Covidiot News - Research Shows a Correlation Between Unmedicated Mental Illness and Low COVID-19 Vaccination Takeup

Researchers show a correlation between low COVID-19 Vaccine uptake and unmedicated mental health.

Unmedicated mental illness linked to lower COVID-19 vaccination levels | Karolinska Institutet

I've often thought, with such a high risk of catching COVID-19 and such a high risk of serious illness, both short and long term from 'long COVID', that people must be mad not to take up the offer of the initial vaccine and the regular boosters.

Now a Swedish team at the Karolinska Institutet have analysed data from seven studies in Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Estonia and Scotland and found a significant correlation between unmedicated mental illness and low vaccine take-up.

Refuting Creationism - Octopuses Show Leadership and Strategic Thinking Skills On Multi-Species Group Hunting Trips

© Eduardo Sampaio

Unlocking the secrets of multispecies hunting | Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior

Strategic thinking, group leadership and planning is normally associated with a high level of intelligence and cognitive awareness of others in the group so the group can work efficiently to achieve a given objective.

So it will come as a surprise to those who cite these human abilities as evidence of human exceptionalism pointing to special creation as a species materially different o other species, that octopuses have been shown to exhibit the same skills when leading inter-species hunting groups consisting of themselves and one or more species of fish who collectively find hidden prey species which the octopus can flush out.

Unlike humans, however, leadership power in octopuses does not lead to despotism, as it often does with humans and octopuses show flexibility of roles, sometime letting one of the fish lead the group. However, there is evidence that octopuses control the dynamics within the group and enforce social hierarchies.

Unlike with human-led multi-species hunting groups which may include dogs and horses, where it is invariably a human who leads the group and who determines how the prey is shared if at all, with octopus-led groups, the octopus needs the cognitive skills and social awareness to understand the group dynamics and social structure across several species, but the prey is consumed by whoever catches it with no attempt to impose a precedence by the leader.

The objective is to capture the prey, not massage the ego of the leader.

These group hunting strategies allow goatfish to forage more effectively, taking advantage of teamwork to find hidden prey and exploit food resources in their habitats.

Malevolent Design - What Creationism's Divine Malevolence Chose Not To Give Us But Lets Us To Suffer Instead

Tail fin regeneration at 6 hours after injury. Fluorescence microscopy image shows skin cells (magenta), actively dividing cells (cyan), and transiently activated skin cell states (yellow).

African killifish, Nothobranchius furzeri

Stowers scientists uncover a… | Stowers Institute for Medical Research

"God never restore an amputated limb". This fact, better than anything, illustrates either the limit of the power of prayer and 'faith healing' or the limit of power of the god being prayed to. There are no authenticated examples of a restored limb or of the spontaneous healing of a transected spinal cord, despite the steady supply of victims seeking a cure to 'miracle' site such as Lourdes, and the fervent prayers of victims and the families. (We can dismiss the 'Miracle of Calanda' as far too transparent a hoax to be taken seriously.) It just never happens!

An omniscience, omnipotent, omnibenevolent designer would work to minimise the suffering in its creation. To do otherwise tells us that the alleged creator is:

• Unaware of it, in which case it is not omniscient.
• Aware of it but powerless to prevent it, in which case it is not omnipotent.
• Aware of it but indifferent to it, in which case it is not omnibenevolent.

This paradox, known as Epicurus paradox, has never been successfully answered by theists other than by hand-waving dismissals and mumblings about 'inscrutability' and 'divine plans which are not given to mankind to understand'. IOW, their god is omniscient, omnipotent and omnibenevolent even though it doesn't always behave that way and the results of its actions or inaction tell us otherwise.

The facts are not permitted to overrule the sacred dogma - which is creationism in a nutshell.

If you believe in the creationist notion of magic creation, where every species was designed according to some perfect plan, then the fact that some species lack abilities with which other species have, and with which clearly the putative designer knew how to provide, should raise some questions about why the designer made the choice not to provide them.

And if, as most self-centered fundamentalist believe, humans were at the apex of this creator god's design, then it should have the best of everything, and yet there are a myriad of examples of other species being better than humans. (See the AI panel for examples):

Many species have abilities which would be beneficial to humans if we too possessed them* Do you have a list of examples of this? Yes! Many species have evolved unique traits that, if humans possessed them, could greatly enhance our abilities or solve certain challenges. Here's a list of some remarkable examples:

1. Regeneration (Axolotl, Starfish)
   • Benefit: The ability to regrow limbs or even vital organs.
   • Species Example: Axolotls and starfish can regenerate entire body parts. This could help humans recover from amputations, spinal cord injuries, or organ damage.
   
   
2. Echolocation (Bats, Dolphins)
   • Benefit: Enhanced navigation and perception in low-visibility conditions.
   • Species Example: Bats and dolphins use echolocation to navigate in darkness or murky waters. This would allow humans to navigate dangerous environments or see without light.
   
