Michael J. Behe A (R)evolutionary Biologist
Topic

research

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Plants background with biochemistry structure.
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“Reducible complexity” in PNAS

Dear Readers, Recently a paper appeared online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, entitled “The reducible complexity of a mitochondrial molecular machine” (http://tinyurl.com/mhoh7w). As you might expect, I was very interested in reading what the authors had to say. Unfortunately, as is all too common on this topic, the claims made in the paper far surpassed the data, and distinctions between such basic ideas as “reducible” versus “irreducible” and “Darwinian” versus “non-Darwinian” were pretty much ignored. Since PNASpublishes letters to the editor on its website, I wrote in. Alas, it seems that polite comments by a person whose work is the clear target of the paper are not as welcome as one might suppose from reading the journal’s Read More ›

calmodulin-a-crucial-messenger-protein-stockpack-adobe-stock
Calmodulin, a crucial messenger protein
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Reply to Gross

The current edition of The New Criterion carries a lengthy reviewof The Edge of Evolution (subscription required) by the biochemist Paul Gross. Unfortunately, although he is commendably civil and kindly praises my writing and speaking abilities, Gross offers little of actual substance other than to declare the book’s arguments wrong. He quotes Ken Miller saying that the malaria calculations are wrong, and alludes to Sean Carroll’s declaration that, why, there is a vast number of (unspecified) papers showing how protein binding sites can evolve. For rejoinders to those claims, I refer readers to my comments on this blog concerning Carroll’s and Miller’s reviews.

malaria-parasite-in-red-blood-cells-ring-form-stage-of-plasmodium-falciparum-original-magnification-1000x-stockpack-adobe-stock
Malaria parasite in red blood cells, ring form stage of Plasmodium falciparum, original magnification 1000x
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Response to Kenneth R. Miller

Dear Readers, Here I respond to the unfavorable review of The Edge of Evolution by Kenneth R. Miller inNature. Like Sean Carroll, whose review in Science I discussed earlier, he employs much bluster. But Miller goes well beyond simple bluster. I overlooked Carroll’s rhetoric and dealt only with his substantial arguments. This time I’ll do things differently. Today I’ll respond to Miller’s substantive points. Tomorrow we’ll take a closer look at his style of argumentation. After mentioning that de novo resistance to chloroquine is found roughly once in every 1020 malaria parasites, and quoting several sentences from The Edge of Evolution where I note “On average, for humans to achieve a mutation like this by chance, we would need to wait a hundred million times ten Read More ›