How Science Works - Looking for Questions Requiring Answers

Top: Fifty-two-million-year-old fossil snakefly (Megaraphidia ootsa sp.nov) from Driftwood Canyon in British Columbia, Canada.
Bottom: Living snakefly.

Fossil image © Zootaxa.

Fossil discovery deepens snakefly mystery - University Communications - Simon Fraser University

A paper published in Zootaxa very recently, neatly illustrates how science works.

The paper concerns the discovery of four new (to science) extinct species of snakefly which pose something of a problem. They were found in western North America in an area which our understanding of their modern counterparts says they shouldn't have been in.

All know modern snakeflies live in habitats which experience winter frosts and it was assumed that their over-wintering eggs needed a period of freezing in order to develop. However, these extinct species are all from temperate regions which experience few if any winter frosts, so the question is, why did their modern descendant evolve to be dependent on these winter conditions?

Sadly, the paper is behind a paywall, however, the Simon Fraser University media release has the details:

Atheism - The Winning Continues as Religions Lose Their Importance to Americans

Importance of Religion in USA today

Religion | Gallup Historical Trends

Another Gallop poll to gladden the heart of any Atheist or secular humanist, showing again the decline in religion in the USA. This poll appears to be undated, the only clue being that the last data points are for 2020 and the copyright is dated 2021, so we can assume the poll represents the state of religious opinion towards the end of 2020.

I'll let the charts speak for themselves since they need little by way of explanation. The trendlines in the first chart were added by me using Excel's 3 phase polynomial which gave a closer fit to the data points than a simple linear trend.

Vatican's Byzantine Financial Stink Reaches a London Crown Court

Gianluigi Torzi with Pope Francis

UK judge lifts restraining order on arrested Vatican businessman - The Pillar

A whiff of the stinking cesspit of corruption that is the Vatican under Pope Francis was hanging around Southwark Crown Court in March when Judge Tony Baumgartner lifted a freezing order which had been placed on Gianluigi Torizi’s bank account. Torizi is the Italian businessman who was arrested in the Vatican City last year as part of its ongoing investigation into the London property deal at the heart of the financial scandal concerning the finances of the Vatican Secretariat of State.

Delivering his judgment, Judge Baumgartner criticised the Vatican Promoter of Justice offices for court filings that the judge said were riddled with “non-disclosures and misrepresentations.

Readers may remember how this scandal first surfaced when Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu suddenly 'resigned his rights as a cardinal' (a euphemism for 'was summarily sacked and stripped of his powers') over his involvement in financial scandals, including the London property deal, using a Vatican slush fund known as "Peter's Pence", and his doctoring of the Vatican's financial accounts.

How Creationists Lie to Us - Ham and Platypus Eggs

Platypus, Ornithorhynchus anatinus

Does Oddball Platypus Genome Reveal Its Origins? | The Institute for Creation Research

In this article from Ken Ham's AiG, we have a prime example of how Creationist frauds misrepresent science to their target dupes.

First, here is what Creationist Bryan Thomas says, referring to an open access paper on the genomes of the monotremes in Nature, reporting on the work of a team of researchers at Copenhagen University:

The team zoomed in on the uniqueness of egg-laying in mammals. Today, chicks get all their nutrients from within the egg before they hatch. Newly-hatched puggles get some nutrients from within their platypus eggs, but they still need to lap mother’s milk. And of course, human babies initially get all their nutrients from milk. The research group demonstrated that chickens have three egg-producing genes, the platypus has one, and humans have none.

They concluded that since all three evolved from a common ancestor that laid eggs, the platypus lost two egg-specific genes while humans lost all three. This conclusion relies entirely on the premise of a common ancestor. It simply ignores the at least equally logical divine origins option. A smart Creator could have equipped each of these three creatures with the specific DNA sequences needed to carry out its own unique growth and development.

This subtle misrepresentation relies on three characteristics of Creationist frauds' target marks:

Trumpanzee Fruitloop News - Trump Won Because the Prophets Said he Would!

Hank Kunneman, One Voice Ministries
"People should trust the prophets who said Trump would win, because he did win really because the prophets said he would!"

Hank Kunneman Says Christians Must Continue to Trust the 'Prophets' Who Guaranteed Trump's Reelection | Right Wing Watch

In a presuppositional argument which would grace any list of Christian apologetics for its dishonest circularity, Talibangelical, Trumpanzee nut-job, Hank Kunneman, of One Voice Ministries, has said that Trump won really because lots of self-styled fundamentalist Christian 'prophets' prophesied he would win, therefore the election was stolen and the prophesies were correct, so people should continue to trust these 'prophets'.

