Saturday, 2 April 2016
Another failed Darwinian prediction XV
Complex structures evolved from simpler structures
“To suppose that the eye,” wrote Darwin, “could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree.” But Darwin argued that we must not be misled by our intuitions. Given natural selection operating on inheritable variations, some of which are useful, then, if a sequence of numerous small changes from a simple and imperfect eye to one complex and perfect can be shown to exist, and if the eye is somehow useful at each step, then the difficulty is resolved. (Darwin, 143) The key was to identify “a long series of gradations in complexity, each good for its possessor” which could lead to “any conceivable degree of perfection.” (Darwin, 165)
But ever since Darwin the list of complex structures in biology, for which no “series of gradations in complexity” can be found, has continued to grow longer. Both the fossil record and genomic data reveal high complexity in lineages where evolution expected simplicity. As one evolutionist explained:
It is commonly believed that complex organisms arose from simple ones. Yet analyses of genomes and of their transcribed genes in various organisms reveal that, as far as protein-coding genes are concerned, the repertoire of a sea anemone—a rather simple, evolutionarily basal animal—is almost as complex as that of a human. (Technau)
Early complexity is also evident in the cell’s biochemistry. For instance, kinases are a type of enzyme that regulate various cellular functions by transferring a phosphate group to a target molecule. Kinases are widespread across eukaryote species and so they must persist far down the evolutionary tree. And the similarity across species of the kinase functions, and their substrate molecules, means that these kinase substrates must have remained largely unchanged for billions of years. The complex regulatory actions of the kinase enzymes must have been present early in the history of life. (Diks)
This is by no means an isolated example. Histones are a class of eukaryote proteins that help organize and pack DNA and the gene that codes for histone IV is highly conserved across species. So again, the first histone IV must have been very similar to the versions we see today. An example of early complexity in eyes is found in the long-extinct trilobite. It had eyes that were perhaps the most complex ever produced by nature. One expert called them “an all-time feat of function optimization.” (Levi-Setti, 29) Reviewing the fossil and molecular data, one evolutionist explained that there is no sequential appearance of the major animal groups “from simpler to more complex phyla, as would be predicted by the classical evolutionary model.” (Sherman) And as one team of evolutionists concluded, “comparative genomics has confirmed a lesson from paleontology: Evolution does not proceed monotonically from the simpler to the more complex.” (Kurland)
References
Darwin, Charles. 1872. The Origin of Species. 6th ed. London: John Murray.
http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F391&viewtype=text&pageseq=1
Diks, S., K. Parikh, M. van der Sijde, J. Joore, T. Ritsema, et. al. 2007. “Evidence for a minimal eukaryotic phosphoproteome?.” PLoS ONE 2.
Kurland, C., L. Collins, D. Penny. 2006. “Genomics and the irreducible nature of eukaryote cells.” Science 312:1011-1014.
Levi-Setti, Riccardo. 1993. Trilobites. 2d ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Sherman, M. 2007. “Universal genome in the origin of metazoa: Thoughts about evolution.” Cell Cycle 6:1873-1877.
Technau, U. 2008. “Evolutionary biology: Small regulatory RNAs pitch in.” Nature 455:1184-1185.
