Author: Brian Miller

^{Type
post

Author
Brian Miller

Date
May 16, 2022

Categorized
Evolution

Tagged
alkaline thermal vents, Brian Miller, Charles Darwin, Darwin, design logics, devolution, DNA, E. coli, enzymes, error-correction mechanisms, Evolution, hype, James Tour, Jeremy England, Life on Fire, Materialism, Michael Russel, Molecular Machines, Natural Selection, Naturalism, Nature Communications, organizational blueprint, organizational design, origin of life, RNA, RNA first, RNA-World hypothesis, Robert Shapiro, Science Daily, self-organization, self-replicating molecules, self-replicating RNA, self-replication, Steven Novella, synthetic organic chemistry, The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe, University of Tokyo}

Origin-of-Life Mystery at the University of Tokyo, Pt. 2

_{Brian Miller

May 16, 2022

Evolution}

Today’s ID the Future is Part 2 of physicist Brian Miller exploring a recent report from the University of Tokyo claiming a big breakthrough in origin-of-life research. As Miller and host Eric Anderson make clear, the university’s laboratory work on RNA, detailed in a recent Nature Communications article, involved the intelligent interference of the lab scientists and, despite this intelligent interference, the devolution of RNA rather than the evolution of increasing RNA sophistication. Miller says that it’s ironic that Steven Novella, a scientist committed to puncturing science hype, seems to have fallen for the hype surrounding this laboratory work. Miller and Anderson go on to discuss critiques of origin-of-life tall-tale claims, critiques coming Robert Shapiro, James Tour, and others. Life, Read More ›

Single strand ribonucleic acid, RNA research and therapy

^{Type
post

Author
Brian Miller

Date
May 9, 2022

Categorized
Evolution

Tagged
Darwinism, devolution, DNA, entropy, Evolution, evolutionary paradigm, genetic information, Intelligent Design, molecular machinery, Nature Communications, nonfunctional RNA, nucleotides, origin of lie, origin-of-life experiment, parasitic RNAs, primordial soup, replicase, replicase enzyme, replication process, replicators, ribozyme, RNA, RNA network, RNA template, Science Daily, Thermodynamics, University of Tokyo, virus}

Did U of Tokyo Just Solve the Mystery of Life’s Origin?

_{Brian Miller

May 9, 2022

Evolution}

On this ID the Future, Brian Miller, research coordinator for the Center for Science & Culture, reports on laboratory research recently presented in Nature Communications and in a University of Tokyo press release— research that supposedly provides dramatic “new insights into the possible origin of life,” and specifically “the molecular evolution of RNA.” The popular press picked up on these claims and ran with them, including in this May 5 Quanta article that breathlessly reported, “When researchers gave a genetic molecule the ability to replicate, it evolved over time into a complex network of ‘hosts’ and ‘parasites’ that both competed and cooperated to survive.” Miller says nothing remotely this dramatic occurred in the experiment. He insists there were no great Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Brian Miller

Date
March 23, 2022

Categorized
Physics and Cosmology

Tagged
Albert Einstein, Aristotle, beginning of the universe, Big Bang, Borde–Guth–Vilenkin theorem, Brian Miller, bubble universes, Casey Luskin, CMBR, Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith, cosmic background radiation, cosmological constant, cosmology, cyclical universe, Edwin Hubble, eternal inflation, eternal universe, fine tuning, Fred Hoyle, general theory of relativity, Georges Lemaître, Intelligent Design, Lawrence Krauss, Materialism, multiple universes, multiverse, oscillating universe, quantum cosmology, specified complexity, steady state model, Stephen Hawking, string landscape model, Universe from Nothing, Vesto Slipher, Wheeler-DeWitt equation}

Physicist Brian Miller Answers the Big Bang Evaders

_{Brian Miller

March 23, 2022

Physics and Cosmology}

On this ID the Future, physicist Brian Miller looks at various attempts to evade the mounting evidence that the universe had a beginning, a Big Bang. Miller and host Casey Luskin first review the fascinating history of how the eternal universe model of the nineteenth century gave way to the Big Bang model. Then Miller walks through about a half a dozen attempts to evade a cosmic beginning after the Big Bang model had won the day. These evasions include the steady state model, the idea of an eternal cyclical universe, and the string landscape model. According to this model, our universe exists in a multi-dimensional brane (not “brain”) which exists in a higher dimensional space, and our multi-dimensional brane Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Brian Miller