   
3. Photosynthesis (Plants, Algae)
   • Benefit: The ability to convert sunlight directly into energy.
   • Species Example: Plants and algae can photosynthesize, which could eliminate the need for food in some situations, reducing hunger and energy concerns.
   
   
4. Extreme Durability (Tardigrades)
   • Benefit: Surviving extreme environments such as radiation, freezing temperatures, dehydration, and even space.
   • Species Example: Tardigrades (water bears) can endure near-death conditions. This would make humans far more resistant to extreme climates or space travel.
5. Camouflage (Chameleons, Cuttlefish)
   • Benefit: Blending into environments for protection or hunting.
   • Species Example: Chameleons and cuttlefish can change color and texture. Humans with this ability could avoid detection in dangerous situations or during combat.
   
   
6. Electricity Generation (Electric Eel)
   • Benefit: Generating electrical energy for self-defense or powering devices.
   • Species Example: Electric eels produce electric shocks. This could allow humans to power small devices or defend against threats using natural electricity.
   
   
7. Hyper-Speed Healing (Deer Antlers, Certain Lizards)
   • Benefit: Rapid recovery from wounds and injuries.
   • Species Example: Deer regrow antlers each year at an incredibly fast rate. Some lizards regrow tails. Enhanced human healing could lead to faster recovery after surgeries or injuries.
8. UV Vision (Birds, Insects)
   • Benefit: Seeing ultraviolet light to detect environmental changes or patterns invisible to the human eye.
   • Species Example: Many birds and insects can see ultraviolet light, which helps them find food and mates. Humans with this ability could have enhanced perception of their surroundings.
   
   
9. Extreme Longevity (Greenland Shark, Tortoises)
   • Benefit: Significantly extended lifespan.
   • Species Example: The Greenland shark can live for centuries, and tortoises often live over 100 years. If humans possessed this trait, we could extend lifespans, allowing more time for knowledge acquisition and creativity.
   
   
10. Poison Resistance (Mongoose)
    • Benefit: Immunity to toxins and venoms.
    • Species Example: The mongoose is resistant to snake venom, allowing it to hunt poisonous snakes. This could protect humans from dangerous toxins or make certain medical treatments less risky.
    
    
11. Hibernation (Bears, Ground Squirrels)
    • Benefit: Surviving long periods without food and conserving energy.
    • Species Example: Bears and ground squirrels hibernate during the winter. Humans with this ability could endure long periods without food, which would be useful in survival situations or space travel.
    
    
12. Rapid Adaptation to High Altitudes (Bar-Headed Geese)
    • Benefit: Increased oxygen efficiency in high-altitude or low-oxygen environments.
    • Species Example: Bar-headed geese can fly over the Himalayas at altitudes that would be deadly to most animals. This would allow humans to thrive in high-altitude environments or survive with less oxygen.
    
    
13. Flight (Birds, Bats)
    • Benefit: Self-powered aerial travel.
    • Species Example: Birds and bats have evolved to fly, which could enable humans to travel independently through the air, revolutionizing transportation and exploration.
    
    
14. Magnetic Field Detection (Migratory Birds, Turtles)
    • Benefit: Natural GPS and navigation using Earth’s magnetic fields.
    • Species Example: Some birds and turtles can detect the Earth’s magnetic field for navigation during migration. Humans could use this ability for more accurate navigation without technology.
    
    
15. Temperature Regulation (Camels, Arctic Foxes)
    • Benefit: Surviving extreme heat or cold without external aid.
    • Species Example: Camels can endure extreme desert heat, and arctic foxes thrive in freezing conditions. Humans with this ability could survive in more hostile climates with ease.
    
    

These abilities, if adapted for human use, could offer enormous benefits in fields ranging from medicine and survival to transportation and energy efficiency.

It's in the area of rapid repair and regeneration that research is being concentrated in order to gain a scientific understanding of the processes involved and particularly why they have been lost. One recent example was the discovery that zebra fish can not only repair a transected spinal cord but can regenerate a missing section of their spinal cord and restore it to full functionality.

And now we have another piece of research into how the African killifish can regenerate a missing section of fin, and in particular how the process restores just the missing tissues, no more and no less. This research from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research has just been published, open access, in the Cell Press journal iScience and announced in a Stowers Institute press release:

Stowers scientists uncover a critical component that helps killifish regenerate their fins

---

The findings are a step toward closing the gap on how we could one day deploy regenerative medicine in humans

---

Spontaneous injuries like the loss of a limb or damage to the spinal cord are impossible for humans to repair. Yet, some animals have an extraordinary capacity to regenerate after injury, a response that requires a precise sequence of cellular events. Now, new research from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research has unveiled a critical timing factor—specifically how long cells actively respond to injury—involved in regulating regeneration.

