Wednesday, September 14, 2011
The Discovery Institute Fails at Exoplanets
KOI-701.03, an as yet unconfirmed, Earth-like world probably in the habitable zone of its Sun. KOI-703.03 visualized in Celestia (click to embiggen).Still, despite coming hard on the heels of the 50 new exoplanets found by HARPS, the existing bonanza of Kepler worlds and discovering the atmospheric composition of some exoplanets, one can hardly suppress a thrill at the prospect of learning something new about the plethora of extrasolar worlds we have found.
One wonders how William Dembski feels after proclaiming in 1992:
"Dawkins, to explain life apart from a designer, not only gives himself all the time Darwin ever wanted, but also helps himself to all the conceivable planets there might be in the observable universe (note that these are planets he must posit, since no planets outside our solar system have been observed, nor is there currently any compelling theory of planetary formation which guarantees that the observable universe is populated with planets)"Three years later the first exoplanet was confirmed, and the current count stands at 677.
Exoplanets visualized at "Data is Beautiful" for Wired.It's not the first time a pundit has been wrong, after all the philosopher Auguste Comte claimed that we would never know the composition of the stars, yet 25 years later the spectroscope revealed the elements they were made of (and in 1814 Frauenhoffer had seen the spectral lines that would reveal the stars secrets when chemistry improved).
But it's not the fact the Dembski was wrong (or Paul Nelson, who quoted him approvingly in 1993), but the way that they were wrong. The claim is that "Darwinists" posited a plethora of worlds to fulfil the needs of evolutionary theory, without any strong evidence. Yet Dembski and company couldn't be more wrong.
The 55 Cnc system (excluding the outermost planet), 55 Cnc e is marked by the red cross near the sun.Note that Dembski says "nor is there currently any compelling theory of planetary formation which guarantees that the observable universe is populated with planets". You might think this hedges his bets a bit, with the qualifications "compelling" and "guarantees", but it doesn't
By the 60's the dominant theory of planetary formation was a variant of the nebular hypothesis, which with further modification became dominant in the 1970's.
It was abundantly obvious even in the 60's that the implication of this hypothesis was that planet formation would not be a rare event (for example the RAND corporation study "Habitable Planets for Man" published in 1964 used this model as a basis for estimating the number of stars with planets).
Then there was stellar rotation. In the solar system, most of the angular momentum is in the planets, and the sun has most of the mass but just a fraction of the angular moment momentum because during planet formation the momentum of the spinning protostellar disk is transferred to the planets. Most sun-like stars have angular momentum like the Sun's suggesting that the majority of these systems had planets.
Observations in the early 80's of dusty disks around young T-Tauri stars and then dust disks around stars like Beta Pictoris were in line with the nebula hypothesis and strengthened the case that planets were common.
George Wetherill's classic paper "The Formation and Habitability of Extra-Solar Planets" did not come out until 1996, but his work in 1988, 19989 and 1991 on planet formation made scientists confident that solar system equivalents were not rare in the galaxy.
Certainly, when Dawkins published "the Blind Watchmaker" in 1986, there was a compelling theory of planetary formation, along with astromomical observations which guaranteed that there would be planets around other suns. When Dembski wrote his words in 1992, astronomers were busy designing the very instruments that would reap a harvest of extrasolar planets just a few years later.
Dembski was trying to claim that "Darwinists" make things up to bolster their arguments. If Dembski had taken a few moments to read the astronomical literature, or even asked an astronomer, he could not have made his statement.
Based on the Kepler data of 2010, we can say that around 50% of Sun-like stars have planets, and there may be at least one million Earth-like planets in habitable zones in the Milky-Way alone. And that is probably an underestimate. Some good resources are the Exoplanet encyclopaedia, Exoplanet.org (with the exoplanet data plotter) and the Habitable Zone as well as my posts on exoplanets.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
On This Day ....
.... in 1820 (GMT), the HMS Beagle was launched at Woolwich Naval Dockyard. The Beagle was to carry Charles Darwin of his voyage of discovery to South America and Australia. This seminal trip resulted in the landmark "On the Origin of Species", which changed biology forever.
.... Today, the space shuttle Atlantis blasted off to deliver the final service mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. This service should extend the telescopes life to about 2014, and provide significant upgrade in its functioning. Check Heavens Above to see if you can see the shuttle and the ISS together.
.... Today, the space shuttle Atlantis blasted off to deliver the final service mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. This service should extend the telescopes life to about 2014, and provide significant upgrade in its functioning. Check Heavens Above to see if you can see the shuttle and the ISS together.
