Story: Mars Atmosphere Eroded by Solar Wind (NASA Science, 01/31/2001).
Mars reveals what would have happened to our atmosphere if earth did not have a strong magnetic field.
Theme: Anthropic Principle.
NASA Will Discover How Life Originated 01/31/2001
On the scene report At a
ceremony
announcing the successor of retiring Director Dr. Ed Stone, the newly-appointed
Director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Dr. Charles Elachi, announced in the presence of lab employees and
NASA Administrator Dan Goldin his plans for the lab. In addition to pursuing an ambitious schedule of solar system discovery and earth
science missions, he announced that “We will be probing the origin of
life itself, and finding out where we came from.”
Dr. Elachi is a distinguished, experienced and eminently qualified leader
for JPL, following in the footsteps of his equally distinguished predecessor. Discovering the origin of life
without intelligent
design, however, is an impossible dream, but Goldin looked pleased.
Without a Cold War to drive the space program,
Dan Goldin
found a new mission statement for NASA: Origins, the search
for the evolution of the universe, stars, planets and life. It goes without saying that this search must be
carried out without invoking
design arguments
(because that would
sound like creation,
and might imply God, and
cannot be scientific
by definition).
Good luck.
Next headline on: Origin of Life. •
Next headline on: Solar System.
Comet Cloud Much Thinner than Expected 01/31/2001
The Oort Cloud, a hypothetical shell of cometary material far beyond the
orbit of Pluto, is much thinner than originally believed, according to
a scientists from JPL and
Southwest Research Institute, reported in
Sky and
Telescope online news. This cloud of material was supposed
to be the source of new comets, which disintegrate as they orbit the sun.
Stern and Weissman’s calculations show the cloud could only contain
less than 10% of what was previously assumed. See this good
Planetary
Society lay explanation of their work and its implications.
The original paper is published in
Nature,
Volume 409, Number 6820, pp. 589-591 (2001).
Update 02/21/2001 Creationist astronomer Danny
Faulkner weighs in on this latest news and what it means for the age
of the solar system, on the
Answers
in Genesis website.
Comets are a serious problem
for those who believe the solar system is
4.5 billion years old, and now it’s an even bigger problem.
Short-period comets would quickly burn out, like sparklers at an all-night
party, unless there is a source of new material. That is why Dutch
astronomer Jan Oort proposed his famous Oort Cloud. There has never
been any observational evidence for it; it was invented to save the belief
in long ages. Now its existence is even further in doubt.
Next headline on: Comets. •
Next headline on: Solar System.
Cells Do Their Own Triage 01/30/2001
According to an article in this week's Science News (Vol 159 p. 54, 01/27/01),
specialized proteins perform emergency first aid and morgue duty. Proteins dubbed
"chaperones" are able to recognize badly-folded proteins and fix them. Another protein
acts as a coroner and breaks apart proteins that are beyond repair.
Proteins cannot perform their duties if they are not folded
properly. The folding gives the protein chain (a string of amino acids) its three-dimensional
structure, which is essential to its function.
This kind of intricate molecular origami is accomplished partly by the affinities of
parts of the molecule for each other due to the specific order of amino acids
(that is why the sequence of amino acids cannot tolerate much error), and partly with the
assistance of helper enzymes. But mistakes happen. How does the cell recognize an
error? How do brainless, sightless molecules perform first aid? How could a cell survive that didn't have these
capabilities from the start? How can evolutionists believe that it could? To all the above, amazing.
Next headline on: The Cell and Biochemistry. •
Next amazing story.
Jupiter is Earth’s Bouncer 01/30/2001
Without Jupiter, we wouldn’t be here, says a report by NASA’s
Astrobiology
Institute at Ames Research Center. Jupiter flings asteroids and
comets out of our solar system that otherwise would pummel the earth.
Scientists believe a Jupiter-like big brother is necessary for the origin of
life on earth-like planets around other stars.
This is another example of the
Anthropic
Principle, the observation that conditions in the
universe are fine-tuned to allow life to exist and thrive. There
are examples on the large scale (size of the universe, gravitational
constant), on the solar system scale (size and distance of sun and moon,
composition of earth’s atmosphere and crust), and the atomic scale
(fundamental constants of physics like the charge on the electron or
fine structure constants) that, if altered slightly, would make our
planet a sterile place or even non-existent.
Materialists
wonder at these “coincidences” but theists have a sufficient first cause.
Next headline on: Solar System.
Article: William
Dembski answers Eugenie Scott: Is Intelligent Design Testable? 01/24/2001
Newsletter: The
Boyle Project
has published a Jan 2001 newsletter on the life of
Robert Boyle, including details on
recent publications of his books and correspondence.
NASA Astrobiologists Find Support for Origin of Life in Space 01/29/2001
In a press release prior
to publication in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences,
an interdisciplinary team of astrobiologists at
Ames Research Center
has found experimental evidence that fairly complex organic compounds can form
inside interstellar dust grains and ices, and can survive the harsh space environment.
Moreover, when exposed to water, some of these compounds form cell-like vesicles
(click here for pictures).
This lends support to the theory that life could have originated in space,
and was seeded to the earth via comets or interstellar dust.
Update 02/01/2001 Now
National
Geographic
and many other sources have picked up on the story. NG says,
“The simplicity of the process captivates Dr. Sanford. ‘I'm still
fascinated by the fact that you can take some things you can buy in the
grocery store, give them a sun tan, and voila, you've got cellular
structures.’”
Stories like this have nothing to do with the origin of life, which is not the
origin of chemicals, but the origin of complex specified information.
Superficial resemblances of these “vesicles” to cells are as meaningless as the comparison of a
statue of a man to a real man; cell membranes perform active
transport, letting in desired molecules and inhibiting others against
the concentration gradient (i.e., against what would happen naturally).