Date
January 10, 2022

Categorized
Intelligent Design

Tagged
Brian Miller, Casey Luskin, CELS conference, cichlid fish, Conference on Engineering in Living Systems, Darwinism, design logic, engineering, Evolution, finch beak, finches, fitness landscape, four-bar linkage, fruit flies, gravity well model for adaptation, Intelligent Design, intelligent design predictions, labrid fish, Mark W. Westneat, mutational hotspots, Natural Selection, Neo-Darwinism, phenotypic plasticity, population genetics, random variation, stickleback fish, Systematic Biology, systems biology, tracking model for adaptation}

Engineers Crash the Evolution Party, Rethink Biological Variation

_{Brian Miller

January 10, 2022

Intelligent Design}

On today’s ID the Future, physicist and engineer Brian Miller sits down with host Casey Luskin to survey exciting developments in intelligent design research that are driven by an engineering model for understanding and studying variations in species. ID researchers are pushing this work, but so too are systems biology researchers outside the intelligent design community. Tune in to hear Miller and Luskin discuss everything from fruit flies, finch beaks, and stickleback fish to mutational hotspots, phenotypic plasticity, and the gravity well model of biological adaptation.

Molecule 3D illustration. Laboratory, molecules, crystal lattice. Nanotech research. Decoding genome. Virtual modeling of chemical processes. Hi-tech in medicine

^{Type
post

Author
Brian Miller

Date
September 8, 2021

Categorized
Life Sciences

Tagged
abiogenesis, Area 51, Biological Information, cell membrane, cells, Craig Venter, design inference, DNA, emergence, entropy, epicycles, genetic information, geocentrism, heliocentrism, homeostasis, information, Intelligent Design, James Tour, Jeremy England, Justin Brierley, methodological materialism, minimally complex cell, mysterious physics, nanotechnology, noise, origin of life, Paul Davies, Ptolemaic system, scientific Materialism, scientific revolutions, self-organization, self-reproducing machine, the mystery of life’s origin}

Physicist Brian Miller Talks Nanotech, Origin of Life, and Area 51

_{Brian Miller

September 8, 2021

Life Sciences}

On today’s ID the Future physicist Brian Miller and host Eric Anderson continue their exploration of a recent conversation between origin-of-life investigators Jeremy England and Paul Davies on Justin Brierley’s Unbelievable? radio show. Miller begins with a quick flyover of the many nanotechnologies essential to even to the simplest viable cell. A minimally complex cell is vastly more sophisticated than our best human nanotechnology. What about England’s insistence that real progress has been made in origin-of-life studies since the 1950s? True, Anderson says, but the progress has been principally in better understanding how the simplest cells function, and in figuring out what doesn’t work to blindly evolve life from non-life. That is, the direction of discovery has been to throw Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Brian Miller

Date
September 1, 2021

Categorized
Evolution

Tagged
abiogenesis, Biological Information, Brian Miller, early Earth, functional organization, Georgia Tech University, high energy, high order, Jeremy England, Justin Brierley, low entropy, minimally complex cell, Non-equilibrium Systems, order, origin of life, Paul Davies, Sara Walker, self-organization, the mystery of life’s origin, Unbelievable}

Dissecting an Unbelievable Conversation about Abiogenesis

_{Brian Miller

September 1, 2021

Evolution}

On today’s ID the Future physicist Brian Miller and host Eric Anderson explore a recent conversation between physicists Jeremy England and Paul Davies on Justin Brierley’s Unbelievable? radio show. Davies admitted he doesn’t want the origin of life to require divine design, while England argued that his work on non-equilibrium systems offers a promising avenue for explaining the origin of the first life in naturalistic terms. Miller and Anderson demur on both counts. They hold out hope that Davies, having recognized his philosophical bias, will eventually decide to follow the evidence wherever it leads, even if doing so has theistic implications. And as for Jeremy England’s approach, Miller says it’s fascinating work but fails to solve the origin-of-life challenge in Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Brian Miller

Date
July 21, 2021

Categorized
Evolution

Tagged
abiogenesis, Brownian motion, building blocks of life, cell death, chemical evolution, Dave Farina, entropy, homochirality, information problem, James Tour, mass transfer problem, Molecular Machines, origin of life, synthetic organic chemistry, the Levinthal paradox of the interactome, yeast cell}