A recent study published in iScience on September 20, 2024, sought to understand exactly how an organism knows how much tissue has been lost post-injury. Led by former Predoctoral Researcher Augusto Ortega Granillo, Ph.D., in the lab of Stowers President and Chief Scientific Officer Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado, Ph.D., the team investigated how African killifish properly regrow their tail fin following damage. By analyzing tissue dynamics during regrowth, they found that in addition to known factors, including how many cells are participating and where they are located, the length of time cells spend engaged in the repair process is also key.

African killifish, Nothobranchius furzeri

One of the greatest unsolved mysteries of regeneration is how an organism knows what has been lost after injury. Essentially, the study points to a new variable in the equation of regeneration. If we can modulate the rate and the length of time that a tissue can launch a regenerative response, this could help us devise therapies that may activate and perhaps prolong the regenerative response of tissues that normally would not do so.

Dr. Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado, senior author.
Stowers Institute for Medical Research,
Kansas City, MO, USA.

Shortly after a killifish tail injury, the remaining tissue needs to know how much damage has occurred. Then, this tissue must enlist the right number of repair cells to the site of injury for the right amount of time. Damage sensing, repair cell recruitment, and timing somehow must work together to regrow the tail.

If an animal that can regenerate extremities, like a tail, loses just a tiny portion, how does it know not to regenerate a whole new tail but just the missing piece?

Dr. Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado.

To address this question, the team probed different locations of injury in the killifish tail fin.

Tail fin regeneration at 6 hours after injury. Fluorescence microscopy image shows skin cells (magenta), actively dividing cells (cyan), and transiently activated skin cell states (yellow).

They found that skin cells both near an injury and in distant, uninjured regions launch a genetic program that primes the whole animal to prepare for a repair response. Then, skin cells at the site of injury sustain this response and temporarily change their state to modify the surrounding material called the extracellular matrix. Ortega Granillo likens this matrix to a sponge that absorbs secreted signals from the injured tissue that then guides repair cells to get to work. If the signals are not received or not interpreted correctly, the regeneration process may not restore the tail’s original shape and size.

We very clearly defined when and where—at 24 hours post-injury and in the extracellular matrix—the transient cell state is acting in the fin tissue. Knowing when and where to look allowed us to make genetic disruptions and gain a better understanding of the function of these cell states during regeneration.

Augusto Ortega Granillo, first author
Stowers Institute for Medical Research,
Kansas City, MO, USA.

To investigate whether these distinct cellular states communicate information to the extracellular matrix—the supportive structure surrounding cells—during the repair process, the researchers employed the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technique. They specifically targeted a gene known to modify the extracellular matrix, as they had observed its activation at the onset of the regeneration response. By disrupting the function of this gene, the team aimed to determine its role in relaying information from cells to the matrix during regeneration.

These modified animals no longer know how much tissue was lost. They still regenerated, but the speed of tissue growth was deficient. This is telling us that by changing the extracellular space, skin cells inform the tissue how much was lost and how fast it should grow.

Augusto Ortega Granillo.

Tail fin regeneration at 7 days post-injury. Fluorescence microscopy image shows skin cells (magenta), actively dividing cells (cyan), and transiently activated skin cell states (yellow), where these cell states are localized now only in the very tip of the fin.

Indeed, the speed and amount of tissue regenerated in these genetically modified killifish increased regardless of whether the tail injury was mild or severe. This finding opens the possibility that cell states that modify the matrix increase regenerative regrowth. If the cell states could be adjusted, it may be a way to stimulate a more robust regeneration response.

From an evolutionary perspective, understanding why certain organisms excel at regeneration while others, such as humans, have limited regenerative abilities is a driving force in the field of regenerative biology. By identifying general principles in organisms with high regenerative capacity, researchers aim to potentially apply these insights to enhance regeneration in humans. This comparative approach not only sheds light on the evolutionary aspects of regeneration but also holds promise for developing novel therapeutic strategies in regenerative medicine.

Our goal is to understand how to shape and grow tissues. For people who sustain injuries or organ failure, regenerative therapies could restore function that was compromised during illness or following injury.

Augusto Ortega Granillo.

Post-injury fin growth shown over time in the African killifish.

via GIPHY

Additional authors include Daniel Zamora, Robert Schnittker, Allison Scott, Alessia Spluga, Jonathon Russell, Carolyn Brewster, Eric Ross, Daniel Acheampong, Ning Zhang, Ph.D., Kevin Ferro, Ph.D., Jason Morrison, Boris Rubinstein, Ph.D., Anoja Perera, and Wei Wang, Ph.D.

Highlights

• Amputation position changes tissue-wide proliferation response
• Regeneration deploys transient regeneration-activated cell states.
• Sqstm1 slows down regenerative outgrowth in distal injuries.
• Prediction: positional information is transduced by ECM changes during regeneration.

