In a new analysis, scienists ask a simple question: Can we detect “fine-tuning” in biology as we can in physics? In answering this question the scientists found for the first time, a statistical framework for determining whether certain features in living things are fine-tuned or were “evolve-able.” Using this method, they demonstrate how functional proteins, cellular networks, and the biochemical machines found in cells exhibit evidence of “design.”
Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for their creation of the gene-editing technology known as CRISPR.
Scientists in Israel recently unearthed a Jewish ritual bath during an archaeological excavation.
In one of our latest “What Would You Say?” videos, my colleague Brooke McIntire takes on the myth of “settled science.” Proposing and overturning theories is an ongoing part of the process. Even longstanding scientific consensus is vulnerable to new and contrary evidence, and scientists are fallible and biased human beings too.
The sincere desire to eradicate dangerous genetic diseases is understandable, and even noble. The longing to heal reflects God’s image in us. Ethically sound and medically safe treatments should be pursued, but we should never proceed without full awareness of the human temptation to “become like God” as Genesis 3 tells us, “determining good and evil.”
What is meant by progress? For whom is progress promised? For humanity and human flourishing? As C. S. Lewis warned in his masterful book The Abolition of Man, “The Power of Man to make himself what he pleases means ... the power of some men to make other men what they please.”
“The man-moulders of the new age,” Lewis continued, “will be armed with the powers of the omnicompetent state and an irresistible scientific technique: we shall get at last a race of conditioners who really can cut out all posterity in what shape they please.”
In 1996, Tom Wolfe penned an essay predicting that new technologies would render our traditional ideas about the soul, the mind, the "self" and free will obsolete. Instead, these new technologies have turned out to pose more questions about if it is possible for these things not to exist.
As voters, it is imperative that we stand up against the genetic modification of human embryos by electing officials who will fight for legislation to regulate the practice.
According to reports, research facilities in Israel working to create a vaccine for the coronavirus was the victim of a cyber attack over the weekend.
Evolutionary psychology is a field specializing in hypothesis in which natural selection explains all human behaviors. According to this way of thinking, all of our modern behaviors are best understood as carryovers from those ancient behaviors that offered our ancestors evolutionary advantage over others.
