Guillermo Gonzalez lectures at UC Davis on the requirements for complex life

The 5 video clips that make up the full lecture.

The playlist for all 5 clips is here.

About the speaker

Guillermo Gonzalez is an Associate Professor of Physics at Grove City College. He received his Ph.D. in Astronomy in 1993 from the University of Washington. He has done post-doctoral work at the University of Texas, Austin and at the University of Washington and has received fellowships, grants and awards from such institutions as NASA, the University of Washington, the Templeton Foundation, Sigma Xi (scientific research society) and the National Science Foundation.

Learn more about the speaker here.

The lecture

Here’s part 1 of 5:

And the rest are here:

• Part 2 of 5
• Part 3 of 5
• Part 4 of 5
• Part 5 of 5

Topics:

• What is the Copernican Principle?
• Is the Earth’s suitability for hosting life rare in the universe?
• Does the Earth have to be the center of the universe to be special?
• How similar to the Earth does a planet have to be to support life?
• What is the definition of life?
• What are the three minimal requirements for life of any kind?
• Requirement 1: A molecule that can store information (carbon)
• Requirement 2: A medium in which chemicals can interact (liquid water)
• Requirement 3: A diverse set of chemical elements
• What is the best environment for life to exist?
• Our place in the solar system: the circumstellar habitable zone
• Our place in the galaxy: the galactic habitable zones
• Our time in the universe’s history: the cosmic habitable age
• Other habitability requirements (e.g. – metal-rich star, massive moon, etc.)
• The orchestration needed to create a habitable planet
• How different factors depend on one another through time
• How tweaking one factor can adversely affect other factors
• How many possible places are there in the universe where life could emerge?
• Given these probabilistic resources, should we expect that there is life elsewhere?
• How to calculate probabilities using the “Product Rule”
• Can we infer that there is a Designer just because life is rare? Or do we need more?

The corelation between habitability and measurability.

• Are the habitable places in the universe also the best places to do science?
• Do the factors that make Earth habitable also make it good for doing science?
• Some places and times in the history of the universe are more habitable than others
• Those exact places and times also allow us to make scientific discoveries
• Observing solar eclipses and structure of our star, the Sun
• Observing stars and galaxies
• Observing the cosmic microwave background radiation
• Observing the acceleration of the universe caused by dark matter and energy
• Observing the abundances of light elements like helium of hydrogen
• These observations support the big bang and fine-tuning arguments for God’s existence
• It is exactly like placing observatories on the tops of mountains
• There are observers existing in the best places to observe things
• This is EXACTLY how the universe has been designed for making scientific discoveries

This lecture was delivered by Guillermo Gonzalez in 2007 at the University of California at Davis.

Filed under: Videos, Center, CHZ, Circumstellar Habitable Zone, Copernican Principle, Earth, Finite Mathematics, Galatic Habitable Zone, GHZ, Guillermo Gonzalez, Habitability, Life, Minimal Requirements, Minimum Requirements, Privileged Planet, Probabilities, Probability, Product Rule, Rare, Special, Universe

Doug Axe explains the chances of getting a functional protein by chance

I’ve talked about Doug Axe before when I described how to calculate the odds of getting functional proteins by chance.

Let’s calculate the odds of building a protein composed of a functional chain of 100 amino acids, by chance. (Think of a meaningful English sentence built with 100 scrabble letters, held together with glue)

Sub-problems:

• BONDING: You need 99 peptide bonds between the 100 amino acids. The odds of getting a peptide bond is 50%. The probability of building a chain of one hundred amino acids in which all linkages involve peptide bonds is roughly (1/2)^99 or 1 chance in 10^30.
• CHIRALITY: You need 100 left-handed amino acids. The odds of getting a left-handed amino acid is 50%. The probability of attaining at random only L–amino acids in a hypothetical peptide chain one hundred amino acids long is (1/2)^100 or again roughly 1 chance in 10^30.
• SEQUENCE: You need to choose the correct amino acid for each of the 100 links. The odds of getting the right one are 1 in 20. Even if you allow for some variation, the odds of getting a functional sequence is (1/20)^100 or 1 in 10^65.