“To suppose that the eye,” wrote Darwin, “could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree.” But Darwin argued that we must not be misled by our intuitions. Given natural selection operating on inheritable variations, some of which are useful, then, if a sequence of numerous small changes from a simple and imperfect eye to one complex and perfect can be shown to exist, and if the eye is somehow useful at each step, then the difficulty is resolved. (Darwin, 143) The key was to identify “a long series of gradations in complexity, each good for its possessor” which could lead to “any conceivable degree of perfection.” (Darwin, 165)
But ever since Darwin the list of complex structures in biology, for which no “series of gradations in complexity” can be found, has continued to grow longer. Both the fossil record and genomic data reveal high complexity in lineages where evolution expected simplicity. As one evolutionist explained:
It is commonly believed that complex organisms arose from simple ones. Yet analyses of genomes and of their transcribed genes in various organisms reveal that, as far as protein-coding genes are concerned, the repertoire of a sea anemone—a rather simple, evolutionarily basal animal—is almost as complex as that of a human. (Technau)
Early complexity is also evident in the cell’s biochemistry. For instance, kinases are a type of enzyme that regulate various cellular functions by transferring a phosphate group to a target molecule. Kinases are widespread across eukaryote species and so they must persist far down the evolutionary tree. And the similarity across species of the kinase functions, and their substrate molecules, means that these kinase substrates must have remained largely unchanged for billions of years. The complex regulatory actions of the kinase enzymes must have been present early in the history of life. (Diks)
This is by no means an isolated example. Histones are a class of eukaryote proteins that help organize and pack DNA and the gene that codes for histone IV is highly conserved across species. So again, the first histone IV must have been very similar to the versions we see today. An example of early complexity in eyes is found in the long-extinct trilobite. It had eyes that were perhaps the most complex ever produced by nature. One expert called them “an all-time feat of function optimization.” (Levi-Setti, 29) Reviewing the fossil and molecular data, one evolutionist explained that there is no sequential appearance of the major animal groups “from simpler to more complex phyla, as would be predicted by the classical evolutionary model.” (Sherman) And as one team of evolutionists concluded, “comparative genomics has confirmed a lesson from paleontology: Evolution does not proceed monotonically from the simpler to the more complex.” (Kurland)
References
Darwin, Charles. 1872. The Origin of Species. 6th ed. London: John Murray.
http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F391&viewtype=text&pageseq=1
Diks, S., K. Parikh, M. van der Sijde, J. Joore, T. Ritsema, et. al. 2007. “Evidence for a minimal eukaryotic phosphoproteome?.” PLoS ONE 2.
Kurland, C., L. Collins, D. Penny. 2006. “Genomics and the irreducible nature of eukaryote cells.” Science 312:1011-1014.
Levi-Setti, Riccardo. 1993. Trilobites. 2d ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Sherman, M. 2007. “Universal genome in the origin of metazoa: Thoughts about evolution.” Cell Cycle 6:1873-1877.
Technau, U. 2008. “Evolutionary biology: Small regulatory RNAs pitch in.” Nature 455:1184-1185.
Lamarck's revenge IV
A Tunable Mechanism Determines the Duration of the Transgenerational Adaptations
Tuning the Duration of Directed Adaptations
Organisms adapt to environmental challenges. In fact, many different organisms adapt in non-homologous ways to many different, unforeseen, environments. This contradicts evolution. For we are not talking about random changes occurring by chance, occasionally getting luck enough to confer an adaptation, and then propagating throughout the population. We’re not talking about an evolutionary process of random mutations and natural selection. That would take a long time. What we’re talking about are adaptations that specifically address environmental challenges, and occur in a good fraction of the population, over a few generations, or perhaps within a generation. Such directed adaptation occurs quickly.
That contradicts evolution because random mutations are not going to create such a complicated adaptation capability. Furthermore, they are not going to do this over and over, in so many different species, for so many different environments. And even if, by some miracle, this did occur, it would not be selected. That is because the adaptation capability is not for the current environment the organism faces, but for an unforeseen, hypothetical, future environment. The moment it arises, the adaptation capability is of no use, and would not be selected for.
But that’s not all.
As with Lamarck’s inheritance of acquired characteristics, these rapid, directed, adaptations are transgenerational. From parent to offspring, the progeny inherit the adaptation from the progenitor.
So now we must not only believe that evolution’s random mutations constructed these unbelievably detailed, complicated, unique adaptation capabilities, but that evolution also constructed the incredibly complicated means to transmit the adaptations to the next generation. As we saw recently, new research has demonstrated such transgenerational inheritance to be genetic, rather than via the parent’s behavior, breast milk, etc.
