Texts, articles and reviews with label: 'biology'.
Recent
Gene editing: potential and ethical considerations
summaryGene editing: We are currently able to change the sequence of genomes. This session reviews the molecular foundations of gene editing, its current and forthcoming technical possibilities, and the philosophical and ethical issues it raises.
Author: Ujué Moreno
St. Thomas, a synthetic understanding of reality
summarySt. Thomas Aquinas found in Aristotelian thought the confirmation of his own synthetic vision of reality, founded on a dynamic understanding of beings, with a natural finality that embraces all its facets. It is the basis of the philosophia perennis.
Author: José Manuel Giménez Amaya and José Ángel Lombo.
summaryNaturalism is nowadays put forward as the only interpretation of the natural sciences. Is it really reasonable to accept this view of science, and what if naturalism is nothing more than a theology, a pseudo-religion?
Author: Moisés Pérez Marcos
Biomedical research and personalised medicine in heart failure
summaryHeart failure, which is common after heart attacks, is a serious health problem. Despite its seriousness, its research is not as well developed as in other fields. Various approaches to research in this field, and their ethical implications, are explained.
Author: María de Ujué Moreno
Argument of design and fifth way of St. Thomas
summaryThe so-called argument of design is often identified with the fifth way of St. Thomas. However, they are different: both start from the natural order, but they focus on a different order subject , different subject of finality, different causality, and reach different conclusions: they are not comparable.
Author: Santiago Collado
summaryThe scientific findings are described which show that early humans (Homo habilis) emerged from bipedal ancestors 4 million years ago and are identifiable in the fossil record as early as 2 million years ago.
Author: Daniel Turbón
Human genetic diversity 100,000 years ago
summaryHuman palaeogenetic studies based on mitochondrial DNA are described, as well as studies of Neanderthals, with special emphasis on the study of Denisovans and their relationships with other branches of the human lineage.
Author: Daniel Turbón
Why do we have to accept evolution?
summaryWhenever science provides solutions to certain issues, a plethora of questions immediately arise. The biological theory of evolution uncovered a "Pandora's box" that requires other knowledge to be completed.
Author: Antonio Pardo
Chance and levels of observation in evolution 
summaryThe theory of evolution currently posits the origin of new forms of life as result of chance and natural selection. In science, each phenomenon requires an appropriate method of study, and there may be different levels of observation involving different methods of study. In evolution, admitting chance at one level of explanation does not imply that other levels of...
Author: Antonio Pardo
summaryReview of the different manifestations of current scientism: Scientism in epistemology, scientistic naturalism, physicist scientism, biologist scientism, technicist scientism and scientism in public opinion.
Author: Mariano Artigas
The discussion on the status of homo floresiensis
summary: Account of the finding of the Man of Flores, vicissitudes of his remains and summary of the various scientific opinions on their significance.
Author: Carlos A. Marmelada
summary summary of Darwinism from Darwin's theses to the present day. Criticism of Darwinist approaches, on questions of method and from the scientific point of view. Proposal of an alternative way.
Author: Antonio Pardo
summary speaker gives the session in an informative tone, and summarises some of the most recent findings in support of the various existing theories on the origin of life on Earth.
Author: Francisco Javier Novo
The Origin of Life and the Evolution of Species: Science and Interpretations
summaryThe scientific study of the beginnings of the world has in recent historical times raised the biological questions of the origin of life and the evolution of species (understood as the passage from one species to another by generation). In addition to the purely scientific problems they raise (such as the difficulty of establishing solid hypotheses), they also raise the question of...
Author: Antonio Pardo
The origin of man. Current state of paleoanthropological research.
summaryI.INTRODUCTION. II.PRELIMINARY QUESTIONS. 1. The fossil record. 2. The dating of fossils. 3. The biological notion of species. 4. status of man within the animal kingdom. III.FOSSILS OF UPPER PRIMATE NON-HOMANIDS. 1. Family Hylobatidae. 2. Family Pongidae. 3. Ramapithecus. IV. FOSSILS OF HOMINIDS. 1. Most important findings...
