Tuesday, February 06, 2007

How Not to Scientifically Falsify God/gods

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Categories : Philosophy, Religion, The New Atheists

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published: lundi 5 février 2007 20:39:27

Physicist Victor J. Stenger wrote a book published late last month entitled God: The Failed Hypothesis, subtitled How Science Shows That God Does Not Exist.

I of course wondered how science shows that God does not exist, and found a summary of Stenger's arguments on his page at University of Colorado. I found that he makes use of what he calls "Impossibility Proofs," a.k.a. convenient fables only fabulists believe. Only a physicist or a philosopher would attempt such a thing, so it's probably fitting that Stenger is an adjunct professor of philosophy at UC. I hope his classes are better than this outline suggests his philosophical reasoning is.

Right there in chapter 1: "Method," Stenger lists a 5-point methodological approach to test and/or falsify a given 'god model'. And he provides what he calls "The Scientific God Model" that serves as the effigy he sets out to knock down with the usual arguments that have been hashed and re-hashed millions of times over thousands of years. They are boring enough not to bother with.

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:53 PM 0 comments

Brrrr. It's cold out there!

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Categories : The Rabbit

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published: mardi 6 février 2007 2:51:03

posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:53 PM 0 comments

Those "Pop-Pseudoscience" Books

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Categories : Repost

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published: mardi 6 février 2007 11:13:56

Many critics have long complained about Intelligent Design books published for popular consumption. As one participant of our blog argued:

No one can stop you from inferring an intelligent designer, just as no one can stop you from inferring a real Santa Clause and the Tooth Fairy. If you want convince others, however, then get off your lazy a** and do some actual research that produces positive results. Pop pseudoscience books with wild unsubstantiated claims (i.e. Privileged Planet) and empty internet verbiage will never cut it in the rigorous scientific world…

While I can certainly appreciate the desire to see ID “cut it in the rigorous scientific world,” it’s not clear that ID hypotheses can be accommodated and processed in the current scientific milieu. But that’s not the main point for today.

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:53 PM 0 comments

Jesus Camp, ID, and Politics

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Categories : The Debate

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published: mardi 6 février 2007 13:00:05

I review Jesus Camp here. Surprisingly (to me, at least) there wasn't any mention of ID in the movie (IIRC, the directors briefly mentioned it in the commentary). As I mention in the post, I felt that most of the things in the movie were highly politicized by the directors. This is unfortunate because, as with the politicization of ID, it tends to obscure the real issues.

On that note, I thank Ed Brayton for pointing to this statement about ID by the Templeton Foundation. I pretty much agree with everything they say. For quite a while here at Telic Thoughts, we've made the distinction between ID the (political and cultural) movement and ID the idea. This is just a guess, but I think that if somebody came to the Templeton Foundation with a solid research proposal for ID (the idea, of course), they would probably get funding. The statement is a pretty clear condemnation of ID the movement and I don't think they've given up on ID the idea. One clue to this is that the statement only talks about biological ID, which has been the most politicized version of ID. The only real politicization that has occurred with cosmological ID has centered around Guillermo Gonzalez and this politicization came from the ID critics. The politicization of biological ID has, unfortunately, mostly been driven by the ID movement, which is why the Templeton Foundation rightly condemned this behavior.

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:53 PM 0 comments

O'Leary remains skeptical: Does Richard Dawkins really exist?

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published: mardi 6 février 2007 4:04:00

no description

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:53 PM 0 comments

Darwin on Trial: Does the evidence for Darwin's theory stand up to scrutiny?

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Categories : /

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published: mardi 6 février 2007 3:18:47

On this episode of ID The Future CSC's Robert Crowther highlights Darwin on Trial, by Philip E. Johnson. Darwin on Trial was responsible for alerting many among the public and in the scientific community to the deficiencies of Darwinism. Johnson, a UC Berkeley law professor and Program Advisor for Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, applies his skills as an analyzer of evidence to ask if Darwin’s theory holds up to scrutiny.

play_button.gif Click here to listen.

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:53 PM 0 comments

The making of "The Root of All Evil."

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published: lundi 5 février 2007 0:00:00

no description

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

The cutting room floor — The place Dawkins leaves his more incisive critics

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Categories : Religion, Science

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published: lundi 5 février 2007 20:57:12

You tell me who is playing fair:

Richard Dawkins: 4 December 2006

http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article2037496.ece

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

If the universe is a computer, who is the computer maker?