So again, random mutations must have created yet another complex design (the ability to pass along adaptations for an unforeseen environmental challenge), and it would have been worthless until that particular environmental challenge arose.
But that’s not all.
New research out of Tel Aviv University explains how these acquired adaptations persist through the later generations. Previously, these inherited adaptations were assumed simply to decay or “peter out” over a few generations. But the new research has uncovered proteins that manage and govern the duration of the adaptations. The adaptations are transmitted by small RNA molecules, and the proteins provide a tunable mechanism to govern the duration of the adaptation, over the generations. As the title of the paper explains:
A Tunable Mechanism Determines the Duration of the Transgenerational Small RNA Inheritance
Again, random mutations are not capable of producing such designs, and the designs would not be selected for. None of this makes any sense on evolution.
So now we must not only believe that evolution’s random mutations constructed these adaptation capabilities, and the means to transmit them to later generations, but also to control precisely their duration.
The science contradicts evolution.
Posted by Cornelius Hunter at Monday, March 28, 2016
Tuning the Duration of Directed Adaptations
Organisms adapt to environmental challenges. In fact, many different organisms adapt in non-homologous ways to many different, unforeseen, environments. This contradicts evolution. For we are not talking about random changes occurring by chance, occasionally getting luck enough to confer an adaptation, and then propagating throughout the population. We’re not talking about an evolutionary process of random mutations and natural selection. That would take a long time. What we’re talking about are adaptations that specifically address environmental challenges, and occur in a good fraction of the population, over a few generations, or perhaps within a generation. Such directed adaptation occurs quickly.
That contradicts evolution because random mutations are not going to create such a complicated adaptation capability. Furthermore, they are not going to do this over and over, in so many different species, for so many different environments. And even if, by some miracle, this did occur, it would not be selected. That is because the adaptation capability is not for the current environment the organism faces, but for an unforeseen, hypothetical, future environment. The moment it arises, the adaptation capability is of no use, and would not be selected for.
But that’s not all.
As with Lamarck’s inheritance of acquired characteristics, these rapid, directed, adaptations are transgenerational. From parent to offspring, the progeny inherit the adaptation from the progenitor.
So now we must not only believe that evolution’s random mutations constructed these unbelievably detailed, complicated, unique adaptation capabilities, but that evolution also constructed the incredibly complicated means to transmit the adaptations to the next generation. As we saw recently, new research has demonstrated such transgenerational inheritance to be genetic, rather than via the parent’s behavior, breast milk, etc.
So again, random mutations must have created yet another complex design (the ability to pass along adaptations for an unforeseen environmental challenge), and it would have been worthless until that particular environmental challenge arose.
But that’s not all.
New research out of Tel Aviv University explains how these acquired adaptations persist through the later generations. Previously, these inherited adaptations were assumed simply to decay or “peter out” over a few generations. But the new research has uncovered proteins that manage and govern the duration of the adaptations. The adaptations are transmitted by small RNA molecules, and the proteins provide a tunable mechanism to govern the duration of the adaptation, over the generations. As the title of the paper explains:
A Tunable Mechanism Determines the Duration of the Transgenerational Small RNA Inheritance
Again, random mutations are not capable of producing such designs, and the designs would not be selected for. None of this makes any sense on evolution.
So now we must not only believe that evolution’s random mutations constructed these adaptation capabilities, and the means to transmit them to later generations, but also to control precisely their duration.
The science contradicts evolution.
Posted by Cornelius Hunter at Monday, March 28, 2016
Human engineers continue to plagiarise the original technologist.
Biomimetics -- Where the Action Is
Evolution News & Views April 2, 2016 3:50 AM
Since our last report on biomimetics (the imitation of nature's designs), several exciting new projects have come to light. Let's survey some of the research going on around the world that is inspired by biology.