The final probability of getting a functional protein composed of 100 amino acids is 1 in 10^125. Even if you fill the universe with pre-biotic soup, and react amino acids at Planck time (very fast!) for 14 billion years, you are probably not going to get even 1 such protein. And you need at least 100 of them for minimal life functions, plus DNA and RNA.

Research performed by Doug Axe at Cambridge University, and published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Molecular Biology, has shown that the number of functional amino acid sequences is tiny:

Doug Axe’s research likewise studies genes that it turns out show great evidence of design. Axe studied the sensitivities of protein function to mutations. In these “mutational sensitivity” tests, Dr. Axe mutated certain amino acids in various proteins, or studied the differences between similar proteins, to see how mutations or changes affected their ability to function properly. He found that protein function was highly sensitive to mutation, and that proteins are not very tolerant to changes in their amino acid sequences. In other words, when you mutate, tweak, or change these proteins slightly, they stopped working. In one of his papers, he thus concludes that “functional folds require highly extraordinary sequences,” and that functional protein folds “may be as low as 1 in 10^77.”

The problem of forming DNA by sequencing nucleotides faces similar difficulties. And remember, mutation and selection cannot explain the origin of the first sequence, because mutation and selection require replication, which does not exist until that first living cell is already in place.

But you can’t show that to your friends, you need to send them a video. And I have a video!

A video of Doug Axe explaining the calculation

Here’s a clip from Illustra Media’s new ID DVD “Darwin’s Dilemma”, which features Doug Axe and Stephen Meyer (both with Ph.Ds from Cambridge University).

I hope you all read Brian Auten’s review of Darwin’s Dilemma! It was awesome.

Related DVDs

Illustra also made two other great DVDs on intelligent design. The first two DVDs “Unlocking the Mystery of Life” and “The Privileged Planet” are must-buys, but you can watch them on youtube if you want, for free.

Here are the 2 playlists:

• Unlocking the Mystery of Life (12 videos in a playlist)
• The Privileged Planet (12 videos in a playlist)

I also recommend Coldwater Media’s “Icons of Evolution”. All three of these are on sale from Amazon.com.

Related posts

• The origin of the universe from nothing
• The fine-tuning of the cosmological constants to permit life
• The fine-tuning of the galaxy, solar system, and planet to permit life
• Origin of the building blocks in the simplest replicating cell
• Origin of biological information in the simplest replicating cell
• Sudden origins of all major body plans in the Cambrian explosion
• Irreducible complexity in molecular machines
• The limits on what natural selection and random mutation can do
• Peer-reviewed paper says there is no atheistic explanation for the Cambrian explosion
• Does the Cambrian explosion disprove Darwinian evolution?

Filed under: Polemics, Science, Evolution, Chirality, DNA, Naturalism, Aliens, Faith, Reason, Evidence, Carbon, Materialism, Oxygen, Water, Life, Discovery, Living, Reaction, Blind, Credulity, Progress, Protein, Product, Cell, Dawkins, Atmosphere, Amino Acid, Building, Block, OOL, Origin, Chemical, Kenyon, Thaxton, Reducing, Oxydizing, Molecular, Reactant, Early, Earth, Oparin-Haldane, Flying Spaghetti Monster, Noodly Appendage, Watson, Crick, Extinction, Meteorite, Ozone, UV, Ultraviolet, Ultra-Violet, Radiation, Boiling, Synthesize, Compound, Tar, Ammonia, Hydrogen, Methane, Vapor, Dioxide, Primordial Soup

Guillermo Gonzalez lectures at UC Davis on the requirements for life

The 5 video clips that make up the full lecture.

The playlist for all 5 clips is here.

