Ann Coulter on Evolution

Ann Coulter's new book, Godless, has several chapters devoted to bashing evolution. Naturally this has has caused a little bit of rumbling around the science-oriented blogosphere. Many of the commenters are politically left of center, so they already have reason to dislike her based on politics.

William Dembski, of the Discovery Institute, claims to have helped Ann. I briefy perused the book at the store a few days ago and it sure looks like she had input from DI types (which seems to be confirmed.) It has many of the distortions and talking points that the DI has been putting forth--even some old creationist chestnuts like "survival of the fittest is a tautology." I also saw some bold sweeping assertions about, say, the fossil record. Now you and I both know that she isn't any kind of expert on paleontology, and given that evolution is firmly a part of paleontology, the experts wouldn't back her up. But that doesn't stop her from pronouncing the fossil record as devoid of evidence for evolution.

Coulter's angle, of course, is that Darwinism is the religion of godless liberals. Well I suppose it could be, but what to do about folks on her team--Christians and conservatives--that accept evolution? People like George Will or Charles Krauthammer, or any other number of people? Clearly the dichotomy is not how she is drawing it.

If there is value in that part of the book, it may be that it concisely lays out current anti-evolutionary arguments, with spice. But if you read the book, at least read some mainstream science to go along with it. Or easier, visit the Talk.Origins index to creationist claims--I'm confident that you will find much of what she has written has already been dealt with.

P.S. I once had occasion to meet Ann Coulter and sit at her table at a dinner. At the time I had no idea who she was.

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Non-Human and Gay

Seed Magazine (a magazine dedicated to science and culture) has an article about homosexuality in the animal kingdom. It focuses on one (transexual) biologist's attempt to change the way biologists look at sexuality. You have to get to the end of the article to see that most evolutionary biologists remain skeptical or think that the role of homosexuality is being exaggerated, but the article does raise some interesting points. The main argument is that sexuality is not only about reproduction--that it builds social relationships and helps individuals to get along.

For too long, she says, biology has neglected evidence that mating isn't only about multiplying. Sometimes, as in the case of all those gay sheep, dolphins and primates, animals have sex just for fun or to cement their social bonds..."

"Same-sex sexuality is just another way of maintaining physical intimacy," Roughgarden says. "It's like grooming, except we have lots of pleasure neurons in our genitals. When animals exhibit homosexual behavior, they are just using their genitals for a socially significant purpose."

That's all fine and good, but I thought this was a bit much:

Being gay or straight seems to be an intrinsic and implacable part of our identity. Roughgarden disagrees. "In our culture, we assume that there is a straight-gay binary, and that you are either one or the other. But if you look at vertebrates, that just isn't the case. You will almost never find animals or primates that are exclusively gay. Other human cultures show the same thing." Since Roughgarden believes that the hetero/homo distinction is a purely cultural creation, and not a fact of biology, she thinks it is only a matter of time before we return to the standard primate model. "I'm convinced that in 50 years, the gay-straight dichotomy will dissolve. I think it just takes too much social energy to preserve. All this campy, flamboyant behavior: It's just such hard work."

Um, maybe in some circles, but otherwise, dream on.

Here's a final quote:

At last count, over 450 different vertebrate species could be beheaded in Saudi Arabia. You name it, there's a vertebrate out there that does it.

Nature sure is diverse. Appeal to it with caution.

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Pufferfish and Ancestral Genomes

PZ Myers of Pharyngula has a nice discussion of the publication of the pufferfish genome and the interesting things that can be inferred by comparing it with the human genome. It looks like he originally wrote it a couple of years ago and is re-posting it. It may not be late-breaking news, but it is still interesting and worth a few minutes of your time.

(It even has some pretty pictures, and I heard he's serving refreshments too. Still not interested? Well, you're in charge of folding up chairs afterward.)

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HPV Vaccine Approved

The FDA has approved a vaccine that protects against some types of human papillomavirus that can lead to cervical cancer. I've discussed the vaccine before (here and here.)

Adventures in Ethics and Science has some discussion on the political and economic front.

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Viruses are the Spice of Life

This week's Nature has a news article about the large and diverse role that viruses play in the ecology on this earth, and the insights about the past that we are gaining from them. If you can name an organism, there is probably a virus that infects it.

