Science & TechnologyS


Dig

The discontinuous fossil record refutes Darwinian gradualism

Günter Bechly
Evolution News
Tue, 02 Nov 2021 06:19 UTC
trilobites
Editor's note: This article is an excerpt from a chapter in the newly released book The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith: Exploring the Ultimate Questions About Life and the Cosmos.

Every theory makes certain predictions. The core prediction of Darwin's theory of evolution is gradualism, which means that all the transitional changes in the history of life are not supposed to have happened as sudden big changes, but by a continuous accumulation of small changes over vast periods of time. The simple reason is that Darwin wanted a naturalistic explanation and was fully aware that sudden big changes of organisms would require miraculous events. Therefore, he mentioned not fewer than six times in his magnum opus On the Origin of Species the Latin phrase Natura non facit saltus, which means that nature does not make jumps.

If Gradualism Is Wrong

This claim is still made by Darwinians today. The most well-known modern popularizer of Darwinism, the infamous atheist Richard Dawkins, wrote in his 2009 bestselling book The Greatest Show on Earth the following remarkable statement: "Evolution not only is a gradual process as a matter of fact; it has to be gradual if it is to do any explanatory work." This shows that gradualism is not just one optional element of Darwinism, but that it is very much essential for its success as a naturalistic explanation for the complexity and diversity of life. If gradualism is wrong, then Darwinism is refuted.

Comment: See also:

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Beaker

MIT Engineers create "impossible" new material: Stronger than steel, light as plastic

Anne Trafton
SciTech Daily
Thu, 03 Feb 2022 19:17 UTC
plymer material two dimensions
© polymer film courtesy of the researchers; Christine Daniloff, MITThe new material is a two-dimensional polymer that self-assembles into sheets and could be used as a lightweight, durable coating for car parts or cell phones, or as a building material for bridges or other structures.
The new substance is the result of a feat thought to be impossible: polymerizing a material in two dimensions.

Using a novel polymerization process, MIT chemical engineers have created a new material that is stronger than steel and as light as plastic, and can be easily manufactured in large quantities.

The new material is a two-dimensional polymer that self-assembles into sheets, unlike all other polymers, which form one-dimensional, spaghetti-like chains. Until now, scientists had believed it was impossible to induce polymers to form 2D sheets.

Such a material could be used as a lightweight, durable coating for car parts or cell phones, or as a building material for bridges or other structures, says Michael Strano, the Carbon P. Dubbs Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT and the senior author of the new study.
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Blue Planet

Worlds can change: Puffy planets lose atmospheres & become super-earths


SciTechDaily
Fri, 04 Feb 2022 08:52 UTC
mini neptune
© Adam Makarenko (Keck Observatory)This is an artist’s Illustration of the mini-Neptune TOI 560.01, located 103 light-years away in the Hydra constellation. The planet, which orbits closely to its star, is losing its puffy atmosphere and may ultimately transform into a super-Earth.
Worlds Around Other Stars Can Change Their Classification

If our solar system were a hobbyist kit, it would come boxed up with four rocky terrestrial planets, like Earth; and four gas giant planets like Jupiter.

What astronomers have discovered around some other stars is a rare type of planet not found in our solar system. It is not too big or too small but fits between the radius of Earth and the radius of Neptune. Toward the bottom of this range are dense "super-Earths" (no, not the home of the comic book hero, Superman) that are slightly bigger than Earth. Toward the top of the range are the puffier so-called "mini-Neptunes," which have a fraction of the radius of the planet Neptune.

Astronomers are assembling a complex picture of how these sorts of "missing link" planets come to be. Apparently, the mini-Neptunes start out as smaller, denser versions of the planet Neptune. But radiation from a planet's host star heats their hydrogen/helium atmosphere which then escapes into space like a hot air balloon. The planet goes onto sort of a crash-diet, losing a lot of mass until all that's left is a dense, rocky core that is still bigger than Earth and may retain a thin skin of an atmosphere.
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SOTT Logo Radio

SOTT Focus: MindMatters: Follow the Science? A Peek Behind the Curtain of Institutional Science

Harrison Koehli, Adam Daniels
Sott.net
Fri, 04 Feb 2022 00:00 UTC
science
How many scientists engage in unethical behavior? Does peer review even work? What is the reproducibility crisis? The "white hat" bias? Science has acquired a reputation of mythical proportions, but there are enough skeletons in the closet to warrant some skepticism about its many claims. At its best, science in an indispensable means of approaching truth, but at its worst it can be shortsighted and even just plain wrong.