Cactus cooler. How can you clean a fish farm? Use cactus, says the American Chemical Society. An old trick known by rural Mexicans uses prickly pear cactus to clean dirty water, but how does it work? ACS scientists found that mucilage, the gummy substance in some cactus tissues, attracts impurities like arsenic and bacteria (see the video clip in the article). Made up of some 60 sugars, mucilage seems like a useful cleanser for aquariums and fish farms. The scientists want to synthesize the compound to make a "recirculating aquaculture system that uses cactus extract as a cleansing agent."
Fish cornea. Meet the "elephantnose fish." Its unique ability to find predators and prey in murky water is inspiring technology that could touch the apple of your eye some day: high-tech contact lenses. The elephantnose fish has a specialized retina that captures and amplifies light. News from the National Institutes of Health tells how researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are learning and imitating this fish's secrets:
The team took their inspiration from the elephant nose fish's retina, which has a series of deep cup-like structures with reflective sidewalls. That design helps gather light and intensify the particular wavelengths needed for the fish to see. Borrowing from nature, the researchers created a device that contains thousands of very small light collectors. These light collectors are finger-like glass protrusions, the inside of which are deep cups coated with reflective aluminum. The incoming light hits the fingers and then is focused by the reflective sidewalls. Jiang and his team tested this device's ability to enhance images captured by a mechanical eye model designed in a lab. [Emphasis added.]
The article describes how their bio-inspired contact lens (5-10 years away) will contain solar cells, sensors and electronics to enhance and focus light. The team is also finding inspiration in the compound eyes of insects, envisioning numerous applications in the line of sight. See the open-access paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), where the authors say, "Our work opens up a previously unidentified direction toward achieving high photosensitivity in imaging systems" -- inspired by fish and insects.
Dragonfly cornea. Speaking of insects, "Someday, cicadas and dragonflies might save your sight," another news item from the American Chemical Society says, but not because of their compound eyes. These insects protect their delicate wings with "a forest of tiny pointed pillars that impale and kill bacterial cells unlucky enough to land on them." Could this secret render artificial corneas and lens implants antibacterial without coatings? By imitating these pillars with Plexiglas or Lucite, researchers at UC Irvine found they work to kill both gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria, depending on the size of the nanostructures they fabricate. "The group has filed for patents on the bactericidal surface and artificial cornea application and hopes to begin animal trials this year." Biomimetics can make money!
Mussel glue. How mussels and barnacles cling so well underwater has long puzzled scientists, but they sure would like to copy that ability. "The need for bio-inspired wet adhesives has significantly increased in the past few decades (e.g., for dental and medical transplants, coronary artery coatings, cell encapsulants, etc.)," begins another paper in PNAS. Somehow, mussels do it with protein. To copy the animal's wizardry, therefore, scientists need to identify and understand the molecular interactions of the "mussel foot proteins" involved. Scientists from UC Santa Barbara and Lehigh (Behe's turf) are making progress. They found out that mussels learned how to manage "a delicate balance between van der Waals, hydrophobic, and electrostatic forces." You have to know physics as well as biology to succeed here.
Shape shifter. You've heard of 3D printing. How about 4D printing? In "Biomimetic 4D Printing," Nature tells about efforts to imitate "nastic plant motions, where a variety of organs such as tendrils, bracts, leaves and flowers respond to environmental stimuli (such as humidity, light or touch) by varying internal turgor, which leads to dynamic conformations governed by the tissue composition and microstructural anisotropy of cell walls." We don't usually think of plant motions, but if seen in time lapse, their motions are real and targeted. If we could 3D-print things that shift their shapes in response to environmental triggers, think of the possibilities: "smart textiles, autonomous robotics, biomedical devices, drug delivery and tissue engineering." Here's what the wizards at Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have come up with so far:
Inspired by these botanical systems, we printed composite hydrogel architectures that are encoded with localized, anisotropic swelling behaviour controlled by the alignment of cellulose fibrils along prescribed four-dimensional printing pathways. When combined with a minimal theoretical framework that allows us to solve the inverse problem of designing the alignment patterns for prescribed target shapes, we can programmably fabricate plant-inspired architectures that change shape on immersion in water, yielding complex three-dimensional morphologies.