But most important, without a genetic code and a transcription mechanism
and a complex procedure for accurate replication, there can be no natural selection;
hence, chance is the only tool available to the evolutionist.
We must repeat as long as these stories
continue to show up in the media,
the origin of life by chance is impossible
no matter how much space, time and materials are assumed.
Want to know what's really behind this NASA study? Astrobiologists
know that the early earth did not have the type of reducing atmosphere required to produce
organic compounds essential to life: in fact, it most likely contained free oxygen
which would have been deadly (see Icons
of Evolution by Jonathan Wells, ch. 1). They also believe that
life appeared abruptly
during a time of early bombardment of the earth. The old scenario of
a warm primordial soup is no longer tenable, so they are now grasping at even more
far-fetched theories to explain the origin of life by naturalistic means.
This positive-sounding report should, therefore, be interpreted as an act of
desperation. Notice also how no one is touching this question with
a ten foot pole: what was the origin of information?
The article in National Geographic illustrates the
sloppy, uncritical reporting that goes on in the media. The work
done by these scientists is light-years away from anything resembling life,
but insurmountable difficulties are just totally glossed over as if they
weren’t even there. It’s as even scientists found some
iron ore and announced they have uncovered the origin of airplanes.
This amounts to a propaganda campaign of misrepresentation, distortion,
and exaggeration in the extreme! How can this be justified as science?
Why won’t someone put these reports under the scrutiny of
real evidence? If no one else will do it, we will. This is junk
science.
Next headline on: The Cell and Biochemistry. •
Next headline on: Origin of Life. •
Next dumb story.
Flapping Plane Designed After Pterosaur 01/29/2001
Using the pterosaur as a model, Patricia Jones-Bowman of the University
of Toronto is hoping to build a flapping plane called an ornithopter,
according to a story in the journal
Science.
If you think pterosaurs were primitive, think again.
They had a technology we have not yet been able to reproduce. And like
other flying animals, they appear abruptly in the fossil record, their wings and
flying capabilities already fully formed.
Next headline on: Dinosaurs.
New Function Discovered for Human Brain Glia Cells 01/29/2001
Glia cells, which make up 90% of the human brain, are not as functionless
as earlier believed, according to a story in the journal
Science (echoed also in this abstract in
Scientific
American). They play an important role in determining
how many connections the neurons can make with each other.
The more we learn about life, the more we discover function and
design. So-called junk DNA may be the next.
God don’t make no junk.
Next headline on: The Brain. •
Next headline on: Human Body. •
Next headline on: The Cell and Biochemistry.
Bush Threatens Cutoff of Federal Funds for Stem Cell Research from Aborted Fetuses 01/29/2001
Although no policy has been made yet, President Bush has voiced his
opinion that aborted fetuses should not be used for stem cell research, the
Nando
Times reported today. Bush approves of research from adult
stem cells or embryos that died a natural death. Advocates of the
research say, however, that such cells are not as versatile or healthy.
Update 01/31/2001
The policy is still up in the air, according to
Science.
It appears Bush’s Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thomson
may persuade the president to allow embryonic stem cell research to proceed.
We are at a crossroads of medical ethics here: is it right to do wrong
to get a chance to do right? Should we take a life to save a life?
When does human life begin? The answers depend largely on whether
you believe in creation or evolution, in theism or naturalism.
Next headline on: Politics.
Big-Screen Darwin School: Galápagos in 3-D IMAX 01/27/2001
On the scene report Released late last summer, the Smithsonian’s IMAX film Galápagos
is making the rounds of IMAX theaters, complete with special screenings for teachers and students,
and a complete study guide with suggested experiments on how students can practice
natural selection on each other.
Galápagos in 3-D IMAX again demonstrates that Darwinism
survives not on evidence and sound reasoning, but on propaganda.
The film is a visual and sonic treat, but unfortunately, as expected, it repeats the standard
Darwinian myths about finch beaks, natural selection and evolution-as-fact. It’s
fair to teach Darwin’s voyage on the Beagle as history, just as you might teach about
Aristotle or Descartes; it’s what it leaves out that makes this
film indoctrination rather than documentation. It doesn’t tell you, for instance,
that finch beak sizes oscillate around a norm depending on drought conditions;
that most of the 13 species of Galápagos finches are interfertile, that the finches did not
lead Darwin to accept evolution, or that beak changes don’t explain the origin of
finches. It also fails to point out that survival of the fittest is a tautology, that the
expression is discredited among biologists today, and that adaptation cannot
simultaneously be an explanation of evolution and evidence for it (circular reasoning).
For an explanation of the finch-beak myth, read Icons
of Evolution by Jonathan Wells.
Next headline on: Schools. •
Next headline on: Darwinism. •
Next headline on: Movies.
“Dead” Plant Cells Regulate Their Water Intake 01/26/2001
Xylem isn’t just deadwood, according to a new study in the journal
Science.
The woody cells respond to changes in salinity and mineral content, and
can regulate the speed at which water rises in the stem.
How a tree can pump water up hundreds of feet is still a feat not
thoroughly understood, and now this study casts new light on a function
of cells thought to be inert. How did brainless plants figure out
all this chemistry? By unguided, impersonal, purposeless forces?
Next headline on: Plants. •
Next headline on: Physics.
Sweet Dreams, Rat 01/26/2001
Most news sources like CBS and
National
Geographic TV
had fun with yesterday’s odd story about dreaming rats. MIT
scientists claim rats rerun their mazes in their dreams, and this helps
them run the maze better during waking hours. This is based on brain
wave studies, but like a Harvard psychologist commented, it’s a little
hard to prove: “If the rat would tell us, ‘Yes, I was dreaming about
running around the track,’ then we'd have it nailed down.”
If you’ve ever seen your dog shake and shudder during sleep, you’ve
probably already surmised Fido is dreaming about something, but it’s a
little hard to ask an animal what’s on its mind. Scientists seem
to think they can investigate anything, even the subject matter of animal
dreams! Science has its limitations.
James Clerk Maxwell, the eminent Scottish physicist who
gave us a unified electromagnetic theory (a devout Christian and
creationist), was an occasional poet. During
the time of mourning over his father’s death, he wrote a pensive
verse about what function God might have designed for our dreams
(although he did not claim his musings were scientific).
Click here to read and enjoy the wordcraft of
Maxwell’s gifted mind.
(Whatever is going on in a rat’s brain you can be
certain is orders of magnitude below this level of contemplation!)
Next headline on: Brain.
Jupiter and Scientists Glowing 01/24/2001
Exclusive The world’s leading planetary
scientists, gathered this week at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,
California are all aglow with excitement as they share the wealth of
new data just returned from Jupiter.
For the first time, two major spacecraft, Galileo and Cassini (swinging by en route to Saturn) have been observing
the giant planet at close range simultaneously from different vantage points.
Improved hardware and software has provided
unprecedented
data at visible, ultraviolet and infrared wavelengths,
in addition to magnetic field, plasma, and dust
measurements. Some oohs and aahs came from new movies of
Jupiter’s aurora, augmented by observations from the Hubble
Space Telescope, and the moon Io’s plasma torus, a donut of charged
particles fed by volcanic eruptions from
the
moon Io (see this awesome photo
of Io just released, and our 08/16/2000 story
about Io’s unexplained heat output).
The
excitement of discovery can be shared by creationists and evolutionists
alike. Stay tuned for further developments.
This reporter asked a couple of scientists about the rate of
mass loss
for Io, and they said a ton per second or more.
Io is
continually erupting volatiles like sulfur, oxygen and sulfur dioxide
to the plasma torus which eventually escape to interplanetary
space. It would be interesting to compute whether this
process could continue for four and a half billion years.
Someone want to do a science project? (A simplistic calculation
shows that at its current mass - 8.9316 x 1025 grams -
Io could lose a ton a second for 3 trillion years. Most of the mass
being ejected, however, is in the form of crustal volatiles
which presumably compose a small fraction of the total mass, which is most
likely silicate rock around an iron core.
A realistic calculation would also have to take into account non-linear
loss rates as a function of surface area to volume, and the effect of
internal cooling rates, including depletion of radioactive elements.
Original mass [with its consequence of higher escape velocity], recycling of
ejected material, and accretion sources would also need to be considered.)
Next headline on: Solar System.
Rock Star Dinosaur Found 01/24/2001
Nature
reports that a dog-sized dinosaur found on the island of Madagascar has been named after
rock star Mark Knopfler. It has strange hooked teeth, according to
the report in the Nando Times.
Discoverer Scott Sampson said, “The most important aspect of this
animal is that it underscores the fact that, contrary to popular opinion,
we still don't know everything about dinosaurs.”
Popular opinion is shaped by textbooks that are full of errors
and museums and TV programs that confidently shell out misinformation.
Despite its disclaimer, however, this article can’t resist launching
into storybook land about splitting continents and
dinosaur lifestyles.
The opinions are safe from contradiction because, of course, no human was
there to observe.
Next headline on: Dinosaurs.
Gentlemen, Start Your Engines 01/23/2001
The Proceedings of the
National
Academy of Sciences
describe more findings about our amazing molecular motor,
ATP
Synthase (a complex enzyme that won its elucidators the 1997
Nobel Prize).
Your body has trillions of these tiny motors in the
mitochondria of cells. Each motor is 200,000
times smaller than a pinhead, and rotates
at 6000 RPM, generating three ATP molecules per revolution (if these motors
stopped, you would be dead before you hit the floor).
The motor is reversible and can be used as a proton pump.
ATP is the energy currency of every living thing. An active
person can generate his/her body weight in ATP in a day’s time.
Today’s report (click
here
for PDF format) describes more details of the rotor and stator, and contains
color diagrams of these amazing molecular machines on which all life, even
bacteria, depends.
In Michael Behe’s terminology, these motors are “irreducibly complex” and would never arise by gradual
evolution. The complexity of the cell was never dreamed of in
Darwin’s day, and discoveries like this are straining the credibility
of the evolutionary myth beyond the breaking point.
Truly we are fearfully and wonderfully made!
Next headline on: The Cell and Biochemistry. •
Next headline on: Human Body. •
Next amazing story.
Mars Revealed in Dead Color 01/23/2001
The February issue of National
Geographic just came out, with a feature on the latest
discoveries
and images from Mars. The magazine includes a large
fold-out map, based on 80,000 images and millions of altimetry
measurements taken by the highly successful Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft
operated by JPL, which has given us
the most accurate global data ever of this most earth-like of
planets. “The biggest thing to come out of the MGS images is
bafflement,” says Ken Edgett of Malin Space Science Systems, that
built the MGS camera; “Much of it just doesn’t add up.
It’s spine-chilling. It’s . . .
mind-boggling!”
Update 01/25/2001 SpaceScience.com
has an article about looking for life in the layered terrain of Mars,
thought to possibly be from water-borne sediments. A report in
Natureclaims that samples from a Martian meteorite show evidence that water
could have come from volcanic outgassing, and that it hints of an
ancient
ocean (see also this summary in
space.com).
Update 03/15/2001
Space
.Com
has a story about the turmoil of new Mars discoveries, and how they are
changing the paradigm every six months. “It causes one to be
humble . . . and it is good to be humble,” one scientist said.