In a chilling preview of what 'democracy' would be like in a Taliban-style fundamentalist Christian theocracy, comprised of people like Kummeman, elections are won and lost not on a count of the votes for the candidates, but by prophesies of self-styled, self-appointed 'prophets'. In other words, with typical fundamentalist Christian 'humility', the word of these fundamentalists loons overrides the will of the people expressed at the ballot box.

Regular readers might remember Hank, who crudely recently warned his dupes that "God hates those who point out when his prophets make false prophesies" (such as falsely prophesying a Trump win in 2020, for example) by misrepresenting... er... reinterpreting a Bible passage.

And of course, it goes without saying that the 'winning' candidate will always be the one who holds out the prospect of power, influence and increased wealth and job security for the 'prophets', because, naturally, that's the candidate whom God will favour too!

A few days ago in one of his "Prophetic Pulse 'conferences'", Kunneman, claiming there had been lots of signs in March that the alleged voter fraud that stole the election from Trump would soon be exposed, told his dupes:

President Trump won the election, so, for people to say, ‘Well, people prophesied that he’d win,’ he did win, and so we had a stolen election. President Trump is not going anywhere. If you don’t like President Trump, that’s your problem because he’s not done talking, and God’s not done with him...

I’m sensing very strongly by the signs that God has given … that we are close to justice and righteousness being established. What we cannot do is quit, give up, point the finger, and then begin to think, ‘Well, you know what? All of this was just a smokescreen.’ No, that’s what the enemy wants because it’s a sad day if all of God’s messengers, prophets, intercessors, [and] Christians were somehow wrong and the fake news that we know has been fake news were the voice of truth. I don’t think so.

Curiously though Kunneman 'forgot' to tell his followers just what those mysterious signs were, or where the evidence proving this alleged fraud was to be found. For a prophet of an omniscient God, Kunneman seems to be remarkably poorly served in that respect. It's almost as though God doesn't know what that evidence is or where it may be found either.

But it seems his only 'evidence' that the election was stolen from Trump is the fact that he and so many of his fellow Talibangelical Trumpanzee cultists, said he would win. That's it! Trump won really because we said he would!

Well, either that or Kunneman is indeed the false prophet he so desperately now wants his dupes not to think of him as.

Covidiots - Feel That Good Christian Love in an Alberta Church!

Pastor Artur Pawlowski,
Cave of Adullam Church, Alberta, Canada

WATCH: Polish Pastor Chases Cops Out of Church ‘Get Out You Nazis! And Don’t Come Back!’ – Faithwire

Police in Canada who went to check that a local Alberta church with a record of putting the health and safety of its congregation and the public at large at risk from Covid-19, was now complying with the law, were in for a treat.

Along with Pastor Artur Pawlowski's congregation in the Cave of Adullam Church, they were treated to a practical demonstration of Christian love, forgiveness and turning the other cheek - as he attacked them with a tirade of violent threats and abuse.

The reason for the routine and perfectly lawful check by the police was because of the churches recent history of ignoring the coronavirus mitigation measures and holding in-person services that exceeded the legal restrictions on attendance. Just days earlier, Pastor James Coates from the church had been released from jail following the Alberta government's decision to drop the case. He is still subject to financial charges for violating the health order.

Trumpanzee News - Why the Qidiots Are So Easily Fooled

QAnon conspiracists and red-capped Trumpanzee MAGA Cultists

Why People Embrace Conspiracy Theories | Psychology Today

In a poll conducted by NPR/Ipsos at the end of 2020, 17% of adult Americans said they though the following statement was true:

A group of Satan-worshipping elites who run a child sex ring are trying to control our politics and media.

A further 37% were unsure. This means 46% (less than half) those adult Americans polled thought the statement was untrue!

Readers will be well aware that this belief is central to the QAnon conspiracy theories and fighting this "deep state", comprised of cannibalistic paedophile political elites, senior scientists and media moguls, is what Donald J Trump was put into power (by God) to fight. The same people who believe these theories also believe:

Talibangelical News - They Seem to be Getting Nuttier!

