Science and Culture

Science and Culture Today (SCT) provides original reporting and analysis about evolution, neuroscience, bioethics, intelligent design and other science-related fields, including breaking news about scientific research. It also covers the impact of science on culture and conflicts over free speech and academic freedom in science. Finally, it fact-checks and critiques media coverage of scientific issues.

Archives

Study of Biological Origins Is Entering a Surreal State

_{Science & Culture
August 14, 2026}

No biological history and no biological beginning: are you seeing the trend? Both seem to be responses to being battered by the evidence.

Common Descent on the Road to Incomprehension

_{Science & Culture
August 13, 2026}

In 2025, Haber proposed that there JUST IS NO “true history of life.” Don’t look for it, as if one could actually find it, because it doesn’t exist.

Testing Phylogenetic Hypotheses: A Question for You

_{Science & Culture
August 12, 2026}

You can read this proposition a dozen times over and still be unable to say what it disallows in phylogenetic inference.

This Is Your Brain Under Anesthesia

_{Science & Culture
August 12, 2026}

Even with lighter anesthesia, the stuff of nightmares is unlikely. Your mind is still there, just not taking calls.

Intelligent Design’s Summer Reading Sale — 40 Percent Discount While It Lasts!

_{Science & Culture
August 4, 2026}

You’re heading to that beach vacation. Or maybe like us in Washington State, you’re sneezing and coughing from the sunbaked wildfire smoke.

Hey Octopus, How Did You Get to Be So Smart?

_{Science & Culture
July 23, 2026}

With the asocial brain hypothesis, researchers ask us to think beyond traditional explanations for why some animals display unexpected intelligence.

When Orcas Play — With a Dead Sunfish

_{Science & Culture
July 23, 2026}

While the orcas’ sunfish-exploding behavior is remarkable, it is consistent, after all, with their reputation as the “wolves of the sea.”

Design Concepts: Interoception Is a Match for Proprioception

_{Science & Culture
July 16, 2026}

The take-home point is surely this: Our bodies have all sorts of ways of giving us information that do not run through our senses.

New Paper: Appeals to Evolutionary Plateaus Do Not Save Evolution

_{Science & Culture
July 13, 2026}

In evolution, mutations that increase fitness can be thought of as moving uphill, whereas mutations that decrease fitness can be thought of as moving downhill.

“Malinformation” — Another Sinister Neologism from the Folks Who Specialize in Them

_{Science & Culture
July 9, 2026}

The government got lots of support from an academic elite that was anxious to introduce Newspeak terms including “malinformation.”

Cronin’s Assembly Theory Continues to Perform Its Magic

_{Science & Culture
July 8, 2026}

Cronin and Walker know what is wrong with origin-of-life research. They’re just afraid of what may be right.

We Created Life! Er, Wait a Minute…

_{Science & Culture
July 2, 2026}

A synthetic cell lineage contrived by humans will (necessarily) need to copy what Nature has already done, or fail.

John West: Science and the American Founding

_{Science & Culture
June 28, 2026}

"Today, many people think that belief in a Creator is a subjective preference based on their personal faith. But that was not the view of America’s Founders."

Epigenetics and the Architect: New Book Unveils Design at Biology’s Frontier

_{Science & Culture
June 22, 2026}

Much of the information employed to build biological form is situated in epigenetic architecture beyond the reach of random genetic mutations.

Covert Consciousness Poses Bioethical Dilemmas

_{Science & Culture
June 21, 2026}

A great deal of work is needed in clinical studies to provide a large enough database to help guide treatment decisions.

When Bumblebees Cheat at Games

_{Science & Culture
June 11, 2026}

Perhaps the most significant aspect of the findings is in light of the fact that the bumblebee has only about one million neurons (humans have 86 billion).

In Science Research, a Plague of Phony Citations Generated by AI

_{Science & Culture
June 10, 2026}

Ironically, the public has been taught to worry that AI is taking over and will do everything better than humans.

“Homelessness” Meets the Simulation Theory

_{Science & Culture
June 7, 2026}

"As the late podcaster and 'Dilbert' cartoonist Scott Adams used to say, it was as if the Simulation was 'winking at us.'"

“ID Takes Center Stage”: Brian Miller on the Meyer/Halper Debate

_{Science & Culture
June 6, 2026}

"Halper is one of the most formidable proponents of atheism, but he also admits that the discussion with Meyer was 'the toughest debate I’ve ever had.'"

Scientists Ask, “Is Materialism Holding Science Back?”

_{Science & Culture
June 5, 2026}

Is materialism a straightjacket? The very fact that a respectable conversation is going on around this question tells us that something has changed.