The Altenberg 16

The Altenberg 16
Author: Suzan Mazur
Publisher: North Atlantic Books
Total Pages: 378
Release: 2010
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 1556439245

A new theory of evolution begins to emerge in the pages of The Altenberg 16: An Expos of the Evolution Industry. Written by Suzan Mazur--a print and television journalist whose reports have appeared in the Financial Times, The Economist, Archaeology, Omni, and many other publications--the book is a front row seat to the thinking of the great evolutionary science minds of our time about the need to reformulate the neo-Darwinian theory of evolution. We hear from world renowned scientists such as Richard Lewontin, Lynn Margulis, Niles Eldredge, Richard Dawkins, the "evo-devo" revolutionaries, NASA astrobiologists, and others. The book grew out of a story Mazur broke online in March 2008--titled "Altenberg The Woodstock of Evolution?"--about the now famous meeting at Konrad Lorenz Institute in Altenberg, Austria in July 2008, where 16 scientists discussed expanding evolutionary thinking beyond outdated hypotheses. (MIT will publish the proceedings in April 2010.) Science magazine noted that Mazur's reporting "reverberated throughout the evolutionary biology community." Mazur says she was punished for getting out in front of the story and banned from the symposium but realized the story was bigger than Altenberg (which covered events beginning 500 million years ago) and spoke to scientists who were not invited, including those investigating pre-biotic evolution. She came to the conclusion that evolutionary science suffers because many in the scientific establishment refuse to acknowledge that the old science has served its purpose and there is disagreement about what the new evolution paradigm is. She thinks the dam is now breaking because the public (who funds science) has become a party to the discourse via the Internet and seeks answers to fundamental questions about evolution that scientists so far can't definitively answer.

What Darwin Got Wrong

What Darwin Got Wrong
Author: Jerry Fodor
Publisher: Profile Books
Total Pages: 114
Release: 2011-02-24
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1847651909

Jerry Fodor and Massimo Piatelli-Palmarini, a distinguished philosopher and scientist working in tandem, reveal major flaws at the heart of Darwinian evolutionary theory. They do not deny Darwin's status as an outstanding scientist but question the inferences he drew from his observations. Combining the results of cutting-edge work in experimental biology with crystal-clear philosophical argument they mount a devastating critique of the central tenets of Darwin's account of the origin of species. The logic underlying natural selection is the survival of the fittest under changing environmental pressure. This logic, they argue, is mistaken. They back up the claim with evidence of what actually happens in nature. This is a rare achievement - the short book that is likely to make a great deal of difference to a very large subject. What Darwin Got Wrong will be controversial. The authors' arguments will reverberate through the scientific world. At the very least they will transform the debate about evolution.

Evolution

Evolution
Author: James Alan Shapiro
Publisher: Pearson Education
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2011
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 0132780933

This book proposes an important new paradigm for understanding biological evolution. Shapiro demonstrates why traditional views of evolution are inadequate to explain the latest evidence, and presents an alternative. His information- and systems-based approach integrates advances in symbiogenesis, epigenetics, and saltationism, and points toward an emerging synthesis of physical, information, and biological sciences.

Virolution

Virolution
Author: Frank Ryan
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
Total Pages: 402
Release: 2013-11-28
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0007545274

The extraordinary role of viruses in evolution and how this is revolutionising biology and medicine.

Nonsense on Stilts

Nonsense on Stilts
Author: Massimo Pigliucci
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 324
Release: 2018-10-05
Genre: Science
ISBN: 022649599X

Recent polls suggest that fewer than 40 percent of Americans believe in Darwin’s theory of evolution, despite it being one of science’s best-established findings. Parents still refuse to vaccinate their children for fear it causes autism, though this link has been consistently disproved. And about 40 percent of Americans believe that the threat of global warming is exaggerated, including many political leaders. In this era of fake news and alternative facts, there is more bunk than ever. But why do people believe in it? And what causes them to embrace such pseudoscientific beliefs and practices? In this fully revised second edition, noted skeptic Massimo Pigliucci sets out to separate the fact from the fantasy in an entertaining exploration of the nature of science, the borderlands of fringe science, and—borrowing a famous phrase from philosopher Jeremy Bentham—the nonsense on stilts. Presenting case studies on a number of controversial topics, Pigliucci cuts through the ambiguity surrounding science to look more closely at how science is conducted, how it is disseminated, how it is interpreted, and what it means to our society. The result is in many ways a “taxonomy of bunk” that explores the intersection of science and culture at large. No one—neither the public intellectuals in the culture wars between defenders and detractors of science nor the believers of pseudoscience themselves—is spared Pigliucci’s incisive analysis in this timely reminder of the need to maintain a line between expertise and assumption. Broad in scope and implication, Nonsense on Stilts is a captivating guide for the intelligent citizen who wishes to make up her own mind while navigating the perilous debates that will shape the future of our planet.

Origins Science in U.S. K-12 Public Schools; Is it Education or Indoctrination?

