TAM 6 Review: Dr. Novella - Dualism and Creationism

I've been meaning to do some TAM 6 blogs basically since last summer, and just never got inspired. But last night I wasn't sleeping or I was dreaming about TAM 7 in July so I guess I'm inspired now. Being the good little nerd that I am I took some pretty good notes during the talks last year, so I flipped through them and thought I'd recap Dr. Steve Novella's talk.

Dr. Novella is a neurologist and has spent a lot of time on his blog dealing with dualism. Dualism is a philosophy of the mind, that asserts that some properties of consciousness are not due to physical phenomena. This is known as Cartesian Dualism. Naturalistic Dualism holds that it is the brain that causes conscientiousness, but we don't know how.

Neuroscience supports the position that consciousness is an emergent property of the brain.

• there is no mind with no brain.
• brain development correlates with mental development
• if you damage the brain you damage the mind
• different states of consciousness correlate with different brain states
• able to provoke specific mental effects by stimulating the brain (MEG)

So far the material model of consciousness is working fairly well as a description of the mind. Dualism is basically a 'god of the gaps' type argument. It is invoked to explain uncertainties in scientific understanding of the brain and mind. The purpose of dualism like creationism is to provide ideological cover for a belief system not to advance human knowledge.

Goodbye Lucy

It looks like Lucy is about to pack up and head out of town after a rather disappointing exhibition and the Pacific Science Center. It is a shame that more people didn't support this exhibit. As a result of the poor turnout here in Seattle, Chicago has canceled their scheduled display.

I'm really glad that I made the effort to visit as it looks like there may not be another chance here in the US. What a shame and embarrassment for Americans that one of the great scientific discoveries of our time can't even get 200,000 visitors in six months in one of the countries most pro-science cities. It was an amazing experience for me. I wish more could have shared it.

Thinking about Evolution

I have absolutely no formal training in biology, and because of that there are tons of basic things I don't know. However, lately I've really enjoyed being a biology nerd and doing lots of reading mostly on genetics and development. Also, the Theory of Evolution is a major piece of my atheistic worldview, so the more understanding I can gain the better I can support my position.

Recently I was involved in a discussion with a creationist, which is why I ended up watching the Boonstra movie. One of the major portions of the Boonstra argument (and I think this is a standard creationist position) was that the theory of evolution doesn't explain the origin of life therefore god did it. In my discussion I repeatedly demanded that a distinction be made between evolution and abiogenesis. My point was that evolution works if life developed spontaneously, was seeded by an advanced alien race or was sneezed into existence by the Great Green Arkleseizure. I still believe that this is a correct understanding, but I need to be careful how I phrase the statement. For rhetorical purposes it is useful to make a distinction between origins and evolution, but based on the some recent research on chemical replicators (the the biology nerd in me gets really excited about) it would probably be false to say that natural selection had no part in the origin of biological life.

In the study reviewed on pharyngula and neurologica some enzymes were able to assemble themselves spontaneously from simpler chemicals. The researchers relied on natural selection to optimize the reaction. From PZ Myers:

"They started with a very rough sequence, one that inefficiently catalyzed an A + B → E sort of reaction, but that not only worked slowly, but also produced faulty products that eventually killed the reaction after a few cycles. Then they tweaked it to form a minus-strand enzyme, and then they subjected both the plus and minus strand forms to — natural selection! They made copies with mutagenic PCR (so they had a range of random variants), ran it through several cycles of in vitro selection for more efficient forms, and ended up with two RNA enzymes that were good at building copies of each other."

And from Steven Novella:

"Specifically, what they found was that when they added different versions of their self-replicating RNA with limited raw material to the same test tube, the different RNA “species’ competed with each other. The more “fit” RNA species, those better able to compete for raw material and replicate, dominated the resulting brew of RNA. Further, different RNA species combined together to form new versions of RNA - the molecules evolved - with more fit molecules being selected for."

