1+ hour, 6+ min ago  (281+ words) Sometimes, one sees a research problem in a new light. Not a happy or pleasant light, however " a disquieting light, as if one had suddenly awakened to find the bedroom wall had collapsed during the night, and rain was coming…...

3+ day, 20+ hour ago  (493+ words) Scientists have discovered a whole suite of parameters and initial conditions appear to be exquisitely tuned to allow for complex life to exist. Source By now, you may be familiar with the fine-tuning argument for intelligent design. Scientists have discovered…...

3+ week, 9+ hour ago  (201+ words) There is the added problem of the potential for codon mapping ambiguity. If, say, 80 percent of the time a particular codon specifies one amino acid and 20 percent of the time it specifies another, this mapping ambiguity would lead to cellular…...

3+ week, 1+ day ago  (235+ words) In two previous articles (here and here), we considered two ways in which the genetic code is highly optimized for the minimization of errors from point mutations and frameshifts. In this third post, I will consider two additional levels of…...

1+ mon, 1+ week ago  (183+ words) Indeed. Information and orderly processes don't happen by accident any more than a factory production line organizes itself out of unassembled constituent parts. Nonetheless, Darwin-faithful biologists observe the same information and protein-synthesis systems but stop short of making the same…...

1+ mon, 1+ week ago  (633+ words) Human embryonic development requires regulated activation of the zygote's genome through chemical and mechanical inputs, establishing the signaling patterns that guide cells into forming all of the fully functional organ systems. It is these same types of mechanisms that are…...

1+ mon, 3+ week ago  (628+ words) Maxwell's best-known design argument from the period is his statement that molecules have the character of "a manufactured article." He said this in September 1873 in his "Discourse on Molecules" to the British Association. No theory of evolution can be formed…...

1+ mon, 4+ week ago  (352+ words) This protocol ensures "exquisite specificity," the article says. "The degradation machinery activates only when both signals are present." Lead researcher David Bartel was impressed. "The vast majority of Argonaute molecules in the cell are doing useful work regulating gene expression,…...

2+ mon, 1+ day ago  (112+ words) Find the full series so far here. In my last post, I established the Bayesian framework for the fine-tuning argument and identified three serious problems with the dominant subjectivist interpretation of probability: permissive priors, the old evidence problem, and the…...

2+ mon, 1+ week ago  (1080+ words) Find the full series so far here." In my last post, we considered the shortcomings of the counterevidence that Carroll adduces to undermine the fine-tuning argument for theism. The purpose of the next few installments is to clarify the Bayesian…...