Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Our Fragile Intellect

Trends in Genetics references this paper - Our Fragile Intellect.(download) What is interesting about this is that we peaked 2000-6000 years ago and now are devolving.  Or.... we started out pristine with the preternatural gifts of bodily immortality and freedom from sickness and have lost it.


Abstract

New developments in genetics, anthropology, and neurobiology predict that a very large number of genes underlie our intellectual and emotional abilities, making these abilities genetically surprisingly fragile.

"I would wager that if an average citizen from Athens of
1000 BC were to appear suddenly among us, he or she
would be among the brightest and most intellectually alive
of our colleagues and companions, with a good memory, a
broad range of ideas, and a clear-sighted view of important
issues. Furthermore, I would guess that he or she would be
among the most emotionally stable of our friends and
colleagues. I would also make this wager for the ancient
inhabitants of Africa, Asia, India, or the Americas, of
perhaps 2000–6000 years ago. The basis for my wager
comes from new developments in genetics, anthropology,
and neurobiology that make a clear prediction that our
intellectual and emotional abilities are genetically surprisingly
fragile."

and

"Taken together, the large number of genes required for
intellectual and emotional function, and the unique susceptibility
of these genes to loss of heterozygosity, lead me
to conclude that we, as a species, are surprisingly intellectually
fragile and perhaps reached a peak 2000–6000 years
ago. But if we are losing our intellectual abilities, how did
we acquire them in the first place? This will be the topic of
the next section [15]. "

couple this with

Human Genome in Meltdown

A previous post here - Dr. John Sanford "Genetic Entropy and the Mystery of the Genome" Below is additional support for IDvolution. Some quotes from Dr John Sanford on genetic entropy. Very consistent with IDvolution and Scripture. To get the full effect take the time to view the videos. Listen carefully where he states it is "kind of a trade secret of population geneticists." The design of the genome is astonishing and shows intelligence, design and purpose. "We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is a thought of God."Pope Benedict XVI

and now we have this in Nature. Analysis of 6,515 exomes reveals the recent origin of most human protein-coding variants 86% arose in the last 5-10,000 years.
and

Front Loading? Genetic Entropy? Complexity to simplicity?

More support for design and IDvolution.


Front Loading? Genetic Entropy? Complexity to simplicity? Devolution. Adam and Eve with preternatural gifts to modern day humans? Every day now more evidence comes in supporting IDvolution and design present at the beginning.

Research suggests that evolution sometimes meant becoming simpler, not more complex



(Phys.org)—The view that animals have become more complex over time could be a thing of the past, according to the latest research.


The new evidence, from scientists at the University of St Andrews, suggests that some modern day animals may have evolved instead by becoming less complex.

The researchers say that the discovery, of ghostly remains of gene neighbourhoods that once existed in a 550 million year old ancestor, suggests that the earliest animal was more complex than previously thought.

The findings, published later today in the journal, Current Biology, appear to contradict the common perception of evolution – that creatures have advanced by becoming genetically more complex over time.


more...
__________________________________________________________________

What is interesting about this is that we peaked and now are devolving.  Or.... we started out pristine with the preternatural gifts of bodily immortality and freedom from sickness and have lost it.



Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Paul Davies on the Origin of Life as an Information Problem

"Based on simple mathematical models, we think it may have happened suddenly, analogously to a heated gas abruptly bursting into flame." 

IDvolution - God “breathed” the super language of DNA into the “kinds” in the creative act.

Paul Davies on the Origin of Life as an Information Problem

The Guardian features an interesting article by Paul Davies: “The secret of life won’t be cooked up in a chemistry lab: Life’s origins may only be explained through a study of its unique management of information.” Davies writes, 

"If we cast the problem of life's origin in computer jargon, attempts at chemical synthesis focus exclusively on the hardware – the chemical substrate of life – but ignore the software – the informational aspect. To explain how life began we need to understand how its unique management of information came about.