Today on MindMatters we read some excerpts from Iain McGilchrist's recent book The Matter with Things on the nature of institutional science, with a case study on one of its worst offenders: public health.


Running Time: 00:52:51

Download: MP3 — 72.6 MB


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Cassiopaea

Supermassive black hole flares may be due to magnetic 'reconnection'

Thomas Sumner, Simons Foundation
Phys.org
Thu, 03 Feb 2022 12:00 UTC
black hole
© B. Ripperda et al., Astrophysical Journal Letters 2022A snapshot from one of the new black hole simulations. Here, green magnetic field lines are overlaid on a map of hot plasma. Just outside the black hole's event horizon, the connection of magnetic field lines pointing in opposite directions makes an X-point where they crisscross. This process of reconnection launches some particles in the plasma into the black hole and others into space, an important step in the generation of black hole flares.
Black holes aren't always in the dark. Astronomers have spotted intense light shows shining from just outside the event horizon of supermassive black holes, including the one at our galaxy's core. However, scientists couldn't identify the cause of these flares beyond the suspected involvement of magnetic fields.

By employing computer simulations of unparalleled power and resolution, physicists say they've solved the mystery: Energy released near a black hole's event horizon during the reconnection of magnetic field lines powers the flares, the researchers report January 14 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The new simulations show that interactions between the magnetic field and material falling into the black hole's maw cause the field to compress, flatten, break and reconnect. That process ultimately uses magnetic energy to slingshot hot plasma particles at near light speed into the black hole or out into space. Those particles can then directly radiate away some of their kinetic energy as photons and give nearby photons an energy boost. Those energetic photons make up the mysterious black hole flares.

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Microscope 2

Everything is coming up "non-random"!


Uncommon Descent
Tue, 01 Feb 2022 10:42 UTC
dna strand
© Shutterstock
On January 12, 2022, Phys.Org had a PR on an article documenting "non-random" mutations found in wild tobacco plants, published by a team from UC Davis. Now, three weeks later (Feb 1, 2022), we have another paper, working with human populations in Africa, and which, according to a team from the University of Haifa, "surprisingly" turns up "non-random" mutations.

From the PR on the first paper:
The scientists found that the way DNA was wrapped around different types of proteins was a good predictor of whether a gene would mutate or not. "It means we can predict which genes are more likely to mutate than others and it gives us a good idea of what's going on," Weigel said.

The findings add a surprising twist to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection because it reveals that the plant has evolved to protect its genes from mutation to ensure survival.
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Ladybug

New mode of flight found in tiny beetle


Evolution News
Thu, 03 Feb 2022 06:44 UTC
featherwing beetle
Beetles show extraordinary variation in size, habitat and behavior. J. B. S. Haldane's irreverent quip that God has "an inordinate fondness for beetles" should not deter design scientists from investigating the approximately 400,000 species of beetles, because they are sure to find wonderful surprises. A couple of recent discoveries are highlighted here — including a tiny species that flies by a remarkably effective method not seen in other insects.

Featherwing Flyer

Insect wings are usually thin translucent membranes, but here's one with "feathers"! The tiny beetle Paratuposa placentiswas brought to scientists' attention in a paper in Nature by Faresenkov et al., "Novel flight style and light wings boost flight performance of tiny beetles" (open access). Watch this video to see it in action:


This expert flyer is less than a millimeter long. That's comparable in size to a large amoeba, yet this bug boasts all the requisite body parts of its beetle relatives, complete with the cells needed for each organ, limb, antennae, mouth parts, gut, muscles, and brain.
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Telescope

2nd 'Trojan Asteroid' confirmed orbiting with Earth

Stephanie Pappas
Live Science
Wed, 02 Feb 2022 07:53 UTC
The second Earth Trojan asteroid
© NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva/Spaceengine Acknowledgment: M. Zamani (NSF’s NOIRLab))The second Earth Trojan asteroid known to date will remain Trojan — that is, it will be located at the Lagrangian point — for 4,000 years.
Asteroid 2020 XL5 will be Earth's buddy for the next 4,000 years.