Origins Science in U.S. K-12 Public Schools; Is it Education or Indoctrination?
Author: Mark Biedebach
Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
Total Pages: 229
Release: 2020-12-23
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1644688204

A Biophysicist and Constitutional Lawyer Address a Profound Question. Is it OK for our public schools to teach only Atheistic answers to ultimate religious questions? Where do we come from and what is the nature of life? These are the two biggies implicitly addressed by U.S. K-12 origins science education. The answers form the foundation for the third: How should life be lived ethically and morally? The answers to the third will be significantly affected by how we answer the first two. The authors show that there are two evidence-based alternatives to the first two. We either come from unguided material causes without purpose or we come from material and intelligent causes for a purpose. The materialistic alternative provides the foundation for non-theistic religious answers to questions of ethics and morality, while the teleological alternative supports theistic answers. The problem is that modern origins science uses a concealed materialistic orthodoxy that permits only Atheistic narratives about the origin of the Universe, of life and the diversity of life. Thus, when these materialistic/atheistic explanations are taught by our K-12 public schools, the impressionable kids are only given an atheistic narrative rather than an objective education about the evidence for and against both views. Calvert, the lawyer who switched from stock fraud to Constitutional law 20 years ago, explains how the law actually favors the objective rather than the materialistic method for origins science education. Atheism is just as religious as theism for First Amendment purposes. Accordingly, just as the schools cannot push a theistic prayer during the invocation at a high school graduation, neither can it adopt or implement an atheistic orthodoxy when teaching origins science. He also explains that objectivity is also required as the scientific method for the testing of historical narratives require consideration of all evidence-based alternatives. At the end, the Authors provide a set of ten suggestions for the development of objective standards and curricula for teaching origins science.

Island of Wings

Island of Wings
Author: Karin Altenberg
Publisher: Hachette UK
Total Pages: 291
Release: 2011-03-31
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0857383558

Longlisted for the Orange Prize 2012. 1830. Neil and Lizzie MacKenzie, a newly married young couple, arrive at the remotest part of the British Isles: St Kilda. He is a minister determined to save the souls of the pagan inhabitants; his pregnant wife speaks no Gaelic and, when her husband is away, has only the waves and the cry of gulls for company. As both find themselves tested to the limit in this harsh new environment, Lizzie soon discovers that marriage is as treacherous a country as the land that surrounds her.

Fractal Architecture

Fractal Architecture
Author: James Harris
Publisher: UNM Press
Total Pages: 422
Release: 2012-06-16
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 0826352022

Throughout history, nature has served as an inspiration for architecture and designers have tried to incorporate the harmonies and patterns of nature into architectural form. Alberti, Charles Renee Macintosh, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Le Courbusier are just a few of the well- known figures who have taken this approach and written on this theme. With the development of fractal geometry--the study of intricate and interesting self- similar mathematical patterns--in the last part of the twentieth century, the quest to replicate nature’s creative code took a stunning new turn. Using computers, it is now possible to model and create the organic, self-similar forms of nature in a way never previously realized. In Fractal Architecture, architect James Harris presents a definitive, lavishly illustrated guide that explains both the “how” and “why” of incorporating fractal geometry into architectural design.

Evolution Impossible

Evolution Impossible
Author: John Ashton
Publisher: New Leaf Publishing Group
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2012-06-23
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1614582572

There is scientific evidence proving evolution cannot be responsible for life on Earth. It is time to question what biology text books and nature documentaries claim about our origins. Even Darwin admitted, “I threw out queries, suggestions, wondering all the time over everything; and to my astonishment the ideas took like wildfire. People made a religion of them.” Dr. John Ashton has dedicated 40+ years to teaching and researching science, and exposing the lack of proven evidence for Darwin’s theories. In Evolution Impossible, he uses discoveries in genetics, biochemistry, geology, radiometric dating, and other scientific disciplines to explain why the theory of evolution is a myth. Discover for yourself: Why the fossil record is evidence of extinction, not evolution How erosion and sedimentation dates conflict with radiometric dating How the lack of transitional fossils undermines evolutionary notions Why living cells and new organisms do not rise by chance or random mutations Regardless of your level of scientific education, you will finish this book able to cite 12 reasons why evolution cannot explain the origin of life.

Evolution, the Extended Synthesis

Evolution, the Extended Synthesis
Author: Massimo Pigliucci
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 505
Release: 2010-03-26
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0262513676

Prominent evolutionary biologists and philosophers of science survey recent work that expands the core theoretical framework underlying the biological sciences. In the six decades since the publication of Julian Huxley's Evolution: The Modern Synthesis, the spectacular empirical advances in the biological sciences have been accompanied by equally significant developments within the core theoretical framework of the discipline. As a result, evolutionary theory today includes concepts and even entire new fields that were not part of the foundational structure of the Modern Synthesis. In this volume, sixteen leading evolutionary biologists and philosophers of science survey the conceptual changes that have emerged since Huxley's landmark publication, not only in such traditional domains of evolutionary biology as quantitative genetics and paleontology but also in such new fields of research as genomics and EvoDevo. Most of the contributors to Evolution, the Extended Synthesis accept many of the tenets of the classical framework but want to relax some of its assumptions and introduce significant conceptual augmentations of the basic Modern Synthesis structure—just as the architects of the Modern Synthesis themselves expanded and modulated previous versions of Darwinism. This continuing revision of a theoretical edifice the foundations of which were laid in the middle of the nineteenth century—the reexamination of old ideas, proposals of new ones, and the synthesis of the most suitable—shows us how science works, and how scientists have painstakingly built a solid set of explanations for what Darwin called the “grandeur” of life. Contributors John Beatty, Werner Callebaut, Jeremy Draghi, Chrisantha Fernando, Sergey Gavrilets, John C. Gerhart, Eva Jablonka, David Jablonski, Marc W. Kirschner, Marion J. Lamb, Alan C. Love, Gerd B. Müller, Stuart A. Newman, John Odling-Smee, Massimo Pigliucci, Michael Purugganan, Eörs Szathmáry, Günter P. Wagner, David Sloan Wilson, Gregory A. Wray