Science and Culture Today Discovering Design in Nature
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Life Sciences

Animal Algorithms
Image source: Discovery Institute Press.

An Engineering Marvel, Animals Find Their Way by Reading Earth’s Magnetic Field

Intelligent design predicts that organisms will be equipped with complex systems that can take advantage of environmental cues and respond with precision. Read More ›
Armillaria_ostoyae_MO
Photo credit: Alan Rockefeller, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

Not Just Plants — Even Fungi Like Mushrooms — Talk to Each Other?

They are NOT judging us but they do have complex communications systems interacting with their environment. Read More ›
woolly monkey
Photo: A woolly monkey, by Evgenia Kononova, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Ecuador’s Highest Court Grants Rights to Wild Animals

Nature rights apply to individual animals. And, one would assume, to be consistent, to individual plants, insects, water, and (what the hell) germs too. Read More ›
hydrothermal vents
Photo: Hydrothermal vents, by NOAA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Existential Implications of the Miller-Urey Experiment

Words, even meaningless words, have the power to create their own virtual realities in our minds. Read More ›
Cassini mission to Saturn
Image: Cassini Saturn orbiter via JPL/NASA.

Microbe Performs Rocket Science, Vital for Life on Earth

This little machine, which also knows how to recycle and reuse all its parts in a sustainable “green” way, keeps the nitrogen in balance for the whole planet. Read More ›
Young Frankenstein
Image: Pencil sketch of Peter Boyle as Dr. Frankenstein's monster in Young Frankenstein.

Frankenstein and His Offspring

"Abiogenesis" seems to draw its strength from pseudo-scientific folk-beliefs that life could somehow be made to emerge from non-life. Read More ›
DNA
Photo source: Science Museum, London / Science and Society Picture Library, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

Imagining “Abiogenesis”: Crick, Watson, and Franklin

There are some biologists, such as Richard Dawkins, who still pin their faith in ideas which have resulted only in blankly negative experimental results. Read More ›
William Harvey
Image: Sir William Harvey, via Wikimedia Commons.

Considering “Abiogenesis,” an Imaginary Term in Science

In the 17th century, medical pioneer Sir William Harvey and Italian scientist Francesco Redi both proved the untenability of spontaneous generation. Read More ›
Australopithecus afarensis
human origins
Photo: An artist imagines Australopithecus afarensis, Hall of Human Origins, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History; reconstruction by John Gurche; photographed by Tim Evanson / CC BY-SA.

Ann Gauger Puts Ape-to-Man Evolution Under the Microscope

Among the tenets of theistic evolution is the idea that humans evolved from a large population of ape-like creatures. Read More ›
Smi32neuron
Photo credit: UC Regents Davis campus, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

Brain Neurons Are “Comparable to a Library”

It’s one of those occasions in biology (not rare) when the term “intelligent design,” despite other merits, falls flat as a description. Read More ›

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