Labels: evolution, hubble, Space Shuttle
Saturday, May 02, 2009
A Non-opposable Anniversary Missed
I missed the 5th anniversary of the founding of the Panda's Thumb, the evolutionary biology blog I contribute fitfully to. I don't feel so bad, the rest of the Crew missed it too.
Labels: evolution, miscelaneous
Friday, February 13, 2009
Speaking of Education
The Astronomy Education Review, a web-based journal/magazine about astronomy education and outreach, has announced the on-line publication of its 14th issue at http://aer.noao.edu. Access to this journal is free. In light of recent discussions here, this article How Do Preservice Teachers' Religious Beliefs Affect Their Understanding of Astronomy? may be of interest. As well as Virtual Field Trips: Using Google Maps to Support Online Learning and Teaching of the History of Astronomy.
Also, the latest issue of Evolution: Education and Outreach is now online. In line with celebrating the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, it is a ‘Darwin’ issue. One paper of interest in light of my recent rant is Don’t Call it “Darwinism” by Eugenie C. Scott and Glenn Branch.
Nature also has a Darwin Day Special edition, with a lot of the content free. There is an interview with David Attenbrough, a special Nature Podcast and lots more.
Also, the latest issue of Evolution: Education and Outreach is now online. In line with celebrating the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, it is a ‘Darwin’ issue. One paper of interest in light of my recent rant is Don’t Call it “Darwinism” by Eugenie C. Scott and Glenn Branch.
Nature also has a Darwin Day Special edition, with a lot of the content free. There is an interview with David Attenbrough, a special Nature Podcast and lots more.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Reframing the Argument
You may remember that I got rather exasperated with Professor Tom Frame over a rather silly argument he used in the Sydney Morning Herald. Well, this morning he was on ABC local radio in Sydney, in a debate for science week with Prof Nick Clomp, Dean of Science at Charles Sturt University. The debate is currently the first podcast on the Science Week page.
Professor Frame is very erudite in this podcast, and I'm sure we could have a very good chat over a cup of coffee.
One thing he gets wrong is that, at the time of Darwin, most people didn't belive that the world was only 6,000 years old as per Bishop Ussher (to be fair, even Vic Stenger gets this wrong). Since Huttons work in the 18th Century, it was evident that the Earth was much older than 6,000 years old. How old was not clear, but values in the millions of years were bandied about. While at the beigings of the 19th century, the average working person may not have been familiar with this, the yariuos Mechanics Institutes promulgated the latest scientific ideas across all classes. In 1840, the wildy popular "Vestiges of Creation" came out, which had a decided old Earth perspective. Darwin sailed on his voyage with Lyles "Priciples of Geology", an old Earth textbook.
Still, aside from that off note, it's a nice little conversation, have a listen.
Professor Frame is very erudite in this podcast, and I'm sure we could have a very good chat over a cup of coffee.
One thing he gets wrong is that, at the time of Darwin, most people didn't belive that the world was only 6,000 years old as per Bishop Ussher (to be fair, even Vic Stenger gets this wrong). Since Huttons work in the 18th Century, it was evident that the Earth was much older than 6,000 years old. How old was not clear, but values in the millions of years were bandied about. While at the beigings of the 19th century, the average working person may not have been familiar with this, the yariuos Mechanics Institutes promulgated the latest scientific ideas across all classes. In 1840, the wildy popular "Vestiges of Creation" came out, which had a decided old Earth perspective. Darwin sailed on his voyage with Lyles "Priciples of Geology", an old Earth textbook.
Still, aside from that off note, it's a nice little conversation, have a listen.
Labels: evolution
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Darwin Day 2009
Tomorrow, 12th February, is Darwin Day. As it happens, this is the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth (and "On the Origin of Species" was published 150 years ago in 24 November 1859). Sadly there are no dawin Day evnts in Adelaide, but there are in several other Australian cities. Use this events page, with its interactive map, to find them.
To get you started, try reading this essay by my mate John (and this one as well).
To get you started, try reading this essay by my mate John (and this one as well).
Saturday, November 08, 2008
The Origin of Life at the Museum of Science
Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase ribozyme, an example of the RNA-based catalysts that may have preceded protein enzymmes during the origin of life.The Museum of Science at Boston has a fantastic interactive web resource on the origins of life. Exploring Lifes Origins has a timeline of lifes evolution (with sliders), and pages on understanding the RNA world and building protocells, with a nice animation of protocell replication. The pages have been made in collaboration with ribozyme guru Jack Szostak and his laboratory, and there is a handy resources page for educators.
If you are interested in our current understanding of the origin of life, this is a very handy starting off point. You can explore ribozymes in more detail with proteopedia.
(Hat tip to Sandra Porter, biology educators should not miss her blog)
Labels: education, evolution, origin of life, prebiotic chemistry
Click to read about or order
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