Bone buildings. Bones and eggshells have the advantage of strength in spite of light weight, Michelle Oyen writes in The Conversation (see her in a video clip in the article). Why don't we build things like that? Steel and concrete are heavy, and to a world worried about climate change, they are dirty. Why not use clean, lightweight building materials inspired by nature? Caution: basic research needed:
In order to make biomimetic materials, we need to have a deep understanding of how natural materials work. We know that natural materials are also "composites": they are made of multiple different base materials, each with different properties. Composite materials are often lighter than single component materials, such as metals, while still having desirable properties such as stiffness, strength and toughness.
It's the biological component, like protein, that's the secret. Eggshells are 95 percent mineral and just 5 percent hydrated protein but that makes all the difference. Oyen says we can learn nature's tricks one of two ways: by mimicking the composition of the material itself, or by copying the process by which the material is made. Her lab is working on "neo-bone" at the centimeter scale, but there's no reason it could not be scaled up to industrial size, she says; it just takes a "major rethink" in how we build things. "The science is still in its infancy, but that doesn't mean we can't dream big about the future."
Frog therapy. Advances in biomimetics come from observation followed by inspiration. Who would have thought that the foam that tiny frogs use to surround and protect their eggs could someday deliver healing drugs to burn patients? At Strathclyde University, the BBC reports, engineers "are taking inspiration from the tiny Tungara frog from Trinidad" to do just that. The frogs use at least six proteins to retain the shape and strength of their egg nest. The scientists have made a synthetic version of frog foam that "could trap and deliver medication while providing a protective barrier between the wound dressing and the damaged skin." So far, they're only halfway there. "While foams like these are a long way from hitting the clinic, they could eventually help patients with infected wounds and burns, by providing support and protection for healing tissue and delivering drugs at the same time," they hope.
Are you getting inspired by biological design? Consider that biomimetics is proving to be a shot in the arm for both basic research and for applied science. Scientists have to understand what they observe, being curious about why a biological solution works (e.g., how does a mussel grip a rock underwater?). Then, with a little imagination, they can envision ways the natural process can be applied. From there, inventors and engineers can get busy trying to imitate the solution. Everyone can profit from the results.
Evolution News & Views April 2, 2016 3:50 AM
Since our last report on biomimetics (the imitation of nature's designs), several exciting new projects have come to light. Let's survey some of the research going on around the world that is inspired by biology.
Cactus cooler. How can you clean a fish farm? Use cactus, says the American Chemical Society. An old trick known by rural Mexicans uses prickly pear cactus to clean dirty water, but how does it work? ACS scientists found that mucilage, the gummy substance in some cactus tissues, attracts impurities like arsenic and bacteria (see the video clip in the article). Made up of some 60 sugars, mucilage seems like a useful cleanser for aquariums and fish farms. The scientists want to synthesize the compound to make a "recirculating aquaculture system that uses cactus extract as a cleansing agent."
Fish cornea. Meet the "elephantnose fish." Its unique ability to find predators and prey in murky water is inspiring technology that could touch the apple of your eye some day: high-tech contact lenses. The elephantnose fish has a specialized retina that captures and amplifies light. News from the National Institutes of Health tells how researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are learning and imitating this fish's secrets:
The team took their inspiration from the elephant nose fish's retina, which has a series of deep cup-like structures with reflective sidewalls. That design helps gather light and intensify the particular wavelengths needed for the fish to see. Borrowing from nature, the researchers created a device that contains thousands of very small light collectors. These light collectors are finger-like glass protrusions, the inside of which are deep cups coated with reflective aluminum. The incoming light hits the fingers and then is focused by the reflective sidewalls. Jiang and his team tested this device's ability to enhance images captured by a mechanical eye model designed in a lab. [Emphasis added.]
