I thought I had a McGuffin when I saw this in a presentation at the Norheast Epidemiology Conference. At a Creation Science Fair in Texas, First Prize went to Eileen Hyde and Lynda Morgan (grades 10 & 11) who "did a project showing how the power of prayer can unlock the latent genes in bacteria, allowing them to microevolve antibiotic resistance. Escherichia coli bacteria cultured in agar filled petri dishes were subjected to the antibiotics tetracycline and chlorotetracycline. The bacteria cultures were divided into two groups, one group (A) received prayer while the other (B) didn't. The prayer was as follows: "Dear Lord, please allow the bacteria in Group A to unlock the antibiotic-resistant genes that You saw fit to give them at the time of Creation. Amen." The process was repeated for five generations, with the prayer being given at the start of each generation. In the end, Group A was significantly more resistant than Group B to both antibiotics."
Alas (or perhaps fortunately), this turns out to be a parody, which took in a lot of people. (Yes, we have a crack team of fact checkers.) However, there are real Creation Science Fairs, although it turns out the students seldom do anything that resembles an experiment, they just ramble on about how the Bible explains everything. The same turns out to be true of grownup "Creation Scientists". (I particularly recommend the essay entitled, "In the Early Earth, Were All the Months Exactly Thirty Days Long?")
The occasion for inflicting all this dreck on you is the astonishing case of Hwang Woo-suk. Now that it turns out his entire portfolio of biotechnological breakthroughs was fraudulent, and that the South Korean government's $65 million investment in his work was simply stolen, many people, particularly of the ilk linked above, are triumphantly claiming that the fundamental credibility of orthodox (as it were) science has been exploded.
The precise opposite is true, of course. Creation science cannot possibly be falsified, because it begins with the conclusion and reasons backward from there. If someone has the temerity to question some part of the chain of reasoning, creationists just introduce more epicycles. Real science, however, is credible precisely because it is falsifiable. If Hwang worked for the Institute for Creation Science, his pursuits obviously would have been different, but whatever they were, it would be impossible to discredit him.
And in this connection, I highly recommend the comments to my previous post.
Friday, December 30, 2005
What's wrong with this experiment?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
11 comments:
This is really interesting, You are a very skilled blogger. I have joined your feed and look forward to seeking more of your excellent post. Also, I’ve shared your website in my social networks!
sushi vitacura
In spite of the fact there are numerous online platforms reachable, neither of them was authentic or reliable but here I have exposed what I was seeking.
Tipsters
You need to basically pour this into the area where the milk was spilled, making sure that the cleaner soaks into an area a bit larger than where the milk soaked in. Rub and push the cleaner well into the carpet - its going to be really wet. Allow to soak for at least 30 minutes to an hour or according to label directions
Sports betting advice
I wanted to reach out to you to ask for your feedback on these widgets (feel free to install them on your blog, if you feel they are a good fit). I'm sorry for leaving this message via a comment, it's not at all our intent to spam you ( which is why i'm leaving this comment on an older post and you can always remove this comment ). Again, we would love to hear your feedback.
odds forslag
I have just started going to a gym and my instructor is asking me to take protein supplements. I am not sure whether they are steroids or not. And secondly, I am a strict vegetarian so i was hoping if you could give me any details on what to eat. Without the meat and eggs of course
Online Reputation management
Keep up the wonderful function! Please email us in case you are serious Neida Hautamaki It's chance are very fantastic and dealing style consequently rapid. Your site definitely has assist me
twitter marketing
I was wondering should you can be fascinated about changing into a guest poster on my weblog? and in trade you could possibly put a link the submit? Please let me know once you get a chance and I will send you my contact particulars thanks. Anyway, in my language, there should not a lot good source like this.
Real Estate Edmonton
Great stuff here. The information and the detail were just perfect. I think that your perspective is deep, its just well thought out and really fantastic to see someone who knows how to put these thoughts down so well. Great job on this.
realtors edmonton
Interesting post and thanks for sharing. Some things in here I have not thought about before.Thanks for making such a cool post which is really very well written.will be referring a lot of friends about this.Keep blogging.
spela black jack
This is a remarkable than run of the mill posting. The information is totally shocking and really obliging. The substance style used here is the right one and I on an extremely essential level envision that this couldn't be an all the moreover surprising article. Assertion on http://www.topwedding.com/
Thankful to you, I saw different confusing things. I need to take in additional. I review that you for these surprising shares. Keep it up! That is stunning!
grateful to you for offer such kind of article. On the off chance that it's not all that much obstruction record it for us!carpet cleaning coupons
Post a Comment