What does it mean to be a primate? One of many paths through the phylogenetic tree.

Strap on your seat belt and learn about the reality of primates:

“Primates” are collectively defined as any gill-less, organic RNA/DNA protein-based, metabolic, metazoic, nucleic, diploid, bilaterally-symmetrical, endothermic, digestive, tryploblast, opisthokont, deuterostome coelemate with a spinal chord and 12 cranial nerves connecting to a limbic system in an enlarged cerebrial cortex with a reduced olfactory region inside a jawed-skull with specialized teeth including canines and premolars, forward-oriented fully-enclosed optical orbits, and a single temporal fenestra, -attached to a vertebrate hind-leg dominant tetrapoidal skeleton with a sacral pelvis, clavical, and wrist & ankle bones; and having lungs, tear ducts, body-wide hair follicles, lactal mammaries, opposable thumbs, and keratinized dermis with chitinous nails on all five digits on all four extremities, in addition to an embryonic development in amniotic fluid, leading to a placental birth and highly social lifestyle.

See here for the full transcript. This video constitutes a highly condensed summary of some of the basic principles of evolutionary biology so often overlooked by creationists. The author goes to pains to point out that scientists don't just make claims about evolutionary development because they want to make these claims. Rather, the conclusions of evolutionary biology are compelled by an elaborate well-documented scheme of development based on massive collections of evidence, verified by thousands of scientists over hundreds of years, including more than a few scientists who were conservative Christians. Using this evidence, we can trace the development of a species from antecedent related species , but the phylogenetic tree of life . . . can be just as objectively confirmed from the top down when re-examined genetically. This is why it is referred to as a “twin-nested hierarchy.”

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Steven Strogatz discusses how things in nature tend to sync up all by themselves.

Stephen Strogatz is a mathematician who has studied synchrony in nature. Synchrony is the "spontaneous tendency of separate entities to act as a unit." Strogatz finds synchrony "everywhere" in nature. He stresses that you don't need to be smart to synchronize, nor do you need to have a brain or…

Continue ReadingSteven Strogatz discusses how things in nature tend to sync up all by themselves.

Scivee: for those who want to view science videos

I just finished watching a video on how to dissect a human corpse in order to learn about skin, cutaneous nerves and lymph nodes (warning to the squeamish:  There's no sugar-coating here--it's a highly graphic lesson on how to do a human dissection).   I thought to myself:  "This is incredible. …

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Astrophysicist George Smoot explores how the universe congealed into structures.

In this TED video, astrophysicist, cosmologist and Nobel Prize winner George Smoot studies the cosmic microwave background radiation -- the afterglow of the Big Bang.  Smoot presents his lecture with the help of dramatic images created through the crunching of massive amounts of real-life data. The bottom line is that…

Continue ReadingAstrophysicist George Smoot explores how the universe congealed into structures.