Summary
Injury is common in the life of organisms. Because the extent of damage cannot be predicted, injured organisms must determine how much tissue needs to be restored. Although it is known that amputation position affects the regeneration speed of appendages, mechanisms conveying positional information remain unclear. We investigated tissue dynamics in regenerating caudal fins of the African killifish (Nothobranchius furzeri) and found position-specific, differential spatial distribution modulation, persistence, and magnitude of proliferation. Single-cell RNA sequencing revealed a transient regeneration-activated cell state (TRACS) in the basal epidermis that is amplified to match a given amputation position and expresses components and modifiers of the extracellular matrix (ECM). Notably, CRISPR-Cas9-mediated deletion of the ECM modifier sequestosome 1 (sqstm1) increased the regenerative capacity of distal injuries, suggesting that regeneration growth rate can be uncoupled from amputation position. We propose that basal epidermis TRACS transduce positional information to the regenerating blastema by remodeling the ECM.

Graphical abstract

Introduction
For many organisms, including humans, the preservation of anatomical form and function depends in great part on the periodic elimination and restoration of cells. This process is referred to as tissue homeostasis. In mammals, the rate of tissue homeostasis varies widely across organs; i.e., self-renewal of the intestinal and lung epithelia has been estimated to take 5 days and up to 6 months, respectively.^1,2 As such, specific mechanisms exist in adult tissues responsible for sustaining specific rates of tissue homeostasis to mitigate normal, physiological wear and tear. The intricate balance of tissue homeostasis can be severely disrupted by injury. During their lifespans, all multicellular organisms are likely to experience some kind of injury. Unlike physiologically regulated tissue homeostasis, injuries and the extent of the damage incurred are unpredictable. This creates a challenge for organisms to monitor and deploy an anatomically specific regeneration response proportional to the magnitude of the injury.

During regeneration, a specialized structure known as blastema forms through the rapid proliferation and subsequent differentiation of multiple cell types to restore the missing tissue.³ For instance, it has been shown that osteoblast differentiation is accelerated in regenerating fins. Newly differentiated osteoblasts appear 4 days earlier in regenerated tissue compared to the pre-existing tissue, also referred to as the stump.⁴ It is not known whether there is a regeneration-specific osteoblast differentiation program or if differentiation trajectories used during tissue homeostasis can be accelerated during regeneration. Regeneration has also been shown to alter rates of tissue growth. In vertebrates, the speed of regeneration differs when different amounts of tissue are lost.⁵ For example, fish caudal fin amputations close to the base of the appendage, a proximal amputation, display higher growth rates than amputations performed further away from the base of the fin, a distal amputation.^6,7

To date, it is not known how injured tissues detect amputation position and what processes may encode positional information during regeneration. Efforts to identify deposited positional information prior to injury led to the identification of transcripts and proteins that are differentially expressed along the proximo/distal (P/D) axis in the intact zebrafish fin.⁸ However, these differences are lost during regeneration, leading to the hypothesis that positional information must be redefined during regeneration.⁸ Alternatively, it has been proposed that migratory progenitor cells retain positional identity from their locations prior to injury. This opens up the possibility that progenitors communicate positional information to the new tissue to determine regeneration growth rate.^9,10 But the mechanism of positional information retention and potential relay to other cells has not yet been identified.

Furthermore, it has been suggested that positional information is encoded in the tissue within the thickness of the bone at the plane of amputation^11,12 and that mechanical distension of the epidermis during wound closure constitutes a direct measurement of the amputation position by the wound epidermis. A wave of mechanical distension in the basal epidermis was shown to propagate to different lengths according to the amputation position.¹³ To add to the complexity of this process, it was shown that there is a 2-day time window at the beginning of regeneration when positional information is possibly reestablished de novo. If blastemas are impaired in their proliferative ability during this time window, the wrong positional information is encoded in the regenerated appendage, so multiple rounds of regeneration consistently grow abnormal tissue sizes in the absence of any further impairment of proliferation.¹⁴ It is conceivable that independent mechanisms of positional information coordinating the regenerative response exist. There may be redundant and complementary means to adequately relay and deposit positional information into the new tissue. This would ensure that form and function are restored following diverse and unpredictable injury.

Here, we deploy spatial and temporal analysis of proliferation and single-cell transcriptomic profiling to measure molecular and cellular changes along the caudal fin P/D axis. We chose the African killifish Nothobranchius furzeri for our studies because of the reduced complexity of differential gene expression and gene regulation compared to the more broadly utilized zebrafish.¹⁵ We show that amputation position influences the length of time (persistence) it takes for tissues to progress through regeneration. We report on the discovery of a basal epidermal subpopulation that shows a transient regeneration-activated cell state (TRACS) likely to participate in mediating positional information in the regenerating blastema. Altogether, our study demonstrates that amputations along the P/D axis result in defined spatial and temporal rates of proliferation. We propose that such dynamics likely initiate the proportional changes in tissue architecture that may ultimately define the scale and rate of regeneration of amputated tissues.

