"Did God Create the Universe?"

[Philboid Studge]

Sternwallow wrote

I think the chemistry between Craig and Ford was terrific. Each one made his mark on the whole presentation without having to undercut or downgrade the other.

If any criticism is due, I thought there was not enough of that dark, desperate times, M*A*S*H-like humor among the toughest leaders. I guess they wanted too hard to be taken seriously.

I think I agree. Some of the characters' developments were too similar -- i.e., both Craig and Ford were bad guys who turned good (or at least efficient !).

Also: must have more Sam Rockwell!

p.s. spoiler alert

[ILOVEJESUS]

A side issue, in the UK there s a good series from that bad astronomy guy, Phil thingy. Nicely simplified, and full of GOOD science. Discovery channel.

[Eternal]

Never seen that one, will give it a watch.

[Professor Chaos]

ILOVEJESUS wrote

A side issue, in the UK there s a good series from that bad astronomy guy, Phil thingy. Nicely simplified, and full of GOOD science. Discovery channel.

Phil Plait, yeah that show was a few solid episodes then it disappeared.

[Philboid Studge]

Pahu is a regurgiposter. He is filling the Intertubes with the same rubbish, and is never daunted by the fact that people who bothers to read it end up waving their genitals at him in mockery. He posted the same fruit fly nonsense here (among other places). Some of the comments are priceless: "So what?" and "Thank God for that, I was starting to think my bible was wrong."

Then the smackdown:

Ha ha ha ha, classic! You’ve reguriposted some creationist crap without the slightest understanding of the material you’ve posted.

One of the classic creationist wilfully ignorant mistruths is that mutations are nearly always detrimental, hence invalidating evolution based on selection of mutations. This is false. The fact is that the significant majority of mutations are neutral; only a small percentage is either beneficial or detrimental to the organism’s survival. You are living proof of this, Mr. Pahu. Your genome differs from an unrelated individual, on average, every 1000th base. These are referred to as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and they are the result of mutations. In other words, your genome has inherited millions of different mutations compared to me. Are you suggesting that you are “constitutionally weaker” than me?

Now let’s address your misunderstanding of genetic screens. I have a developmental biology background and have performed the very same types of mutagenesis screens that you are commenting on. Admittedly, I worked with C.elegans and zebrafish, not Drosophila. But these are all developmental biology model organisms and they are all utilised in mutagenesis screens in the same fashion.

To cut a long complex story short, when you perform a mutagenesis screen for recessive mutations you expose the parental line to a mutagen (chemical, radiation, mobile genetic element) then breed them through two generations (see schematic diagram). In the case of zebrafish, you end up a few dozen F2 organisms that you pair-wise breed and screen the F3 clutches for physiological traits of interest. The initial dosing and breeding regimen is designed to ensure that each F3 clutch is carrying multiple homozygous recessive mutations.

Now, here’s the kicker....

The majority of F3 clutches are perfectly normal despite carrying multiple induced mutations! I cannot tell you how many cumulative hours I spent looking down a microscope at endless F3 clutches searching for mutants of interest (in my case I was looking alterations to motor neuron precursor numbers in a transgenic line expressing fluorescent proteins in neuronal precursor subpopulations).

When scientists report the results of mutagenesis screens and describe the mutants they have pulled out, they are describing the rare mutants that they have specifically pulled out. Such screens are specifically biased towards identifying mutations that result in a physiological detriment during embryogenesis. Such screens do not pull out potentially beneficial mutations.

This all fits perfectly with what we know as fact – the majority of mutations are not harmful, they’re neutral. This is hardly surprising given that complex metazoan genomes are mostly non-coding. <5% of the human genome coding DNA (ie. genes).

So, your first three reguriposts are erroneously attempting to suggest that just because a mutagenesis screen pulls out mutants that are less fit than wildtype, that this is evidence that mutations are always harmful and, therefore, evolution must be false.

Fail.

Your final three reguriposts are merely the age-old wilfully ignorant creationist rubbish that evolution can’t be true because no one has ever seen an organism evolve into anything else. This is false and a mega-fail. It’s been refuted so many times that it’s not worth wasting time on.

[ILOVEJESUS]

Professor Chaos wrote

Phil Plait, yeah that show was a few solid episodes then it disappeared.

Bloody typical. Probably so we can have another series about the Mayan prophecies ( obvious crapolla) ending our existance in 2012.

[Kinich Ahau]

The correct word is Maya when referring to these people as in "the Maya prophesies" The only time the word Mayan is used correctly is when
applied to the group of languages used by these people i.e. chontal yucatec etc. It is really interesting, if you google Maya you end up with websites to
do with the contemporary Maya and their communities as well as legitimate anthropology and archaeology. If you google Mayan all you get get is a raft of
bullshit sites about prophesies and new age spirituality. So it is a common mistake but one that truly separates the chaff.

Oh and sorry for being so pedantic but I am the Maya sun god after all.

[Eternal]

Kinich Ahau wrote

Oh and sorry for being so pedantic but I am the Maya sun god after all.

That explains it, all this time I thought you were a sneeze, sorry not really up on my ancient gods yet.

[psychodiva]

Eternal wrote

That explains it, all this time I thought you were a sneeze, sorry not really up on my ancient gods yet.

[Kinich Ahau]

Eternal wrote

That explains it, all this time I thought you were a sneeze, sorry not really up on my ancient gods yet.

Bless you!

[Citizen]

I just got around to watching it. I thought it was just okay. It could have been longer and more detailed.