Life: You Know It When You See It

 

Carl Zimmer, who blogs at The Loom, is interested in definitions of life. His latest essay highlights a definition proposed by Edward Trifonov who says that life is: "self-reproduction with variations" [Can A Scientist Define “Life”?].

It didn't take Sean Carroll (the physicist) very long to see one of the main problems with this definition; namely that Sean isn't alive! [Do I Not Live!].

It's true that we should not restrict our definition of life to things that can self-reproduce. It's also true that we should not restrict our definition to things that reproduce badly (e.g. mutation/variation). I can easily imagine living things that could reproduce perfectly—they just wouldn't evolve by any mechanism we currently recognize.

Life is like pornography [I know it when I see it]. In the words of US Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart,

I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description ["hard-core pornography"]; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that.

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July 2-31, 2012: Papyrological Institute at the University of Chicago

Papyrological Institute at the University of Chicago 

July 2 - 31, 2012

An intensive summer institute in papyrology, jointly sponsored by the Departments of Classics of the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will be held on the campus of the University of Chicago in the summer of 2012.  The program is aimed at advanced graduate students and junior faculty in Classics and associated fields, including history, Egyptology, classical and Near Eastern archaeology, history of religions, and biblical studies.  The general theme of the 2012 papyrological institute is “Religion, Magic, and Early Christianity in the Papyri.” The primary materials will consist of Greek literary and documentary papyri from Roman and early byzantine Egypt on loan from the University of Michigan collection.

The 2012 institute is the seventh in a series of intensive summer programs held under the aegis of the American Society of Papyrologists.  In keeping with the goals of previous years, the institute aims to provide participating scholars with direct experience of the papyri through close reading of individual texts, and with knowledge of the field of papyrology in general, so that they may employ this knowledge effectively in conducting their own future research and teaching.

The summer institute will offer a combination of lectures and first-hand experience working with original textual materials. Students are expected to participate actively in all of the institute’s programs and activities; a full-time commitment is required while the institute is in session. Mornings will be dedicated to introductory lectures by the principal instructors, Professor James G. Keenan (Loyola University of Chicago), Director, and Professors David Martinez (University of Chicago), Maryline Parca (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), and Peter van Minnen (University of Cincinnati).  Afternoons will be devoted to advanced coursework, to workshops on select papyri, and to individual research.  A series of guest lectures on topics related to the theme of the seminar will supplement the core presentations. 

Admission to the summer papyrological institute is by application only, and approximately ten scholars will be selected to participate.  Although previous experience with papyrology is not required, a high degree of competence in ancient Greek is essential. Participation in the institute is free of charge (no tuition) and not for credit.  We anticipate offering modest grants for travel and/or living expenses, but applicants are expected to seek financial support from their home institutions, and from other sources, to facilitate their participation.  The American Society of Papyrologists will deliver a certificate of participation to those completing the institute.  Neither grades nor transcripts will be issued.

Application procedure: The application consists of the completed application form (http://www.papyrology.org), a curriculum vitae, and two letters of recommendation.  All materials must be received by March 1, 2012 in order to be given full consideration.  Notification of decisions will be issued in late March.

Send application materials to Prof. David Martinez at the following address:

The University of Chicago

Department of Classics

1115 E. 58^th Street

Chicago IL 60637.

Weep for the Poor Persecuted IDiots

 

The Intelligent Design Creationists at Evolution News & Views and Uncommon Descent have been pushing the idea that acceptance of evolution is associated with moral decay and the rise of Adolph Hitler. Recently, an IDiot going by the pseudonym of "kairosfocus" posted a similar attack on his blog: Visually exposing the Anti-Christ spirit of Nazism (and correcting the New Atheist "Hitler was a Christian" smear often used in retort to exposing* the Social Darwinist history of ideas roots of Hitler's thought.

The goal, obviously, is to link the scientific fact of evolution to the evils of social Darwinism and eugenics.

Somebody posted as comment on that blog (or a related blog) saying ...

xxx, the religious wacko who owns and runs this site, blames all the world’s ills, including Hitler and the nazis, on Darwin, atheists, and material evolutionists.