Pastor Robin Bullock of Youth Force Ministries Church International False prophet and purveyor of Talibangelical Bullocks

Robin Bullock Says 'Homosexuality Is a Cover Up for an Evangelist' | Right Wing Watch

Close on news that a Hawaiian pastor has said his church should be allowed to continue holding Covid-19 super-spreader services because the authorities have allowed hospitals to remain open, we have fruitloop Robbin Bullock, fresh from the traditional abuse of LGBTQ people, claiming they would all be evangelical Christians really, only Satan has taken possession of them to prevent it.

Last November Bullock, founder of Youth Force Ministries Church International, told his dupes that God had told him the coronavirus pandemic was caused by people voting for Hillary Clinton in 2012, apparently unaware that most of those catching the virus and dying from it were from that unimportant little place called 'The Rest of The World', so couldn't have voted for Hillary Clinton even if they had wanted too. But Robin Bullock's parochial little world consists only of the USA - which is the only place of interest to his god too, it seems.

Covidiot News - If Hospitals Stay Open, Why Close Our Church? ( Hawaiian Pastor)

King’s Cathedral in Maui, Hawaii, USA

Maui church linked to at least 55 COVID cases refuses to cancel in-person services

Pastor James Marocco, of the Church of the Sacred Covid Super-Spreader, aka, King's Cathedral, in Kahului, Maui, Hawaii, has come out with what must rate as one of the most bizarre, if not the most bizarre, arguments for refusing to close his church to help contain a massive cluster of Covid-19 cases already traced back to services in his church. He is arguing that because the authorities didn't close the local hospital when it was being overwhelmed by cases, they should keep his church open too!

According to this report in HawaiiNewsNow:

Filling The God-Shaped Gaps - How Bone Evolved

An impression of the placoderm fish living 380 million years ago.

© Brian Engh/dontmesswithdinosaurs.com

Tomography brings insights into the early evolution of bones - Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB)

When bone first appeared in the fossil record, it did not contain the bone cells (osteocytes) that are today considered essential for normal bone growth and development, so where did they come from? This is the sort of gap any diligent Creationist would look for and, when found, would plonk their god firmly in it, declare the fit to be perfect and proclaim the question answered, in the only way permitted to a Creationist - God did it!

But, as usual, when science looks in these gaps, Creationism's god is nowhere to be seen. Instead, they find it was never there at all because it was merely an illusion caused by gaps in the record, not gaps in the entirely natural processes that brought about the world as we see it today. As always, what is evolved out of what was, without magic or the involvement of a clever invisible magic sky man.

Just such a gap was closed recently by a team of scientists working for the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, headed by Dr Florian Witzmann who used the focussed ion beam of a scanning electron microscope at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) to examine the bone structures of 400 million year-old fossils of marine life in nanometre-scale, to calculate unprecedented 3D detail. The scientists believe they have even identified the environmental factor which drove this evolution - a shortage of the essential mineral, phosphorus.

As the Helmholtz-Zentrum press release explains:

Malevolent Designer News - How 1 in 4 Adult Sea Lions Get Cervical Cancer

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Californian Sea Lion, Zalophus californianus

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Californian Sea Lion, Zalophus californianus

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Californian Sea Lion, Zalophus californianus

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Californian Sea Lion, Zalophus californianus

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Californian Sea Lion, Zalophus californianus

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Californian Sea Lion, Zalophus californianus

Herpesvirus Triggers Cervical Cancer Affecting Nearly 1 in 4 Adult Sea Lions, Parallels to Human Cancer Research - The Marine Mammal Center

Creationist mode:

The Intelligent designer has really pulled out the stops with this one!

It's only gone and designed a special virus to give sea lions cancer, and it's made it so it's sexually transmitted too!

According to researchers at The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, CA, USA, the cause of the cancer that is killing so many Californian sea lions, is a herpesevirus that has infected 1 in 4 sea lions.

The cancer starts in the genital tract of the sea lion then rapidly spreads throughout the internal organs. Sea lions that wash up on California's beaches suffering from the disease are normally in the terminal stages and so have to be euthanised humanely to prevent further suffering.

Mind you, clever and mendacious though it is, the intelligent designer needed a bit of help from humans with this one, albeit unwitting help. The problem appears to be exacerbated by man-made pollution with nasty chemicals like DDT and PCB. A lot of DDT was dumped in the sea around Southern California, which is one of the main habitats for these sea lions. DDT, especially, was once widely used as a general insecticide but proved to be extremely harmful to a multitude of species and was banned in most countries. However, it is very stable and stays in the environment for tens or even hundreds of years, being ingested, concentrated up the food chain, at the top of which sit species such as the sea lion, and put back into the environment when the animal dies, to be ingested again and recycled.

