Incredible complexity makes the case for design! Hold the line for evidence, hang up on propaganda...
All one has to do in order to falsify Darwinism is to keep looking into the world of science without a "Darwin" label attached. The more we discover about every aspect of the Universe the more complex and intentional design is revealed. When will the common man see that the comparison with Darwinism and the man behind the curtain is apropos? When will we see that Toto has shown us that the Great and Mighty Wizard of Odds is bankrupt and powerless?
First this article from CNET by Elizabeth Armstrong Moore (more about Moore below the article).
"A single human brain has more switches than all the computers and routers and Internet connections on Earth."
Human brain has more switches than all computers on Earth
The human brain is truly awesome.
A typical, healthy one houses some 200 billion nerve cells, which are connected to one another via hundreds of trillions of synapses. Each synapse functions like a microprocessor, and tens of thousands of them can connect a single neuron to other nerve cells. In the cerebral cortex alone, there are roughly 125 trillion synapses, which is about how many stars fill 1,500 Milky Way galaxies.
This is a visual reconstruction from array-tomography data of synapses in the mouse somatosensory cortex, which is responsive to whisker stimulation.
(Credit: Stephen Smith/Stanford)These synapses are, of course, so tiny (less than a thousandth of a millimeter in diameter) that humans haven't been able to see with great clarity what exactly they do and how, beyond knowing that their numbers vary over time. That is until now.
Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have spent the past few years engineering a new imaging model, which they call array tomography, in conjunction with novel computational software, to stitch together image slices into a three-dimensional image that can be rotated, penetrated and navigated. Their work appears in the journal Neuron this week.
To test their model, the team took tissue samples from a mouse whose brain had been bioengineered to make larger neurons in the cerebral cortex express a fluorescent protein (found in jellyfish), making them glow yellow-green. Because of this glow, the researchers were able to see synapses against the background of neurons.
They found that the brain's complexity is beyond anything they'd imagined, almost to the point of being beyond belief, says Stephen Smith, a professor of molecular and cellular physiology and senior author of the paper describing the study:
One synapse, by itself, is more like a microprocessor--with both memory-storage and information-processing elements--than a mere on/off switch. In fact, one synapse may contain on the order of 1,000 molecular-scale switches. A single human brain has more switches than all the computers and routers and Internet connections on Earth.
Smith adds that this gives us a glimpse into brain tissue at a level of detail never before attained: "The entire anatomical context of the synapses is preserved. You know right where each one is, and what kind it is."
While the study was set up to demonstrate array tomography's potential in neuroscience (which is starting to resemble astronomy), the team was surprised to find that a class of synapses that have been considered identical to one another actually contain certain distinctions. They hope to use their imaging model to learn more about those distinctions, identifying which are gained or lost during learning, after experiences such as trauma, or in neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's.
In the meantime, Smith and Micheva are starting a company that is gathering funding for future work, and Stanford's Office of Technology Licensing has obtained a U.S. patent on array tomography and filed for a second.
This four-minute video explores the pial (outer) surface of a mouse's cortex through all six layers and subcortical white matter to the adjoining striatum:
Elizabeth Armstrong Moore is a freelance journalist based in Portland, Ore. She has contributed to Wired magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, and public radio. Her semi-obscure hobbies include unicycling, slacklining, hula-hooping, scuba diving, billiards, Sudoku, Magic the Gathering, and classical piano. She is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET.
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The redoubtable EAM! I must admire a journalist who understands what journalism is. This one is the same age as one of my daughters. She sounds like one of my incredibly gifted nieces, daughters of my remarkable and beloved sister Shelley. A Renaissance woman, if you will? It is so refreshing to see pure straight reporting, as I am now so used to filtering out the spin and propaganda from the common articles written for National Geographic and Nature and etc.
What I admire is that this is journalism done right! She doesn't opine nor does she spin, she REPORTS! Impressive! I do thoroughly understand reporting and used to do it for a living.
But this is blogging. Blogging is more like editorial commenting than reporting. In fact the best description for blogging to me is the writing of opinion pieces backed up by evidence. That is what I do. I do not claim to be a neutral observer but rather a crusader for Creation by God. Unashamed and unafraid to be criticized and slandered. In fact I expect it so be my guest, disagree! In my opinion, the inconceivably complex brain is yet another piece of evidence that all of the Universe including all organisms are designed. For how long will you Darwinists keep depending upon long chains of happy accidents? It has become so preposterous as to be embarassing. To Darwinists, that is...
