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News:
May 2, 2004
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Religion in the News
A
timely look at how faith informs Bush presidency
George W. Bush may be the most openly religious president in memory, yet
Americans have been neither privy to his personal journey on the road to
Damascus nor fully aware of the political implications of the scales falling
from his eyes. (Boston Globe).
A Call
to Respect Evangelicals Rises from U.S. News and The New York
Times
Jeff Sheler returns to his old magazine, and Nicholas Kristof returns to
old subject matter. Compiled by Ted Olsen.
Doubting
the Doomsayers
Thank God not everything they say is true. By Philip Yancey.
Couple
Charged with $5 Million Fraud Appealing to Christian Investors
Plus: Combating anti-Semitism in Europe, sharia law in Canada Compiled by
Rob Moll.
Gospel pirates
Illegal downloading as a faith-based enterprise (Editorial, Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette).
Ministers'
guide on teaching religion
Atheism and other secular philosophies can be taught to children aged
seven and up - if schools decide it is "appropriate", according
to the first national religious education guidelines (The Journal,
Newcastle, England).
Dick
Staub Interview: Jerry Bridges Is Still Pursuing Holiness
After 25 years, The Pursuit of Holiness is a classic.
Christian
History Corner—Mel Gibson's Next Act: "The Man of the Passion"?
Thousands want Mel to make his next movie about a famous medieval friar,
St. Francis of Assisi. By Chris Armstrong. See l
Books
& Culture
Corner: Celebrating Faith in Writing
A dispatch from Calvin College's biennial event. By John Wilson.
The Passing of a Christian Warrior
Dr. Gleason
Archer, 1916 - 2004. On April 27, longtime Trinity
Evangelical Divinity School professor, Dr. Gleason Archer, went to be
with the Lord. He was one of the great men raised up by God in the past
century to defend the truthfulness of the Bible.
Science in the News
Archaeology/Anthropology
Expedition
will seek to find Noah's ark
An expedition is being planned for this summer to the upper reaches of Turkey's
Mount Ararat where organizers hope to prove an object nestled amid the snow
and ice is Noah's Ark (Associated Press) See also http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040427/ap_on_sc/noah_s_ark.
Rush
to Judgment?
Israel Antiquities Authority's 'findings' bother many archaeologists. By
Gordon Govier.
Surprisingly
rapid growth in Neanderthals
FERNANDO V. RAMIREZ ROZZI AND JOSÉ MARIA BERMUDEZ DE CASTRO.
See also http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994937
Charred
remains may be earliest human fires.
Archaeologists in Israel may have unearthed the oldest evidence of fire
use by our ancestors. The site, on the banks of the Jordan River, dates
to about 790,000 years ago.
Best
of Egypt: Recent Discoveries and More
Who built the pyramids? What’s inside? Get the answers and our latest
Egypt news stories.
Maya
“Masterpiece” Uncovered in Guatemala
Find out how archaeologists suffered death threats and recently unearthed
what they say is one of the greatest Maya treasures ever found.
Astronomy
NASA Considering
Various Hubble Service Options. Washington (UPI) April 26,2004
A review of more than two dozen ideas for robotic servicing of the Hubble
Space Telescope has identified several promising concepts that may be pursued
by NASA before the end of the year, the space agency's space chief scientist
told United Press International.
Scientists
Announce Cosmic Ray Theory Breakthrough Los Alamos (SPX) Apr 30, 2004
University of California scientists working at Los Alamos National Laboratory
have proposed a new theory to explain the movement of vast energy fields
in giant radio galaxies (GRGs). The theory could be the basis for a whole
new understanding of the ways in which cosmic rays - and their signature
radio waves - propagate and travel through intergalactic space.
Martian
Water Science Early 2004 Mountain View CA - Apr 27, 2004
In part two of our report on NASA's Third Astrobiology Science Conference,
we detour to a press conference held separately the last day of the conference
that revealed the Gusev landing site of the first MER rover, "Spirit"
was at last starting to show evidence of an aqueous past after all. Relating
this announcement to specific papers presented at the conference, Bruce
Moomaw explains how the story of Mars is getting more complicated with each
new mission to Mars.
Expert
Predicts Global Climate Change On Jupiter As It's Spots Disappear. San
Francisco - Apr 26, 2004
If a University of California, Berkeley, physicist's vision of Jupiter is
correct, the giant planet will be in for a major global temperature shift
over the next decade as most of its large vortices disappear.