It's worth repeating what the Sowers Institute news release said at this point:

From an evolutionary perspective, understanding why certain organisms excel at regeneration while others, such as humans, have limited regenerative abilities is a driving force in the field of regenerative biology.

No doubts there then on the part of the authors that the facts can't be explained by evolution and are better explained by creationism's childish superstition, and of course the Theory of Evolution explains it fully without the need to explain why something which evolved for one species or from a common ancestor is retained by one line but not another in terms of the intention, malevolent, benign or indifferent, of the mindless, directionless natural process that drives it.

Creationism, on the other hand, has to try to reconcile the reality with what they believe about their putative designer, which includes explaining why, if it isn't malevolent, it designs organisms to look as though a malevolent designer designed them.

---

Advertisement

Thank you for sharing!

Tweet Link

Malevolent Design - A Newly-Discovered Gut Bacterium That Suppresses Immunity!

Drs. Thaddeus Stappenbeck, M.D., Ph.D., (left) and Qiuhe Lu, Ph.D., in the lab.

Cleveland Clinic Discovers Bacterium Causing Gut Immunodeficiency

The human gut, like that of other mammals, birds and vertebrates in particular and the gut of many insects and worms, in fact any organism with a moth and an anus, is an ideal environment for a whole host of other organisms, most of which will have co-evolved with humans and have been with us since our ancestors were small insectivores, skulking in the dark of the night to avoid dinosaurs and predatory proto-birds.

They for a complex and dynamic ecosystem of competing and cooperating bacteria, viruses, fungi and protozoa which exists in a more or less stable balance of arms races, predation and symbiosis.

Malevolent Design - How Bacteria Are 'Designed' With a Protective Coat

Bacterial cell wall structure

AI generated (ChatGPT40)
With apologies for the spelling!

Study unveals a novel protective mechanism in bacterial cell wall

Structure of gram-negative cell envelope

By Jeff Dahl - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

Here's a conundrum for creationists who have fallen for the Deception Institute's biologically nonsensical excuse for parasites - that they weren't designed by the only entity capable of designing living organisms, but by a process of 'devolution' [sic] from an initial created perfection caused by 'genetic entropy'. This excuse was hastily cobbled together by Michael J Behe when he realised his 'intelligent [sic] design' notion was making creationism's putative creator look like a pestilential malevolence, especially after Behe had gone to such lengths and scuppered his academic credentials with how 'irreducibly-complex-therefore-magically-created' E. coli flagellum, then his claim that resistance to antimalarial drugs in Plasmodium falciparum must have been designed.

The problem was that having produced an excuse for parasites that was designed to appeal to religious fundamentalists, Behe inadvertently abandoned any pretense that creationism is science not religion, by incorporating Christian fundamentalism in his excuse - initial created perfection followed by 'genetic entropy' caused by 'Sin', which depends on a belief in 'The Fall' and original sin.

Although Behe insists he's not a Christian fundamentalist YEC, his books invariably appeal to, and reinforce the prejudices of, those who are, and feed their insatiable demand for validation from the science they despise and continually attack as biased/Satanic/lies/flawed, etc.

But now we have research that shows how bacteria are 'designed' with a protective cell wall which helps them resist enzymes which would otherwise destroy them. Defensive structures and processes cannot logically be described as 'devolutionary', they therefore either evolved naturally, or, if you reject evolution in favour of intelligent [sic] design, were intelligently designed to make the bacteria better at making us sick, i.e., with malevolent intent.

Refuting Creationism - Tiny Shells Hold a Record of Sea Temperature Changes 10,000 Years Before 'Creation Week'

Earth's last ice age may provide crucial insights into the future behavior of El Niño events,

Foraminifera fossils

Ice age clues point to more extreme weather patterns in our future | University of Arizona News

With so much of Earth history occurring before creationism's little god allegedly created a small flat planet with a dome over it in the Middle East, it's useful to be able to recover data on global events such as climate change and sea temperature changes that can be projected into the future to predict what changes we can expect.

The 'El Niño' is a climate phenomenon that has a profound effect on world climate. It occurs every 2-7 years and is characterized by a warming of the sea surface in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean. It changes ocean currents, atmospheric humidity and rainfall, and jet streams that drive weather patterns, so understanding when these events occurred in the past and mapping them onto known climate patterns can help us predict future weather patterns.

