“Biology Professor Addresses Evolution and its Opponents - New University Newspaper” plus 2 more |
- Biology Professor Addresses Evolution and its Opponents - New University Newspaper
- Clark County Business briefs, Dec. 20 - Columbian
- Sneha Diagnostics Opens state of art Centre in Nellore city, AP,India - PRLog (free press release)
| Biology Professor Addresses Evolution and its Opponents - New University Newspaper Posted: 20 Dec 2009 06:44 AM PST  Melissa Lee | Staff Photographer Sponsored by the Atheists, Agnostics and Rationalists @ UCI, the speech drew on arguments from Ayala's latest book, "Darwin's Gift to Science and Religion." The publication heavily utilizes science to support Ayala's arguments against proponents of intelligent design. Ayala first pointed out that evolutionary biology follows the methodology of geology and other sciences. The fossil record, to some extent, mirrors geological evolution. As geologists discovered patterns in rock layers showing millennia of change and development, Darwin and subsequent biologists found organisms that reflected these changes over time. Contrary to Ayala, intelligent design proponents argue that the theory of evolution is unreliable because the fossil record is missing the intermediates between one species and its evolutionary successor. Acknowledging this opposing view, Ayala's presentation included a slideshow with photographs indicating that the intermediate species between a modern fish and its oldest ancestors "show characteristics typical of amphibians." The same links between species exist in human development. Ayala pointed out that, "At the time Darwin died in 1882, no hominids were known." Since then, scientists have found several human ancestors with intermediates. Ayala explained the connection between man's predecessor and modern man by drawing on traits such as bipedalism, the method of walking on rear limbs. "No traits evolve in a continuous manner … [but] bipedalism appeared very early on," Ayala said. According to Ayala, one skeleton, named "Lucy," dating back more than three million years, shows bipedalism in the hip structure. Isolation also has an effect on the development of species. Ayala referred to Darwin's own research on the Galapagos, where turtles were able to develop to unusually large sizes because the archipelago had few predators. Similar environment-specific traits exist in all species. Ayala showed a chart of finches, demonstrating that each had traits relative to its environment. There is evidence that all finches are offshoots of an original finch variety and kept suitable traits as they evolved. "[The finches] deviated from the beginning; they are not designed by an engineer," Ayala said. The study of proteins and enzymes has yielded evidence about the types of amino acids that appear in spheres of the environment. These findings indicate that evolution sprouted from a single kind of organism. As proof of his argument, Ayala stressed the relatively small number of enzymes present in organisms when compared to the hundreds of organisms that exist. "Only 20 [enzymes] are used for organisms. … Molecular biology provided the strongest evidence for evolution," Ayala said. Students in attendance were disappointed that Ayala focused on the scientific aspects of the issue rather than engaging with the arguments presented in Stein's movie. One such student was Thomas Sim, a fourth-year political science major. "I thought it was very informative. I was kind of disappointed he didn't go the more philosophical route in terms of comparing intelligent design and evolution. The majority of the presentation was pretty much a science lecture," Sim said. Valeria Goné, a third-year social science major, had similar sentiments. "I expected him to talk more about the argument between intelligent design and evolution, so I was a little disappointed," Goné said. However, during the question-and-answer portion of his presentation, Ayala focused more on the philosophical side of the argument. Ayala was careful to note that none of this scientific evidence is mutually exclusive to religion. "The theory of evolution is better for religion than intelligent design … [and] it is not impossible that evolution was guided by God," Ayala said. When asked if religion should be removed from science courses, Ayala gave a surprising answer. "Religion is not science, but the fact that science is compatible with religion is an important thing to state in science classes," Ayala said. Following the lecture, Ayala was available for individual questions outside the lecture hall where he sold and signed copies of his book. Popularity: unranked [?] Related posts: Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Clark County Business briefs, Dec. 20 - Columbian Posted: 20 Dec 2009 07:56 AM PST
Mark Sadowski People in business Brett Carre is the new Fish and Wildlife biologist for the USDA Forest Service, Columbia River Gorge National Scenic area. Carre has a degree in biology of natural resources and a master's in wildland resource science with an emphasis in wildlife biology. Lacamas Community Credit Union has hired Mark Sadowski as chief financial officer. He has 23 years experience in credit unions. Lacamas Community Credit Union was the first credit union established in Southwest Washington, chartered in 1936.
Steve Praino Steve Praino has been promoted to reverse mortgage sales supervisor at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. Praino, who lives in Vancouver, has 12 years experience in the mortgage and housing industry. He will work in Portland. New businesses Sweet Spot Skirts has been selling several styles of its "everything skirt" since early September. The skirts cover bicycle shorts and are also long enough to cover other workout clothes. Vancouver's Stephanie Carroll started the business. The reversible skirts are 100 percent cotton and handmade in Washougal. Skirts are available online at www.sweetspotskirts.us. More information, 360-901-1736 or info@sweetspotskirts.us. Rate this storyYou must be logged in to rate this. Current Rating : Nobody has rated this article yet. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Sneha Diagnostics Opens state of art Centre in Nellore city, AP,India - PRLog (free press release) Posted: 20 Dec 2009 08:03 AM PST The lab housed at 4,300 square feet, is built at a cost of Rs 70 lakh. The lab offers more than 1,500 tests in bio-chemistry, haematology, serology, pathology and micro-biology and 100 tests in radiology. It would also offer super speciality consultations in orthopaedics, general medicine and gynaecology. The chief guest for lab inauguration was Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy, MP, Nellore and for radiology department inauguration was Anam Vivekananda Reddy, MLA, Nellore. Said, KK Mohan Raju, Chairman, Sneha Diagnostics, "The centre brings for the first time to the people of Nellore district and it's surroundings (having a population of around 40 lakh) world class quality diagnostic test services under one-roof. This centre has advanced clinical referral lab, pathology and radiology services, super speciality doctor consultation services and quality in-house pharmacy to give a one-stop experience to the patients. This centre has fully automated advanced machinery run by well qualified man-power." This centre will be able to provide same day reporting for many specialised tests at competitive prices that used to be done at Chennai, Hyderabad or Mumbai. There's also provision to setup MRI/ CT-Scan/Digital X-Ray in the near future. "With this new centre, Sneha Diagnostics is in a clear leadership position in the state of AP and able to reach the deepest corners of the state of AP by bringing top quality diagnostic services by reaching one third of the state population. We're very confident and very optimistic to become a dominating force in the Indian diagnostic services market by being able to keep our expansion momentum active, in spite of the severe financial crisis in the market," he added. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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