Hi Readers,
I stumbled across a very interesting article the other day. It was about a bill that has been proposed and is moving forward in Oklahoma that attempts to make it illegal to fail a student for arguing that humans co-existed with dinosaurs in class. Is this bill an important proponent in allowing freedom of intellectual debate or the proliferation of ignorance?
On face level, the intent of this bill could reasonably be construed as an effective device for allowing young scholar the platform to intellectually question ideologies that are assumed by most to be true. Science, and therefore evolution, in its essence is an intellectual and philosophical field that does not advance without healthy and challenging scholarly debate combined with scholarly research. Challenging the theory of evolution by posing the co-existence of humans and dinosaurs is completely extraneous and instead sounds like it is rather a statement of creationist beliefs rather than scholarly debate.
Creationism is the theory of evolutions greatest rival. Not because it has the most proof but rather millions of people who have "faith" in it. The belief that all things were created by an entity at a common point in time and that the world has changed little since then is a strong argument posed in the Christian faith among others. Creationism therefore states that it is possible to have humans and dinosaurs co-exist as they were both created at the same time but dinosaurs have subsequently died off. Some of those who subscribe to the creation belief system have tried to discredit the theory of evolution by using science against itself in a field called creation science.
Creation science is one such form of scholarly scrutiny that helps advance science. It even has a journal that is published called the Journal of Creation. Even this field however relies on religious influence to help debunk the theories of science. Such approaches, i.e., Creationism and Creation Science, are by and large ignorant as they see science and religion as comparable fields of thought. Science is no more similar to religion than maths is and therefore cannot be compared to it.
In summation, if you do not subscribe to the theories that are presented by science you cannot seek to debunk it through religion in particular, creationism. Therefore, condoning a student for stating an extraneous theory such as the co-existence of humans and dinosaurs is allowing the use of religious beliefs to be presented against science further proliferating ignorance. It would be labelled the same if in religious education a student was allowed to say that the Earth was not created but formed as a result of evolution.
Until next time,
Jay
Article:
http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/22/making-it-illegal-to-fail-science-students-who-argue-humans-co-existed-with-dinosaurs/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29
Monday, February 25, 2013
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Pre-Apocalypse?: "Zombie" Cells created in New Mexico
Hi Readers,
No, you didn't read the title wrong! Today's post is about an interesting article I found recently that describes how a team of scientists from the University of New Mexico have successfully managed to create what are being described as "zombie" cells.
Like their Hollywood counterparts, "zombie" cells are the relic of a cell that was once living but continues to perform the behaviours that living cells do. I have posted the link to the article below but briefly here is what is described. This remarkable feat has been achieved by coating living cells in silicilic acid then heating the cells to 400 degrees Celsius so the former biological material is destroyed (or killed) and the silica replica (or "zombie" cells) is left in its place. The article goes on to describe that the initial findings from this experiment has shown that the silica "zombie" cells out perform the cells they were originally cast from.
The article that was posted by Naharnet this month is actually based off of a paper that was published in PNAS in October of last year (link below) Kaehr et al.. Keahr and others were inspired to conduct this research because they were inspired by the naturally occurring silica structures that are produced by some organisms in particular, diatoms. Silica structures are inorganic meaning they can withstand conditions that biological material cannot but as they are created by organisms and therefore have the complexity in structure inherent to biological structures. This research therefore has broad practical implications for advancing research and development into better nanomaterials.
So for now you can put aside your mental images of mad scientists slaving in a dungeon to create damned reanimations bringing forth the apocalypse with "zombie" cells. This research is marvelous but surely does not signal an impending zombie plague.
Until next time,
Jay
Press Release
http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/72238-biologists-create-zombie-cells-which-outperform-living-counterparts
Paper
http://www.pnas.org/content/109/43/17336.abstract
No, you didn't read the title wrong! Today's post is about an interesting article I found recently that describes how a team of scientists from the University of New Mexico have successfully managed to create what are being described as "zombie" cells.
 |
| A picture of a "Zombie" cell taken using Scanning Electron Microscopy. Taken from www.naharnet.com 17.02.2013. |
Like their Hollywood counterparts, "zombie" cells are the relic of a cell that was once living but continues to perform the behaviours that living cells do. I have posted the link to the article below but briefly here is what is described. This remarkable feat has been achieved by coating living cells in silicilic acid then heating the cells to 400 degrees Celsius so the former biological material is destroyed (or killed) and the silica replica (or "zombie" cells) is left in its place. The article goes on to describe that the initial findings from this experiment has shown that the silica "zombie" cells out perform the cells they were originally cast from.
The article that was posted by Naharnet this month is actually based off of a paper that was published in PNAS in October of last year (link below) Kaehr et al.. Keahr and others were inspired to conduct this research because they were inspired by the naturally occurring silica structures that are produced by some organisms in particular, diatoms. Silica structures are inorganic meaning they can withstand conditions that biological material cannot but as they are created by organisms and therefore have the complexity in structure inherent to biological structures. This research therefore has broad practical implications for advancing research and development into better nanomaterials.
So for now you can put aside your mental images of mad scientists slaving in a dungeon to create damned reanimations bringing forth the apocalypse with "zombie" cells. This research is marvelous but surely does not signal an impending zombie plague.
Until next time,
Jay
Press Release
http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/72238-biologists-create-zombie-cells-which-outperform-living-counterparts
Paper
http://www.pnas.org/content/109/43/17336.abstract
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