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Hints of the vast, unexplored viral world first emerged during the 1980s. Researchers at the University of Bergen in Norway, with the help of a new electron-microscopy technique, showed that viral concentrations in some aquatic habitats were up to 10 million times greater than previous estimates. Viral particles per millilitre ranged from 60,000, deep beneath the Barents Sea, to 254 million, from the surface waters of Germany's Lake Plussee.

Since then researchers have discovered huge numbers of viruses wherever they have looked, from 2,000 metres below the surface of Earth to the sands of the Sahara Desert, from acidic hot springs to polar lakes. In total there are now thought to be some 10^31 viral particles on the planet — an astronomical figure that one researcher recently described as 250 million light years' worth of viral genes laid end to end.

Then, in the mid-1990s, researchers started to grasp the dazzling variety that exists within this viral multitude. Biologists discovered that the known and cultured viruses represented just a fraction of their respective groups. From one cubic metre of seawater to the next, there was more genetic diversity in viruses than found in any other known group of organisms.

These viruses are a large reservoir of genetic diversity that can wind up in the host genome. (FYI, a phage is a virus that infects bacteria.)

A big question now is the degree to which this super-organism extends its tentacles into host genomes. It has long been known that bacteria use genes acquired from prophages — phages that insert their DNA temporarily or even permanently into the DNA of their host — to gain competitive advantage and exploit new environments. Indeed, work reaching back decades has shown that prophage genes carried by bacteria are responsible for producing the primary toxins associated with diseases such as diphtheria, scarlet fever, food poisoning, botulism and cholera.

I think this next bit is fascinating to think about.

Phage DNA has also made it into the human genome, despite the fact that phages target bacteria. The source was our mitochondria, the energy-producing capsules found in our cells and thought to be the descendants of a formerly free-living bacterium. During evolution, phage genes from the mitochondrial genome have transferred into our main genome, housed in the cell's nucleus. There, they help copy and express the few bacterial genes still present in the mitochondrial genome. Recently, this same phage DNA has been spotted in various modern bacteria belonging to the group from which mitochondria are thought to have descended. That supports the idea that the gene made its way from virus to bacterium to cell nucleus, where it now plays a key role in the molecular circuitry that drives all multicelled organisms.

The article also mentions retroviral remains in our genome, some of which appear to play a function in our physiology.

Virology isn't just about disease anymore.

---

Nature 441, 683-685 (8 June 2006)

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Elder Hafen on Adam and Eve

I've been reading Elder Bruce C. Hafen's book Covenant Hearts: Marriage and the Joy of Human Love. Here is a passage about Adam and Eve that I liked.

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--Begin Quote--

Adam and Eve's story sets the pattern for our own lives. Their experience is the primal story about how the great "plan of hapiness" (Alma 42:16) actually works--and the story is about a married couple. The story has six archetypal elements.

• Living before mortal birth with our Mother and our Father, God of the Universe.
  
  
• Making choices, learning, hopefully marrying and becoming parents ourselves.
  
  
• Contending against the opposition of an Enemy who keeps trying to destroy God's plan and our happiness.
  
  
• Overcoming the Enemy through a Redeemer whose sacrifice, together with our efforts, allows us to go home.
  
  
• Returning home, mature and married, there to remain with our eternal Parents and be like them, like God.

--End Quote--


It seems to me that the story of Adam and Eve is much more about these archetypal elements than about details of creation.

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Biodiversity and Human Health

PLoS Medicine has an essay describing one connection between biodiversity and human health.

In this Essay, we describe how disease risk is influenced by biological diversity and, specifically, how some host species act to reduce the risk of transmission of virulent zoonotic pathogens to people. This represents an exciting area of study where ecologists, conservation planners, and physicians can work together to reduce disease risk and maintain biological diversity. In a world where climate change may allow vector-transmitted diseases to spread from the tropics into the temperate zone, it may be sensible to conserve biological diversity for the purely selfish reasons of protecting human health.

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Faithless, Stupid, or Crazy?

You decide.

KIEV (Reuters) - A man shouting that God would keep him safe was mauled to death by a lioness in Kiev zoo after he crept into the animal's enclosure, a zoo official said on Monday.

"The man shouted 'God will save me, if he exists', lowered himself by a rope into the enclosure, took his shoes off and went up to the lions," the official said.

"A lioness went straight for him, knocked him down and severed his carotid artery."

As for me and my house, we will stick with good old-fashioned snake handling.

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