Nevertheless, the herpes virus was a brilliant masterstroke that really causes suffering, especially after the sea lions have been sexually active, so the sea lion's (geddit?!) share of the credit has to go to the malevolent designer of this nasty little virus!

The Marine Mammal Center news release tells the story:

Making Artificial Life. A Cell With A Minimal Synthetic Genome That Lives and Replicates Normally

Some of the first synthetic Mycoplasma bacteria produced by Craig Venter and his colleagues

Credit: Thomas Deerick, NCMIR/Science Photo Library

Genes necessary for cell division in modern bacterial cells identified | J. Craig Venter Institute

Scientists at the J. Craig Venter Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have now produced an artificial cell that reproduces like any other single-celled organism.

In 2010 Venter produced the first cell with a synthetic genome when he constructed a genome that was almost identical to that of Mycoplasma mycoides, a bacterial parasite commonly found in goats.

In 2016, this genome was, stripped it down to its bare essentials to contain just 237 genes, to become the smallest known viable genome capable of independent living. However, there was something not quite right about the way this cell (termed Mycoplasma mycoides JCVI-syn3.0) because when it replicated, the daughter cells were not equal in size, as they are in the wild type and in Venter's 2010 version (JVCI-syn1.0). It became apparent that some genes needed for normal replication had been removed along with about half the genome to reduce it down to 237 genes.

Evolution News - And Today's 'Non-Existent' Missing Link Is...

A computer model of the novel protein structure in the cryptophyte's antenna that traps sunlight energy.

Picture: UNSW

Mystery of photosynthetic algae evolution finally solved | UNSW Newsroom

A 'missing link' protein that shows the transition between two ancient species of algae, red algae and cryptophytes.

This was a mystery that had been eluding molecular biologists for decades and it was only found because of the stay-at-home regulations to mitigate the Covid-19 pandemic and because of international cooperation. The discovery was made by biologists based at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, Australia and the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada. There findings were published a few days ago, open access in Nature Communications.

The University of New South Wales news release by Lachlan Gilbert tells the story:

Atheism - Winning More

The pews are emptying in increasingly irreligious USA

Sourc: Gallup

U.S. Church Membership Falls Below Majority for First Time

Congratulations to America for joining the rest of the developed world, where religious non-affiliation and increasing secularisation of society are now the norm.

The latest Gallop poll shows that church, synagogue or mosque membership in the USA has fallen below 50% for the first time. Now at just 47%, this represents a 26% percentage point fall since 1937 when Gallop first began polling. And the downward trend show signs of accelerating, falling 22 percentage points since the turn of the millennium and 8 percentage points since 2015.

Trumpanzee Cult News - Amnesiac Trump Rewriting History

Donald Trump uses new website to rewrite history of his presidency | Donald Trump | The Guardian

According to this report in the Guardian, President reject, Donald J Trump, has launched his new cult website (45Office.com) with an account of his disastrous presidency in which he appears to have forgotten certain key events.

Consistent with his narcissistic personality disorder, it is full of self-praise and 'alternative facts', such as his claim to have acted decisively over the coronavirus pandemic and implying that he was personally responsible for innovative medical treatments and two vaccines. What he 'forgot' to mention was that he had dismantled the plans and contingencies that his predecessor, Barak Obama had put in place in preparedness for just such a pandemic, in his obsessive zeal to undo everything Obama had done.

In what could pass for a parody of the kind of self-eulogising, and disregard for the facts, that characterises Trump's personality disorder, in his opening 885-word braggadocio, written in the third person, which is hard to read without laughing out loud, he says:

Evolution News - Solving Darwin's "Abominable Mystery"

Research into the flower preferences of pollinating moths may have delivered a vital clue to the simple factors needed for the emergence of new species.

Pioneering pollinator study offers clues to Darwin’s “abominable mystery”

With characteristic intellectual honesty, Charles Darwin was always quick to acknowledge difficulties for his theory of evolution by natural selection, one of which he called an 'abominable mystery' in a letter to his close friend, botanist and explorer Dr Joseph Hooker in 1879. He wrote:

The rapid development as far as we can judge of all the higher plants within recent geological times is an abominable mystery... Nothing is more extraordinary in the history of the Vegetable Kingdom, as it seems to me, than the apparently very sudden or abrupt development of the higher plants. I have sometimes speculated whether there did not exist somewhere during long ages an extremely isolated continent perhaps near the South Pole.

