More introns on the brain

As readers of this blog know, I have proposed that introns have facilitated metazoan evolution.  For example, after discussing alternative splicing, I noted:

It should now become clear to you why introns are so useful in a multicellular state and, conversely, why the cell design of a prokaryote could never have evolved something like a mouse.  Introns impart extreme flexibility that would facilitate the emergence of different cell types under the constraint of the same genome.

Recent research has shown how one splicing network that is important in the development of the brain may have evolved.  What’s interesting to me is not simply more data that supports my hypothesis about the role of introns in metazoan evolution, but that this gene network was pieced together prior to the emergence of the brain.

Comparing 50 Years

When it comes to the topic of abiogenesis, I am neither a denier nor a cheerleader.  That is, I don’t deny the earth spawned life and argue it is so improbable that it did not occur. I don’t think we know enough to make such negative claims.  But neither do I buy into the notion that abiogenesis research has been making great progress over the years and solutions are right around the corner.  I’ve heard that unfulfilled promise for too long now not be to be jaded.  Personally, I think scientists are about as baffled about the origin as life as they were in 1953.  What does this all mean?  I don’t know.

Nevertheless, periodically you will come across cheerleaders who will hold up this study or that study as something that is supposed to be ground-breaking or as something that demonstrates the progress that is being made.  My response is not to criticize, but to withhold judgment and wait to see if anything comes out of this study or that study.  So I’ve been doing a lot of waiting.  Anyway, if you don’t have the expertise to judge such claims, simply step back and survey the big picture.  Go back to 1953 and again contrast a known field of scientific success (akin to using a positive control) with abiogenesis research over the years.

Since both dramatic findings were laid in the lap of the scientific community at the same time, it would be instructive to compare their respective track records of success.

An easy way to compare them is to take advantage of the fact that 2003 was the 50th anniversary of both papers, as human beings love to celebrate milestones.

Mitochondria

The folks who made The Life of the Cell made a new video last year:

1953 and Beyond

Stanley Miller published his original paper that isolated amino acids from an electrical discharge in one of the most widely read scientific journals called Science. It was published on May 15, 1953.  What is most uncanny about this date is that another famous scientific paper was published just three weeks earlier in the other most widely read journal in the scientific community, Nature. This was Watson and Crick’s revolutionary paper that first outlined the double helix model of DNA.  Since both dramatic findings were laid in the lap of the scientific community at the same time, it would be instructive to compare their respective track records of success.

Cilia behind sensation

Earlier, I explained how we can reasonably look at cilia from a teleological perspective.  I later provided a clue to support my hypothesis.  The hypothesis even made my oh so prestigious top 10 list for 2010!

So now consider the fact that while scientists have long considered the primary cilia to be some functionless vestige, it turns out they function as sophisticated communication devices because of intraflagellar transport:

Convergence Website

Things slow around here?  Looking for some juicy carrots to nibble on?  Well, go have a look at Simon Conway Morris’ new website entitled, Map of Life:
This website aims to tell you nearly everything you need (and may ever want) to know about convergent evolution. It allows you to explore the way that similar adaptive solutions have repeatedly evolved from unrelated starting points, as though following a metaphorical ‘map’.
The site archives hundreds of examples of convergence, enough to keep any bunny busy for a long time.  I think you’ll like it.

HT: Stephen

Spock’s Scanner

Ever wonder what Mr. Spock was seeing when he looked into his scanner? Wonder no more:

More Thoughts on Scientism

Since I enjoyed Ian Hutchinson’s essay so much, I decided to skip ahead and offer some more commentary.

Hutchinson writes:

Many of life’s most important matters simply do not possess reproducibility. History, for example, cannot be understood by appeal to reproducibility. Its most significant events are often unique, never to be repeated. There is no way to experiment on history, and no way to repeat the observations. Some parts of historical study benefit from scientific techniques, but the main mission of history cannot be addressed through reproducibility; its methods are not those of science. Yet history possesses real knowledge.

Here people will quibble about whether or not history is science (it is not).  So let’s pick another example that cannot be disputed – memory.

Three Problems with Scientism

Ian Hutchinson has written a very nice essay on scientism.  He defines it as “the belief that science is all the real knowledge there is” and then highlights three very serious problems with this belief system.  The problems are so serious that an intellectually honest approach would have us steer clear of scientism.