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Categories : Intelligent Design

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published: mardi 6 février 2007 4:17:28

One of our readers, who goes by the call sign “late_model” asked for a thread on Wheeler’s thesis that information is more fundamental than matter and energy. Wheeler, was highlighted in Wired Magazine’s 2007 edition: Wired: What we don’t know.

The WIRED article says this:

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

Van Till, Schloss, Numbers, and Dembski at Grove City College

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Categories : Intelligent Design

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published: mardi 6 février 2007 5:20:47

This Wednesday, there’ll be an ID symposium at Grove City College:

GROVE CITY, Pa. – The Grove City College Society for Science, Faith and Technology and The Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College will host a one-day conference Feb. 7 on “Creatively Seeking a Creation Story: Evolution and Intelligent Design in America.” All lectures will be given in the Sticht Lecture Hall in the Hall of Arts and Letters on campus and are free and open to the public.

The conference follows a series of book talks this fall on “Species of Origins: America’s Search for a Creation Story” by Karl Giberson and Donald Yerxa. The authors examine America’s conversation about creation and evolution and argue that the real issue is the confrontation between two worldviews: modern naturalistic science and traditional Judeo-Christian religions.

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

O’Leary remains skeptical: Does Richard Dawkins really exist?

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Categories : Intelligent Design

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published: mardi 6 février 2007 9:11:22

A commenter, at the bottom of this collection of news posts on the ID controversy, asks me whether I think that long-running atheist bore Richard Dawkins really exists. Well, I’ve given some thought to how to respond to such a sensitive question, because I do so dislike hurting anyone’s feelings. So, here’s the straight dope:

It makes me feel more intellectually fulfilled to assume that Dawkins does exist. But, unlike some people, I will not assume that a correct answer to this question will necessarily make me feel intellectually fulfilled, or you either. We must have better evidence than that.

The strongest argument for the existence of Richard Dawkins has been the books published by reputable houses under his name. But on reflection, I now see how foolish an argument that is, and am appropriately ashamed of myself. The books themselves attempt to demonstrate that mind comes from mud, in which case - if the thesis of the books has any merit at all - they could easily have written themselves.

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

Monday, February 05, 2007

Eukaryotic cells are dynamically ordered

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Categories : Biology, Cell

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published: dimanche 4 février 2007 16:05:41

From here:

It has been a plausible and long-standing hypothesis that genomic regulatory networks of real cells operate in the ordered regime or at the border between order and chaos. This hypothesis is indirectly supported by the robustness and stability observed in the phenotypic traits of living organisms under genetic perturbations. However, there has been no systematic study to determine whether the gene-expression patterns of real cells are compatible with the dynamically ordered regimes predicted by theoretical models. Using the Boolean approach, here we show what we believe to be the first direct evidence that the underlying genetic network of HeLa cells appears to operate either in the ordered regime or at the border between order and chaos but does not appear to be chaotic.

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:53 PM 0 comments

Do stop behaving as if you are God, Professor Dawkins

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Categories : Richard Dawkins

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published: dimanche 4 février 2007 16:46:52

Alister Mcgrath rips into Dawkins:

He is a 'psychotic delinquent', invented by mad, deluded people. And that's one of Dawkins's milder criticisms.

Dawkins, Oxford University's Professor for the Public Understanding of Science, is on a crusade.

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:53 PM 0 comments

MikeGene's Ice Box

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Categories : The Rabbit

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published: lundi 5 février 2007 4:59:14

posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:53 PM 0 comments

Global Warming Hard on Rabbits

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Categories : The Rabbit

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published: lundi 5 février 2007 10:42:23

posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:53 PM 0 comments

Watch the Edmonton News Report of Cancer Cure Dichloroacetate (DCA)

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Categories : Biology, Science, Off Topic

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published: dimanche 4 février 2007 17:23:41

Edmonton Global News television report on dichloroacetate cancer cure and interview with discoverer Dr. Evangelos Michelakis, Department of Medicine, University of Alberta.

Click here to watch.

Order It Today:: The Design Revolution

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

Are intelligent design and string theory equally untestable? Hmmm.

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Categories : Intelligent Design

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published: lundi 5 février 2007 5:03:28

The blurb for a book review from Physics Web, copied in the Weekend Edition of Arts and Letters Daily (February 3-4, 2007 ) reads, “String theory and intelligent design belong in the same category as speculative and unproveable. They cannot be falsified.”