To see the truth about Hitler and the nazis, see these XXXXXXX:

XXXXXX is a LYING, arrogant, bloviating, sanctimonious, ignorant, uneducated, abusive, delusional god zombie.

See this site for a lot more about XXXXX:

The comment has been removed.

Now "kairosfocus" has complained on Uncommon Descent that such "vandalism" is outrageous and misguided [FOR RECORD: What we are dealing with . . . an example of web stalking and vandalism].

Now, this vandalism of a site wholly unrelated to the matters debated at UD (and tied onwards to a hate site that exploits Google’s freedom of comment policies), was evidently in response to my having posted here at UD, matters linked to the well-known history of ideas roots of Hitler’s thought. I therefore suggest that onlookers examine the Weikart lecture and a discussion of a key clip from Mein Kampf that demonstrated the Darwinist-Haeckelian frame of thought, that beyond reasonable doubt strongly shaped Hitler’s thinking, speech and behaviour. (Those needing documentation on Hitler’s actual attitude to and intentions for the Christian Churches, can look at the recently released Nuremberg investigatory documents here. If after seeing these documents and the like, someone still insists on trying to claim Hitler was a Christian etc etc, s/he is delusional and/or willfully deceitful.)

Furthermore, the behavior of this "vandal" is exactly what "kairosfocus" expects.

As they say, a tree is known by its fruits, and draws sustenance from its roots . . .

(In addition, a note on “blaming the world’s ills.” The likes of this hate-driven commenter will not appreciate or accept that a Bible-believing Christian will hold that much of what ails our world traces to our common challenge of being finite, fallible, morally fallen and too often ill-willed. Hence, our common need for recognition of our moral plight, repentance, forgiveness and moral-spiritual transformation through the gospel. Slander-laced strawmen and scapegoats are ever so much more easy to set up and ignite through irresponsible rhetoric that then clouds, polarises and poisons the atmosphere.)

That refusal to be responsible over a moral hazard closely tied to the Darwinist, evolutionary materialist frame of thought, and that refusal to acknowledge well-established historical facts that are inconvenient to the new atheist agenda are tellingly informative.

The pattern of obsessive, self-justifying, nihilistic hate, stalking, slander, Internet vandalism and abuse is even more informative about an unfortunately significant subset of the New Atheist movement and the danger its patent extremism poses. (After this sort of web vandalism, and worse, can any reasonable person doubt why moderation is necessary to maintain a reasonable tone at UD and elsewhere?)

Ironically, the very conscience benumbed self-justifying by smearing scapegoats that this sort of behaviour demonstrates on the small scale, is what — when such attitudes attained state power — led to the utter breakdown of morality on the grand scale that over 100 million ghosts from the past century tell us never to forget.

Can any reasonable person doubt that had a commentator like the above the power to do as he wished and get away with it, he would do me and my family further harm?

It is time for the New Atheist advocates of evolutionary materialism to take a serious look at what they have been enabling by their intemperate writings and attitudes.

Every atheist blogger gets far worse comments from Christians on a regular basis. Most of us get harassing emails every single day and the authors usually identify themselves as devout Christians doing God's work. These same Christians don't hesitate to send threatening messages to our colleagues and family members in an effort to silence us. Some of the Christian kooks are so dangerous that they have been arrested by police and are currently under forcible confinement in a mental health institution.

Don't weep for the IDiots. They need to examine their own beliefs since it's the creationists who are the biggest threat on these blogs. There must be something wrong with Christianity if that's the kind of activity it promotes. It is time for the Christian opponents of science to take a serious look at what they have been enabling by their intemperate writings and attitudes.

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Monday's Molecule #155

 

We're going to talk about the evolution of this molecule in my class tomorrow. It's a good examples for illustrating some basic principles of molecular evolution.

You need to identify the exact molecule, including the species. Here's a hint: ANKSKGIVWN.

Post your answer in the comments. I'll hold off releasing any comments for 24 hours. The first one with the correct answer wins. I will only post correct answers to avoid embarrassment.