A rocky body spotted orbiting in Earth's path is a "Trojan asteroid" that escorts our planet around the sun, astronomers have confirmed.

Asteroid 2020 XL5 is the second Trojan asteroid ever discovered. It's three times larger than the only other known Earth Trojan, called Asteroid 2010 TK7, which was confirmed in 2011. These small space rocks orbit along with Earth, but they are hard to spot from our planet — Asteroid 2010 TK7 is sometimes on the other side of the sun from us. They sit in gravitational sweet spots known as Lagrangian points. If Earth and the sun make up two points of an equilateral triangle, the Lagrangian point would be that triangle's third point. Earth and the sun have five of these points.

The newfound Trojan is at a Lagrangian point that has it orbiting ahead of Earth in the two bodies' shared path and the asteroid will stay there for 4,000 more years, researchers reported Tuesday (Feb. 1) in the journal Nature Communications. The asteroid is probably about 0.7 miles (1.18 kilometers) in diameter, though that estimate may be off if the surface of the asteroid is more or less reflective than astronomers assume.

Comment: See also:

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Info

Unravelling the ancient stories hidden in DNA


Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University
Thu, 03 Feb 2022 18:27 UTC
chromosomes of five species
© Science Advances.The numbered horizontal bars represent the chromosomes of five species. Each colored strip shows how different sections of gene groups correspond or vary in their location within the different genomes. Two or more colors converging on a chromosome (as can be seen four times with the scallop) indicate that mixing has occurred between two ancestral chromosomes or chromosome sections. The image appeared in the publication in Science Advances.
Scientists have discovered that the genomes of marine invertebrates have been surprisingly stable across deep time. Published in Science Advances, this new study provides an overarching analysis of distantly related animal groups, including sponges, jellyfish, scallops, and the invertebrates most closely related to humans, and found that their chromosomes are remarkably similar.

Think of a genome as the instruction manual located in each cell and written in DNA code. It contains all the inherited information for the operation of an organism. This instruction manual is divided into chapters — the chromosomes — and those are, in turn, further subdivided into pages — the genes.

"Over deep time — and by that, I mean at least 550 million years — due to random mutations, the order of genes within chromosomes become scrambled, kind of like mixing up pages within a chapter of a book. And more dramatically, sometimes we find that two chromosomes have come together and become mixed, as if the chapters were merged and shuffled." explained Prof. Daniel Rokhsar, last author of the paper and principal investigator of the Molecular Genetics Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) in Japan. "But overall, we found a remarkable amount of stability. Even though the last common ancestor of these three groups lived over half a billion years ago, many of their chromosomes are recognizably similar in the sense that they contain the same groups of genes."
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Clock

Earth is spinning faster now than it was 50 years ago

Kate Golembiewski
Astronomy
Wed, 02 Feb 2022 18:41 UTC
Earth's Spin RAte
© janez volmajer/Shutterstock
Ever feel like there's just not enough time in the day? Turns out, you might be onto something. Earth is rotating faster than it has in the last half-century, resulting in our days being ever-so-slightly shorter than we're used to. And while it's an infinitesimally small difference, it's become a big headache for physicists, computer programmers and even stockbrokers.

Why Earth rotates

Our solar system formed about 4.5 billion years ago, when a dense cloud of interstellar dust and gas collapsed in on itself and began to spin. There are vestiges of this original movement in our planet's current rotation, thanks to angular momentum — essentially, "the tendency of the body that's rotating, to carry on rotating until something actively tries to stop it," explains Peter Whibberley, a senior research scientist at the UK's National Physical Laboratory.

Thanks to that angular momentum, our planet has been spinning for billions of years and we experience night and day. But it hasn't always spun at the same rate.

Hundreds of millions of years ago, Earth made about 420 rotations in the time it took to orbit the Sun; we can see evidence of how each year was jam-packed with extra days by examining the growth lines on fossil corals. Although days have gradually grown longer over time (in part because of how the moon pulls at Earth's oceans, which slows us down a bit), during humanity's watch, we've been holding steady at about 24 hours for a full rotation — which translates to about 365 rotations per trip 'round the Sun.

As scientists have improved at observing Earth's rotation and keeping track of time, however, they've realized that we experience little fluctuations in how long it takes to make a full rotation.
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