On the Origin of Life on Earth

Science ^ | January 8, 2009 | Carl Zimmer

[js1138]

An Amazon of words flowed from Charles Darwin's pen. His books covered the gamut from barnacles to orchids, from geology to domestication. At the same time, he filled notebooks with his ruminations and scribbled thousands of letters packed with observations and speculations on nature. Yet Darwin dedicated only a few words of his great verbal flood to one of the biggest questions in all of biology: how life began.

[js1138]

Funny. I don’t see creationists pinging each other to make fun of this article.

[Ethan Clive Osgoode]

I also nominate John Dewey,

Speaking of John Dewey, read his essay The Influence of Darwin.

[Ethan Clive Osgoode]

it takes the greatest faith to be an atheist. Atheists' faith is so intense that they are blinded to truth, even the most basic. You see, their faith is grounded in their own wisdom and, thus, is as irremediably flawed as their wisdom.

Yes, and the following thread article is an illustration of what you say: An Exhibit at the Museum of Rationalism.

[count-your-change]

How Eye Glasses Formed:
In warm pool of sand minerals had been mixed by the wind or something, in just the right proportions when either lighten strikes or a volcano melted the sand into glass that cooled into lens. Then metal oxides were somehow refined and melted so they formed frames around the lens.
In some way, as yet unknown, fine sand polished the newly formed glass into bi-focals. Tri-focals and sun glasses would evolve later.
This is the Foster-Grant theory of eye grasses.

[js1138]

http://genetics.mgh.harvard.edu/szostakweb/

[js1138]

http://www.rockefeller.edu/evolution/bio.php

[Ethan Clive Osgoode]

I also nominate John Dewey,

Speaking of John Dewey, read his essay The Influence of Darwin.

Bah, the John Dewey essay is here:

The Influence of Darwin

[SunkenCiv]

· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic · subscribe ·
	Gods Graves Glyphs	Note: this topic is from January 16, 2009. Blast from the Past. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
·Dogpile · Archaeologica · ArchaeoBlog · Archaeology · Biblical Archaeology Society · · Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google · · The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists ·

[null and void]

The Thunder God went for a ride
upon his favorite filly
I’m THOR! he cried,
his steed replied,
You forgot the thaddle, thilly.

[Dysart]

I like Zimmer. I picked up his easy to read book on evolution (necessarily so for me) some yrs back and bought copies for my nephew and nieces. According to my sister they insist to this day that I corrupted them.

[djf]

Darwin was interested in adaptation and natural selection...not the origins of life.

Exactly. And people should note that he was born a good 150 years BEFORE dna was even discovered.
So if evolution is happening, and the cause is mutations/changes to the DNA that get passed on, don’t even DARE blaming Darwin for it.

I’ve read both “Origin of the Species” and “The Voyage of the Beagle”. He was a naturalist and social observer.
A damn good one.

[stanz]

Thank you...thank you for the one coherent and sympathetic view. Many blame him for everything from the potato blight to Naziism. He was a naturalist pure and simple whose great powers of observation gave us the foundation for biological evolution. (Which he shares with Alfred Russel Wallace)