There could be two winners. If the first correct answer isn't from an undergraduate student then I'll select a second winner from those undergraduates who post the correct answer. You will need to identify yourself as an undergraduate in order to win. (Put "undergraduate" at the bottom of your comment.)

Some past winners are from distant lands so their chances of taking up my offer of a free lunch are slim. (That's why I can afford to do this!)

In order to win you must post your correct name. Anonymous and pseudoanonymous commenters can't win the free lunch.

Winners will have to contact me by email to arrange a lunch date.

UPDATE: The winner is Dima Klenchin who was the first to identify the molecule as cytochrome c from tuna (Thunnus alalunga). The figure is from the PDB file 3CYT. This PDB file supercedes 1CYT which was reportedly from another species of tuna.

Winners
Nov. 2009: Jason Oakley, Alex Ling
Oct. 17: Bill Chaney, Roger Fan
Oct. 24: DK
Oct. 31: Joseph C. Somody
Nov. 7: Jason Oakley
Nov. 15: Thomas Ferraro, Vipulan Vigneswaran
Nov. 21: Vipulan Vigneswaran (honorary mention to Raul A. Félix de Sousa)
Nov. 28: Philip Rodger
Dec. 5: 凌嘉誠 (Alex Ling)
Dec. 12: Bill Chaney
Dec. 19: Joseph C. Somody

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Chronqiue d' Égytpe LXXXVI (2011)

CHRONIQUE D'EGYPTE LXXXVI (2011) - FASC. 171-172

Nicole Braekman - Frederic Colin - Luc Delvaux - Françoise Labrique - Luc Limme - Bernard Van Rinsveld, Jean-Marie Kruchten (1944-2010) ... 2-11

EGYPTE PHARAONIQUE

Etudes:

Tamas Mekis, L’equipement funeraire de la pretresse thebaine Nestaneteretten ... 41-81

Danijela Stefanovic, When are children called "her children"? ... 15-31

Jean Winand, A propos du P. Ambras ... 32-40

Chronique:
Marcus Mueller-Roth, "Mehr Licht". Anmerkungen zu den Vignetten von Tb 137 .. 82-107

Livres ... 108-200

EGYPTE GRECO-ROMAINE

Etudes:

Mohamed El-Ashiry, A Second-Century A.D. Petition in the Cairo Collection ... 223-227

Roger S. Bagnall - Klaas A. Worp, with a contribution from Colin A. Hope, Family Papers from Second-Century A.D. Kellis ... 228-253

Jean Bingen, Sur l'annone militaire pour le foin (P. Brux. inv. E. 7904) ... 254-258

Audrey Eller - Sylvie Gindrat - Emeline Hedrich - Oceane Henri - Anais Marchiando - Yannick Zanetti - Paul Schubert, Un contrat de vente de terrain de la periode byzantine dans la collection de Geneve ... 259-267

Elena Esposito, P. Brux. inv. E. 5927 r (= P. Oxy. III 416 r) ... 205-222

Rachel Mairs, Acrostich Inscriptions at Kalabsha (Roman Talmis): Cultural Identities and Literary Games ... 281-297

Diletta Minutoli, Odissea XIX 574-587 in un papiro trovato a Narmuthis ... 201-204

Klaus Parlasca, Ein roemisches Leichentuch aus Aegypten in Genf ... 298-322

Kersten Saenger-Boehm - Patrick Saenger, Ad chartam comficiendam. Zu diesem und anderen Sonderdiensten roemischer Soldaten in Rom.Mil.Rec. 10 ... 268-280

Chronique:

Salvatore Costanza, Il romanzo del potere: il prefetto d'Egitto e l'amministrazione della provincia ... 323-332

Papyrus litteraires et documents ... 333-355

Livres ... 356-382

EGYPTE CHRETIENNE

Etudes:

Alain Delattre, Ostraca bibliques et scolaires de la region thebaine ... 386-391

Nikolaos Gonis - Gesa Schenke, BKU III 340: An Unusual entagion ... 383-385

Livres ... 392-396

Prof. Alain MARTIN
Redacteur en chef

Recent Advances in Intelligent Design Creationism

 

In case you missed it, 2011 was a wonderful year for the IDiots. There were many "scientific" breakthroughs supporting the existence of god an intelligent designer. Access research network provides a list of the top ten "Darwin and Design" news stories for 2011.