One would think, at first, that this was just another yawner denouncing ID. The sort of thing that trips unbidden to the lips of any third rate lecturer who has never considered the possibility that the grade school tales he was told about the  the Viceroy butterflies proving Darwinism by mimicking the Monarchs might not actually be true.

About the falsifiability of intelligent design: A specific hypothesis must be proposed for falsification. I remember replying, more or less as follows, a while back to someone who insisted that ID was unfalsifiable:

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

“The Ego and the ID”

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Categories : Evolution, Intelligent Design, Darwinism

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published: lundi 5 février 2007 5:11:13

Here’s a piece about ID in the UK that came out a few days ago. Note especially the comments after the article.

The Ego and the ID
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 30/01/2007

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

Dilbert vs. P. Z. Myers

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Categories : Philosophy, Science, Culture

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published: lundi 5 février 2007 5:25:11

Scott Adams offers some insights on P. Z. Myers, prefacing them as follows:

. . . Some people are quite certain that I am misusing my minor celebrity status to confuse the masses and turn them into creationists or pyramid worshipers. Is it intentional, they wonder? Do I really believe the things I write? Or am I simply stupid, as it appears. . . .

MORE

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Ol' Pink Ears

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Categories : The Rabbit

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published: dimanche 4 février 2007 5:18:53

And some think this is a slug!


posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

Recent events in the intelligent design controversy

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published: samedi 3 février 2007 20:32:00

no description

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

Comments.

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published: samedi 3 février 2007 0:00:00

no description

posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

Saturday, February 03, 2007

Suicidal… And Proud of It!

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Categories : Random Stuff

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published: vendredi 2 février 2007 18:05:45

One of the most popular indictments against religion made by evangelical atheists is the propensity to violence against out-groups, and the most glaring example of this - oft-cited by PZ Myers, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, et al. - is the strange practice of suicide bombing.

Of course, someone familiar with the many large and small wars of the last war-filled century would know that nationalism (or one of its non-religious ideological equivalents) is as often responsible for engaging the practice during wars or insurgencies, as so well highlighted by the Japanese kamikazes of WW-II. But history doesn't seem to enter into EA arguments on this score, probably because it contradicts their ideologically-motivated assertions.

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:53 PM 0 comments

Friday quote: The three streams of ID

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Categories : Intelligent Design, Creationism, History, Friday Quote, The Critics

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published: vendredi 2 février 2007 20:21:42

Darwinian Fundamentalist points me to this interesting article (PDF) on the history of the intelligent design movement. Written by Donald A. Yerxa, a professor of history, it takes a more nuanced approach than the "ID=creationism" meme spread by many ID critics. Yerxa identifies three distinct streams that came together in the intelligent design movement, only one of which he terms "neocreationism":

Using the historian's most powerful and potentially distorting device - hindsight, it is possible to detect at least three streams that fed into the contemporary intelligent design movement. [1] During the 1980s, new concerns were expressed about the under determination of several aspects of evolutionary theory. [2] At the same time, cosmologists were suggesting that a strong teleological thread seemed to be running through cosmic history. So-called anthropic arguments gave encouragement to those inclined to recoil from the stark materialist assumptions of some spokespersons of science. [3] Also during the 1980s, there were a growing number of neocreationists whose objections to scientific naturalism and aspects of evolution were as much religious as they were scientific, but for whom the approach of creation science was woefully inadequate. In the 1990s, Johnson was able to bring these streams together under the banner of intelligent design. [Numbers added by me.]

One of the most influential works from the first strain was Evolution: A Theory in Crisis, by the agnostic biologist Michael Denton. Because he can't be fitted into the traditional "evangelical Christians railing against evolution" stereotype, many ID critics simply ignore him. Creationism's Trojan Horse by Forrest and Gross, touted by critics as the definitive history of the intelligent design movement, only has a handful of entries for Michael Denton in the index: Two referring to lists of ID supporters, where Denton is mentioned, another two referring to mentions of Phillip Johnson and George Gilder having read his books, and the final two referring to a laundry list of ID books, with no details about their content. But in a book where even Michael Behe's "invocation of Cardinal Ratzinger" has an entry in the index, the authors couldn't find the time to mention that one of the earliest and most influential books of intelligent design was authored by an agnostic.