The article describes how their bio-inspired contact lens (5-10 years away) will contain solar cells, sensors and electronics to enhance and focus light. The team is also finding inspiration in the compound eyes of insects, envisioning numerous applications in the line of sight. See the open-access paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), where the authors say, "Our work opens up a previously unidentified direction toward achieving high photosensitivity in imaging systems" -- inspired by fish and insects.
Dragonfly cornea. Speaking of insects, "Someday, cicadas and dragonflies might save your sight," another news item from the American Chemical Society says, but not because of their compound eyes. These insects protect their delicate wings with "a forest of tiny pointed pillars that impale and kill bacterial cells unlucky enough to land on them." Could this secret render artificial corneas and lens implants antibacterial without coatings? By imitating these pillars with Plexiglas or Lucite, researchers at UC Irvine found they work to kill both gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria, depending on the size of the nanostructures they fabricate. "The group has filed for patents on the bactericidal surface and artificial cornea application and hopes to begin animal trials this year." Biomimetics can make money!
Mussel glue. How mussels and barnacles cling so well underwater has long puzzled scientists, but they sure would like to copy that ability. "The need for bio-inspired wet adhesives has significantly increased in the past few decades (e.g., for dental and medical transplants, coronary artery coatings, cell encapsulants, etc.)," begins another paper in PNAS. Somehow, mussels do it with protein. To copy the animal's wizardry, therefore, scientists need to identify and understand the molecular interactions of the "mussel foot proteins" involved. Scientists from UC Santa Barbara and Lehigh (Behe's turf) are making progress. They found out that mussels learned how to manage "a delicate balance between van der Waals, hydrophobic, and electrostatic forces." You have to know physics as well as biology to succeed here.
Shape shifter. You've heard of 3D printing. How about 4D printing? In "Biomimetic 4D Printing," Nature tells about efforts to imitate "nastic plant motions, where a variety of organs such as tendrils, bracts, leaves and flowers respond to environmental stimuli (such as humidity, light or touch) by varying internal turgor, which leads to dynamic conformations governed by the tissue composition and microstructural anisotropy of cell walls." We don't usually think of plant motions, but if seen in time lapse, their motions are real and targeted. If we could 3D-print things that shift their shapes in response to environmental triggers, think of the possibilities: "smart textiles, autonomous robotics, biomedical devices, drug delivery and tissue engineering." Here's what the wizards at Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have come up with so far:
Inspired by these botanical systems, we printed composite hydrogel architectures that are encoded with localized, anisotropic swelling behaviour controlled by the alignment of cellulose fibrils along prescribed four-dimensional printing pathways. When combined with a minimal theoretical framework that allows us to solve the inverse problem of designing the alignment patterns for prescribed target shapes, we can programmably fabricate plant-inspired architectures that change shape on immersion in water, yielding complex three-dimensional morphologies.
Bone buildings. Bones and eggshells have the advantage of strength in spite of light weight, Michelle Oyen writes in The Conversation (see her in a video clip in the article). Why don't we build things like that? Steel and concrete are heavy, and to a world worried about climate change, they are dirty. Why not use clean, lightweight building materials inspired by nature? Caution: basic research needed:
In order to make biomimetic materials, we need to have a deep understanding of how natural materials work. We know that natural materials are also "composites": they are made of multiple different base materials, each with different properties. Composite materials are often lighter than single component materials, such as metals, while still having desirable properties such as stiffness, strength and toughness.
It's the biological component, like protein, that's the secret. Eggshells are 95 percent mineral and just 5 percent hydrated protein but that makes all the difference. Oyen says we can learn nature's tricks one of two ways: by mimicking the composition of the material itself, or by copying the process by which the material is made. Her lab is working on "neo-bone" at the centimeter scale, but there's no reason it could not be scaled up to industrial size, she says; it just takes a "major rethink" in how we build things. "The science is still in its infancy, but that doesn't mean we can't dream big about the future."
