 - Washington Post and David Brown].
Gould, S.J. and Lewontin, R.C. (1979) The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm: A Critique of the Adaptationist Programme. Proc. Roy. Soc. (London) Series B, 205:581-598. [OnLine Version]
[Photo Credit: Oak Ridge National Laboratory]
Bruce was very successful at Princeton where he made major advances in working out the mechanism of DNA replication, laying the groundwork for future recognition as an outstanding scientist. He has also contributed greatly to our understanding of chromosomes. In 1995 he came to Toronto to receive a Gairdner Award for his scientific achievements. He has published over 150 scientific papers.After the graduation ceremony we came back to the Biochemistry Department for a reception in Bruce's honour. Many of the graduate and undergraduate students showed up with copies of their textbooks and Bruce was delighted to sign them.
Bruce moved to the University of California at San Francisco in 1976. He served as Chair of the Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics during the time that it rose to become one of the leading biochemistry departments in the world. Bruce’s guidance and mentorship during that time contributed in no small part to the success of the department.
Among the many honours and awards he has received I’d like to single out a few others that relate to his scientific achievements. He holds an American Cancer Society Lifetime Research Professorship. He was elected to the American National Academy of Sciences in 1981. He is a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (London) and many other international societies.
Bruce’s interest in science education was apparent from the beginning. In 1983 he and his colleagues published the very first edition of his famous textbook Alberts et al. The Molecular Biology of the Cell. The book has become familiar to students all around the world. The fifth edition is due to be published in just a few weeks. The Molecular Biology of the Cell set a standard for textbook writing that few other books have matched. I dare say many of the students here have taken at least one course that used his book.
In 1993, Bruce left San Francisco and moved to Washington to become President of the National Academy of Sciences—a post he held for twelve years. During that time he was “First Scientist” in the USA and, arguably, the most influential scientist in the world.
Bruce soon became known as the “Education President” for his efforts to improve science education beginning in kindergarten and the primary grades. He is highly respected for his tireless efforts in bettering science education and research policies in the USA and around the world. This effort has continued since he left Washington. He has received numerous awards for his achievements in education including Outstanding Volunteer Coordinator in California schools, the Leadership in Education Award from Keystone Center, the Distinguished Service Award from the National Association of Biology Teachers, and the Victor Hamburger Outstanding Educator Prize from the American Association for Developmental Biology.
There are even more awards and honours, for example Bruce Alberts is a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
Outstanding scientist, caring mentor, renowned author, and distinguished educator.
Mr, Chancellor, on behalf of the Governing Council, I ask you to confer the degree of Doctor Of Science, honoris causa, upon Bruce Alberts.
In Icons of Evolution Jonathan Wells defines evolution as,Biological evolution is the theory that all living things are modified descendants of a common ancestor that lived in the distant past.Does this definition differ from the one you learned in biology class? Does it differ from the definitions of evolution commonly found in textbooks? Why does Wells choose this definition over any others?
Philip Johnson is one of the leading advocates of intelligent design creationism, He argues that science is unnecessarily atheistic because it requires methodological naturalism.Creationists are disqualified from making a positive case, because science by definition is based on naturalism. The rules of science also disqualify any purely negative argumentation designed to dilute the persuasiveness of the theory of evolution. Creationism is thus out of court—and out of the classroom—before any consideration of evidence. Put yourself in the place of a creationist who has been silenced by that logic, and you may feel like a criminal defendant who has just been told that the law does not recognize so absurd a concept as "innocence."Is this a good argument for intelligent design creationism? Explain your answer.
The Johnson quotation is from Johnson, P.E. (1990) "Evolution as Dogma: The Establishment of Naturalism" first published in First Things 6:15-22. reprinted in Intelligent Design Creationism and Its Critics Robert T. Pennock ed.
This is the central argument of evolution deniers: Evolution is an unproven "theory." For science-savvy people, this is an incredibly annoying ploy. While it's true that scientists refer to evolution as a theory, in science the word theory means an explanation of how the world works that has stood up to repeated, rigorous testing. It's hardly a term of disparagement.We all agree that this is a problem when we're trying to explain evolutionary theory to the general public. We need to explain that a theory is not just some wide-eyed speculation but a solid explanation of facts that has stood the test of time. Theories are as good as it gets in science. The Theory of Natural Selection, for example, is not in dispute.
But for most people, theory means a haphazard guess you've pulled out of your, uh, hat. It's an insult, really, a glib way to dismiss a point of view: "Ah, well, that's just your theory." Scientists use theory in one specific way, the public another — and opponents of evolution have expertly exploited this disconnect.
For truly solid-gold, well-established science, let's stop using the word theory entirely. Instead, let's revive much more venerable language and refer to such knowledge as "law." As with Newton's law of gravity, people intuitively understand that a law is a rule that holds true and must be obeyed. The word law conveys precisely the same sense of authority with the public as theory does with scientists, but without the linguistic baggage.No, no, no! Theories are not laws and under no circumstances should scientists abandon science in order to score political points.
Evolution is supersolid. We even base the vaccine industry on it: When we troop into the doctor's office each winter to get a flu shot — an inoculation against the latest evolved strains of the disease — we're treating evolution as a law. So why not just say "the law of evolution"?
Best of all, it performs a neat bit of linguistic jujitsu. If someone says, "I don't believe in the theory of evolution," they may sound fairly reasonable. But if someone announces, "I don't believe in the law of evolution," they sound insane. It's tantamount to saying, "I don't believe in the law of gravity."
It's time to realize that we're simply never going to school enough of the public in the precise scientific meaning of particular words. We're never going to fully communicate what's beautiful and noble about scientific caution and rigor. Public discourse is inevitably political, so we need to talk about science in a way that wins the political battle — in no uncertain terms.
[Photo Credit: Clive Thompson from University of British Columbia]
[Hat Tip: RichardDawkins.net]
Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen,
The laureates in chemistry of this year have both studied reaction mechanisms, especially from a stereochemical, i.e. a geometrical point of view. In a chemical experiment some compounds are mixed, then something happens, and finally one can isolate one or more other compounds. What has really happened, and why, and how? The situation is as if someone had abbreviated a classical tragedy, say Hamlet, by showing only the opening scenes of the play and the final scene of the last act. The principal characters are introduced, then the scene closes and when the curtain rises again you see a number of dead bodies on the stage and a few survivors. Of course the spectators would like to know what has happened in the meantime.
What I have said is valid not least for enzymatic reactions. Many such reactions are perpetually going on in all living organisms; one could say that they really concern all of us although we don't observe them. When a chemist tries to find out what really happens, he often comes across the problem: right or left? It is the same in common life. If you leave Stockholm by Norrtull, you soon come to a place where the main road branches: the left branch leads to Oslo, the right one to Sundsvall or, if you like, to Haparanda.
Professor Cornforth has among other things studied the biological synthesis of the hydrocarbon squalene from six molecules of mevalonic acid. This hydrocarbon is necessary for the formation of steroids, which are of vital importance in many respects. The synthesis of squalene takes place in 14 steps and at each the enzyme must find the proper way. That means that there are just 214 = 16384 different routes and only one of them leads to squalene. If the enzyme should make a mistake in the first step (which it does not), the final result could be rubber or various other things but definitely not squalene. The problem at each step concerns which of two hydrogen atoms is to be eliminated, the right one or the left one. Professor Cornforth has shown which choice the enzyme makes at each of the 14 steps. For this purpose he has, with brilliant mastership, utilized the properties of the hydrogen isotopes: the ordinary hydrogen, the heavy hydrogen and the radioactive hydrogen. The lastmentioned isotope can only be used in tracer quantities, which means that only about one part per million of the participating molecules are radioactive. In a similar way, Professor Cornforth has studied several other biologically important reactions. All problems connected with the reaction mechanisms are not solved at that point, but the results constitute a very important step on the way.
Professor Prelog has worked in many fields of stereochemistry, and often the problems have been connected with the geometrical shapes of the molecules and their influence on the course of the reactions.
An impressive series of investigations deal with the "medium rings", i.e. molecules containing rings of 8 to 11 carbon atoms. Such rings are not rigid but rather limp. Parts of the ring which may seem rather distant may come into close contact with each other leading to unexpected reactions. Professor Prelog has been able to elucidate such reactions by utilizing the carbon isotopes.
Many important investigations refer to reactions between chiral molecules. The term chiral is derived from a word in ancient Greek, meaning hand. The molecules are unsymmetrical and may exist in two forms differing in the same way as a right hand and a left hand. The molecules are so small that you can't see them, but one can gain much knowledge by studying the reactions between chiral molecules of different kind.
Professor Prelog has also made important contributions to enzyme chemistry. He has studied enzymatic reactions on small molecules and in particular oxidation or reduction processes. The experiments may be more or less successful depending on how the enzyme and the other molecule fit together geometrically. By systematic experiments with various small molecules of well-defined shapes, it was possible to construct a "map" of the active part of the enzyme molecule. The results have recently been confirmed in a special case by Swedish scientists using x-ray methods.
Professor Prelog has also with ingenuity and penetration discussed and analysed the fundamental concepts of stereochemistry, not least the conditions for chirality in large and complicated molecules.
Professor Cornforth. Enzymatic reactions have always had a certain air of magic, perhaps witchcraft. Of course this is due to our imperfect knowledge of what really happens. This air of magic is, however, gradually dispersing, and your contributions, utilizing the isotopes of hydrogen, imply most striking advances. The handling of compounds with chiral methyl groups is an achievement of the highest intellectual standard.
Let me also express our admiration for the skill and perseverance with which you have pursued your work in spite of a serious physical handicap. Perhaps it had not been possible without the never-failing help and support of Mrs. Cornforth. I think she should not be forgotten on this day. In recognition of your services to chemistry and to natural science as a whole, the Royal Academy of Sciences has decided to confer upon you the Nobel Prize. To me has been granted the privilege to convey to you the most heartly congratulations of the Academy.
Professor Prelog. Ich habe hier versucht, einen Kurzbericht über Ihre wichtigsten Leistungen in der Stereochemie zu erstatten. Das war gewiss etwas schwierig. Ihre schönen Experimentalarbeiten erstrecken sich über weite Felder der heutigen organischen Chemie. Öfters haben Sie die Fortführung Ihrer Arbeiten anderen Forschern überlassen, und viele Chemiker hohen Ranges sind zurzeit auf den Gebieten tätig, die Sie einst eröffnet haben. Sie haben auch die fundamentalen Grundlagen der Stereochemie, besonders den Chiralitätsbegriff, in tiefsinnigen Auseinandersetzungen diskutiert und klargelegt.
In Anerkennung Ihrer Verdienste um die Entwicklung der Chemie hat die Konigliche Akademie der Wissenschaften entschlossen, Ihnen den Nobelpreis zu verleihen. Mir ist die Aufgabe zugefallen, Ihnen die wärmsten Glückwünsche der Akademie zu überbringen.
Professor Cornforth. In the name of the Academy I invite you to receive your prize from the hands of His Majesty the King.
Professor Prelog, Im Namen der Akademie bitte ich Sie aus den Händen Seiner Majestät des Königs den Nobelpreis in Empfang zu nehmen.
Cornforth, J.W. (2002) Sterol biosynthesis: the early days. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 292:1129-38. [PubMed]
[Hat Tip: Hsien-Hsien Lei]
[Hat Tip: John Pieret]
Thanks to one of our commenters for pointing out this website that calculates the reading level of blogs. Just for fun I inserted UD and it came back “High School,” which means that the general discussion at this blog is at a high school level. I then inserted Pandas Thumb and it came back “Elementary School.”This seems curious so I tried it myself. Here's the result for "www.uncommondescent.com."