Meanwhile, back at the science ranch let's look into the world of the cell:
From CID
New research on protein folding demonstrates intelligent design
 The journal Nature has just published a detailed and fascinating review about the way proteins in our bodies are helped by other proteins, known as chaperones, to become functional.[i]Proteins are the most complex molecules in our bodies and are involved in virtually all biological processes. Our cells typically manufacture over 10,000 different proteins, synthesised on ribosomes as chains of up to several thousand amino acids. For a protein to function it must fold to its ‘native state’ which is a complex three-dimensional structure. If a protein fails to fold into its functional structure then it is not only without function but in many cases is actually toxic to the cell. It is thought that as we age, the systems for helping proper folding work less well, which is one of the reasons for the symptoms of ageing and some diseases. The number of possible shapes that a protein can fold into is very high and folding reactions are very complex, involving the co-operation of many weak, non-covalent interactions. A high percentage of proteins do not fold automatically into the required shape and are at risk of aberrant folding and aggregation. As the abstract to this paper states: “To avoid these dangers, cells invest in a complex network of molecular chaperones, which are ingenious mechanisms to prevent aggregation and promote efficient folding.”  Not only do proteins require other proteins (chaperones) to fold properly, they also require chaperones constantly, after correct folding, to maintain their functional states. This is known as proteostasis.There is also another whole system in the cell (involving more proteins) called the ‘ubiquitin-proteasome system’ which breaks down irreversibly misfolded and aggregated proteins for safe excretion.  There are a number of different classes of chaperones and one of these, the ‘HSP70’ system, is described in some detail in this review. Chaperones are described as multicomponent molecular machines that promote folding through ATP and cofactor-regulated binding and release cycles. HSP70 itself is a large and complex protein which interacts with partially folded proteins to promote precise and correct folding. It requires, at the same time, the assistance of other proteins such as HSP40 and ‘nucleotide-exchange factors’ (NEFs). This is not the whole story either. Proteins that are still not properly folded are transported ‘downstream’ to another system of proteins: the chaperonins. These are large double-ring complexes that enclose one protein at a time in a sort of cage structure. Within this structure the protein folding is completed before the protein is released. Those with biological training will want to read more detail in the review, in particular the signalling pathways involved and the way genes are turned on to produce the chaperonins when required. The review in the journal Nature does not discuss the origins of these systems but we need to ask a question: how does all this fit with current evolutionary theory? One might think that such complex systems are confined to mammals or at least the higher orders of animals. This would be a mistake however, because chaperones and chaperonins are in bacteria and archaea also. Indeed it would seem that for any cell to function there needs to be not just proteins but, at the same time, these chaperone systems, which are absolutely essential for proper folding and maintenance of proteins. Without such systems, in place already, the cell will not function. Now, as explained, these chaperone systems are themselves made of proteins which also require the assistance of chaperones to correctly fold and to maintain integrity once folded. Chaperones for chaperones in fact. The very simplest of cells that we know of have these systems in place. Darwinian evolution requires step by step changes in molecular systems, with one step leading to another in a manner that is statistically reasonable to expect from selection of mutant strains. There is no Darwinian explanation however for the evolution of proteins which already have chaperone systems in place to ensure proper function. This points very strongly to an intelligent origin of these ‘ingenious’ systems found in all of life. Antony Latham, July 2011 [i] Hartl, F.U., Bracher, A,. Hayer-Hartl, M. Molecular chaperones in protein folding and proteostasis. Nature Vol 475. No. 7356. 324-331. (21July 2011). Dr. Anthony Latham is also an author and a proponent of Intelligent Design who is not a Young Earth Creationist. Darwinists struggle with the concept that ID and YEC are not one and the same but that is okay, they will eventually figure this out. ID is going to win out in the field of science and then YEC will be a belief system that agrees with the findings of science. We simply have to get the Darwinist mythology swept out of the room so the real science can come in. Below is a quick take on his book The Naked Emperor:
~~~~~~~ I am now adding Truth In Science to my blog links. For those of you so inclined to complain that this is yet another argument from incredulity, well, yes, I am incredulous at the thought that there are human beings who are willing to assert that this remarkably complex Universe just *poof* 'd into existence somehow and that all the stars and planets and the Solar System and all the organisms and all the systems and all that information held within organisms and that miraculous state known as "life" that defies complete understanding by any human being are all random and meaningless chance events that kind of banged together and appeared formed complete and operational. How can you assert anything of the kind and then look in the mirror and tell yourself you are a rational and intelligent being? I am incredulous concerning THAT! I'll end with the very logical and simple case for design as stated on the website Centre for Intelligent Design that was linked earlier in this blog, above: The Scientific Case for Design
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5. Rational Thought and Consciousness
It is not only remarkable that the universe has order and fixed laws, but also that we can perceive them objectively and deduce them rationally. Our shared rationality makes it possible to conduct scientific studies and is part of the greater wonder of our consciousness. Conscious thought or mind is clearly connected with brain chemistry, but is also separate from it. An obvious inference is that our consciousness is a reflection of a greater intelligence behind the universe.
The above are powerful and decisive arguments which point to intelligent causation in the universe and which challenge the fundamental principles of neo-Darwinian materialism.
For all of you who lasted to the end, a cookie in the form of another (non-canine) TOTO: