You might recall from high school biology a scientist by the name of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. He proposed a mechanism of evolution in which organisms pass on traits acquired during their lifetimes to their offspring. The textbook example is a proposed mechanism of giraffe evolution: If a giraffe stretches its neck to reach higher leaves on … Continue reading RealClearScience – End the Hype over Epigenetics & Lamarckian Evolution
Category: Zeitgeist
Microbes May Have Fueled Permian Extinction, Earth’s Biggest
A microbial feeding frenzy may have fueled the biggest mass extinction in Earth's history, new research suggests. The findings suggest that bacteria, with a little help from massive volcanism, produced large quantities of methane, thereby killing 90 percent of life on the planet. more at Microbes May Have Fueled Permian Extinction, Earth's Biggest. I've often wondered … Continue reading Microbes May Have Fueled Permian Extinction, Earth’s Biggest
Sheeps in space
The age of the Earth
To any still in doubt, Noah is not history
Kyle Hill at But Not Simpler on the Discover Magazine site, has a post up debunking the Noah story. I almost didn't read it, because debunking Noah feels a bit like debunking the Easter Bunny, but then I looked at the comments there, and remembered that somewhere between 33 and 46 percent of Americans believe … Continue reading To any still in doubt, Noah is not history
How Jesus Became God | Bart D. Ehrman
Bart Ehrman has a new book out, looking at the historical development of Jesus becoming God. Although I'm not religious, I still find the history of religion interesting, and of the Judeo/Christian tradition in particular fascinating. I have his book on my reading list. Jesus was a lower-class preacher from Galilee, who, in good apocalyptic … Continue reading How Jesus Became God | Bart D. Ehrman
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
SPOILERS WARNING. When I first heard that Jackson was adapting the Hobbit into three movies, I have to admit I was filled with dread. How was he going to take a 300 page book and turn it into six to nine hours of film? When I watched the first movie, I was pleasantly surprised. The … Continue reading The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Science and naturalism
Sean Carroll has an interesting piece at The Stone on the New York Times site, pointing out that the theory of cosmic inflation was motivated by naturalism. In other words, it was motivated by the desire to find a natural explanation for something that didn't look natural, such as the apparent fine tuning necessary for the … Continue reading Science and naturalism
SMBC: You can’t prove it isn’t true
via Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. I expect to see this on Ancient Aliens soon since it meets their criteria.
Pinpointing the brain’s arbitrator: Reliability weighed before brain centers given control
amanimal called my attention to this fascinating article, which has a bearing on yesterday's and many other posts I've made about brain processing. We tend to be creatures of habit. In fact, the human brain has a learning system that is devoted to guiding us through routine, or habitual, behaviors. At the same time, the … Continue reading Pinpointing the brain’s arbitrator: Reliability weighed before brain centers given control
SelfAwarePatterns 