In the News

Yesterday an interview between John McWhorter and Michael Behe about Behe's recent book The Edge of Evolution appeared on bloggingheads.tv. Within hours the interview disappeared with this message "from" McWhorter posted by the administator: "John McWhorter feels, with regret, that this interview represents neither himself, Professor Behe, nor Bloggingheads usefully, takes full responsibility for same, and has asked that it be taken down from the site. He apologizes to all who found its airing objectionable."

Fortunately someone archived the interview and it has reappeared in several places on the internet. Take a look for yourself and see if you think this interview represents McWhorter, Behe or Bloggingheads, especially given Bloggingheads' claim of being an open forum below. Just another example of the "Expelled Factor" at work.

Michael Behe reports on the incident himself here.

UPDATE 8-31-09: It appears cooler heads have prevailed at Bloggingheads and the Behe interview has been reposted with an explanation.

From the Bloggingheads web site:

"Bloggingheads is in some ways a classic expression of the Internet: the ever-dropping cost of information-processing allows people to interact in new ways, and a whole new tribe-the Bloggingheads tribe-is formed. But we hope to be in one sense an unusual expression of the Internet. Almost all blogs have a dominant ideology and a fairly homogeneous comments section to match. We pride ourselves on having a diversity of views in our diavlogs and an accordingly diverse comments section, where thoughtful disagreement is expressed in civil terms. (OK, usually thoughtful, and usually civil.) We thank our commenters-and for that matter our less-vocal viewers, and of course all the bloggingheads-for making this website a place where great minds don't think alike."

Reported in Science Daily, the lowly appendix, long-regarded as a useless evolutionary artifact, won newfound respect two years ago when researchers at Duke University Medical Center proposed that it actually serves a critical function. The appendix, they said, is a safe haven where good bacteria could hang out until they were needed to repopulate the gut after a nasty case of diarrhea, for example.

Now, some of those same researchers are back, reporting on the first-ever study of the appendix through the ages. Writing in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology, Duke scientists and collaborators from the University of Arizona and Arizona State University conclude that Charles Darwin was wrong: The appendix is a whole lot more than an evolutionary remnant. Not only does it appear in nature much more frequently than previously acknowledged, but it has been around much longer than anyone had suspected.

"Maybe it's time to correct the textbooks," says William Parker, Ph.D., assistant professor of surgical sciences at Duke and the senior author of the study. "Many biology texts today still refer to the appendix as a 'vestigial organ.'"

More...

James-Michael Smith, reports in the Examiner, that University of Colorado Professor of Philosophy Bradley Monton has openly criticized the decision in the famous Dover case over Intelligent Design.

He has also argued that Intelligent Design is a valid form of philosophical and scientific inquiry that should be undertaken rather than dismissed.

He is also an Atheist.

More...

Animation Gives Unique Look Inside the Cell

A new short animated video, Journey Inside The Cell, launched this week which dramatically illustrates the evidence for intelligent design within DNA, as described in Stephen C. Meyer's book, Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design (HarperOne 2009).

The original animation by Light Productions reveals in intricate detail how the digital information in DNA directs protein synthesis inside the cell, revealing a world of molecular machines and nano-processors communicating digital information.

"This video is going to make things worse for critics of intelligent design," Dr. Meyer explains. "They will have more difficulty convincing the public that their eyes are deceiving them when the evidence for design literally unfolds before them in this animation."

Narrated by Stephen Meyer, the video is a brief tour of the molecular labyrinth, the cell's sophisticated information-processing system, which not only produces machines, but also reproduces itself. The three minute animated video is available for viewing online in the ARN Molecular Machine Museum. For public use copyright permissions, contact cscinfo@discovery.org.

Just another example of the power of Darwinism to slow down life science discoveries...

Natalie Angier, for the NY Times, reports that scientists have discovered that the spleen, long consigned to the B-list of abdominal organs and known as much for its metaphoric as its physiological value, plays a more important role in the body's defense system than anyone suspected.

Reporting in the current issue of the journal Science, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School describe studies showing that the spleen is a reservoir for huge numbers of immune cells called monocytes, and that in the event of a serious trauma to the body like a heart attack, gashing wound or microbial invasion, the spleen will disgorge those monocyte multitudes into the bloodstream to tackle the crisis.

"The parallel in military terms is a standing army," said Matthias Nahrendorf, an author of the report. "You don't want to have to recruit an entire fighting force from the ground up every time you need it."

More...

The final film in Illustra Media's long-planned Intelligent Design trilogy, Darwin's Dilemma, is scheduled for release September 15, 2009 and is currently available for pre-order at ARN at a special introductory price.

This documentary will examine what many consider to be the most powerful refutation of Darwinian evolution-the Cambrian fossil evidence. Charles Darwin realized that the fossil evidence did not support his theory of gradual, step-by-step evolutionary development. He hoped that future generations of scientists would make the discoveries necessary to validate his ideas. Today, after more than 150 years of exploration fossil evidence of slow, incremental biological change has yet to be excavated. Instead, we find a picture of the rapid appearance of fully developed, complex organisms during the outset of the Cambrian geological era. Organisms that embody almost all of the major animal body plans that exist today. This remarkable explosion of life is best explained by the existence of a transcendent intelligence.

Filmed on four continents, this fascinating documentary examines some of the most important fossil discoveries ever made... and, with them, a mystery deeper than Darwin ever imagined. The Cambrian explosion was actually an explosion of biological information: assembly instructions in DNA and embryonic blueprints that directed the development of the first complex animals...information that points unmistakably to foresight, purpose and intelligent design.

Darwin's Dilemma is a high-quality documentary that includes interviews with world-class paleontologists Simon Conway Morris and James Valentine, as well as leading intelligent design theorists and scientists Paul Nelson, Jonathan Wells, Stephen C. Meyer, Paul Chien, Doug Axe, and Richard Sternberg.

Several messages come through loud and clear in the documentary:

1. Paleontologists freely admit the Cambrian Explosion evidence presents a problem for Darwin's theory

2. The fantastic animations communicate visually the complexity of the Cambrian creatures

3. The complexity graphs shown make it abundantly clear that Darwin's predictions do not match the evidence and in fact the evidence is almost the complete opposite

4. The relative time frame of the biological big bang (2 minutes late in the 24 hour clock of earth history) make it virtually impossible for random mutations and natural selection to produce the complexity and information content found in the Cambrian in such a late and short time frame

5. Even Chinese scientists are turning against Darwin's theory based on the Cambrian Explosion evidence found in their own country (which is some of the best)

As with the first two Illustra Media ID documentaries, Unlocking the Mystery of Life and The Privileged Planet, Darwin's Dilemma is full of high quality animations to help the viewer visualize the amazing complexity and design of the Cambrian creatures. You can watch a trailer for Darwin's Dilemma is here.