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

Open thread: More old stuff

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Categories : Biology, Evolution, Front-loading, Quote Mining, Religion, Richard Dawkins

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published: samedi 3 février 2007 2:11:38

We haven't had an open thread in a while. So here's some links I've been meaning to post for a while.

Mike Dunford criticizes the notion that humans are just a third species of chimp:

The suggestion that we are the third species of chimp is one that is made mostly for political or philosophical reasons. It is made to reinforce the story that science has been telling us, and that we have been telling each other, since the start of the scientific revolution - humans are nothing special. …

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

A Rabbit's Research

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Categories : The Rabbit

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published: samedi 3 février 2007 4:20:18


posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

The Dawkins Delusion

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Categories : Humor, Richard Dawkins

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published: samedi 3 février 2007 4:40:22


posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

Scholars Debate Darwinism and Intelligent Design at Sapienza Università di Roma

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Categories : /

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published: samedi 3 février 2007 0:28:14

On this episode of ID The Future CSC's Casey Luskin talks to Dr. Thomas Woodward, author of Darwin Strikes Back, about a recent debate on Darwinism and Intelligent Design at La Sapienza University in Rome, Italy.

play_button.gif Click here to listen.

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

From Italy, Mathematics and the origin-of-life problem

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Categories : Intelligent Design

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published: vendredi 2 février 2007 19:05:45

I recently posted on Irreducible Complexity in Mathematics, Physics and Biology. That thread generated interest in a well-written article by ID proponents in Italy. The article touches on the work of Turing, Chaitin, von Neumann and relates it to ID-sympathetic literature by Dembski, Behe, Voie, Trevors and Abel. The article was so well written and informative, that I felt it deserved its own thread. Our readers can learn much about ID through this article!

Mathematics and the origin-of-life problem

Here are some excerpts:

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

Doctor David H. Gorski doth protest too much, methinks

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Categories : Biology, Science, Off Topic

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published: vendredi 2 février 2007 23:05:50

Get this from Orac (a.k.a. DH Gorski) at Respectful Insolence. Here’s a cutter/researcher who makes a living from cancer. A respectable number of research papers in chemotherapy and radiation bear his name and he’s a surgeon. He is, in other words, a fully vested member in the multi-billion dollar cancer treatment industry. If there’s a big breakthrough cure for cancer that consists of a $2 teaspoonful of a common chemical in a glass of water the good Doctor Gorski becomes like unto a horse drawn carriage maker when Ford started mass producing automobiles. He’ll be reduced to lancing boils for a living.

He’s wasting what seems an inordinate amount of time campaigning against DCA. He even dedicates a blog entry to ME of all people. Good lord, with all the reporting from big reliable sources you’d think he has bigger fish to fry:

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

DCA - The Patent Pending Treatment Protocol

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Categories : Intelligent Design

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published: samedi 3 février 2007 10:15:03

In case anyone was wondering, the international patent application for DCA as a cancer cure is available for anyone to read. DCA is an inexpensive, uncontrolled chemical hailed as a potential cure for cancer that anyone can buy. This is not an endorsement or encouragement for anyone to self-medicate. It is intended solely to get the attention of established clinicians with experience in orphan drug testing.

DCA is not technically an orphan drug by definition since it treats one of the most common afflictions known to mankind (although it IS an orphan drug in Europe for a different and rare disease). It meets the orphan definition in that there’s little or no profit incentive in it.

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

The Dawkins Delusion

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Categories : Just For Fun

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published: samedi 3 février 2007 11:27:11

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

Friday, February 02, 2007

Joe Campana on IDtheFuture

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Categories : Intelligent Design

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published: jeudi 1 février 2007 16:52:07

Joe Campana of ResearchID.org has been interviewed for ID the Future, and the interview is now online. His attempt at making a wiki-based website free of the socio-political rhetoric strikes a cord with me, and I encourage people to check out ResearchID.org and write about something you know about. I've written about a misconception about front-loaded evolution, but that doesn't amount to much. So if you think that you can do better, head over there and add your voice.

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

Exploring the Cell

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Categories : Biology

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published: vendredi 2 février 2007 3:06:46

And the story continues:

Life Secrets Revealed by a Molecular Green Lantern

Complex Proteins in a Complex Cell

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

An Important Message

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Categories : Brain

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published: vendredi 2 février 2007 3:27:39

Icdnuolt blveiee that I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid It deosn’t mttaer inwaht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? Yaeh and yuo awlyas thghout slpeling was ipmorantt.

posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

The Dawkins Delusion.