More on James Tour’s Abiogenesis YouTube Series

_{Brian Miller

July 21, 2021

Evolution}

On today’s ID the Future, physicist Brian Miller continues his review of James Tour’s origin-of-life YouTube series. As Miller explains, Tour, a world-renowned synthetic organic chemist and professor at Rice University, was inspired to create the series when YouTuber and evolutionist Dave Farina critiqued Tour’s critique of contemporary origin-of-life claims. In reviewing Tour’s video series, Miller and host Eric Anderson praise the Tour series and discuss the Levinthal paradox of the interactome, the ridiculously long odds of blind processes assembling the first living cell, and the challenge of cell death (think Humpty Dumpty and what all the king’s men couldn’t do). Also discussed: entropy, molecular machines, the challenges that Brownian motion and homochirality pose, the presence of intelligent design in Read More ›

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post

Author
Brian Miller

Date
July 19, 2021

Categorized
Intelligent Design

Tagged
appearance of design, Biological Information, cells, emergence, Every Life is on Fire, Intelligent Design, Jeremy England, minimal cell, nano-technology, origin of life, RNA World hypothesis, self-organization, self-organized systems, self-reproduction, systems biology, top-down engineering}

The Origin of Life was the Origin of an Engineering Marvel

_{Brian Miller

July 19, 2021

Intelligent Design}

On today’s ID the Future, physicist Brian Miller touches on various challenges facing the origin of the first life. He and host Eric Anderson discuss Jeremy England’s origin-of-life ideas and the RNA World Hypothesis, and offer multiple reasons why they are convinced that various proposed mindless processes do not explain the origin of the first self-reproducing cell. Miller urges another approach, one that draws on engineering principles and embraces the evidence in even the simplest cell of highly intelligent engineering.

^{Type
post

Author
Brian Miller

Date
May 24, 2021

Categorized
Evolution

Tagged
abiogenesis, Brian Miller, building blocks of life, chemical evolution, Dave Farina, Duke University, entropy, James Tour, MIT, Natural Selection, origin of life, prebiotic chemistry, Professor Dave, Rice University, Richard Dawkins, self-organization, synthetic organic chemistry, The Blind Watchmaker}

Brian Miller Distills the YouTube Debate between Dave Farina and James Tour

_{Brian Miller

May 24, 2021

Evolution}

On today’s ID the Future, host Eric Anderson and physicist Brian Miller, research director for Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, discuss a recent debate between YouTube science educator Dave Farina and Rice University synthetic organic chemist James Tour. Tour has argued that no one—not even the most elite of origin-of-life scientists–has a clue how life could have arisen through blind natural forces on the early earth. Farina created a YouTube response on his channel arguing that Tour is wrong and that origin-of-life researchers are well on their way to solving the mystery of life’s origin. Tour then responded in his own YouTube video series. Now Miller and Anderson boil it all down and argue that Tour is right Read More ›

Couple standing on the beach at sunset are having problems with each other

^{Type
post

Author
Brian Miller

Date
May 3, 2021

Categorized
Evolution

Tagged
abiogenesis, alkaline thermal vents, Biological Information, Brian Miller, cell membrane, DNA, early Earth, entropy, Evolution, Helen Hansma, Intelligent Design, interfering cross reactions, Jack Szostak, Jeremy England, lipid bilayer, mica hypothesis, mica sheets, Michael Russell, natural templating, Nick Lane, origin of life, polymerase, prebiotic chemistry, protocell, raw energy, RNA, RNA World hypothesis}

Brian Miller Talks Star-Crossed RNA Strands and the Origin of Life

_{Brian Miller

May 3, 2021

Evolution}

On today’s ID the Future, physicist Brian Miller continues his conversation with host Eric Anderson. Here they explore more problems facing the idea that life began as strings of RNA. In their discussion of the RNA World Hypothesis and the origin of life generally, they touch on ideas advanced by Jeremy England, Jack Shostak, Nick Lane, Helen Hansma, and others. One of several big problems with the RNA-first hypothesis underscored by Miller and Anderson: For it to have even a slender chance of working, you need prebiotic Earth to generate not one but two information-rich RNA strands, and they somehow need to find each other before falling apart, and do so despite the fact that they aren’t looking for each Read More ›