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LUCA

helix-stockpack-adobe-stock-328736753-stockpack-adobestock
Helix
Image Credit: BillionPhotos.com - Adobe Stock

Origin-of-Life Researcher at Georgia Tech Picks Up the Design Signal in Biopolymers

You will hear one word, over and over in this remarkable talk, that has stolen the place, or taken the credit, for what is undeniable evidence of design. Read More ›
HomemadeProteinStructuralModel
Image credit: Bennettscience, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

False Science: A Claim to Simulate Protein Evolution

The researchers designed a simulation tool, and then falsely claimed that it represents the evolutionary process. Read More ›
Ecoli_dividing
Photo credit: CDC/ Evangeline Sowers, Janice Haney Carr€, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

New Study Triggers Key Origin of Life Questions

The leap from non-life to life represents a huge jump in complexity and information, one that cannot be explained by reference to a stepwise, gradual process. Read More ›
Ecoli_dividing
Photo credit: CDC/ Evangeline Sowers, Janice Haney Carr€, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

“That Is a Lot of Evolution”: Study Finds LUCA Required 2,600 Genes

One scientist commented, “LUCA was a very complex cell, with a genome similar to modern bacteria." Read More ›
Stromatolithe - MNHT
Photo: Stromatolithe fossil, dated to about 3.4 Ga, by Muséum de Toulouse, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

Study Finds Life’s Origin “Required a Surprisingly Short Interval of Geologic Time”

It’s certainly not impossible that life was already present on Earth at 4.2 Ga. And if it were true it would have intriguing implications. Read More ›
Electron_Microscopic_Image_of_Pyrolobus_fumarii
Photo: Pyrolobus fumarii, a species of archaea, by Manfred Rohde, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.

“Irreducible Complexity” May Be Part of the Definition of Life

There are many bad counter-arguments to Michael Behe’s famous irreducible complexity conundrum, and (in my opinion) one pretty good one.  Read More ›
James Tour
Photo: James Tour, via YouTube (screenshot).

James Tour Offers Three-Year Challenge to Lee Cronin to Demonstrate Legitimacy of Assembly Theory

After Tour publicly quoted Cronin’s assessment of the field, Cronin responded by claiming he was speaking “tongue-in-cheek.” Read More ›
axe tree

Biologists Take a Hatchet to Tree of Life, Biology Keeps Going Anyway

Early in his presentation, McInerney says that he hopes to persuade his audience that this familiar LUCA-based hypothesis “has been falsified.” Read More ›
tree
Photo credit: Gilly Stewart, via Unsplash.

More Turbulence at the Base of the Tree of Life

For a theory whose empirical strength is so great that it cannot be doubted, universal common descent certainly is doubted a lot. Read More ›
forest for the trees
Nathan Lents
Photo credit: Matt B., via Flickr (cropped).

Troubles with the Tree of Life

Sixty years ago, philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn listed what he described as the “symptoms” of a research field undergoing destabilizing change. Read More ›

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