Podcasts and a reading from interesting blogs: Perfection in biology?

The "evil" Discovery Institute's Nota Bene tells me:

What Darwinists Have to Grapple With: Physicists See Perfection in Biology

The scientists at Biologic Institute have noticed something sure to challenge and trouble Darwinian biologists: physicists are recognizing perfection as a principle in biology.

When we think of simple, elegant, unifying principles in science, we think of physics. It’s not surprising then that physicists who examine living systems are looking for principles of this kind.

And it seems they have found one. Simply stated, it is that biological processes tend to be optimal in cases where this can be tested.

Life’s complexity can make it hard to pinpoint what “optimal” means, but sometimes physical limits provide a crisp definition. Because these limits cannot possibly be exceeded, they serve as an objective standard of perfection. Interestingly, in cases where it is clearly beneficial to edge right up to this standard, that’s exactly what life seems to do.

For decades enzymologists have recognized that certain enzymes are catalytically perfect—meaning that they process reactant molecules as rapidly as these molecules can reach them by diffusion. That hinted at a principle of physical perfection in biology, but no one anticipated its breadth until recently.

Read the rest at Biologic's Perspectives blog.

(Quite honestly, having seen how long people live in a generally non-insane environment like Canada, I am a hard sell for nonsense about the imperfections of nature. I suspect that people - by act or omission - kill far more people than nature does, at present.)

Podcasts from the same evil source:


1. The Line Through the Heart: Natural Law and J. Budziszewski

Click here to listen.

On this episode of ID the Future Logan Gage interviews CSC fellow J. Budziszewski on his new book, The Line Through the Heart: Natural Law as Fact, Theory, and Sign of Contradiction. What is Natural Law? Listen in as Dr. Budziszewski explains how humans as rational creatures differ from animals driven by instinct, and the evidence for "a deep structure to the human moral intellect" or design in Natural Law.


2. Benjamin Wiker on Darwin, the Man and the Myth

Click here to listen.

On this episode of ID the Future, Logan Gage interviews Dr. Benjamin Wiker, author of The Darwin Myth: The Life and Lies of Charles Darwin.

What were Darwin's actual religious and philosophical views? Are atheists abusing Darwin's theory when they say Darwinism supports their atheist belief? Listen in as Dr. Wiker answers and explains the natural outgrowth of Social Darwinism from Darwin's theory.

Listen to previous IDTF episodes featuring Dr. Wiker here and here.

(Time someone started to talk about the ol' Brit toff's evasions and omissions - and the unspeakable hagiographies of his current supporters.)