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Categories : Amusing

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published: vendredi 2 février 2007 0:00:00

no description

posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

Another Record Month for Uncommon Descent

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Categories : Intelligent Design

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published: jeudi 1 février 2007 17:19:21

SomeStatsFoYoAss

The sharp spike in hits and files (green and dark blue) are mostly due to the new layout. The key statistic is daily average number of visits. Total visits are shown in yellow but that varies by number of days in the month so the daily average is the better metric.

The daily average number of visits was 5828 for January 2007 compared to the previous record of 5311 for December 2006 representing a gain of 10% month over month.

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

The Existence of Richard Dawkins

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Categories : Just For Fun

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published: vendredi 2 février 2007 6:16:04

Dr. Terry Tommyrot questions the existence of Richard Dawkins in this brilliant spoof — whoever did Dawkins has him down. Here’s the audio as a wma file: The Dawkins Delusion.

Order It Today:: The Design Revolution

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

Thursday, February 01, 2007

TMI 29 years later: Lies and Damned Lies

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Categories : History, Shoddy Science, Engineering

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published: mercredi 31 janvier 2007 21:07:22

We here at TT often make light of the outlandish 'emo' [emotive] gloom and doom prophesies of the many erstwhile spokespersons of big-s Science in their attempts to sell failed or highly debatable theories to the public for ideological or political reasons. We focus primarily on the stalwart defenders of Neodarwinian Orthodoxy, but the tendency for groups of like-minded scientists to propagandize in favor of their pet theories and projects as if there were no alternatives - or simple facts - to get in the way, crosses all the disciplinary borders.

This blog is intended to highlight how this propagandizing - a.k.a. "spin" - works in other areas of science, engineering and government, on an issue I am familiar with. It's a bit of a departure from the usual biological focus, but the information herein may serve to promote a little skepticism of "authority" in the perennial science wars that Telic Thoughts so often challenges.

As the new century's propaganda push to re-invest in "clean, safe, too-cheap-to-meter" nuclear energy kicks into high gear, a new PR effort to address issues related to the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island has also taken flight. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology held a 2-day seminar on January 22-23 entitled Three Mile Island - failure of science or spin?

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

Amoeba supports front-loading

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Categories : Biology, Intelligent Design, Evolution, Front-loading

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published: mercredi 31 janvier 2007 23:38:17

amoebaA prediction of front-loading is genes required for multicellularity being discovered in unicellular organisms, and I have previously suggested looking at amoebae, one of the oldest eukaryotes. Over at Uncommon Descent, DaveScot mentions that the amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum has had its genome sequenced. And that is good news for front-loading fans.

Although primarily unicellular, Dictyostelium has a novel approach to hardships: When starved, individual amoebae come together to form a multicellular fruiting body composed of a stalk with spores poised on top. So although some genes required for multicellularity were expected, the researchers behind the sequencing were nonetheless surprised by just how many such genes there were:

A broad survey of proteins required for multicellular development shows that Dictyostelium has retained cell adhesion and signalling modules normally associated exclusively with animals, whereas the structural elements of the fruiting body and terminally differentiated cells clearly derive from the control of cellulose deposition and metabolism now associated with plants.

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

Motor Proteins in Action

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Categories : Biology

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published: jeudi 1 février 2007 12:48:42

no description

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

Can't They Make Up Their Minds?

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Categories : The Critics

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published: jeudi 1 février 2007 13:02:05

Evolutionary theory says nothing about the existence or the non-existence of god. - Hunter R. Rawlings III, Interim President of Cornell University.

If anyone stands up and says ‘I am an atheist because I am a Dawinian,’ which I do sort of do, they think their birthday has arrived. – Richard Dawkins, Professor for the Public Understanding of Science, Oxford University

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

The latest from my other blog Mindful Hack

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published: mercredi 31 janvier 2007 19:03:00

no description

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

Scientific Research Projects from an Intelligent Design Perspective

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Categories : /

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published: mercredi 31 janvier 2007 22:38:51

On this episode of ID The Future we present an interview with Joseph C. Campana, founder of ResearchID.org, a wiki-based website devoted to cataloguing scientific applications of intelligent design. CSC's Casey Luskin talks to Campana about what inspired the website, and how people can get involved to help constructively catalogue intelligent design scientific research.

play_button.gif Click here to listen.