Two Comets
Glow In Morning Sky. Los Angeles - Apr 28, 2004
Seven years have passed since Comet Hale-Bopp graced the evening sky in
the spring of 1997. Now not just one but two new comets are heading into
springtime view -- though they won't come near Hale-Bopp for brightness
and grandeur.
Molecular
rings could shelter Venus bugs
The idea that microbes live in the planet's clouds is controversial, but
scientists can now explain how they might avoid the Sun's damaging UV light.
The Physics Of Extra-Terrestrial
Civilizations Moffett Field - Apr 27, 2004
To consider habitable worlds, advanced civilizations, and how to find and
classify them, Astrobiology Magazine had the chance to discover from Dr.
Michio Kaku that the laws of physics has much to say about such possibilities--at
least much more than where you might expect speculation to lead you from
our tiny corner of the universe.
An Immersive
Planetarium. Houston - Apr 27, 2004
Researchers from the Rice Space Institute, in partnership the Houston Museum
of Natural Science, are leading a NASA-funded project to develop portable
technology that will allow exciting new "fully immersive" planetarium
programs to be shown across the country inside inflatable, classroom-sized
domes.
Biology
Fatherless
Mice Created in Lab
Men--who needs them? The sentiment has been voiced by countless lovelorn
women, but from a reproductive standpoint, we mammals need males a great
deal. Many plants and lower animals, such as insects and reptiles, can reproduce
asexually using only maternal DNA through a process termed parthenogenesis.
This mechanism does not occur naturally in mammals, and researchers have
long been unable to induce it in the laboratory. Now scientists report having
created the first fatherless mice, one of which has survived to adulthood
and given birth to her own young.
Cloned
Cows Manufacture Cancer Treatment
The products most closely associated with cows are milk and beef. But European
scientists say that the animals can be bred to generate antitumor drugs.
The findings could lead to a novel way of manufacturing antibodies for tumor
therapy on a large scale.
Bone marrow stem
cells help mend broken hearts
Human trials yield promising results 27 April 2004.
Alzheimer's
gene therapy trial shows early promise
Injecting genetically modified skin cells directly into a severely affected
part of the brain markedly reduces the decline in patients.
Spinach
pigments proposed as blindness cure
Adding the light-absorbing proteins to nerve cells in the retina could make
them fire when struck by light.
Researchers
Describe Long-perplexing 'Magic Spot' On Bacteria
Scientists have unraveled the behavior of one key component of bacteria,
a finding that may lead to better, more effective antibiotics.
Web Site
Logs 20,000 Human Genes. April 20, 2004
A detailed functional map of more than 20,000 human genes has been published
on the Internet by an international research team.
Creation/Evolution
The
Myth of the Beginning of Time
Was the big bang really the beginning of time? Or did the universe exist
before then? Such a question seemed almost blasphemous only a decade ago.
Most cosmologists insisted that it simply made no sense--that to contemplate
a time before the big bang was like asking for directions to a place north
of the North Pole. But developments in theoretical physics, especially the
rise of string theory, have changed their perspective. The pre-bang universe
has become the latest frontier of cosmology.
Mineral brew grows
'cells'
A mixture of simple chemicals produces fungus-like structure. It is an experiment
you could do in a school chemistry lab. But it produces weird growths that,
although made purely from inorganic materials, share some of the characteristics
of living organisms.
New Clues To
Origin Of Life. Edmonton - Apr 26, 2004
A new discovery of microbial activity in 3.5 billion-year-old volcanic rock
and one of earth's earliest signs of geological existence sheds new light
on the antiquity of life, says University of Alberta researchers who are
part of a team that made the groundbreaking finding.
Multinational
Team of Scientists Finds Early Life in Volcanic Lava. San Diego - Apr
26, 2004
Scientists from the United States, Norway, Canada, and South Africa have
identified what is believed to be evidence of one of Earth's earliest forms
of life, a finding that could factor heavily into discussions of the origins
of life.
Ancient
Pebbles Provide New Details About Primeval Atmosphere. Stanford - Apr
26, 2004
Analysis of 3.2-billion-year-old pebbles has yielded perhaps the oldest
geological evidence of Earth's ancient atmosphere and climate. The
findings, published in the April 15 issue of the journal Nature, indicate
that carbon dioxide levels in the early atmosphere were substantially above
those that exist today and above those predicted by other models of the
early Earth.
