Biology textbook hearings prompt science disputes [Texas]

Knight Ridder Newspapers ^ | 08 July 2003 | MATT FRAZIER

[Junior]

I want some of what you're dropping...

[f.Christian]

Truth is a foreign forbidden language - tongue ...

mind - thought - word nazis !

[js1138]

I predict a large and colorful essay on prions an viruses.

[Lurking Libertarian]

[js1138:] Abiogenesis should not be taught as a fact. It is a researchable problem, but there is no real theory.

[you:] That strikes me as absurd. (i.e. I know for sure what happened in steps 2 through 27,367. But I don't have the foggiest notion what happened in step 1.) You don't suppose the "truth" about steps 2 - 27,367 could be related in any way to step 1, do ya?

Every science starts at step 2 or higher. Newton's theory of gravity explains how pieces of matter interact with each other, but it doesn't explain where the first piece of matter came from. Copernicus's heliocentric theory doesn't explain where the sun and planets came from, only how they move in relation to each other. Similarly, the theory of evolution explains how living things develop into species as a result of imperfect reproduction (i.e., each new creature is not an exact copy of its parents). It cannot, by definition, tell us what happened before organisms began reproducing imperfectly. That does not, contrary to your assertion, cast any doubt on the validity of what it does tell us.

[Junior]

Virii, for instance. It seems that every other biologist will claim it is either life or non-life. Personally, I think it's somewhere in between, but then I'm a romantic.

[f.Christian]

Evolution is an urban legend popular among the unscientific who don't know a theory from fact !

Real science is coming ... designeduniverse.com --- evolution is a fraud pepetuated by the ignorant !

Just reading the Bible the founding fathers plainly knew this beast would arrive and cover - tyrannize the nation but we would have to deal with it ... so we are -- will !

designeduniverse.com ... the obituary of evolution penned by freepers ...

yours truly !

[Junior]

Well, the Big Bang theory did postulate a certain frequency of cosmic background radiation, and when researchers went looking for it, low and behold, they found it. This is a case of a theory making a prediction that tested out in the end. It most definitely has something going for it, wouldn't you agree?

[RightWhale]

This stuff works without chemboost. Even better: it's still there later.

[Aric2000]

Fatal 4 placemarker, and ROFLMAO!! for good measure...

[AndrewC]

I think the jury is still out on whether prions are alive or not. They don't have RNA or DNA, so how do they replicate?

A prion is a protein of a certain tertiary configuration that has the capability of changing the tertiary configuration of other molecules of the same protein to match itself. It is not alive. The cell produces the target proteins.

A virus is a segment of RNA surrounded by a protein shell that contains the information to reproduce more copies of itself. It is not alive.

[RightWhale]

large and colorful essay on prions an viruses

Possible, but not tactically essential to the general concept. Broad, strategic outlines will do.

[PatrickHenry]

Over the top P L A C E M A R K E R

[js1138]

Virii, for instance. It seems that every other biologist will claim it is either life or non-life. Personally, I think it's somewhere in between, but then I'm a romantic.

The large and colorful essay, when it arrives, will claim that viruses are not alive because they can only replicate with the assistence of a living cell. (This is a sneaky way of bringing in the "problem" of abiogenesis, since there might have somewhere been a claim that viruses might be related to pre-cellular life forms.)

Personally I think this argiment brings into question whether tapeworms are alive.

[atlaw]

Now hold on right there. I know for a fact that my magnetic socks have cured my microflangia.

[AndrewC]

Personally I think this argiment brings into question whether tapeworms are alive.

Tapeworms contain living cells.

[f.Christian]

The evo mainstream of science is ... untreated sewage from hell running through the fr w / foutains --- bubble baths !

[exmarine]

Did you accidentally post to the wrong thread?

My post was germaine to the topic of the thread.

[js1138]

A virus is a segment of RNA surrounded by a protein shell that contains the information to reproduce more copies of itself. It is not alive.

Come to think of it, everything that has a physical form contains the information needed to produce copies of itself. But pianos, for example, do not self-replicate. Nor do they snuggle up to piano builders and cause them to create more copies of themselves.

[AndrewC]

Come to think of it, everything that has a physical form contains the information needed to produce copies of itself

Good. So you don't think pianos are alive either?

[js1138]

Tapeworms contain living cells.

From the standpoint of pure logic, I don't think it's Kosher to use the word "living" as an essential part of the definition of life.