Many of the apparent contradictions and mysteries
come from features that look very young (formed within the last few
thousand years), far younger than a multi-billion year old
geologically-dead planet ought to appear. (The scientists’
assumptions couldn’t possibly be at fault, of course.)
Anyway, the article discusses the expected controversies over water and
life, but scientists are even less certain now that water was
responsible for some of the apparent river channels, gullies, and
basins (see 01/22/01 story, below).
Regardless of the verdict about Martian water, the
large color map in this issue of National Geographic is worth poring
over for a long time. Here is another world, complete with
mountains, volcanoes, canyons, deserts, dust devils, polar ice caps and
fascinating geology, but no conclusive evidence of even the tiniest
bacterium – to say
nothing of forests, orchids, lions, angelfish, dolphins and
people. While we learn with excitement and anticipation about the
fourth rock from the sun, should we not be reminded to thank the Creator
for the unique
habitat He designed for us?
For more amazing images of
Mars and the other planets of our solar system, visit photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov.
The Nature article tries to prove too much with too
little. The SpaceScience.com article repeats many of the logical
fallacies of the Mars life myth: e.g., water means life, earth life can exist
in extreme habitats, and earth life appeared early so it must be easy to
evolve.
These misleading claims fail to understand the complexity of life and the
problem of the origin of information. They also commit the fallacy
of circular reasoning, using the assumption of evolution to prove evolution.
Next headline on: Mars. •
Next headline on: Solar System. •
Next headline on: Geology.
Brits OK Human Cloning 01/23/2001
Major news sources are all
reporting that the UK has voted to allow experiments on human
cloning. A leading expert on ethics in the field, Dr Tom
Shakespeare, said it was a worrying step. “We are very
concerned about using embryos in this way, using them as a means to an
end. There are actually things we can do with adult stem cells,
so there are alternatives to this technology. There are very many
reasons why we are going too fast and should be much more cautious
about this development.”
Update 01/28/2001 The
L.A.
Times has an article today “Genie Out of the Bottle on Human
Cloning” that underscores some of the risks. “Equally
worrisome to some researchers is that when cloning fails, it often fails
in gruesome ways. For every successfully cloned cow, sheep or goat,
dozens of others fail to grow in the womb, die at childbirth or perish soon
after birth from deformities.” Ethicists are concerned that
human cloning is doable, but is it right?
Update 02/07/2001 According
to a story in the Nando Times,
efforts are accelerating to clone humans, with ethicists being left behind in the dust.
Remember how human cloning was supposed to be years away?
Remember how most world leaders said it they had serious ethical concerns
about it?
Remember how unthinkable this was just a few
months ago? It all starts with the noblest motives, the hope of
discovering cures for Parkinson’s disease and diabetes, but it
strikes at the heart of our understanding of when human life begins,
and whether it is right to take a life to save a life. The
potential misuses of this technology are ominous, but the voices of
concern are being mowed over in the race to be first.
Can you think of any logical stopping point between this and keeping brain-dead
adults on life support so as to harvest their body parts, or genetically
engineering a super race? Where will this slippery slope lead?
When there is no
moral consensus, pragmatism and ambition have free rein, just as
we have seen with the abortion industry and the sale of fetal body
parts. It’s a brave new world, run by scientists and
governments and corporations with no fear of God, who view life as a
physical collection
of molecules organized without soul or purpose or eternal destiny.
Those of us lucky enough to make it past birth can play god and tinker with
the human program.
This is the fruit of Darwinism. Christian pastors had better
wake up and realize that evolution is not just an
intellectual side issue; it is a total world view with fearsome
societal consequences. Science can tell us what we can do, but
it cannot tell us what we should do. In the Darwinian dictionary,
“should” is an undefined term.
Next headline on: Politics.
Global Warming: It Threatens Me, It Threatens Me Not 01/22/2001
News
sources are all echoing the latest United Nations report that global
warming is a more serious threat than previously believed. But other
recent reports
predicted unusual periods of cooling ahead, and now this report seems to be
saying the risk of global warming is caused by industry cleaning up its act
and reducing the amount of dust in the
atmosphere (see Fox News). Moreover, a report in
Scientific American
says that Arctic ozone depletion, long attributed to human pollutants, may be
caused by sea salt.
Update 01/24/01 A former head of the
U.S. weather service
says the U.N. report is “overdoing it” and “missing the
point.”
This topic is a little off our theme, but illustrates that science is not
just about data and facts. This U.N. report comes on the first day of
work for a U.S. President unfriendly to global warming theory. How much
political posturing is going on, how much socialism, how much economics,
how much personal ambition, how much unwarranted extrapolation,
how much desire for funding, and how much ignorance of global processes
is anyone’s guess. If you
can sift through the morass of all that and find a brute fact here or there,
you’ at least have a more informed opinion than the news media.
See Murphy’s Law of Research and Harrison’s Postulate, right.
Next headline on: Environment. •
Next headline on: Politics.
E.T. May Use Laser Beacons 01/22/2001
In case E.T. is sending his message with lasers instead of microwaves,
Harvard SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) enthusiast Paul Horowitz is unveiling a new telescope to
search for alien civilizations in space, reports the
Nando Times.
After years of trying, microwave searches have
still come up dry. But Horowitz is not discouraged:
“We’ve got organic molecules in space, we’ve got planetary
systems, we have life right away on Earth, and microbial life in
extreme environments on our planet. What do you need to convince
yourself that this is a normal phenomenon?”
Intelligence arising by natural processes, that’s what. There is
precious little of it in this article, which repeats the same old wishful
thinking and evolutionary bluffing typical of his mentor Carl Sagan.
It’s ironic that Horowitz, an evolutionist, will enthusiastically embrace
the Intelligent
Design inference when it comes to receiving a message from extraterrestrials, then turn right around and
claim the source of the intelligence that received the message was mindless chance!
Update 02/02/2001:: Space.Com
reports on how optical SETI and proposed radio interferometers are opening a new chapter in the ongoing search.
Next headline on: SETI.
Mars Canyons Formed by Glaciers, Not Water 01/22/2001
A scientist for the U.S. Geological Survey claims the river channels
and other features on Mars were formed by ice, not water. (See
DiscoveryOnline for a summary.) Martian channels bear a resemblance to
Antarctic counterparts formed by moving ice.
Evidence seems to oscillate back and forth on whether Mars had water, so it
is too early to be certain. But certainly the exobiologists hope for
water to be found on Mars because that would boost their hopes for finding
life. But water does not equal life,
any more than a nail equals a city.
Next headline on: Mars. •
Next headline on: Solar System. •
Next headline on: Geology.
Butterfly Evolutionary Trickery Observed 01/22/2001
A team in the Ecuadorian rain forest has done an experiment to see if
butterfly mimicry works, and it appears so, according to a
report in the journal
Science.
Imported butterflies that look like bad-tasting cousins give birds the
creeps. “I think it is a great study,” says evolutionary
biologist James Mallet. “Mimicry theory seems plausible, but
experiments to show its existence in nature have been rarer than
hen’s teeth.”
All the species existed before and after the experiment,
so nothing has changed. This is not evolution. What did they
observe? Conditioned response, nothing more. Evolutionists
need to demonstrate how butterflies and birds arose in the first place.
Notice the admission that actual experiments to back up evolutionary
storytelling have been exceedingly rare, at least in this case.
Next headline on: Bugs and Crawlers.
Bronco Busting an Ancient Worldwide Tradition 01/19/2001
Analysis of horse mitochondrial DNA samples from several continents
hints that early peoples from around the world learned to tame and ride horses,
according to a report today in the journal
Science.
The presumption earlier was that the art of domesticating the horse spread
from a single source in Eurasia about 5,000 years ago, but the new evidence
seems to indicate that horse breeding had many origins in many locales.
One researcher disagrees with the interpretation but welcomes the data,
because “Solving the riddle of equine domestication has been so
difficult,” she admits.
Comparative gene sequencing of horses
has all the difficulties of human comparative gene sequencing, and is
fraught with the same untestable assumptions. But consider this:
evolutionists would have us believe that modern humans (smart enough to
hunt and eat the animals), including Cro-Magnons
with brain capacities larger, on the average, than ours, existed for a
half a million years
– multiple times the length of all recorded human
history – without ever learning to ride a horse! That strains
the imagination when you consider how natural horsemanship was to
civilizations as diverse as the Chinese, the Europeans, the Chaldeans and
many others. Let’s give early people a little more credit for
brains and ingenuity.
Evolutionists
scramble
the data to come up with their supposed
horse evolution
story, a fable riddled
with errors and
inconsistencies.
The ancient Old Testament book of
Job, ch. 39:19-25,
by contrast,
pictures the horse as a masterpiece of God’s design, made with human
interaction as part of the plan. This is why the
horse and man have a long, symbiotic relationship, just like
the evidence shows.
Next headline on: Early Man. •
Next headline on: Mammals.
Bird Species Diverging, Proving Darwin Right 01/18/2001
“Scientists may be witnessing one of the fundamental forces of evolution:
the divergence of one species into two. It is the evidence that the
originator of the theory of evolution, Charles Darwin, wanted to see but was
never able to find, says
BBC
News online science editor David Whitehouse. Apparently two
similar birds in the foothills of the Himalayas are singing different tunes
and not interbreeding, which biologists are interpreting as a speciation event
in progress. “One of the largest mysteries remaining in
evolutionary biology is exactly how one species can gradually
diverge into two,” says Darren Irwin of the University of California,
San Diego.
Microevolution
is not Darwinian evolution. Everyone, creationists and
evolutionists alike, agrees that variation occurs and species change in
horizontal
ways – beak size, coloration, habitat. What Darwinists
need to explain is macroevolution: how birds, whales and people arose in the
first place from bacteria and ultimately from nonliving chemicals. This
report is sheer bluff, adding nothing to the evolutionists’ arsenal.
On the contrary, it is revealing
that Dr. Irwin admits that in 2001, 142 years after Darwin
published On the Origin of Species which supposedly solved the problem,
speciation
remains one of the largest mysteries remaining in evolutionary
biology! For a clear explanation of the difference between microevolution
and macroevolution, and why extrapolating micro to macro is a logical
fallacy, read Dr. Phillip Johnson’s recent book
The Wedge of Truth.
Next headline on: Birds. •
Next headline on: Darwinism.
Clinton Last-Minute Land Grab Accelerates 01/17/2001
Just four days before leaving office, President Clinton has set aside
one million more acres in six national monuments in the West (for details
see this Associated Press release reported in the
Nando
Times and
Fox
News).
These actions are in addition to 11 other National Monuments Clinton
earlier designated with the stroke of a pen. This brings the
total to 5.6 million acres, much of it in the western states.
In addition to the monuments, Clinton announced on January 5 a ban on
logging and road building in a third of American national forests.
The combined area affected by the ban – 60 million acres – is
greater than all U.S. National Parks and Monuments combined
(National
Geographic).
Protection of the environment is and should be of major concern to Christians
and creationists, but the shameless single-handed decisions by the President
just before leaving office are more indicative of monarchy than democracy.
Each parcel of land should be evaluated individually on its merits, with
debate by all our elected representatives and input from and consideration
for local landowners who are sometimes swept out the door of their own
homes.
These decisions often restrict access to protected areas even by nature
lovers. And in some cases, it is debatable whether the Federal
Government has a better environmental track record than states, local
governments and property owners.
Next headline on: Environment. •
Next headline on: Politics.
Stars Gasping for Air 01/17/2001
The Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS) has turned up a
surprise: there’s only one 10,000th the expected amount of molecular oxygen
in interstellar clouds that presumably form stars. “It really is a
dilemma for interstellar chemistry, but it might be a hint that something is
wrong with our picture of the structure of these giant clouds,” says
Paul Goldsmith in
Scientific
American.
When theory differs from observations, it takes integrity to say you
may be on the wrong track.
Next headline on: Stars.
Surprises Announced in AAS Meeting 01/16/2001
Sky and Telescope
reports on last week’s meeting of the American Astronomical Society in
San Diego, with some news of interest regarding origins.
- Meteorites present mysteries and paradoxes, showing conflicting evidence of
melting yet also containing volatiles like water-bearing minerals and
amino acids.
- Astronomers claim to have better evidence now for
the existence of black holes.
- A pulsar turns out to be less than 1% of its previously
assumed age, coming from a supernova observed by the Chinese.
- Two recently-discovered extrasolar systems with weird
orbits and planet sizes don’t fit accepted theories of planet formation
(Quote – “in practice, it may be impossible to tell how a given
object formed millions or billions of years after the fact”).
- A wall of galaxy clusters over twice the size of the earlier record
holder has been found.
Here are more illustrations that nature still
has surprises up her sleeve, and observations tend to upset established
beliefs (particularly for evolutionists).
Next headline on: Solar System.
Venusian Women Dig Martian Men 01/16/2001
Nature
tells an evolutionary tale about what women like in men. Sarah
Collins, a behavioral biologist at the Institute of Evolutionary and
Ecological Sciences in Leiden, the Netherlands, recorded Dutch men’s
voices and played them to Dutch women, who then tried to predict what
the speakers looked like. All assumed that the deeper the voice,
the more muscular, hairy-chested, taller and attractive the man.
“The results imply that there could be sexual selection through
female choice for male vocal characteristics, deeper voices being
preferred,” says Collins. “However, the function of the
preference is unclear given that the estimates were generally
incorrect,” i.e., small guys sometimes have deep voices and vice versa.
Chuckle, and good
grief.
Sexual selection
was discredited even in Darwin’s
day. Evolutionary scientists commit the fallacy of reductionism
by trying to put the complexities of human relationships into behavioral
boxes. The Harvard Law reminds us,
“Under the most precise conditions of temperature, pressure and
humidity, the organism does what it darn well pleases.” How
much more so for us humans? Are deep-voiced men the only guys who
get married? Does love make any scientific sense? Are we
just piles of molecules or do we have a soul? Like Billy Joel
sings, it’s all about soul.
Maybe this evolutionist needs a nice romantic night out.
Next headline on: Darwinism. •
Next dumb story.
Pulsars Aren’t So Old 01/16/2001
A pulsar thought to be 24,000 years old may only be 1,615 years old.
Data from the new giant orbiting Chandra X-Ray Observatory
reveals that a supernova remnant is clearly associated with the pulsar.
This supernova was observed and recorded by the Chinese in 386 A.D.
(Reported from January’s American Astronomical Society convention
by Scientific
American.) According to
Astronomy Now,
“This calls into question many other pulsar ages and suggests that
some revisions are needed in those astronomy textbooks.”
So another dating method was grossly in error, by over 99%.
It’s refreshing to see scientists admit there are things they just
don’t know. Dr. Mallory Roberts of McGill University states, “While
this is exciting by itself, it also raises new questions about what we
know about pulsars, especially during their infancies.” Now that
evolutionists have revised the age
of the Grand Canyon downward from 5 million to less than 1 million years
(see story), and now that they admit
granite mountains may have just formed in a few thousand years (see
story), what, in the roster of
old-age indicators, is next to be found much younger than expected?
According to the Chandra website, the “determining
the true ages astronomical objects is notoriously difficult.”
Remember this story the next time you
hear a confident newscaster proclaiming that such-and-such an event took
place 1.329 gazillion years ago.
Next headline on: Dating methods.
Ape-Man Not a Vegan, Ate Bugs 01/16/2001
BBC News
reports on a study in the Proceedings of the
National
Academy of Sciences
that our ancestor Australopithecus robustus wasn’t a vegetarian
as expected, but ate termites. Carved bones appear to be tools for
digging the bugs out of termite mounds.
Film at eleven. Sometimes you just have to laugh.
Next headline on: Early Man.
Was Jurassic Park Accurate? 01/15/2001
A new report in the Biological Proceedings of the Royal Society
of London underscores the difficulty of inferring social behavior of extinct
animals, such as the dinosaur behavior depicted in the popular movie Jurassic
Park. Scientists studied a fossil graveyard in the Gobi Desert
and made predictions about the social behavior of the animals by looking
at the bones. Their predictions, however, did not always agree with
the real behavior of their living counterparts.
Let’s all remember to segregate the real observations from the
storytelling. Was Jurassic Park like the real world of the
dinosaurs? If scientists weren’t there,
they can’t be sure. Who knows – maybe velociraptors were
as cute as the Flintstones’ Deeno, and would have made good
house pets. After all, there is a vicious-looking bat that munches
on fruit, and there are cute
frogs
poisonous enough to kill an army. Would you know that from the
bones?
Next headline on: Fossils.
Science Textbooks Flunk Accuracy Test 01/15/2001
ALERT! Researchers found 500 pages of errors in the most popular science textbooks used in schools across the country,
according to an Associated Press story reported in the
Nando Times.
Errors included a map showing the equator running through the southern
United States, a misstatement of Newton’s first law of motion, and a
photo of singer Linda Ronstadt labeled as a silicon crystal. Unqualified
authors are writing the books, and the publishers don’t appear overly
concerned about making corrections. A fact-checker said, “They get
people to check for political correctness . . . they try to get in as much
cultural diversity as possible. They just don't seem to understand
what science is about.”
Update 01/22/2001: Another team has found
high-school physics textbooks “deplorable,” and filled with
errors, according to a report in the journal
Science.
Part of the problem is multiculturalism and trying to appeal to students
by including images of pop stars.
Update 01/29/2001:
The Nando
Times has a story today about wise educators who are using
textbook errors as “teachable moments,” helping children think
critically and understand that textbooks are not the last word in truth.
For years, Christian researchers such as
Mel and Norma Gabler
have been blowing
the whistle on inaccuracies in
science
and history textbooks.
But now political correctness is a new threat. The new paradigm
of multiculturalism
runs directly counter to the need for accuracy in teaching
science. Creationists and evolutionists
alike need to condemn the
postmodernist
deconstruction and revisionist history that
makes textbooks
the playthings of special interest groups.
Although this article did not mention any examples,
science textbooks even at the university level continue to report outdated and
disproved evidences for evolution.
Jonathan Wells’ new book Icons of Evolution
documents these in detail. (check out these
reviews.)
here are
10 Questions
to drive your biology teacher crazy. And parents, here are
Warning
Labels you can stick inside your child’s science textbook.
Next headline on: Schools.
Another Bird Ancestor Alleged 01/12/2001
A Mongolian fossil bird is giving evolutionists the “keys to the
evolution of flight and ancestry of birds,” according to
Fox News
reporting on a story in Nature.
But this fossil, Apsaravis ukhaana, also contradicts some assumptions
about the type of bird that was the common ancestor.
It is so important to distinguish between the observation and the
interpretation. What did they find? A fossil bird, fully
capable of flying: 100% bird. The rest, including the dating,
the relationships, the natural history, is mythmaking.
Next headline on: Fossils.
World’s Oldest Crystal Pushes Back Date of First Life 01/10/2001
Australian scientists claim a new record of 4.3 billion years for a
microscopic crystal of zircon found inside a younger rock, reports the
Nando Times.
The discoverers claim that oxygen isotopes in the crystal indicate
oceans were already present and that life could have evolved 400 million
years earlier than thought.
Don’t you wish that some reporter, somewhere, would
challenge the credibility of these stories? Radiometric dating
is highly
subjective and dependent on unproveable assumptions.
Getting from that shaky platform to a story about when life evolved is
unjustifiable, but evolutionists get free reign in the media who seem
to just parrot the news releases of the scientific establishment.
Would someone please start asking the hard questions?
Update 01/11/2001
The next
day most of the major news sources (Examples:
CBS,
BBC,
USA Today)
all picked up on this story and quoted every claim as fact. (See
Souder’s Law, right.)
Would that the news media would scrutinize the
mythmaking of evolutionists with a little of the fervor they expend on
Bush cabinet appointments. Who else but an evolutionist could weave a
cosmogony out of a crystal smaller than a human hair? (See Ruckert’s
Law, right.) Another thing: this new “finding” causes
problems for the impact theory for the origin of the moon, because it
alleges the oceans were already in place when the impact should have
occurred.
Next headline on: Geology. •
Next headline on: Dating methods. •
Next headline on: Origin of Life.
Genes and Appearances Don’t Always Relate 01/10/2001
Evolutionary geneticists who compare genetic markers between animals
are coming up with different family trees than the biologists who
look at external features (morphology), according to
Science News.
Each party feels it has the better explanation, but there are problems
with the genetic interpretation: newly proposed group
members – such as aardvarks and golden moles – have no
obvious physical similarities to their supposed cousins. “This
is an odd collection of mammals, and it’s tough to convince
biologists who depend on morphology that this is a valid grouping,”
admits S. Blair Hedges, an evolutionary biologist at Penn State.
If evolutionists expected to prove common ancestry in the genes,
it isn’t turning out quite so neat and simple. Molecules and
morphology are not singing the same Darwinian song. See Maier’s
Law, right.
Next headline on: Darwinism and Evolutionary Theory.
Kansas Schools Revert to Darwinism Indoctrination 01/10/2001
The Kansas school board will soon reverse its 1999 decision to de-emphasize
Darwinian evolution in the state schools, reports the
Nando Times.
Debate and public comment was bitter and divided. “Board
member Steve Abrams, who supported the 1999 version, stated, “It
still comes across that this is dogma, that this is the only way
it is.” “You will be legislating naturalism into the
public school curriculum,” said Jody Sjogren of the Intelligent
Design Network, a non-sectarian group that feels naturalism is an
insufficient basis for explaining life and the
universe. “We need to stop making evolution a religion.”
A supporter of the new standards claimed it will help repair Kansas’
tarnished image among scientists.
Update 02/14/2001 It’s official; the new
Kansas school board, minus two dissenters voted out last election, has
voted 7 to 3 to reinstate evolution as the
central principle of biology.
A curious state of affairs this has become; the conservatives are the
Darwinists, and the liberals the creationists. The liberals want
free speech, and open inquiry; the conservatives want tradition.
The liberals speak for the common man, the conservatives for the elite.
Except for their entrenched power, the Darwinists are in a tenuous
position: they have to explain to a questioning public why they cannot allow
teaching all the science, including the science that contradicts
evolution. There’s plenty of that – right here on this page,
for example.