Frog therapy. Advances in biomimetics come from observation followed by inspiration. Who would have thought that the foam that tiny frogs use to surround and protect their eggs could someday deliver healing drugs to burn patients? At Strathclyde University, the BBC reports, engineers "are taking inspiration from the tiny Tungara frog from Trinidad" to do just that. The frogs use at least six proteins to retain the shape and strength of their egg nest. The scientists have made a synthetic version of frog foam that "could trap and deliver medication while providing a protective barrier between the wound dressing and the damaged skin." So far, they're only halfway there. "While foams like these are a long way from hitting the clinic, they could eventually help patients with infected wounds and burns, by providing support and protection for healing tissue and delivering drugs at the same time," they hope.
Are you getting inspired by biological design? Consider that biomimetics is proving to be a shot in the arm for both basic research and for applied science. Scientists have to understand what they observe, being curious about why a biological solution works (e.g., how does a mussel grip a rock underwater?). Then, with a little imagination, they can envision ways the natural process can be applied. From there, inventors and engineers can get busy trying to imitate the solution. Everyone can profit from the results.
On continuing to challenge "settled science"
"Question the Answer" -- in Every Field but Evolution
Sarah Chaffee March 31, 2016 12:39 PM
Walking on the University of Washington campus here in Seattle last week, I saw a banner proclaiming, "QUESTION THE ANSWER." It's fitting that this flag is on the campus of a research university, where scientists and students from all disciplines seek knowledge. It's healthy to confront the fluidity and uncertainty of scientific truth. In reality, though, when it come to the mechanisms of evolution, current thinking discourages "questioning the answer" -- in the lab, and in the biology classroom.
An article in Quartz ("Many scientific 'truths' are, in fact, false") reminds readers of how many recent scientific findings have turned out not to be reproducible. But author Olivia Goldhill looks on the bright side, observing that it is all part of the scientific process.
For example, a 2005 paper found that of 34 well-regarded medical research results that were retested, "41% had been contradicted or found to be significantly exaggerated." A project that sought to reproduce 100 psychological experiments had only a 40% success rate. The publication notes that "[b]y some estimates, at least 51% -- and as much as 89% -- of published papers are based on studies and experiments showing results that cannot be reproduced."
Goldhill attributes this phenomenon, which could be regarded as scandalous, to two factors: first, the push to publish, with journals preferring contributions that show significant results; and second, scientists mining large volumes of data for "significant" correlations.
Yet she sees a silver lining: "The idea that papers are publishing false results might sound alarming, but the recent crisis doesn't mean that the entire scientific method is totally wrong. In fact, science's focus on its own errors is a sign that researchers are on exactly the right path."
Or as Ivan Oransky at Retraction Watch told Quartz, "If you never find mistakes, or failures to reproduce in your field, you're probably not asking the right questions."
And they're correct, of course. But who will tell the evolutionists? Scientists and science teachers alike are expected to uphold allegiance to neo-Darwinism.
As scientists arguing for a new Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES) told Nature:
The number of biologists calling for change in how evolution is conceptualized is growing rapidly. Strong support comes from allied disciplines, particularly developmental biology, but also genomics, epigenetics, ecology and social science. We contend that evolutionary biology needs revision if it is to benefit fully from these other disciplines. The data supporting our position gets stronger every day.
Yet the mere mention of the EES often evokes an emotional, even hostile, reaction among evolutionary biologists. Too often, vital discussions descend into acrimony, with accusations of muddle or misrepresentation. Perhaps haunted by the spectre of intelligent design, evolutionary biologists wish to show a united front to those hostile to science. Some might fear that they will receive less funding and recognition if outsiders -- such as physiologists or developmental biologists -- flood into their field.
So groupthink and self-censorship are, or should be, a concern. Meanwhile, one-sided teaching of evolution misinforms students about the nature of science. It may lead them to see neo-Darwinism as a "fact" rather than an area of ongoing scientific debate. It certainly lends support to the mistaken idea that scientific ideas, once established, are no longer open to questioning.