About the speaker

Guillermo Gonzalez is an Associate Professor of Physics at Grove City College. He received his Ph.D. in Astronomy in 1993 from the University of Washington. He has done post-doctoral work at the University of Texas, Austin and at the University of Washington and has received fellowships, grants and awards from such institutions as NASA, the University of Washington, the Templeton Foundation, Sigma Xi (scientific research society) and the National Science Foundation.

Learn more about the speaker here.

The lecture

Here’s part 1 of 5:

And the rest are here:

• Part 2 of 5
• Part 3 of 5
• Part 4 of 5
• Part 5 of 5

Topics:

• What is the Copernican Principle?
• Is the Earth’s suitability for hosting life rare in the universe?
• Does the Earth have to be the center of the universe to be special?
• How similar to the Earth does a planet have to be to support life?
• What is the definition of life?
• What are the three minimal requirements for life of any kind?
• Requirement 1: A molecule that can store information (carbon)
• Requirement 2: A medium in which chemicals can interact (liquid water)
• Requirement 3: A diverse set of chemical elements
• What is the best environment for life to exist?
• Our place in the solar system: the circumstellar habitable zone
• Our place in the galaxy: the galactic habitable zones
• Our time in the universe’s history: the cosmic habitable age
• Other habitability requirements (e.g. – metal-rich star, massive moon, etc.)
• The orchestration needed to create a habitable planet
• How different factors depend on one another through time
• How tweaking one factor can adversely affect other factors
• How many possible places are there in the universe where life could emerge?
• Given these probabilistic resources, should we expect that there is life elsewhere?
• How to calculate probabilities using the “Product Rule”
• Can we infer that there is a Designer just because life is rare? Or do we need more?

The corelation between habitability and measurability.

• Are the habitable places in the universe also the best places to do science?
• Do the factors that make Earth habitable also make it good for doing science?
• Some places and times in the history of the universe are more habitable than others
• Those exact places and times also allow us to make scientific discoveries
• Observing solar eclipses and structure of our star, the Sun
• Observing stars and galaxies
• Observing the cosmic microwave background radiation
• Observing the acceleration of the universe caused by dark matter and energy
• Observing the abundances of light elements like helium of hydrogen
• These observations support the big bang and fine-tuning arguments for God’s existence
• It is exactly like placing observatories on the tops of mountains
• There are observers existing in the best places to observe things
• This is EXACTLY how the universe has been designed for making scientific discoveries

This lecture was delivered by Guillermo Gonzalez in 2007 at the University of California at Davis.

Filed under: Videos, Center, CHZ, Circumstellar Habitable Zone, Copernican Principle, Earth, Finite Mathematics, Galatic Habitable Zone, GHZ, Guillermo Gonzalez, Habitability, Life, Minimal Requirements, Minimum Requirements, Privileged Planet, Probabilities, Probability, Product Rule, Rare, Special, Universe

Jay Richards: what should Christians think about global warming?

Here’s a lecture Jay Richards did for the Acton Institue.

And here is a related article from Boundless.

Excerpt:

The big environmental issue nowadays is global warming. Anyone who watches or reads the news even occasionally has been told that humans are causing global warming through all the fossil fuels we’re burning. They’ve also been told that this warming process eventually will prove catastrophic if we don’t reverse course as soon as possible.

As thinking Christians and good stewards, how should we respond?

The short answer is, we should respond thoughtfully. Thoughtless stewards are rarely good stewards.

Notice that my brief summary of the global warming controversy bundled together several distinct claims. To think clearly about this issue, we have to tease apart this bundle of claims and consider each one. For each claim, there is a corresponding question we need to answer. And it’s only after answering these questions that we can be in a position to determine what, if anything, we ought to do about global warming.

Here are the four central questions:

1. Is the earth warming?
2. If the earth is warming, is human activity (like carbon dioxide emissions) causing it?
3. If the earth is warming, and we’re causing it, is that bad overall?
4. If the earth is warming, we’re causing it, and that’s bad, would any of the proposed “solutions” (e.g., the Kyoto Protocol, legislative restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions) make any difference?

