Flagellum evo -- further discussion
For you flagellum wonks in the audience, an interesting and fairly detailed discussion of some of the science issues and, for lack of a better word, etiquette issues, took place over here at T. Taxus in “JCVI Evolutionary Genomics Journal Club on Liu-Ochman.”
(The discussion is also good for Esperanto wonks.)
P.S. added in edit:
FWIW (for what it’s worth), here is my list of online mentions/discussions of the L&O Flagellum Paper Controversy. (Rough draft and there may be some errors or misinterpretations. You have been warned.) It’s a pretty mixed bag for sure – some fairly creduluous citation of L&O which bugs me, some criticism of the PT blog criticisms, some ID piggybacking although most of them don’t even really get what the issues are (Dembski only caught on after I started noting that other IDists weren’t on the right track), etc. And in the grand scheme of things, this is not a huge amount of material – 45 items (if it was much bigger I wouldn’t attempt a listing anyway). We don’t have a “what if the PT blog criticism had been different” control group so any analysis will be dubious, but my suspicion is that whatever its flaws the PT criticism got a lot of people to look at the paper more carefully and may have stopped a lot of foot-shooting.
# | Date | Title | blog | Quote or description of opinion stated | Update |
1 | 2007/04/16 0:00 | Stepwise formation of the bacterial flagellar system (online) | PNAS online before print | Paper online | |
2 | 2007/04/16 18:43 | Irreducible Complexity, Indeed | John Dennehy, Evilutionary Biologist | L&O disprove ID flagellum argument! | |
3 | 2007/04/16 19:11 | Stepwise formation of the bacterial flagellar system | interrogatingnature | L&O disprove ID flagellum argument! | updated with link to PT |
4 | 2007/04/16 19:49 | Genome sequences reduce the complexity of bacterial flagella. | Ryan Gregory, Genomicron | Some enthusiasm for both of L&O & P&M) | link to PT critique |
5 | 2007/04/16 19:58 | Stepwise formation of the bacterial flagellar system [merged] | IIDB Evo forum | Initial enthusiasm (several different threads), later criticism | |
6 | 2007/04/16 22:49 | Flagellum evolution paper exhibits canine qualities | Nick Matzke, PT | Nick critique #1 | |
7 | 2007/04/17 0:00 | The primary difference between science and ID | Clever Beyond Measure | Criticism of L&O praised | |
8 | 2007/04/17 0:00 | A Complex Tail, Simply Told | ScienceNOW | L&O disprove ID flagellum argument! | Letter submitted to Science |
9 | 2007/04/17 12:04 | When Scientists Go All Bloggy | Carl Zimmer | Commenting on the controversy | |
10 | 2007/04/17 13:28 | Science at work | Uncommon Ground | Praise L&O, note criticism | |
11 | 2007/04/18 0:00 | Skepticast #91 | Skepticast (podcast) | Mention of ScienceNOW piece | |
12 | 2007/04/18 5:46 | In the News: A Complex Tail, Simply Told | Talk.Origins | link, praise, links to critiques | |
13 | 2007/04/18 12:09 | You asked for simplicity and here you go | Krish On Politics | L&O disprove ID flagellum argument! | link to PT in comments |
14 | 2007/04/18 14:27 | Forum | Scandahoovian discussion board | ||
15 | 2007/04/19 0:00 | Irreducible complexity - Eat your heart out! | No More Walls | L&O disprove ID flagellum argument! | link to PT in comments |
16 | 2007/04/19 8:37 | Sequence similarities in the bacterial flagellum: what do they mean? | ARN blog | More IDists complaining about the very concept of sequence homology | |
17 | 2007/04/19 13:38 | DARWINISM GONE WILD: Neither sequence similarity nor common descent address a claim of Intelligent Design | Michael Behe/DI | IDist doesn't get it: Even if there are sequence similarities it doesn't matter (i.e., Behe doesn't get the problems) | |
18 | 2007/04/19 13:49 | Inferring phylogenies + duplication and divergence | sci.bio.evolution | Discussion of further possible science | |
19 | 2007/04/19 15:53 | Behe's Black Box | Evil Under the Sun | "Mit anderen Worten [in other words]: neeh neneneh neh." | updated with link to PT |
20 | 2007/04/19 22:58 | Uh-oh...poor science alert! | Pharyngula | Problems with L&O | |
21 | 2007/04/20 0:00 | Wie war das mit Leichtgläubigkeit ... ? | German creationists | Apparently chuckling over L&O | |
22 | 2007/04/20 0:00 | If Parody becomes the reality... | German creationists | Apparently chuckling over L&O | |
23 | 2007/04/20 2:28 | Update on PNAS flagellum paper | Nick Matzke, PT | Nick critique #2 | |
24 | 2007/04/20 8:57 | All flagellar genes derive from a single gene | "How could people publish such a ridiculous result, and in PNAS of all places?" [Dembski doesn't actually know enough to distinguish ridiculous from non-ridiculous -- Behe couldn't -- but he picked up on my statement.] | ||
25 | 2007/04/20 10:00 | Scientific Controversies | evolgen, RPM | Problems with L&O | |
26 | 2007/04/20 17:27 | Biologia Evolutiva | O flagelo do "desenho inteligente" | Citation of ScienceNOW piece | |
27 | 2007/04/21 10:49 | BOMBA! BOMBA! Falsificaram a complexidade irredutÃvel do flagelo bacteriano!!! | Nomenklatura Cientifica | More IDists complaining about the very concept of sequence homology | |
28 | 2007/04/22 17:48 | Forum | SkepChick.com forum | Anti-ID citation, notes problems | |
29 | 2007/04/24 0:00 | Stepwise formation of the bacterial flagellar system (print) | PNAS 104(17) | Paper printed | |
30 | 2007/04/24 0:12 | Flagellum evolution kerfluffle continued | Nick Matzke, PT | Nick critique #3 | |
31 | 2007/04/24 10:22 | Forum | VeganRepresent | Vegan weirdness | |
32 | 2007/04/25 13:20 | The great flagellum debate | Nsaunders | Debate it but be professional | |
33 | 2007/04/25 15:31 | Stepwise flagella formation | ¡Viva La Evolución! | L&O disprove ID flagellum argument! "NO fairies or little elves involved (in case you like it fantastic)" | link to PT in comments |
34 | 2007/04/26 5:38 | Forum | EvolutionFairyTale.com | "Behe's famous flagellum has been dissected aat the molecular level and an evolutionary pathway been built up showing the ancestory, see this link." | |
35 | 2007/04/26 13:07 | Peer review. | Ryan Gregory, Genomicron | Annoyance at flagellum "spectacle " | |
36 | 2007/04/28 21:00 | Dishonest Morons | OJB42's Blog | L&O disprove ID flagellum argument! "Just to completely destroy ID arguments, it has recently been found that 24 of the genes in the bacterial flagellum came from one gene,...Yes, that's right, the structure the ID supporters love to quote as their icon of ID, has become an example of evolution at work. OK ID, its time to give up. You can all go home now and stop deluding yourselves - evolution is a fact." | link to PT in comments |
37 | 2007/05/02 0:00 | Ayala (2007) Darwin's Gift: To Science and Religion | Printed book | pp. 212-213, endnote 19 of chapter 8: Recounts L&O paper (in press at time of print, then...) "...The sequence similarity among all the flagellar genes in the 41 bacterial species has allowed Liu and Ochman to reconstruct the successive steps of addition and modification by which modern bacterial flagella have arisen." However the L&O paper is not cited in the main text. | |
38 | 2007/05/02 0:00 | Die Flagellumgeschichte geht noch etwas weiter. | *Evil Under the Sun* | Noting further debate over L&O | |
39 | 2007/05/04 21:50 | Forum | OutdoorsBest forum | uncritical citation | |
40 | 2007/05/09 17:00 | Forum | RichardDawkins.net forum | Anti-ID citation, notes problems | |
41 | 2007/05/10 2:56 | Re: Intelligent Design is NOT Science??? | Apologetic.com forum | Anti-ID citation, notes problems | |
42 | 2007/05/12 4:31 | JCVI Evolutionary Genomics Journal Club on Liu-Ochman | T. taxus | Discussion of the discussion | Extensive debate in comments |
43 | 2007/05/14 0:00 | Microbiology: Building from the Inside Out | RichardDawkins.net (not Dawkins himself) | L&O disprove ID flagellum argument! | link to PT in comments |
44 | 2007/05/18 3:32 | Flagellum evo --- further discussion | Nick Matzke, PT | link to commentary | |
45 | 2007/05/18 8:20 | Peer review or peanut gallery? | Ryan Gregory, Genomicron | Annoyance at blog critiicisms of L&O |