Now scientist at the University of Arizona have developed a model for predicting how El Niño affects global weather patterns which needs to be validated against actual data, so they have analyzed the record of sea temperature change recorded in deposits of tiny foraminifera shells in ocean sediment, going back to the last Ice Age, 10,000 years before creationists think Earth existed.

Of course, the reason was not to refute creationism - it does that incidentally - but to provide a longer history on which to base future predictions than are currently available.

Malevolent Design News - Researchers Show Another Of The Devine Malevolence's Nasties - HIV's Little Brother HTLV-1

HTLV-1 virus-like particle

© Nature Structural & Molecular Biology/Obr et al.

A viral close-up. HTLV-1 virus-like particles with a close-up view of the building blocks forming the viral lattice.

© Nature Structural & Molecular Biology/Obr et al.

ISTA | A Viral Close-Up

Not content with increasing the suffering and misery in the world with its brilliantly designed Human Immunosuppressive Virus (HIV), creationism's favourite pestilential malevolence also produced a related virus, Human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1).

HIV is a deadly, (normally) sexually-transmitted retrovirus which medical scientists has managed to bring under control, but not cure or eradicate or even produce a vaccine against. What they have produced are anti-retroviral drugs which prevent the virus replicating so it doesn't kill its victims and, more importantly it isn't passed on to sexual partners.

Sadly for creationists, they have been denied the excuse of 'genetic entropy' and 'devolution' to absolve their favourite sadist of responsibility for HIV because they have also jubilantly declared it to be a 'gay plague' sent by their 'loving' god to punish homosexuals for behaving how it designed them to behave.

HTLV-1 is not nearly so deadly as HIV when left untreated, but, being closely related to it, it uses the same modus operandi as HIV and in some cases causes cancer and neurodegenerative disease that can be more deadly and debilitating than HIV treated by anti-retroviral drugs.

Refuting Creationism - Evolutionary History of the Grape is Enough to Make Creationists Wine

Nekemias mucronata sp. nov. Complete leaflet
Scale bar: 1 cm.

Tosal, A. Vicente, A. & Denk, T. (2024)

Nekemias mucronata fossil lateral leaflets from the collection of the Natural Science Museum of Barcelona.

Reconstructing the evolutionary history of the grape family

For today's refutation of creationism, we have the history of the grape, stretching back to between 40 and 23 million years before creationists think Earth was created.

Like almost everything else about the history of life in Earth, the evolution of the modern grape took place in the 99.9975% of time that preceded 'Creation Week' when creationism's little god made a small, flat planet with a dome over it in the Middle East.

This history has now been reconstructed by a team of three palaeontologists led by Aixa Tosal, from the Faculty of Earth Sciences and the Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio) of the University of Barcelona, with Alba Vicente, also from the University of Barcelona, and Thomas Denk from the Swedish Museum of Natural History (Stockholm).

Refuting Creationism - More Detail on The Evolution of the Mamalian Jaw and Middle Ear Bones - 17 Million Years before 'Creation Week'

Brasilodon quadrangularis and Riograndia guaibensis in their natural environment

AI generated (ChatGPT4o)

Riograndia and Brasilodon

Jorge Blanco

September: Brazilian fossils | News and features | University of Bristol

As I confidently predicted in the conclusion to my last blog post, that might have been that day's casual refutation of creationism, but another would be along shortly.

Of course, I can't claim any credit for such an easy prediction because refutations of creationism are ten-a-penny in scientific literature, occurring often multiple times a day, simply by revealing facts that run counter to creationist claims.

This particular refutation deals with the discovery that the precursor to the mammalian jaw joint and middle ear bones occurred several times with this particular one appearing in the fossil record about 17 million years ago. The mammalian middle ear bones or ossicles are a modification of the reptilian jaw and the single reptilian middle ear bone.

Refuting Creationism - An Improved Method For Analysing Ancient Microfossils To Discover How Life Evolved

Research News - Unveiling Ancient Life: New Method Sheds Light on Early Cellular and Metabolic Evolution | Tohoku University Global Site

One of the clutch of science publications which casually and unintentionally refute creationism to be published today, comes in the form of a paper by a team from the University of Tokyo, Tohoku University and Kochi University, Japan, which describes a new method for analysing ancient microfossils, and so discovering more about how key processes evolved in early cellular life.

The purpose of this is to discover not whether (that is never in doubt) but the precise details of how and when these key processes evolved.

Refuting Creationism - Meteor Strikes Show Earth is NOT Perfectly Designed for (Human) Life!

A surface geology map of the proposed Massive Australian Precambrian-Cambrian Impact Structure.

Credit: Daniel Connelly

A potential 370-mile-wide crater in Australia, known as MAPCIS, may reshape our understanding of Earth’s geological history. Researchers found geological evidence, including shocked minerals and melt rock, suggesting a massive impact at the end of the Ediacaran period. (Artist’s concept.)