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

O'Leary's recent ChristianWeek column : End of science? Or end of materialism? The challenge for Christians today

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published: mercredi 31 janvier 2007 17:20:00

... what about Dolly the sheep? New vaccines? The chess computer? New antibiotics? Alternative energy sources? Yes, all these discoveries are exciting, but, as Horgan notes, they depend on existing science. They do not forge new frontiers in our understanding of our world.

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

Irreducible Complexity in Mathematics, Physics and Biology

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Categories : Intelligent Design

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published: mercredi 31 janvier 2007 18:26:19

There is a new paper on Irreducible Complexity by renowned mathematician Gregory Chaitin: The Halting Probability Omega: Irreducible Complexity in Pure Mathematics Milan Journal of Mathematics, Vol. 75, 2007.

Ω is an extreme case of total lawlessness; in effect, it shows that God plays dice in pure mathematics.

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

Cheap, safe drug kills most cancers

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Categories : Biology, Science, Off Topic

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published: mercredi 31 janvier 2007 21:25:38

Cheap, safe drug kills most cancers

New Scientist has received an unprecedented amount of interest in this story from readers. If you would like up-to-date information on any plans for clinical trials of DCA in patients with cancer, or would like to donate towards a fund for such trials, please visit the site set up by the University of Alberta and the Alberta Cancer Board. We will also follow events closely and will report any progress as it happens.

It sounds almost too good to be true: a cheap and simple drug that kills almost all cancers by switching off their “immortality”. The drug, dichloroacetate (DCA), has already been used for years to treat rare metabolic disorders and so is known to be relatively safe.

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

The latest from O’Leary’s non-materialist neuroscience blog Mindful Hack

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Categories : Intelligent Design

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published: jeudi 1 février 2007 0:01:19

… what about Dolly the sheep? New vaccines? The chess computer? New antibiotics? Alternative energy sources? Yes, all these discoveries are exciting, but, as Horgan notes, they depend on existing science. They do not forge new frontiers in our understanding of our world.

Science journalist John Horgan created a minor stir a decade ago with his book, The End of Science, arguing that the major science discoveries are all behind us. Now that was hardly a popular thesis. The rest of my column on John Horgan and the “End of Science” is here.

Order It Today:: The Design Inference

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

The Bleak Future of Science

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Categories : Threatiness

Editor :

published: mardi 30 janvier 2007 2:59:32

Throughout the years, we have seen many people try to frighten others about the status of science here in the United States. They tend to ignore the good news and focus on the bad news and often do so in order to portray the ID movement as a sinister scapegoat. How often have you heard it said that because of ID, countries such as China and India will soon surpass the United States in science unless people take a stand?

Well, did anyone ever think to ask people in India or China how they feel about their own country’s future and its relationship with science?

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

HGT and evolution

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Categories : Intelligent Design, Evolution

Editor :

published: mardi 30 janvier 2007 3:28:41

From here:

It's a mystery why the speed and complexity of evolution appear to increase with time. For example, the fossil record indicates that single-celled life first appeared about 3.5 billion years ago, and it then took about 2.5 billion more years for multi-cellular life to evolve. That leaves just a billion years or so for the evolution of the diverse menagerie of plants, mammals, insects, birds and other species that populate the earth.

New studies by Rice University scientists suggest a possible answer; the speed of evolution has increased over time because bacteria and viruses constantly exchange transposable chunks of DNA between species, thus making it possible for life forms to evolve faster than they would if they relied only on sexual selection or random genetic mutations.

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments

Is Dogmatic Darwinism a Science Stopper?

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Categories : /

Editor :

published: lundi 29 janvier 2007 22:45:10

On this episode of ID The Future CSC's Robert Crowther examines whether intelligent design is an impediment to scientific progress, and says the answer is an emphatic no.

According to Crowther, Darwinists making this claim are mistaken. Such as a recent Sky & Telescope blog post that stated: Intelligent design basically tells us to stop investigating the natural world, because when we hit a brick wall in our knowledge, we can find the answers in god. … and … Intelligent design, on the other hand, stifles our perseverance because it says that answers to the great questions have already been handed to us on a silver platter. Listen in to find out why this just isn't so.

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posted by Antoine Vekris at 1:52 PM 0 comments