ModENCODE found “unprecedented complexity” in the fruit fly genome in 2014, then “ENCODE 2” followed up with more discoveries of function. Now, ENCODE 3 has just finished submitting its reports, with record numbers of DNA annotations listed, and ENCODE 4 is gearing up. Nothing like a little overkill to drive the point home: “… then evolution is wrong.”

Whales are held to be emblematic of Darwinian theory’s splendid success in explaining biological origins. A series of brief videos from Discovery Institute, Long Story Short, has been considering whale evolution, and the two videos so far on the subject caught the attention of critics. Now find the latest here, a second rebuttal.

Since the Scopes Trial of 1925 and the Darwin Centennial of 1959, neo-Darwinism has used intimidation and groupthink to maintain its status of “accepted truth” beyond need of further evidence. Merely expressing doubts about Darwin has been a career-limiting move for many. Look at these recent papers, though, and see if it appears to be getting safer to question the explanatory omnipotence of random mutations and natural selection.

Better late than never, the Bronx Zoo yesterday apologized for imprisoning an African Pygmy, Ota Benga, as a display in its Monkey House in 1906. They left something out, though. But first, why did they choose this moment?

Chomsky’s insight that language is an in-born “organ” unique to humans is of obvious relevance to our understanding of human exceptionalism. Chomsky showed that no animal has language of any sort and that human language did not evolve from animal behavior and is not acquired by a behavioral system of rewards and punishments.