Make of this what you will.
My position is not that most creationists are engineers or even that engineering predisposes one to Creationism. In fact, most engineers are not Creationists and more well-educated people are less predisposed to Creationism, the points the statistics in the study bear out. My position was that of those Creationists who presented themselves with professional credentials, or with training that they wished to represent as giving them competence to be critics of Evolution while offering Creationism as the alternative, a significant number turned out to be engineers.This should not be confused with the "hard" version of the Salem Conjecture (Hypothesis), which says that engineers are more likely to be creationists. Both versions are described in the Wikipedia entry [Salem Hypothesis].
[Photo Credit: I pretty sure this is a photograph of Bruce Salem.]
The first firebrand is lobbed into the audience by Edward Slingerland, an expert on ancient Chinese thought and human cognition at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. "Religion is not going away," he announced. Even those of us who fancy ourselves rationalists and scientists, he said, rely on moral values - a set of distinctly unscientific beliefs.Oops. I've got news for you, Prof. Slingerland, you can't count yourself as a rationalist if you think that morality requires religion. And you can't lay claim to being a scientist if you think that moral values are unscientific. That's two strikes.
Where, for instance, does our conviction that human rights are universal come from? "Humans' rights to me are as mysterious as the holy trinity," he told the audience at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. "You can't do a CT scan to show where humans' rights are, you can't cut someone open and show us their human rights," he pointed out. "It's not an empirical thing, it's just something we strongly believe. It's a purely metaphysical entity."Strike three. It's a good thing Dawkins wasn't there or this kind of sloppy thinking would have been exposed.
The mood at this follow-up conference was different. Last year's event was something of an "atheist love fest" said some, who urged a more wide-ranging discourse this time round. While all present agreed that rational, evidence-based thinking should always be the basis of how we live our lives, it was also conceded that people are irrational by nature, and that faith, religion, culture and emotion must also be recognised as part of the human condition. Even the title of this year's meeting, "Beyond Belief II: Enlightenment 2.0", suggested the need for revision, reform and a little more tolerance.Hmmm ... I guess I can go along with that. I've known for some years that people are attracted to irrationality and superstition—we call it religion. We tolerate those who ignore rationality and evidence-based thinking but that doesn't mean we shouldn't criticize those who think that way, right? Tolerance doesn't mean the same as acceptance, does it?
Such was the message from evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson of Binghamton University, New York. He suggested that humans' religious beliefs may have evolved over time, thanks to the advantages they conferred as a sort of social glue holding together groups that developed them.Hmmm ... if irrationality and superstition are hard-wired into our brains then how come it's so easy for many of us to escape from this sort of thinking?
Wilson was not saying religion is good or bad, simply that it has evolved to be hard-wired into our brains, and therefore cannot be ignored. "Adaptation is the gold standard against which reality must be judged," he said. "The unpredictability and unknown nature of our environment may mean that factual knowledge isn't as useful as the behaviours we have evolved to deal with this world."
Chemist Peter Atkins of the University of Oxford, one of the more hard-line atheists in the room, did not let this go unchallenged. He chided fellow participants for not being sufficiently proud about what science can accomplish. Given time and persistence, science will conquer all of nature's mysteries, he said.I'm glad to see there was at least one rationalist present.
So can scientific and religious world views ever be reconciled? Harris, author of The End of Faith, declared that they could not, and provided an uncompromising exposition on the evils of religion.Maybe there were more rationalists present than the author of the piece is willing to admit?
Away from the meeting, philosopher Daniel Dennett of Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, told New Scientist that as irrational as human minds may be, calm, firm introduction of reason into the world's classrooms could over time purge them of religion.
