Coragyps

The 29 March 2002 issue of Science (online <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/" target="_blank">here</a>, but they want money ) has several very good items:
on page 2373, a review of Intelligent Design Creationism and its Critics - Philosophical, Theological, and Scientific Perspectives, edited by Robert Pennock. Kevin Padian wrote the review, and says the book utterly clobbers Phillip Johnson & Co. $45 for the paperback, so I may wait.


On page 2379, there is an article by V.R.Baker on "superfloods" - not the Noachian variety, but the ones that left traces. It gives some leads as to the traces actually left by the huge, rapid floods caused by failure of ice dams, in Washington State and central Asia. The Columbia River Basin, it seems, was flooded several times in the last 2Ma.

And lastly, there is a whole section of articles/reviews on self-assembly of molecules into larger structures. Some of this (I've only scanned it briefly) has bearing on self-assembly in the Primordial Soup (or Stew, or Goulash, as you prefer.) There are examples of small molecules that spontaneously self-assemble into long, spiral rods, and others that make six-sided prisms reminiscent of a tobacco mosaic virus.

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262661241/qid=1018138945/sr=12-1/102-8831450-4980136" target="_blank">Link to Pennock's book.</a>

(Edited to add link.)

[ April 06, 2002: Message edited by: Coragyps ]</p>

hezekiah jones

It does. It also includes several articles by Johnson, Behe, Dembski, and Alvin Plantinga.

$36 at <a href="http://shop.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=6BS88ASFM2&mscssid=CFTGWB8H A8L49MM9RGE6QULW9ELP8X60&isbn=0262661241" target="_blank">barnesandnoble</a>.

pseudobug

Pennock's book is very good, Coragyps. The reviewer is right, the series of essays are a thorough maceration of the ID sham from the perspective of philosophy, science and theology. It has several old essays collected from obscure publications (particularly some from the ID contingent) with new, point-by-by rebuttals from scientists and philosophers/historians of science. I particularly enjoyed the section on "Intelliget Design and Information". In that section, Dembski presents his "explanatory filter" and his idea is absolutely shredded in subsequent essays.

I thought it was worth the money myself and thoroughly enjoyed it.