Pedagogy in general benefits from critical thinking, not excluding on the subject of science. As Nature notes, "[S]tudents gain a much deeper understanding of science when they actively grapple with questions than when they passively listen to answers."
"Science isn't about truth and falsity, it's about reducing uncertainty," Brian Nosek, the psychology professor who tried to repeat 100 experiments, told Quartz. "Really this whole project is science on science: Researchers doing what science is supposed to do, which is be skeptical of our own process, procedure, methods, and look for ways to improve."
Neo-Darwinism is ripe for just such an approach.
Sarah Chaffee March 31, 2016 12:39 PM
Walking on the University of Washington campus here in Seattle last week, I saw a banner proclaiming, "QUESTION THE ANSWER." It's fitting that this flag is on the campus of a research university, where scientists and students from all disciplines seek knowledge. It's healthy to confront the fluidity and uncertainty of scientific truth. In reality, though, when it come to the mechanisms of evolution, current thinking discourages "questioning the answer" -- in the lab, and in the biology classroom.
An article in Quartz ("Many scientific 'truths' are, in fact, false") reminds readers of how many recent scientific findings have turned out not to be reproducible. But author Olivia Goldhill looks on the bright side, observing that it is all part of the scientific process.
For example, a 2005 paper found that of 34 well-regarded medical research results that were retested, "41% had been contradicted or found to be significantly exaggerated." A project that sought to reproduce 100 psychological experiments had only a 40% success rate. The publication notes that "[b]y some estimates, at least 51% -- and as much as 89% -- of published papers are based on studies and experiments showing results that cannot be reproduced."
Goldhill attributes this phenomenon, which could be regarded as scandalous, to two factors: first, the push to publish, with journals preferring contributions that show significant results; and second, scientists mining large volumes of data for "significant" correlations.
Yet she sees a silver lining: "The idea that papers are publishing false results might sound alarming, but the recent crisis doesn't mean that the entire scientific method is totally wrong. In fact, science's focus on its own errors is a sign that researchers are on exactly the right path."
Or as Ivan Oransky at Retraction Watch told Quartz, "If you never find mistakes, or failures to reproduce in your field, you're probably not asking the right questions."
And they're correct, of course. But who will tell the evolutionists? Scientists and science teachers alike are expected to uphold allegiance to neo-Darwinism.
As scientists arguing for a new Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES) told Nature:
The number of biologists calling for change in how evolution is conceptualized is growing rapidly. Strong support comes from allied disciplines, particularly developmental biology, but also genomics, epigenetics, ecology and social science. We contend that evolutionary biology needs revision if it is to benefit fully from these other disciplines. The data supporting our position gets stronger every day.
Yet the mere mention of the EES often evokes an emotional, even hostile, reaction among evolutionary biologists. Too often, vital discussions descend into acrimony, with accusations of muddle or misrepresentation. Perhaps haunted by the spectre of intelligent design, evolutionary biologists wish to show a united front to those hostile to science. Some might fear that they will receive less funding and recognition if outsiders -- such as physiologists or developmental biologists -- flood into their field.
So groupthink and self-censorship are, or should be, a concern. Meanwhile, one-sided teaching of evolution misinforms students about the nature of science. It may lead them to see neo-Darwinism as a "fact" rather than an area of ongoing scientific debate. It certainly lends support to the mistaken idea that scientific ideas, once established, are no longer open to questioning.
Pedagogy in general benefits from critical thinking, not excluding on the subject of science. As Nature notes, "[S]tudents gain a much deeper understanding of science when they actively grapple with questions than when they passively listen to answers."
"Science isn't about truth and falsity, it's about reducing uncertainty," Brian Nosek, the psychology professor who tried to repeat 100 experiments, told Quartz. "Really this whole project is science on science: Researchers doing what science is supposed to do, which is be skeptical of our own process, procedure, methods, and look for ways to improve."
Neo-Darwinism is ripe for just such an approach.
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