Author: Rafael Jordana
Emergence and reduction in morphogenetic theories
summaryThe origin of the universe and of man are the limit cases of the evolutionary worldview, whose main task consists in the formulation of morphogenetic theories explaining how new levels emerge from more basic ones. In this context, the problems of emergence and reduction occupy a central place....
Author: Mariano Artigas
Author: María Iraburu
Habit acquisition in the context of neuronal genomic and epigenomic mosaicism
Author: Francisco J. Novo
Science from the perspective of faith. Scientific knowledge does not question the existence of God.
Author: Alister McGrath
Human genetic diversity 100,000 years ago
Author: Daniel Turbón
Evolution, between science, reason and faith
Author: Juan Luis Lorda
"Genetics is not incompatible with human freedom".
summaryInterview with José Ignacio Murillo in Ambos mundos on freedom, genetic determinism, environmental influence and neuroethics.
Author: Daniel Capó
The third leg of evolution and the example of the car
Author: Juan Luis Lord
The remote origins of the human race. Miocene hominoids
summaryReview of Miocene hominids, with considerations on individual specimens, and links to more extensive papers.
Author: Carlos A. Marmelada
Lights and shadows in the study of human evolution
summaryThe latest fossil discoveries of human ancestors are reviewed and their implications for the hypotheses of human evolutionary genealogy are analysed.
Author: Carlos A. Marmelada
summaryThe present article is an update of the status quaestionissof the origin of the human being in the light of the most recent anthropological and genetic research data. It reviews the latest contributions of science and the current state of research, as well as a philosophical reading of the data in the light of the catholic doctrine on the origin of man.
Author: Rubén Herce
summary: About 40,000 years ago three Humanities occupied the Earth: homo sapiens, neanderthals and denisovans, a group of which nothing was known and from which we inherited part of the immune system.
Author: Jesús Rubio
New advances in molecular biology: smart genes
summaryReflection, with regard to the intelligent genes in charge of development, of the need for a programmer of their behaviour.
Author: Mariano Artigas
summaryA work in which, after three technical chapters by Daniel Turbón, Mariano Artigas explains the issues in relation to faith and religion.
Author: Mariano Artigas and Daniel Turbón
Proteins you think. About award Nobel Prize for Medicine 1994
summaryOn 11 October 1994, the press reported the award of the award Nobel Prize in Medicine to Professors Alfred G. Gilman and Martin Rodbell for "the finding of G proteins and their role in signal transmission in cells". This is a new breakthrough in molecular biology, which sample is showing more and more detail on how life works...
Author: Mariano Artigas
Selam. The australopithecine girl from Dikika
summaryThe Selam fossil: An update on palaeoanthropology and a detailed description of the Selam fossil.
Author: Carlos A. Marmelada
seminar on evolution with Professor Javier Novo
summaryThe basic concepts of population genetics are presented, and the role of selection and neutralist alternatives for evolution are indicated; the role of chaotic dynamics and the generation of complexity in biological systems are analysed in colloquium .
Author: Javier Novo
On the origin of human intelligence
summaryThe brain as an organ of understanding, Can we know scientifically how human intelligence arose, Darwin or Wallace?
Author: Carlos A. Marmelada
summaryThe beginning of the theory of evolution, the Darwin/Wallace theory of evolution, discussion around Darwin's theory, the principles of the Genetics, the synthetic theory, molecular biology and Genetics, some scientific questions debated around the theory of evolution, selectionism versus neutralism, punctuationism versus gradualism, the notion of species...
Author: Santiago Collado González
summaryThe article explains the usual confusion between evolution and Darwinism, the position of the creationism, and the errors of the Intelligent Design solution to conciliate these arguments.
Author: Stephen M. Barr