To take a simple example; whether a cell expresses a gene can depend on mechanical stresses or electric fields acting on the whole cell by its environment. Thus, a change in global information (a pattern of force) at the macroscopic level translates into a change in local information movement at the microscopic level (switching on a gene). More generally, a range of signals received from its environment help to dictate how a cell's DNA is distributed and transcribed. Walker and I propose that the key transition on the road to life occurred when top-down information flow first predominated. Based on simple mathematical models, we think it may have happened suddenly, analogously to a heated gas abruptly bursting into flame"

Friday, November 22, 2013

Past 5,000 years prolific for changes to human genome

Past 5,000 years prolific for changes to human genome

 

A study published today in Nature3 now helps to clarify when many of those rare variants arose. Researchers used deep sequencing to locate and date more than one million single-nucleotide variants — locations where a single letter of the DNA sequence is different from other individuals — in the genomes of 6,500 African and European Americans. The findings confirm their earlier work suggesting that the majority of variants, including potentially harmful ones, were picked up during the past 5,000–10,000 years. Researchers also saw the genetic stamp of the diverging migratory history of the two groups.

Where does the evidence lead?

Nice trailer for Intelligent Design showing just how high the odds are against chance starting life.


Where Does the Evidence Lead was created for classroom, group, and individual study. It is based upon the content of Unlocking the Mystery of Life and examines both Darwinian evolution and the scientific case for intelligent design. Six modules (eight to fourteen minutes in duration) each present a specific facet of the debate over the theories of materialistic evolution and design.
more...


Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Creation, Evolution and the Crisis of Faith: A Traditional Catholic Perspective

This is worth a listen.


On Monday, September 30, Mr. Hugh Owen, founder and director of the Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation, gave an insightful talk on Creation, Evolution and the Crisis of Faith: A Traditional Catholic Perspective. We caught it all on audio! Please click the link below to download the talk!
Creation, Evolution and the Crisis of Faith or View Below


Saturday, September 21, 2013

Book Review: Darwin’s Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design

Slowly but surely we are finding life is more complex than we ever thought. From the review: Darwinism and Materialism: They Sink or Swim Together He quotes the information theorist Henry Quastler who stated that “the creation of information is habitually associated with conscious activity.”

 "Will Stephen Meyer’s Darwin’s Doubt be “the most despised science book” of 2013?"

 "Recently the Discovery Institute’s Stephen Meyer published Darwin’s Doubt, a book that raises many questions about the theory of evolution. As his title tells us, Darwin himself shared one of these doubts. The book has sold well, reaching #7 on the New York Times bestseller list, #4 on the Los Angeles Times list, and #10 on Publishers Weekly." “Darwin said that speciation occurred too slowly for us to see it. Gould and Eldredge said it occurred too quickly for us to see it. Either way we don’t see it.”

"Organisms are intelligently designed, says Meyer, who has a PhD from Cambridge University in the philosophy of science. His book is an education, demanding attentive reading but no specialized knowledge. To a large extent it uses the facts and arguments of professional biologists, some bordering on open dissent from the orthodoxy."

 So we see more support for IDvolution - God “breathed” the super language of DNA into the “kinds” in the creative act.

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Human Genome in Meltdown

A previous post here - Dr. John Sanford "Genetic Entropy and the Mystery of the Genome" Below is additional support for IDvolution. Some quotes from Dr John Sanford on genetic entropy. Very consistent with IDvolution and Scripture. To get the full effect take the time to view the videos. Listen carefully where he states it is "kind of a trade secret of population geneticists." The design of the genome is astonishing and shows intelligence, design and purpose. "We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is a thought of God."Pope Benedict XVI

and now we have this in Nature. Analysis of 6,515 exomes reveals the recent origin of most human protein-coding variants 86% arose in the last 5-10,000 years.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Rocking the foundations of biology

Here it is again - top down - DNA is not the sole transmitter of inheritance - paper after paper is now showing the inheritance epigenetic information - information is the driver. >

Neo Darwinism crumbling......


A major revolution is occurring in evolutionary biology. In this video the President of the International Union of Physiological Sciences, Professor Denis Noble, explains what is happening and why it is set to change the nature of biology and of the importance of physiology to that change. The lecture was given to a general audience at a major international Congress held in Suzhou China. The implications of the change extend far beyond biology itself.

