Chemists have made a discovery that supports a surprising new view of how life originated on our planet. They demonstrated that a simple compound called diamidophosphate (DAP), which was plausibly present on Earth before life arose, could have chemically knitted together tiny DNA building blocks called deoxynucleosides into strands of primordial DNA.
Month: December 2020
The Search for Extraterrestrial Life Gets an Update
Taking into account what we really know about exoplanets would help refine the search by focusing on signals that must represent life.
Source: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life Gets an Update | Mind Matters
Darwin Is on the Roof
Books by Behe, and other ID theorists doing an independent of audit of evolutionary thinking, find devastating faults in the theory.
Source: #7 Story of 2020: Darwin Is on the Roof | Evolution News
A 350,000-year-old turning point in human evolution found in Israel
An earlier universe existed before the Big Bang, and can still be observed today, says Nobel winner
An earlier universe existed before the Big Bang and can still be observed today, Sir Roger Penrose has said, as he received the Nobel Prize for Physics. Sir Roger, 89, who won the honour for his seminal work proving that black holes exist, said he had found six ‘warm’ points in the sky (dubbed ‘Hawking Points’) which are around eight times the diameter of the Moon. They are named after Prof Stephen Hawking, who theorised that black holes ‘leak’ radiation and eventually evaporate away entirely. The timescale for the complete evaporation of a black hole is huge, possibly longer than the age of our current universe, making them impossible to detect. However, Sir Roger believes that ‘dead’ black holes from earlier universes or ‘aeons’ are observable now. If true, it would prove Hawking’s theories were correct.
Source: An earlier universe existed before the Big Bang, and can still be observed today, says Nobel winner
Scientists looking for alien life are intrigued by a weird radio signal from a nearby star
Thank Socialism for the Vaccine. Blame Capitalism for Its Distribution.
The jaw-dropping speed of COVID-19 vaccine development is a glorious marvel of science, cooperation, and economic planning — a glimpse of how much more an egalitarian world could produce and achieve. But the lifeboat ethics of vaccine rollout is a horrifying display of the inefficiency and cruelty of capitalism.
Source: Thank Socialism for the Vaccine. Blame Capitalism for Its Distribution.
Neuroscientists isolate promising mini antibodies against COVID-19 from a llama: Preliminary results suggest anti-COVID19 nanobodies may be effective at preventing and diagnosing infections
Researchers have isolated a set of promising, tiny antibodies, or ‘nanobodies,’ against SARS-CoV-2 that were produced by a llama named Cormac. Preliminary results suggest that at least one of these nanobodies, called NIH-CoVnb-112, could prevent infections and detect virus particles by grabbing hold of SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins. In addition, the nanobody appeared to work equally well in either liquid or aerosol form, suggesting it could remain effective after inhalation.
New abnormal? Four years lost on climate front
Returning to normal could spell the end of human civilization.
The pandemic strangely brought a runaway socio-economic system to
a halt, and a brief path to a new social reality.
After Trump we may unable to return to status quo ante, let alone confront the ‘new abnormal’…
Source: Robert Reich explains Joe Biden’s biggest challenge – Alternet.org
Scientists describe ‘crazy beast’ that lived among dinosaurs and seems to break rules of evolution
In a new 234-page treatment, scientists have explained in detail the bizarre features of the animal.
Darwiniana 