Lee Spetner
Lee Spetner | |
|---|---|
.png) Lee Spetner at a Jerusalem restaurant in August 2013 | |
| Born | |
| Nationality | American and Israeli |
| Alma mater | MIT |
| Known for | Critique of modern evolutionary synthesis |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics, biophysics |
| Institutions | Johns Hopkins University |
| Doctoral advisor | Robert Williams, Bruno Rossi |
Lee M. Spetner is an American and Israeli applied physicist and a creationist author, known best for his critique of the modern evolutionary synthesis. In spite of his opposition to neo-Darwinism, Spetner accepts a form of non-random evolution outlined in his 1996 book "Not By Chance! Shattering the Modern Theory of Evolution".[1]
Biography
Education
Spetner received his BS degree in mechanical engineering at Washington University in 1945[2] and his Ph.D. in physics from MIT in 1950, where his Ph.D. thesis advisors were Robert Williams and Bruno Rossi.[3]
Career
Spetner continued to study at the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins University from 1951 to 1970, working on guided-missile systems. In 1970, he became technical director of Eljim, Ltd., later a subsidiary of Elbit, Ltd. in Nes Tsiona, Israel, where he was a manager, a period that lasted a further 20 years.[2][4] His work here was on military electronic systems, including electronic countermeasures, and a military electronic navigation system.[2]
He taught courses at the Johns Hopkins University, Howard University and the Weizman Institute, including classical mechanics, electromagnetic theory, real-variable theory, probability theory, and statistical communication theory.[2]
Spetner first became interested in evolution in 1970 after moving to Israel. In Israel, he indulged in searching for evidence that contradicted the modern evolutionary synthesis. Spetner was inspired by the rabbi David Luria (1798 - 1855), who calculated that, according to Talmudic sources, there was 365 originally created species of beasts and 365 of birds. Spetner developed what he called his "nonrandom evolutionary hypothesis", which proposed rapid microevolution (which he attributed to a "built-in ability" in animals and plants to "respond adaptively to environmental stimuli"), but rejected macroevolution.
Spetner has been described as a Jewish Creationist.[5] In 1980, at a conference for Jewish scientists, Spetner claimed that Archaeopteryx was a fraud. Spetner continued his attack on the modern evolutionary synthesis in his book Not by chance! Shattering the Modern Theory of Evolution.[6]
Spetner is a critic of the role of mutations in the modern evolutionary synthesis. Spetner claims mutations lead to a loss of genetic information and that there is no scientific evidence to support common descent.
We see then that the mutation reduces the specificity of the ribosome protein and that means a loss of genetic information. ... Rather than saying the bacterium gained resistance to the antibiotic, it is more correct to say that is lost sensitivity to it. ... All point mutations that have been studied on the molecular level turn out to reduce the genetic information and not increase it.
— Lee Spetner, Not by Chance, Shattering the Modern Theory of Evolution[7]
Spetner continued to study after retirement, pursuing interests in evolution[4] and cancer cures.[3]
Dr. Lee Spetner's latest book "The Evolution Revolution: Why Thinking People are Rethinking Evolution" develops his nonrandom hypothesis (NREH) and was published in 2014 by Judaica Press. [8]
References
- ^ "Not by Chance: Shattering the Modern Theory of Evolution". 1997 Lee Spetner. ISBN 978-1-880582-24-4
- ^ a b c d Worldscientific Biographies Retrieved December 2010
- ^ a b MIT Alumni report 2008 Retrieved December 2010
- ^ a b Biography of Lee M. Spetner at B'Or Ha'Torah Retrieved December 2010
- ^ Tom McIver, Anti-evolution: an annotated bibliography, 2008 p. 277
- ^ Randy Moore, Mark Decker, Sehoya Cotner, Chronology of the evolution-creationism controversy, 2010, pp. 286 - 287.
- ^ Lee Spetner, Not by Chance, Shattering the Modern Theory of Evolution, 1996, pp 131 - 138
- ^ The Evolution Revolution
External links
- A Scientific Critique of Evolution, Dr. Lee Spetner in an exchange with Dr. Edward E. Max.
- A Continuation of Spetner v. Max - discusses the B-cell hypermutation model; role of gene duplication; interpretations of the word "evolution"; information content of proteins; antibiotic resistance as an example of evolution; and gene families as examples of duplication, mutation and selection.
- a review of Lee Spetner's "NOT BY CHANCE!" by Gert Korthof
- Dr. Spetner derives non-random evolution from the Talmud
- Dr. Carl Wieland provides overview of "Not by Chance"