Credit: SciTechDaily.com

Australian crater could offer fresh insight into Earth’s geological history - VCU News - Virginia Commonwealth University

It's a sign of their parochial ignorance that creationists believe their magic designer created Earth to be a perfect planet for them to live on. This notion fails to take into account the fact that, for many people, especially in the technologically under-developed parts of the world, life can be a struggle against disease, natural disasters, a lack of water and famine.

It also fails to take into account the record of natural disasters of a cosmological origin such as meteor strikes that have caused sudden mass extinctions in the vast length of time before creationists believe Earth was 'perfectly' created as a small flat planet with a dome over it in the Middle East.

Geologists from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), have identified the remnants of one such massive impact crater in the heart of Australia, measuring some 370 miles across. This impact is believed to have occurred toward the end of the Ediacaran period of Earth’s history, some 540 million years ago.

Malevolent Designer News - Why Cholera is So Good at Killing Us

Vibrio cholerae

AI generated image (ChatGPT4o)

Vibrio cholerae

AI generated image (ChatGPT4o)

News - Experts discover the deadly genetics of cholera, which could be key to its prevention - University of Nottingham

Although good hygiene and safe drinking water have most brought cholera under control in developed societies, it is still a major kill, especially of children, in poor and technologically under-developed countries.

It was a cholera outbreak of 1849 in Soho, London, the John Snow famously showed was statistically linked to drinking water from a well in Broad Steet, eventually persuading the authorities to remove the pump handle from the well, so ending the epidemic, that Snow conformed the Germ Theory of disease and founded modern epidemiology.

The cause was later shown to be a leaking septic tank which was contaminating the water in the well, and more remotely to a baby which caught cholera elsewhere whose nappy (diaper) was washed into the sewer, introducing the Vibrio cholerae into the septic tank.

I was born and brought up in North Oxfordshire in a rural community where, a generation earlier, cholera had been the single most common cause of death of children. A perusal of the parish burial registers shows regular patterns of epidemics causing a sudden increase in child deaths.

Even in technologically advanced countries, natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods, and man-made conflicts such as those currently in Gaza and Ukraine can destroy the infrastructure and quickly lead to conditions in which cholera can further devastate an already weakened population.

It would be an especially despicable malevolence that designed an organism to exploit people in those situation to ensure there was even more suffering, but those subscribing to the intelligent design hoax are unwittingly attributing exactly that to their putative designer god.

Refuting Creationism - Oldest Modern Human DNA Ever Recovered From South Africa - From About The Time Of 'Creation Week'!

Life at the Oakhurst Rock Shelter, 10,000 years ago

AI Generated (ChatGPT4o)

Oldest DNA from South Africa decoded to date | Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Cape Point promontory, Cape Point Nature reserve, South Africa

© R. Gibbon

A San family group.

Just as creationism's legendary creator god was creating a small flat planet with a dome over it in the Middle East, there were modern humans living (or rather dying) in South Africa.

A team of scientists led by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and including palaeoanthropologists from University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa, have now succeeded in reconstructing the genomes from the remains of 13 individuals who died between 1,300 and 10,000 years ago, including the oldest human genome from South Africa to date.

If the creation myth had any element of truth in it, humans would have radiated from the legendary founder couple to form a thriving community living in a rock shelter in South Africa's Cape Province. Moreover, the evidence now shows that these people were isolated from the rest of humanity for many thousands of years.

Refuting Creationism - How Daisies Speciated On Isolated Islands

Top: Pleurophyllum speciosum
Bottom: Pulicaria canariensis

Top: Bidens mooreensis
Bottom: Argyroxiphium sandwicense

Pleurophyllum speciosum - Campbell Island.

Credit Phil Garnock-Jones.

Isolated daisies have the greatest diversity | Naturalis

Creationists try to get round the absurdity of the Bible myth which has two (or seven) of every species being packed into a wooden boat small enough to survive turbulent seas for a year, by introducing a new element to the myth that their god forgot to include - that there were just two (or seven) of each 'kind' and all of them underwent a period of warp-speed evolution (that non-one seemed to have noted) with several new species popping into existence each generation to give the many millions of known terrestrial species we have today.

Understandably, creationists are reticent to put any numbers on their claim. They won't say how many different 'kinds' there were on the boat, how many new species arose at each generation and for how long this period of fantastical speciation lasted. Nor will they define 'kind' in any meaningful way that matches any recognisable taxon. I have even been told it can mean 'animal kind' and 'plant kind'. It seems to vary according to the needs of the argument.

And they won't say why some 'kinds' have just one or two species while others have hundreds, or in the case of the Asteraceae family of plants, some 34,000 distinct species, so some must have been speciating much faster then other while some hardly bothered if at all.