I'll just give you the titles. Most of you have already read these very important science papers. The rest of you can access more information at: Top Ten Darwin and Design
Science News Stories for 2011.

1. 50th Peer-Reviewed Pro-ID Scientific Paper Published
2. The Design of the Butterfly Continues to Inspire and Amaze
3. Woodpecker Drumming Inspires Shock-Absorbing System
4. Stylus Aims to Bridge Gap Between Real World and Artificial Evolutionary Simulation
5. Explosive Radiation of Flowering Plants Confirmed
6. Golden Orb-Weaver Fossil Spider Provides New Evidence for Stasis
7. Complexity in the Universe Appears Earlier Than Thought
8. An Identity Crises for Human Ancestors
9. DNA Repair Mechanisms Reveal a Contradiction in Evolutionary Theory
10. The Limits to Self-Organization Identified

The nice thing about this list is that it gives us a very good view of the quality of data supporting Intelligent Design Creationism. This is the best they have.

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The God helmet is used by Michael Persinger in his neuroscience "research." When you put on the helmet it makes you see God. It's just one of many illusions that supposedly reveal the presence of a supernatural being. Of course it has nothing to do with the content of this post.

The Santorum Amendment

 

Rick Santorum is a potential candidate for President of the United States. He is currently seeking the nomination of the Republican party and so far he seems to be a leading candidate in spite of his bizarre views on many issues. The process involves things called state "primaries" which seems to be a way of generating free publicity for the two sanctioned parties.

Back in 2001, Santorum was a Senator from Pennsylvania. He was a leading proponent of Intelligent Design Creationism and he proposed an amendment to a major education bill that was being considered by the United States Senate.¹ The original Santorum Amendment was described by Santorum in a brief speech ...

This is an amendment that is a sense of the Senate. It is a sense of the Senate that deals with the subject of intellectual freedom with respect to the teaching of science in the classroom, in primary and secondary education. It is a sense of the Senate that does not try to dictate curriculum to anybody; quite the contrary, it says there should be freedom to discuss and air good scientific debate within the classroom. In fact, students will do better and will learn more if there is this intellectual freedom to discuss. I will read this sense of the Senate. It is simply two sentences—frankly, two rather innocuous sentences—that hopefully this Senate will embrace: "It is the sense of the Senate that—

(1) good science education should prepare students to distinguish the data or testable theories of science from philosophical or religious claims that are made in the name of science; and
(2) where biological evolution is taught, the curriculum should help students to understand why this subject generates so much continuing controversy, and should prepare the students to be informed participants in public discussions regarding the subject.

It simply says there are disagreements in scientific theories out there that are continually tested.

The original amendment was drafted by Philip Johnson in consultation with other fellows of the Discovery Institute.

This amendment did not make it into law but a similar version was included in something called a "Conference Report" where it is often cited by Intelligent Design Creationists.

The Conferees recognize that a quality science education should prepare students to distinguish the data and testable theories of science from religious or philosophical claims that are made in the name of science. Where topics are taught that may generate controversy (such as biological evolution), the curriculum should help students to understand the full range of scientific views that exist, why such topics may generate controversy, and how scientific discoveries can profoundly affect society.

Taken at face value, these statements seem to provide an excellent opportunity for science teachers to explain how religion distorts science. They would provide legal justification for teachers who want to describe how religious views conflict with science and why scientific facts, such as evolution, generate so much controversy among religious Americans.

But that's not how the amendments are interpreted by most people. Here's Rick Santorum explaining in 2009 what the amendment really meant. It's clear that many Senators, including Ted Kennedy, were duped.

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1. In American legislatures, it's normal that completely irrelevant material is inserted into bills.