Abstract The emergence of the ribosome constituted a pivotal step in the evolution of life. This event happened nearly four billion years ago, and any traces of early stages of ribosome evolution are generally thought to have completely eroded away. Surprisingly, a detailed analysis of the structure of the modern ribosome reveals a concerted and [...]
In Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution I coined the term “irreducible complexity” in order to point out an apparent problem for the Darwinian evolution of some biochemical and cellular systems. In brief, an irreducibly complex system is one that needs several well-matched parts, all working together, to perform its function. The reason that [...]
Sir, During the last decade, prospective studies conducted in the Netherlands, United Kingdom, and United States have revealed that approximately 15% of cardiac arrest survivors report conscious mental activity while their hearts are stopped.1,2,3, 4 This finding is quite intriguing considering that during cardiac arrest, the flow of blood to the brain is interrupted. When [...]
In his attack on my research into children and religious ideas, AC Grayling plays the psychologist and spins conspiracy theories Last week at Cambridge University's Faraday Institute, I summarised some scientific research that leads me and many of my colleagues to argue that from childhood humans have a number of predispositions that incline them [...]
The fine-tuning of the universe for intelligent life has received a great deal of attention in recent years, both in the philosophical and scientific literature. The claim is that in the space of possible physical laws, parameters and initial conditions, the set that permits the evolution of intelligent life is very small. I present here [...]
Letters to Nature I’ve just finished listening to a debate between philosopher William Lane Craig and cosmologist Lawrence Krauss on the debate topic “Is there evidence for God?”. I have a load of these on my iPod – some are very good (Craig vs Austin Dacey is probably the best), while some represent 2 hours of my life that I’ll never [...]
Then came to Jesus ... - Mark says that they saw the disciples of Jesus eating with unwashed hands. Transgress the tradition of the elders - The world "elders" literally means "old men." Here it means the "ancients," or their "ancestors." The "tradition of the elders" meant something handed down from one to another [...]
Proteins employ a wide variety of folds to perform their biological functions. How are these folds first acquired? An important step toward answering this is to obtain an estimate of the overall prevalence of sequences adopting functional folds. Since tertiary structure is needed for a typical enzyme active site to form, one way to obtain this estimate is to [...]
Some NDErs report out-of-body experiences during their NDEs where what is seen 'out-of-body' does not correspond to what is actually happening in the physical world. Peter and Elizabeth Fenwick reports the NDE of a World War II veteran whose unit came under attack from aerial bombers: The battery cook (a devout Muslim) came running in panic toward [...]
The 170-storey building in Jeddah will rise to a height of more than one kilometre, surpassing Dubai’s Burj Khalifa. The tower, which will feature a hotel, apartments and offices, is slated for completion in 2018 [Mace] 30 Nov 2015: The Saudi corporation behind plans for the world’s tallest building says it has secured [...]