While this is almost certainly not how life started on this planet, this is a nice proof of concept that more complex chemical structures can build themselves from simpler components.

Happy Solstice

I know I'm a few days late getting this post up, but I was too busy celebrating by building alter shaped mounds of snow along side my driveway to compose anything worthy of the occasion. Now that the time for celebration is past I thought I would stop and ponder the significance of the Winter Solstice.

The winter solstice occurs at the instant when the Sun's position in the sky is at its greatest angular distance on the other side of the equatorial plane from the observer's hemisphere. The seasonal significance of the winter solstice is in the reversal of the gradually lengthening nights and shortening days.

This simple result of orbital physics is marked by festivals celebrating rebirth in the religions of most cultures. The most pervasive and obscene for its displays of materialism is Christmas. Others holidays include: Amaterasu, Beiwe, Deygan and Midvinterblot.

So, while it is easy to get caught up in the hype of parties and shopping and desecrating nativity scenes, we should not forget the true reason for the season. That science has given us the ability to observe, predict and understand the changes in the seasons and that we can move beyond ritualistic appeasements to ill tempered divine figures so that they will cause the spring to come again.

Lucy Visit

I stopped by the Pacific Science Center on Friday to see the Lucy exhibit. I've got to say that it was very cool. The majority of the display was dealing with Ethiopian history and culture, but I'd expected that based on some other reports I'd read from the last stop of the exhibit tour. I'm probably as much a history nerd as I am a biology nerd, so I enjoyed the whole experience. I really wanted to have pictures, but there was no photography allowed. The Lucy fossils even had a full time guard.

The exhibit was really well done. There was information on how fossils are formed, how they are dated and how they are excavated and reconstructed. There was even enough hands-on touch-and-feel stuff to almost entertain the boy while I read every display. (Lori was super nice and kept him out of trouble so I could take my time.) The part I liked best (other than Lucy) was the progression of reconstructed skull casts showing all the known possible human ancestors. Another thing I enjoyed was the family trees comparing the state of knowledge in the early '70s when Lucy was discovered with what is known now. Huge progress has been made in our understanding of our evolutionary heritage.

Lucy!!

Last Saturday (Oct. 4) the Lucy Exhibit opened at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle. This is the first west coast exhibition of Lucy

the oldest, most complete, and best preserved adult fossil of any erect-walking human ancestor. The 1974 discovery of this famous 3.2 million-year-old hominid yielded a new species, Australopithecus afarensis, and continues to have a major impact on the scientific understanding of our human origins. Through additional artifacts spanning over 200,000 years visitors will also experience Ethiopia, Lucy's homeland. With eight locales on the World Heritage List, Ethiopia is rich in history and culture and it holds a unique position in the study of paleoanthropology.

Lori said she is taking me to the exhibit for my birthday present. I could not be more excited. We decided not to go opening weekend, but I hope we'll get there soon. There was some controversy in the scientific community over exhibiting these fossils. Some people thought they were just too valuable to risk transporting them. I can understand that, but since they are here I glad I'll get to pay her a visit. A huge positive side to the exhibition is the amazing opportunity for science education. The Seattle PI has been running a series of articles, and there is a lecture series sponsored by the Science Center and KCTS/9, the local Public Broadcasting Station, are scheduled. This event promotes good science and displays the facts of human evolution. I'm hoping that by visiting the display I'll have a good conversation starter. Maybe evolution will be harder to deny when the evidence is in full view just down the street.

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Cool it looks like my blog has been spammed by Answers in Genesis. (10/9/08)

Not all TV is a loss

Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson was on the Colbert Report.

Clever Lizards

I know this is a few days late (I was on vacation), but I thought this lizard was fascinating.

On a related note I just finished Sean B. Carrol's "Endless Forms Most Beautiful"(review). I've been working on improving my understanding of biology/genetics. I thought it was an excellent and informative read.