science

New branches on the tree of life

by

Now this is simply fascinating to me, and hopefully to you as well. Venter, Eisen and colleagues report in the journal Public Library of Science One that they have analysed marine DNA and discovered genes that look quite different from any seen before. To clarify, the tree of life, as we know it was basically … Read more

Venter vs Joyce

by

Apparently US geneticist Craig Venter is being slapped down (legally) by the estate of James Joyce!!! To clarify, thats the very dead James Joyce, the Irish Writer. So what the heck did Venter do to offend the dead? Easy, he created new life, and then stamped the DNA with a quote from Joyce’s semi-autobiographical 1916 … Read more

Living Longer … what really works?

by

If you wish to live to a ripe old age, in fact if you want to age well, then what do you actually need to do, what makes a real difference? here is a popular list:

• Don’t sweat the small stuff.
• Wear sun block daily.
• Drink plenty of green tea and water.
• Reduce stress.
• Be cheerful and optimistic about life.
• Get a pet.
• Marry.

Does that all sound familiar? Of course it does, because if asked, then it is a list that most of us might have come up with simply because we all face a constant stream of information from a wide variety of sources insisting that this is what you need to do. Tragically these are all myths, there is no long-term data to backup many of these claims. In fact, it now turns out that much of this is simply wrong and will guarantee that you live a shorter life, not a longer one.

Read more

Why teach evolution? – NCSE – YouTube – NatCen4ScienceEd

by

With a hat tip to the Richard Dawkins net for this one …. if you are in any way involved in teaching science, then these folks can help you. At the recent NSTA conference, Steve Newton talked about the central role evolution must play in science education, why biology teachers are hesitant to teach evolution, … Read more

TED – Reach out now and “Be Inspired”

by

The TED (Technology Entertainment and Design) conference is all about disseminating “ideas worth spreading.” and so every year since about 1990, the once-only 1984 conference has been happening every year. Ah, so its just another techi conference? Nope not at all, this is something truly special. The ticket price is $6,000 and even to attend … Read more

Response to comments on Science and Creationism

by

I’ve received an interesting comment within a posting here about “Irreducible complexity explained“. It deserves a bit of thought and a carefully considered response, so I thought I’d post my reply here, its too long to be just a comment reply, and may be of interest to others.

The commenter basically raises four points, so I propose to consider each in turn.

1) We have to take a lot on trust from academia. The assertion that peer review indicated acceptability and not necessarily accuracy muddies things.

Peer-reviewers simply consider if a submitted papers claim is supported by the data in it, ensure its appropriate for the journal, and that the study has used proper controls to account for other possible explanations. Its only one small part of the overall process.

Read more