[PhotoCredits: Beyond Belief II: Enlightenment 2.0, Meerkats]
First, just so everyone's clear: "Macro-evolution" and "micro-evolution" are made-up words concocted by creationists to make themselves sound scientific. Biologists don't use them. They're scientifically meaningless. They're just different stages in the evolutionary process; "macro" is just "micro" over a longer period of time.I posted this comment on her blog.
I'm afraid you have been mislead. Microevolution and macroevolution are perfectly good scientific terms and they are used by evolutionary biologists all the time.
There is legitimate scientific debate about whether macroevolution is more than just lots of microevolution or whether macroevolution encompasses mechanisms not seen in microevolution. It's the sufficiency of microevolution argument.
I happen to be one of those scientists who agree with Stephen Jay Gould that there are many levels of evolution (hierarchical theory). Thus, macroevolution cannot be sufficiently explained by lots of microevolution. There are other things going on at the higher levels [Macroevolution].
The video is very misleading because it assumes a simplistic version of macroevolution. There aren't any evolutionary biologists who believe in that kind of macroevolution. Thus, I have to conclude that the makers of the video are as ignorant of evolution as the creationists they mock.1
1The video was made by cdk007 who claims to have a Masters degree in Biology and a Ph.D. in Molecular Neuroscience.
[The science book covers pictured are:
Macroevolution: Diversity, Disparity, Contingency: Essays in Honor of Stephen Jay Gould
At the Water's Edge: Macroevolution and the Transformation of Life
Genetics, Paleontology, and Macroevolution]
[Hat Tip: Jim Lippard]
Hakimi, P., Yang, J., Casadesus, G., Massillon, D., Tolentino-Silva, F., Nye, C.K., Cabrera, M.E., Hagen, D.R., Utter, C.B., Baghdy, Y., Johnson, D.H., Wilson, D.L., Kirwan, J.P., Kalhan, S.C. and Hanson, R.W. (2007) Overexpression of the Cytosolic Form of Phosphoenolpyruvate Carboxykinase (GTP) in Skeletal Muscle Repatterns Energy Metabolism in the Mouse. J Biol Chem. 282:32844-32855. [PubMed]
[Photo Credit Wikkepedia]
If the blog debate that ensued after publication of our article at Science showed anything, it was just how widely misunderstood the concept of framing might be. Not surprisingly, many bloggers offer strong opinions about framing and its relationship to science communication but have very little actual knowledge or expertise in the area.Yes, that must be the answer. We don't understand framing but as soon as we do we'll get right to it. Not.
Frame devices are used strategically in almost any policy debate. Consider just a few prominent and successful examples of such devices that have been used to alter the focus of policy:I get it. I don't want any part of that kind of "framing."
1. Republicans have used the frame device "death tax" to recast estate tax policy in populist terms and to trigger wider public concern.
2. Democrats have used the phrase "gun safety" to shift the traditional debate over "gun control" away from a focus on civil liberties and instead toward an emphasis on public health.
3. Greenpeace has used the term "frankenfood" to redefine food biotechnology in terms of unknown risks and consequences rather than the industry-promoted focus on solving world hunger.
4. Religious conservatives have relabeled the medical procedure know as "dilation and extraction" as "partial birth abortion," pushing decision-making on whether to use the procedure away from doctors and into the hands of Congress and the courts.
5. Anti-smoking advocates have promoted the term "big tobacco," a headline-friendly phrase that immediately emphasizes considerations of corporate accountability and wrongdoing.
6. Anti-evolutionists have coined the slogan "teach the controversy," which instantaneously signals their preferred interpretation that there are holes in the theory of evolution and that teaching rival explanations for life's origins is really a matter of intellectual freedom.
Is framing just false spin? What may have led to this misperception is that several examples of highly effective messaging have originated from groups or individuals with special interests. While the content of some of these messages such as Greenpeace's "Frankenfood" is debatable, these messages have been more effective in reaching key audiences than many efforts that originated from the scientific community.In other words; yes, successful framing can be the same as false spin. Thanks for explaining that, Matt.