Paul Nelson

Archives

Viewing Chinese Lanterns in Pittsburgh

_{Paul Nelson
November 30, 2022}

I mused about the genetic coding requirements for the changes in protein expression and timing (during development) to give its precise floral morphology.

Design Detection in the New York Times — The Issue of Science Fraud

_{Paul Nelson
November 3, 2022}

When the pincer closes around a pattern, intelligent causation is uniquely implicated.

Why AlphaFold Has Not Solved the Protein-Folding Problem

_{Paul Nelson
September 29, 2022}

The online database AlphaFold represents an amazing breakthrough by any measure of the word “breakthrough.”

Carl Sagan: “An Intelligence That Antedates the Universe”

_{Paul Nelson
June 14, 2022}

It’s the evidence from Sagan’s fiction and other popular writing that is especially provocative.

Troubles with the Tree of Life

_{Mike Keas and Paul Nelson
May 27, 2022}

Sixty years ago, philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn listed what he described as the “symptoms” of a research field undergoing destabilizing change.

Sara Walker and Her Crew Publish the Most Interesting Biology Paper of 2022 (So Far, Anyway)

_{Paul Nelson
April 5, 2022}

Universal functional requirements, but without the identity of material components — sounds like design.

Prebiotic Muffins and an Air of Unreality

_{Paul Nelson
January 21, 2022}

There is a cookbook being proposed for “prebiotic soup recipes” — that is, combinations of non-living chemicals plausibly present on the early Earth.

Plant Biologist: “Mutation Is Very Non-Random”

_{Paul Nelson
January 14, 2022}

Many people I know in the ID community are strongly interested in rethinking mutation, understanding it as a designed or regulated process.

Richard Lewontin (1929-2021), Mensch

_{Paul Nelson
July 6, 2021}

As I stood by the lab doorway, Lewontin — who was sitting right down front — looked back towards the door and caught my eye.

Just Down the Street from ID: “Molecular Assembly Index”

_{Paul Nelson
June 30, 2021}

"The selection of one such possibility out of the combinatorically large number of possibilities is a process that requires information."

The Most Memorable Lecture I Ever Heard at the University of Chicago — Finally Published

_{Paul Nelson
June 18, 2021}

The announced title was something like “Big Evolution and Little Evolution: The History of the Difference.”

What Got My Attention about Intelligent Design

_{Paul Nelson
June 16, 2021}

Bill Dembski pointed out that design detection, far from being an esoteric inference, lay in fact at the center of many normal human inquiries and activities.

Social Exclusion and the Evolution Debate

_{Paul Nelson
May 27, 2021}

Social exclusion via refusal to engage is probably the most powerful and effective means of controlling the debate about origins within science.

Charles Marshall: Origin of Life Could Have Happened “Millions of Times”

_{Paul Nelson
April 8, 2021}

Charles Marshall at U.C. Berkeley represents establishment opinion in current evolutionary theory, and for good reason.

Human Orphan Genes — Interesting YouTube Talk Tonight by Nathan Lents

_{Paul Nelson
February 11, 2021}

A couple of years ago, Professor Lents became fascinated by orphan genes, and went looking for them in the human genome.

The Most Valuable Aspect of Avi Loeb’s Intelligent Design Case

_{Paul Nelson
February 2, 2021}

The most valuable aspect of his case is the stimulus it provides to the question, "If non-human intelligences exist, how would we detect them?"

Flowering Plants and Common Descent

_{Paul Nelson
January 29, 2021}

If this accurately reflects the argument in the primary research paper, it provides a beautiful example of common descent as axiomatically true.

More on Avi Loeb’s Approach to Design Inferences

_{Paul Nelson
January 28, 2021}

Loeb’s argument represents the most salient example of risky intelligent design reasoning in mainstream science.

A Beautifully Illustrated Open Access Review Article on DNA Topoisomerases

_{Paul Nelson
January 25, 2021}

Crick and Watson realized, very early on, that the winding double helix of DNA would cause all kinds of nasty tangles.

Ixnay on the Ambriancay Plosionexhay

_{Paul Nelson
December 1, 2020}

Shhh — don’t say it. The geological event, well, not “event,” as in something that happened about 541 million years ago...we don’t talk that way anymore.