This 'mystery' had been used by Scottish botanist William Carruthers, keeper of botany at the British Museum, to argue for divine intervention in a 1876 lecture to the Geologists Association.

Now researchers Kelsey J. R. P. Byers and H. D. Bradshaw Jr., working at the Department of Biology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA think they have gone some way to solving this mystery. The press release by the John Innes Centre explains:

Evolution News - The Origins of the Scythians

Summary maps visualizing the main findings of the research. Figure from the article.

© Gnecchi-Rusconi, et al., 2021

Ancient Genomes Trace the Origin and Decline of the Scythians | Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History

This is my second blog post concerning the origins of historic cultural groups, the first being about the Basques of Northeast Spain and Southwest France. This new understanding has been made possible by advances in recovering DNA from ancient sources and techniques for analysing the results. In effect, it is the result of applied evolutionary theory.

The nomadic Scythians were a major force in Eurasia during the first millennium BCE. Their domestication of the horse allowed them to dominate the steppes of Central Asia and spread far and wide. Then they declined and disappeared from history.

Where they came from, how they relate to other Eurasia peoples and why they disappeared has long been a mystery for historians, but now the work of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, by analysing the DNA from the remains they left in their burial mounds is providing some answers. As always, the DNA shows the evolutionary changes and relationships that the Theory of Evolution leads us to expect. As the press release from the Max Planck Institute tells the story:

Generally thought of as fierce horse-warriors, the Scythians were a multitude of Iron Age cultures who ruled the Eurasian steppe, playing a major role in Eurasian history. A new study published in Science Advances analyzes genome-wide data for 111 ancient individuals spanning the Central Asian Steppe from the first millennia BCE and CE. The results reveal new insights into the genetic events associated with the origins, development and decline of the steppe’s legendary Scythians.

Evolution News - The Origin and Genetic Uniqueness of the Basques

Color representation of the mixture and genetic structure in the Basque Country; the green symbolizing the Basques, and the blue and red blends it with the surrounding populations.

Credit: André Flores-Bello.

They reveal the origin and genetic uniqueness of the Basques

Isolated populations can either stay completely isolated and so gradually diverge from other populations of the same species by a combination of natural selection and genetic drift, or they can continue to exchange DNA with other neighbouring groups and so eventually merge and disappear as genetically distinct populations.

This true for all species, whether birds, mammals, reptiles or insects or, as in the case of the Basque people of Northeast Spain and Southwest France, humans.

A study by a mixed team from Spain and France, led by David Comas of the Departament de Ciències de la Salut i de la Vida, Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (CSIC-UPF), Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain has shown how the Basque people have retained genetic continuity with their Iron Age ancestors and have resisted genetic mixing with their neighbours, by a combination of linguistic, cultural and geographical barriers to gene flow.

As the news item from Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, auto-translated from Catalan, explains:

Evolution News - Evolution by Horizontal Gene Transfer

Siverleaf whitefly, Bernisia tabaci

Photo: Nigel Cattlin/Alamy

Whitefly hijacks a plant detoxification gene that neutralizes plant toxins: Cell

A couple of days ago, I reported on the case of evolution by the rare process of gene shuffling in a species of bird, to bring about a new combination, reinforced by pre-zygotic barriers because the new combination gave a new plumage display and so new assortative mating behaviour.

This time we have an example of horizontal gene transfer giving species of whitefly a significant advantage over those without the newly-acquired gene. Although this is common in protozoans, it is rare in multicellular animals and previously unknown between plants and insects.

Trumpanzee News - Explaining Donald Trump's Narcissistic Personality Disorder

US Presidential reject, Donald J Trump.
Acute Narcissistic personality disorder personified

Narcissism Driven by Insecurity, Not Grandiose Sense of Self, New Psychology Research Shows

A psychology paper published a few days ago by researchers at New York University, sheds some light on Donald Trump's self-evident Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). Although it doesn't name his as such, it could be describing his personality and idiosyncratic behaviour.

The open access paper shows how NPD is not driven by an inflated sense of self-worth but by insecurity and self-loathing in disguise. The question is then, what in his background caused this self-loathing in Donald Trump? We would almost certainly have to go back into his childhood and probably his relationship with his, by all accounts, particularly unpleasant and odious, psychopathic father.

From the NYU news release: