Medicine
Are Humans Ever Born with “Perfectly Formed” Tails?
The Twisted Logic Behind Switzerland’s War on Humans
About that WHO Report on Antibiotic Resistance
Review: In Search of the Roots of Modern Medicine
Karl Giberson’s Scientism Refuses to Die, but It Should
How a Scientific Field Can Collapse: The Case of Psychiatry
Darwin-Doubting Doctor Joseph Kuhn Replies to Unsophisticated Criticisms in Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings
In Which I Answer Tantalus Prime’s Queries About Abortion
Tantalus Prime is a graduate student in neuroscience. He’s been following my debate about abortion with Joshua Rosenau of the NCSE. He asks some questions about my views on the right to life that are worth answering. Tantulus: Egnor asserts that humanity is a discrete, not a continuous variable. If so, then would he kindly point to the exact point at which the human begins? After all, fertilization itself is a multi-step process. So, where is it? When the sperm breaches the oocyte membrane? Formation of the pro-nuclei? Initial DNA replication? Degeneration of the pro-nuclei membrane? Formation of the mitotic spindle? Fusion of the chromosomes? Division of the chromosomes and formation of the first daughter cells? This really should be Read More ›
Evolutionary Logic About Functions of the Appendix: Using Darwin to Disprove Darwin Proves Darwin
Almost two years ago, I blogged about how conclusive evidence of function had been discovered for the appendix. Now function has been discovered for the appendix. Again. A recent news article on Yahoo.com actually frames the issue fairly well: The body’s appendix has long been thought of as nothing more than a worthless evolutionary artifact, good for nothing save a potentially lethal case of inflammation. Now researchers suggest the appendix is a lot more than a useless remnant. … In a way, the idea that the appendix is an organ whose time has passed has itself become a concept whose time is over. “Maybe it’s time to correct the textbooks,” said researcher William Parker, an immunologist at Duke University Medical Read More ›