Science gave me this conviction. I learned at university, when a scientific theory is not supported by evidence, it must be revised or dropped. I'm post-Darwinian anticipating imminent and impending rupture paradigm in evolutionary biology. Time to say goodbye to Darwin.This is a Google translation of his Blogger profile - he's Brazilian, and only blogs in Portuguese.
His background is in history of science. He has a PhD in it from 2009, and no apparent background in science at all. The obvious question is "what the hell does he know?" I don't mean to say that he could not know a substantial amount about evolutionary theory, and has a good overview of the evidence. But I doubt it both for the reason that he has no formal education in the natural sciences (doing research about Darwin is not that), which does not really leave one a lot of time to concentrate on the science, and also for the reason that I do know a lot about evolutionary theory through my education and work, and I understand the theory and know the evidence for it (scoop: it's pretty solid).
So, how long are we to wait for this imminent demise? He predicted this formally in 2006: 3. ALMEIDA FILHO, E. E. . An imminent paradigm shift in evolutionary biology?. 2006. (Presentation / Conference or Colloquium). [Via his CV.]
Still waiting...
He just launched a new website, DarwinLeaks. Again, all in Portuguese, which is a hassle. The translation reveals a post asking Why correspondence between Darwin and Mivart has not yet been published online? As far as I can gather, certain letters between Darwin and George Jackson Mivart - who criticized Darwin on scientific grounds (though arguably with a religious motivation) - has not yet been made available to the public. My guess is that de Almeida Filho is very upset about this, as it hinders progress in his own research. But form there to claim that revealing these documents would spell the end of evolutionary theory as we know it... Unconvincing.
Doesn't he think (and anyone else who believes what he has to say) that *some* biologist *somewhere* using the science to do actual science would have noticed that his or her conclusions just didn't stack up...and would have published the results accordingly, and would now be relaxing with his or her Nobel Prize? Do people like this really not realize that half of science is about trying to disprove your colleague's results?
ReplyDelete(OT, but I'm re-reading Coyne's WEIT, so I appreciate that you put up a detailed review. Thank you! I'll re-read your review as I re-read WEIT.)
良いお年を！
Exactly! I have previously wondered out loud just how many evolutionary biologists there are, but to no avail. My guess is there;s between 10k and 100k. What do you think.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, the point being that you really think that many people could keep a giant secret? Or that they are all dumb? Or that they are all doing it for 20k-80k a year? I guarantee you that most of them would totally shout out loud if they saw any evidence that evolutionary theory doesn't hold up. I know I would in an instant. As you say, Nobel Price coming up right there.
明けましておめでとうございます、横浜母。