| Site Map | Contacts | Links | Newsletter | |
News:
February 29, 2004
Note: Due to the archiving policies of the various news Websites some links on this page may no longer be valid. All links will take you away from the IBSS Site - use your browser's "back" button to return to this page.
New IBSS Article: The Qur’an and Science: Do They Agree?
New Products: See //www.bibleandscience.com/products/index.htm
Religion in the News
Behind
the Scenes of The Passion
Day 1: How I ended up being a surprise "consultant" on this remarkable
film. By Holly McClure.
Misfires
in the Tolerance Wars
Separating church and state now means separating belief and action. By Ted
Olsen.
Supreme
Court Clouds Church-State Rules
Plus: Didja hear Mel Gibson made a movie about Jesus? And many, many other
stories from online sources around the world. Compiled by Ted Olsen.
Hindu
Extremes
Congressmen appalled at religious persecution of Christians, Muslims. By
Joshua Newton in Ahmedabad and Mubai.
Macedonian
President, a Former Methodist Lay Minister, Dies in Plane Crash
Boris Trajkovski promoted peace in a country divided by Orthodox Christian
and Muslim distrust. By Rob Moll.
What's
your professor's religion? Should it matter?
The complaint sounds familiar: Why does a university whose student body
is overwhelmingly Mormon have so few LDS professors? (The Salt Lake Tribune).
The
Da Vinci con
What seems increasingly clear is that ''The Da Vinci Code,'' like ''Holy
Blood, Holy Grail,'' is based on a notorious hoax (Laura Miller, The New
York Times Book Review).
Remembering
Carl Henry, Inventor of Evangelicalism
No one was more pivotal to the emerging movement than Carl F. H.Henry. By
Timothy George.
Christian
History Corner: Just a Closer Walk … with the Historical Jesus
Mel Gibson's movie raises again the question: How much can we know historically
about Jesus' life and times? By Chris Armstrong.
Science in the News
Creation/Evolution
God
Is in the Details
A scientist affirms his faith. Henry F. (Fritz) Schaefer is Graham Perdue
Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Center for Computational Quantum
Chemistry at the University of Georgia. In 1973, as a young chemistry professor
at the University of California, Berkeley, Schaefer became a Christian.
Beginning in the mid-1980's and continuing to this day, he has been presenting
lectures on science and Christianity at various universities throughout
the United States and around the world. In this enjoyable book, Schaefer
has brought together his lectures in print form. Reviewed by Jonathan C.
Rienstra-Kiracofe.
National Park Service embraces
creationism
Creationist book re-ordered & offered as "natural history";
Geologists rebuffed (Press release, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility).
Meteorite molecules
spin sugars
Space chemicals could have given life its first twist. Chemicals brought
to Earth on meteorites may have provided templates for the building blocks
of life, say researchers. The idea could explain why DNA, the molecular
basis of our genetic code, always curls in one direction. 20 February 2004.
Mammal
mums can alter their offspring's gender
Certain mammals may change the gender of their offspring depending on which
sex is more likely to do well, shows the most conclusive study so far.
Evolving Artificial
DNA: for Astrobiology Magazine. Moffett Field - Feb 27, 2004
A team of University of Florida scientists has for the first time developed
an artificial chemical system that can mimic the natural evolutionary process
living organisms undergo.
"Voyage
Inside the Cell."
View a preview of this video.
Listen to interviews with Norm Geisler (about inerrancy) and Vern Poythress (about the Analogical Day view of Genesis 1).
New Book: What
Darwin Didn’t Know by Geoffrey Simmons, M.D.
Darwin might have thought twice about publishing his theories if he’d
had access to today’s medical and microbiological discoveries. Drawing
on years of research, Dr. Simmons demonstrates that the almost infinite
complexity of the human anatomy simply could not have developed by chance.
New ARN Videos:
Lecture and Interview with Michael G. Strauss
Dr. Michael Strauss is respected both in the National Laboratories where
he conducts research in experimental elementary particle physics, and the
university classroom where he has received multiple teaching awards. In
these two new ARN videos, Professor Strauss reviews the scientific evidence
regarding the origin and design of the universe.
Biola Conference April 22-24:
ID and the Future of Science
All of the ID Big Guns are convening in April at Biola University to discuss
“ID and the Future of Science.” This promises to be another historic
event with the likes of Phillip Johnson, Jonathan Wells, Michael Behe, William
Dembski, David Berlinski, Paul Nelson, Stephen Meyer and many others including
renown ID critics Michael Ruse and William Provine.
Archaeology/Anthropology
Early
makeup kit may confirm biblical story.
Excavation: Israeli archaeologists find 2,500- year-old accessories, which
likely belonged to Jews who returned from exile in Babylon. JERUSALEM --
Israeli archaeologists excavating caves near the Dead Sea discovered jewelry,
a makeup kit and a small mirror -- 2,500-year-old fashion accessories for
women. The trove apparently belonged to Jews who returned from exile in
Babylon in the 6th century B.C., said Tsvika Tsuk, chief archaeologist for
the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. "This find is very rare. Both
for the richness of the find and for that period, it is almost unheard of,"
Tsuk said Friday.
Seafaring
clue to first Americans.
People in North America were voyaging by sea some 8,000 years ago, boosting
a theory that some of the continent's first settlers arrived there by boat.
EternalEgypt.org
The Egyptian government and IBM have launched a new feature-rich website
at EternalEgypt.org, where multimedia
content on ancient Egyptian
culture and civilization is available in English, French, and Arabic.
Prehistoric
row erupts over hunter-gatherer riddle.
A team of Australian archaeologists have sparked an academic row by claiming
to have solved the riddle of a missing 1,000 years in human prehistory.
The scientists from Melbourne's La Trobe University have found remnants
of grains on the shore of the Dead Sea in Jordan that they believe help
fill the 1,000-year gap in our knowledge of man's transition from nomad
to farmer.
Primitive
man remains from 10,000 years ago found in China.
Almost-fossilized remains, believed to belong to a primitive pithecanthropus
man who lived over 10,000 years ago, have been discovered in a cave in central
China's Hunan Province.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL
CONFERENCE:
Critical Issues in Early Israelite History: Conference and Consultation.
March 26-28, 2004.
Astronomy
Astronomers
Find Nearest, Youngest Star With Dusty Debris Disk. But Are There Planets?
Astronomers at the University of California, Berkeley, have discovered the
nearest and youngest star with a visible disk of dust that may be a nursery
for planets.
Earth sows
its seeds in space
Life could be leaking out all over the cosmos. 23 February 2004.
Latest Kuiper
Belt Object Could Be Biggest Yet. Pasadena - Feb 24, 2004
Planetary scientists at the California Institute of Technology and Yale
University on Tuesday night discovered a new planetoid in the outer fringes
of the solar system. The planetoid, currently known only as 2004 DW, could
be even larger than Quaoar--the current record holder in the area known
as the Kuiper Belt--and is some 4.4 billion miles from Earth.
Was Einstein
Right After All. Baltimore - Feb 24, 2004
The good news from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is that Einstein was right--maybe.
A strange form of energy called "dark energy" is looking a little
more like the repulsive force that Einstein theorized in an attempt to balance
the universe against its own gravity. Even if Einstein turns out to be wrong,
the universe's dark energy probably won't destroy the universe any sooner
than about 30 billion years from now, say Hubble researchers.
Spirit
Rover On Its Way To Mars Crater. Washington (AFP) Feb 26, 2004
The Mars rover Spirit will go on a two-week trip through rocky terrain to
reach the border of a crater named Bonneville, NASA announced Thursday.
The crater is 150 meters (492 feet) long and about 15 meters (49 feet) deep
and offers a window into Mars' geology, said Ray Arvidson, assistant chief
of scientists at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Interplanetary
Dust Anomalies Help Explain History of Organic Matter. Livermore - Feb
27, 2004
Scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Washington University
have seen carbon and nitrogen anomalies on a particle of interplanetary
dust that provides a clue as to how interstellar organic matter was incorporated
into the solar system.
Carbon Found To Be Older Than The Solar System
Scientists
Watch 'Movie' Of Neutron Star Explosion In Real-time.
Scientists at the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (CITA)
and NASA have captured unprecedented details of the swirling flow of gas
hovering just a few miles from the surface of a neutron star, itself a sphere
only about ten miles across.
Biology
Drug may help
treat SARS
Interferon helps infected monkeys breathe more easily. 23 February 2004.
Test may lower
antibiotic use
New method could cut unnecessary prescriptions. 20 February 2004.
Mix
Of Chemicals Plus Stress Damages Brain, Liver In Animals And Likely In Humans
Stress is a well known culprit in disease, but now researchers have shown
that stress can intensify the effects of relatively safe chemicals, making
them very harmful to the brain and liver in animals and likely in humans,
as well.
New
Findings On Memory Could Enhance Learning WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.
New research in monkeys may provide a clue about how the brain manages vast
amounts of information and remembers what it needs. Researchers at Wake
Forest University Baptist Medical Center have identified brain cells that
streamline and simplify sensory information – markedly reducing the
brain's workload.
FDA
Approves First Angiogenesis Inhibitor To Treat Colorectal Cancer
The FDA has approved Avastin (bevacizumab) as a first-line treatment for
patients with metastatic colorectal cancer -- cancer that has spread to
other parts of the body.
Scientists
See How Placebo Effect Eases Pain
The concept of a placebo effect, by which patients get better from the mere
illusion of treatment, has intrigued scientists since it was first proposed
in 1955. Since then debate has centered on whether it truly exists and,
if it does, how it works. The results of a new study offer fresh evidence
in support of the existence of a placebo effect, and suggest how a brain
influenced by this effect changes its response to pain.
Earth Science
Evidence
Of A "Lost World": Antarctica Yields Two Unknown Dinosaur Species
Against incredible odds, researchers working in separate sites, thousands
of miles apart in Antarctica have found what they believe are the fossilized
remains of two species of dinosaurs previously unknown to science.
Astonishing
Discovery Over The Amazonian Rain Forest
Isoprene, an organic compound generated in large quantities by natural vegetation,
was originally thought not to be involved in producing atmospheric aerosols.
It has now been found to be a potentially major player in this process.
Biosphere's
lessons.
By Faye Flam / Inquirer Staff Writer Living inside the glass enclosure known
as Biosphere 2 for two years wasn't easy. If its eight pioneering residents
wanted pizza, they had to grow their own wheat and milk a goat for cheese.
They contended with thinning air, insufficient food, constant work and,
worst of all, each other. Monday, February 23, 2004 (Philadelphia Inquirer).
Mining Satellite Imagery
For Gold. Las Vegas - Feb 24, 2004
United Development International has reviewed radar imagery of their recently
acquired Cuyuni River Project. Interpretation indicates the presence of
a huge paleochannel extending over 16 kilometers and widths of up to 2.5
kilometers which has not been previously mined.
Psychology
I feel your pain
Empathy lights up the same parts of the brain as personal injury. 20 February
2004.
Grieving
Children. (HealthDayNews)
When a family member dies, children react differently than adults. Some
may act like nothing has changed, others may become more infantile, and
certain kids will even blame themselves.