It’s important for us to think carefully about how best to achieve the goals set out by the Bible. And that means undertaking a close study of how the world works and how best to affect change for the good.

Filed under: Videos, Bible, Bible Study, Cap and Trade, Carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Tax, Christian, Conservation, Earth, Economics, Emissions, Environment, Fossil Fuels, Global Warming, Green, Jay Richards, Jay Wesley Richards, Kyoto Protocol, Steward, Stewardship, Warming

Guillermo Gonzalez lectures at UC Davis on the requirements for life

The 5 video clips that make up the full lecture.

The playlist for all 5 clips is here.

About the speaker

Guillermo Gonzalez is an Associate Professor of Physics at Grove City College. He received his Ph.D. in Astronomy in 1993 from the University of Washington. He has done post-doctoral work at the University of Texas, Austin and at the University of Washington and has received fellowships, grants and awards from such institutions as NASA, the University of Washington, the Templeton Foundation, Sigma Xi (scientific research society) and the National Science Foundation.

Learn more about the speaker here.

The lecture

Here’s part 1 of 5:

Habitability topics:

• What is the Copernican Principle?
• Is the Earth’s suitability for hosting life rare in the universe?
• Does the Earth have to be the center of the universe to be special?
• How similar to the Earth does a planet have to be to support life?
• What is the definition of life?
• What are the three minimal requirements for life of any kind?
• Requirement 1: A molecule that can store information (carbon)
• Requirement 2: A medium in which chemicals can interact (liquid water)
• Requirement 3: A diverse set of chemical elements
• What is the best environment for life to exist?
• Our place in the solar system: the circumstellar habitable zone
• Our place in the galaxy: the galactic habitable zones
• Our time in the universe’s history: the cosmic habitable age
• Other habitability requirements (e.g. – metal-rich star, massive moon, etc.)
• The orchestration needed to create a habitable planet
• How different factors depend on one another through time
• How tweaking one factor can adversely affect other factors
• How many possible places are there in the universe where life could emerge?
• Given these probabilistic resources, should we expect that there is life elsewhere?
• How to calculate probabilities using the “Product Rule”
• Can we infer that there is a Designer just because life is rare? Or do we need more?

The corelation between habitability and measurability.

• Are the habitable places in the universe also the best places to do science?
• Do the factors that make Earth habitable also make it good for doing science?
• Some places and times in the history of the universe are more habitable than others
• Those exact places and times also allow us to make scientific discoveries
• Observing solar eclipses and structure of our star, the Sun
• Observing stars and galaxies
• Observing the cosmic microwave background radiation
• Observing the acceleration of the universe caused by dark matter and energy
• Observing the abundances of light elements like helium of hydrogen
• These observations support the big bang and fine-tuning arguments for God’s existence
• It is exactly like placing observatories on the tops of mountains
• There are observers existing in the best places to observe things
• This is EXACTLY how the universe has been designed for making scientific discoveries

This lecture was delivered by Guillermo Gonzalez in 2007 at the University of California at Davis.

What is intelligent design?

Dr. Stephen C. Meyer explains the concept of intelligent design in a lecture, with lots of visual aids.

He is also the author of “Signature in the Cell“, the best book on intelligent design. (A Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year selection)

Related DVDs

Illustra also made two other great DVDs on intelligent design. The first two DVDs “Unlocking the Mystery of Life” and “The Privileged Planet” are must-buys, but you can watch them on youtube if you want, for free.

Here are the 2 playlists:

• Unlocking the Mystery of Life (12 videos in a playlist)
• The Privileged Planet (12 videos in a playlist)

I also recommend “Darwin’s Dilemma”. All three of these are on sale from Amazon.com.

Filed under: Videos, Center, CHZ, Circumstellar Habitable Zone, Copernican Principle, Earth, Finite Mathematics, Galatic Habitable Zone, GHZ, Guillermo Gonzalez, Habitability, Life, Minimal Requirements, Minimum Requirements, Privileged Planet, Probabilities, Probability, Product Rule, Rare, Special, Universe