In the later case, we now have a substantial database compiled by a team at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, The Netherlands which catalogues all 34,000 different species with their geographical distribution, showing how they radiated and diversified into new species, colonising isolated islands and, like Darwin's finches, radiating into different species on each island in an archipelago.

Refuting Creationism - How, Properly Understood, A Biblical Myth Probably Refutes Creationism.

A violent flood of the Kosi River in the Purniya district, Bihar, India.

Image: Shutterstock

Wylausing State Park in Southern Wisconsin where the Wisconsin River flows into the Mississippi.

Breakthrough study from IU scientists predicts catastrophic river shifts that threaten millions worldwide: College of Arts + Sciences : Indiana University

According to researchers from Indiana University, Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin and the University of Minnesota, rivers can and do frequently change their course in an event known as an avulsion. The initial stage of this process is often a catastrophic flood costing thousands of lives and billions of dollars.

The authors speculate that these events could be the origin of numerous flood myths throughout history, especially the history of people living in flood plains of major river systems such as the Tigris and Euphrates on which the Epic of Gilgamesh was based.

The Suncook River, New Hampshire, 2006

The Epic of Gilgamesh, which even in its original form was never more than a story about a local flood, is believed to be the source of the Hebrew origin myth of Noah's Ark.

Ironically, these catastrophic avulsion events, of which the Noah's Ark myth is probably a result, are reminders of just how hostile this planet can suddenly become, giving the lie to parochial creationists assertions that Earth is perfectly designed for life (especially their life). Sudden major river avulsions impact dramatically on people living peacefully in river valleys where soil fertility and water can create the impression of a nicely ordered and well-designed place for life to exist.

Refuting Creationism - How New Genes Arise - No Magic Required

Researchers Publish Breakthrough Study on How New Genes Evolve | University of Arkansas

Four researchers working at the University of Arkansas have found a natural mechanism by which new genes can arise, which gives the lie to creationist claims that this is impossible.

Before moving on to the details of their discovery which has just been published, open access, in the Oxford University Press journal Molecular Biology And Evolution, I'll first discuss the current state of understanding of how new genetic information arises naturally, without the need for magic.

Refuting Creationism - Earth May Have had A Ring System 486 Million Years Before 'Creation Week'

An asteroid disintegrates under tidal forces as it approaches Earth

AI generated (ChatGPT4o)

Artist's impression.

Oliver Hull

Earth may have had a ring system 466 million years ago - Science

I know I'm always writing about things that happened before creationism's mythical 'Creation Week', but the problem is, almost everything that happened happened then. 99.9975% of Earth's history happened then, for example, and far more of the Universe's, since the Universe is some 3-4 times as old as Earth and an awful lot happened between the Big Bang and the formation of the sun and its planetary system.

And so, true to form, this is about the time 466 million years ago, when, according to the findings of three researchers from Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, led by Professor Andrew G. Thomkins, Earth had a ring system, somewhat like those of Jupiter and Saturn. They believe the ring was composed of the debris of a large asteroid that passed close enough to Earth to be broken up by gravitational tidal forces.

The result was a sudden plunge into an ice age and a period of intense bombardment with meteorites lasting millions of years and producing an otherwise difficult to explain pattern of impact craters.

Refuting Creationism - Why Multicellular Life Evolved - Hundreds Of Millions Of Years Before 'Creation Week'

Cap carbonate rock, South China

Credit: Yarong Liu

Explaining dramatic planetwide changes after world’s last ‘Snowball Earth’ event | UW News

These panels show the new theory for the three phases that ended the Snowball Earth event. In the first stage, thick ice sheets separate most of the atmosphere and ocean. In the second stage, freshwater flows into the ocean to join meltwater floating on the ocean’s surface. In the final stage, ocean mixing resumes, allowing exchanges between the atmosphere, upper ocean and deep ocean.

Thomas, T.B & Catling D.C (2024).

A major theme of the creationist superstition is the childish notion that Earth was perfectly designed for life (and their life in particular because the designer created it all for them).

This of course, as with so much else in creationism, requires a genuine or contrived ignorance of the real world outside their small part of it, or they might notice that large parts of Earth are very hostile to most forms of life, especially multicellular life, and are inhabited, if at all, only by a few extremophile single-celled organisms such as bacteria, archaea and simple algae. Human life is impossible without special equipment at the poles, in deserts, at the top of higher mountains and in the oceans, for example. In fact, the proportion of Earth that is habitable by humans without clothing and shelter is very small indeed.

And there have been times in the past, in that long period of Earth's history that occurred before creationism's mythical 'Creation Week' in which a magic man made of nothing made everything else out of nothing, when Earth was uninhabitable by anything more complex than bacteria and archaea that could life in the depths of the oceans, because Earth was encased in a coating of ice up to 1 Km (0.6 miles) thick, in what is called 'snowball Earth' when the northern and southern icecaps extended until they met at the equator, making terrestrial life impossible.