Technique
Plucks Rapidly Evolving Genes From A Pathogen's Genome. Berkeley
A quick new technique able to identify genes that evolve rapidly as well
as those that change slowly already has pinpointed new targets for researchers
developing drugs against tuberculosis and malaria, and it could do the same
for other infectious diseases, according to a paper in this week's Nature.
Spontaneous
Generation and the Origin of Life.
Creationists often claim that Louis Pasteur disproved spontaneous generation
and hence any naturalistic origin of life. This article shows what Pasteur
really demonstrated and gives a history of the subject from early ideas
of spontaneous generation to modern ideas about the origin of life.
Genetic
Algorithms and Evolutionary Computation.
Creationists often argue that evolutionary processes cannot create new information,
or that evolution has no practical benefits. This article disproves those
claims by describing the explosive growth and widespread applications of
genetic algorithms, a computing technique based on principles of biological
evolution.
Reading
Between the Fossil Lines, by Gleason Archer
One of the most frequently argued objections to the trustworthiness of Scripture
is found in the apparent discrepancy between the account of creation given
in Genesis 1 and the supposed evidence from the fossils and fissionable
minerals in the geological strata that indicated Earth is billions of years
old. But this conflict between Genesis 1 and the factual data of science
is only apparent, not real.
Darwin-Free
Fun for Creationists.
Dinosaur Adventure Land, a creationist theme park and museum run by Kent
Hovind.
No Evolution: Controversy erupted in Italy after a revised national middle school curriculum, released on February 19, 2004, was found to make no mention of evolutionary theory.
EVOLUTION
VS. CREATIONISM: AN INTRODUCTION.
NCSE executive director Eugenie C. Scott's new book Evolution vs. Creationism:
An Introduction is scheduled for publication in July 2004.
Reflections
on the ID Conference at Biola April 26, 2004 Commentary
The 2004 ID Conference at Biola University was a rare opportunity to
hear from and personally meet with many of the brilliant scholars who are
prominent in the ID movement.
Science
and Religion in Context
Metanexus Institute announces its 2004 annual conference "Science and
Religion in Context" to be held on the campus of the University of
Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, June 5-9, 2004.
Earth Science
Did dinosaurs
lack daughters?
See-sawing climate may have fatally unbalanced ratio. 23 April 2004.
Supercontinent's
Breakup Plunged Ancient Earth Into Big Chill. Gainesville FL (SPX) Apr
29, 2004
The breakup of the world's original supercontinent, coupled with the breakdown
of massive amounts of volcanic rock, plunged Earth into the deepest freeze
it has ever experienced, new research shows.
NASA Arctic Sea
Ice Study May Stir Up Climate Models. Pasadena - Apr 26, 2004
Contrary to historical observations, sea ice in the high Arctic undergoes
very small, back and forth movements twice a day, even in the dead of winter.
It was once believed ice deformation at such a scale was almost non-existent.
Fertilising
the sea could combat global warming
Iron soaks up carbon in Southern Ocean trial. Dumping iron sulphate in the
ocean to cause plankton blooms might not seem an eco-friendly way to tackle
global warming. But, according to the most extended trial of the technique
so far, it could prove an effective one. 22 April 2004.
Physics
Proof Of The
Matter Is In The Jelly. Durham - Apr 28, 2004
In the community of very tiny particles that make up all matter in the universe,
there are two main citizens: bosons and fermions. Bosons are socially oriented
and tend to stick together, while fermions are solitary entities, preferring
to go it alone.
Gravity Probe
B Powered Up And OK. Huntsville - Apr 26, 2004
Gravity Probe B — a NASA mission to test two predictions of Albert
Einstein's Theory of General Relativity — is orbiting 400 miles above
Earth, and all spacecraft systems are performing well. Its solar arrays
are generating power, and all electrical systems are powered on.
Scientists Post A Lower Speed Limit For Magnetic Switching.
Psychology
Cravings reduced
in rehab rats
Discovery might help cocaine addicts kick the habit. 22 April 2004.
Alcohol patch
trials planned
Drug could help curb excess drinking. 20 April 2004.
Technology
Nanotube
Transistors Could Lead To Better Phones, Faster Computers. Washington
- Apr 28, 2004
Scientists have demonstrated, for the first time, that transistors made
from single-walled carbon nanotubes can operate at extremely fast microwave
frequencies, opening up the potential for better cell phones and much faster
computers, perhaps as much as 1,000 times faster.