Physiology is rocking the foundations of evolutionary biology - article 



A new definition of species

I had predicted this a number of times before.  As we study genetics further we will find a better way to classify species.  Alas, here we have a new paper that



Recent experimental data from proteomics and genomics are interpreted here in ways that challenge the predominant viewpoint in biology according to which the four evolutionary processes, including mutation, recombination, natural selection and genetic drift, are sufficient to explain the origination of species. The predominant viewpoint appears incompatible with the finding that the sequenced genome of each species contains hundreds, or even thousands, of unique genes – the genes that are not shared with any other species. These unique genes and proteins, singletons, define the very character of every species. Moreover, the distribution of protein families from the sequenced genomes indicates that the complexity of genomes grows in a manner different from that of self-organizing networks: the dominance of singletons leads to the conclusion that in living organisms a most unlikely phenomenon can be the most common one. In order to provide proper rationale for these conclusions related to the singletons, the paper first treats the frequency of functional proteins among random sequences, followed by a discussion on the protein structure space, and it ends by questioning the idea that protein domains represent conserved units of evolution.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

The Magician's Twin - CS Lewis

A powerful must see video:

The Magician's Twin: C.S. Lewis and the Case against Scientism 

The Similarity Between Science and Magic

1. Science as religion
2. Science as credulity
3. Science as power

Evolution is an alternative religion


Saturday, January 5, 2013

Information - the Word, The Logos

This is a video worth watching.  The Q an A is also interesting.  The tide is turning....

More support for IDvolution - God “breathed” the super language of DNA into the “kinds” in the creative act.

"the displacement problem  - where every attempt to explain the origin of information absent an intelligent agent either fails or it surreptitiously smuggles in the effect of intelligent agency...."

... "a byproduct of this artificial restriction on reasoning that excludes the reality of something of which we all know, which is mind, agency has certain causal powers that nature itself by itself does not have and when we encounter effects that we know only agents can produce it is rational to infer the activity of agency not to exclude it on principle and say well we must be scientific"

'Intelligent Design: The Most Credible Idea?' A Lecture by Dr Stephen C Meyer



Friday, November 23, 2012

DNA news - now 80% is coding - down goes "junk DNA"

Design predicted this.  All along it has been thought function will be found for so called "junk DNA".  Now 80% is coding.


ENCODE: Encyclopedia Of DNA Elements

Designed changes vs random changes

This paper shows that some "mutations" are designed changes directed by cellular machinery.

Genomic "tuning knobs" with implicit range are strategies for organisms to change and adapt as needed.  We know about fine tuning in the universe, now we see it in life.

Remember the Genetic Piano post (here)?  Which keys are chosen to play?   What decides?


------------------------

and

How Bees Decide What to Be: Reversible 'Epigenetic' Marks Linked to Behavior Patterns

and

Harvard cracks DNA storage, crams 700 terabytes of data into a single gram -Must see.....

and

Is There Enough Time For Humans to have Evolved from Apes? Dr. Ann Gauger





Friday, September 28, 2012

Front Loading? Genetic Entropy? Complexity to simplicity?

More support for design and IDvolution.


Front Loading? Genetic Entropy? Complexity to simplicity? Devolution. Adam and Eve with preternatural gifts to modern day humans? Every day now more evidence comes in supporting IDvolution and design present at the beginning.

Research suggests that evolution sometimes meant becoming simpler, not more complex



(Phys.org)—The view that animals have become more complex over time could be a thing of the past, according to the latest research.


The new evidence, from scientists at the University of St Andrews, suggests that some modern day animals may have evolved instead by becoming less complex.

The researchers say that the discovery, of ghostly remains of gene neighbourhoods that once existed in a 550 million year old ancestor, suggests that the earliest animal was more complex than previously thought.

The findings, published later today in the journal, Current Biology, appear to contradict the common perception of evolution – that creatures have advanced by becoming genetically more complex over time.


more...

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Godel's Incompleteness Theorem - in a nutshell.


Godel's Incompleteness Theorem - in a nutshell.


“Anything you can draw a circle around cannot explain itself without referring to something outside the circle – something you have to assume but cannot prove.”


A good 10 minute video 

If video does not play see it here: Kurt Godel - Incompleteness Theorem and Human Intuition