The
Access Research Network
has a number of articles about the Kansas decision, the press, and the
issues. Also,
Phillip Johnson’s new book
The Wedge of Truth
has a chapter devoted to what really happened in 1999.
Next headline on: Darwinism.
Planet-Searching Spacecraft to Honor Johannes Kepler 01/09/2001
NASA has approved for consideration plans by Ames Research Center to
launch a spacecraft in 2005 named
Kepler that will search for
habitable
planets around other stars by viewing transits.
Johannes Kepler
was one of history’s greatest
scientists, a devout
Christian and
creationist, responsible for many
major
scientific discoveries.
It was his long labor of demystifying planetary orbits
that led to the discovery of his
three
laws of planetary motion that are
still used by
JPL space navigators
today.
Kepler
had an interest in habitable planets and speculated about them,
but his trust was in the Word of God.
The Bible says nothing
definitive about whether life on other worlds exists. That silence,
combined with the Bible’s focus on human life on earth, would make one
surmise that, whether or not other habitable planets are out there, sentient
physical life (excluding angels) is unique to our earth.
SETI
has been looking for years with no results, so far.
Next headline on: Solar System. •
Next headline on: SETI.
Put Neandertals Back on Your Family Tree;
or, Was Adam an Aussie? 01/09/2001
DNA comparisons by Australian
scientists have cast doubt on the out-of-Africa story of
human origins. Studies of mitochondrial DNA of an Australian specimen named
Mungo Man, the oldest anatomically-modern human fossil, shows that,
like Neandertals, portions have gone
extinct. If this could happen in fully-human specimens, it
means Neandertals are not as different as modern man, potentially
putting Neandertals back on the human family tree. (Published in
today’s Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences; see
Scientific American
for abstract.)
Some revealing quotes on this story as reported by
New
Scientist: “It’s remarkable – totally
unpredicted,” says anthropologist Alan Mann of the University of
Pennsylvania. Alan Thorne of the Australian National University in
Canberra, who led the new research, says: “A simplistic ’Out Of
Africa” model is no longer tenable.” But not all experts
agree. “The genetic evidence is equivocal,” says
Colin Groves, of the ANU. “The African origin model stands or
falls by the fossil evidence. In my opinion, it stands.”
Update 01/15/2001: The Stanford anthropologist
who published the African Eve theory disputes the interpretation that these
findings damage the out-of-Africa theory, according to
CNN.
So if both theories can co-exist, why argue? “Egos, egos egos,”
he said. “Scientists are human.”
Update 02/19/2003: Scientists got
together and reconciled their dates, according to the
University
of Melbourne. They got the date of maximum human occupation
down to 45,000 years.
Update 01/29/2001:
Scientific
American today posted an article today titled “The Modern Human
Origins Morass: Recent studies support a controversial theory of
human evolution.” The author concludes,
“To be sure, the new findings will not end the decades-long debate
over modern human origins. Where it will go from here, however, is
anyone’s guess.”
There you have it. Creationists have long argued that Neandertals
are just as modern as we are. The evolutionists’ popular myth
about ape-men evolving from Africa cannot be supported without
conflicting evidence getting in the way. Several currents are colliding
here: competing scientific teams with their own self-interest,
the inaccuracy of dating methods,
false assumptions about human origins, and how much we just don’t
know (unless you want to accept the word of the Eyewitness).
Keep in mind that DNA deteriorates quickly; the fact it can be extracted
from fossils means the bones cannot be as old as claimed.
Next headline on: Early Man.
Largest Structure in the Universe Gives Big Bangers Lumps 01/09/2001
More lumpiness problems for the Big Bang theory: astronomers have
detected a mass of quasars and galaxies 600 million light-years across,
the biggest yet.
Discovery
News Online relays the concerns of Gerard Williger of NOAO:
That such a large structure could form so quickly after the Big
Bang calls into question some of the traditional theories of how the
universe evolved, Williger said, since it is difficult to explain how
gravity could pull together such an immense cluster in a relatively
short time . . . . “A successful
theory has to explain the extremes,” said Williger.
Amen.
Next headline on: Cosmology with explanation of the
lumpiness problem.
You Can Be a Mars Scientist 01/08/2001
With just your home PC, you can help NASA Ames scientists classify Mars craters, according to
Goddard Space
Flight Center’s Astronomy Picture of the Day.
Here’s a fun opportunity to get involved in science as a layman.
Maybe the data on Mars craters will help clarify the age of the Martian
surface. Keep in mind, though, that these observations can help
determine relative ages – i.e., the sequence of events – but
estimates of absolute ages are based on assumptions about the unobservable
past.
Next headline on: Mars. •
Next headline on: Solar System.
Is Disease More from Germs than Genetics? 01/07/2001
Paul W. Ewald, a champion of “Darwinian, or evolutionary
medicine,” believes that germs, not genes, are responsible for most
human ailments, including heart disease, according to a story in the
Nando
Times. Dr. Ewald states, “I realized that virtually all
considerations of evolutionary processes in the medical literature were
incorrect.”
This story illustrates some of the laws in the right-hand column.
The germ theory
of disease, however, is one of the great triumphs of science, championed
by a courageous creationist –
Louis Pasteur. Pasteur
was ridiculed, ignored, and called a fraud by many of his contemporaries.
The same was true of Semmelweis, Lister, and many others who are now known
as the great
heroes of science and
medicine. History teaches us that the establishment has often been
wrong.
Next headline on: Health.
Astronomers Can’t See Dark Galaxies 01/05/2001
According to the Royal Astronomical Society as reported by
Astronomy Now,
“The universe could be harbouring numerous galaxies
that have no stars at all and are made entirely of dark
matter. Astronomers may ultimately discover that
completely dark galaxies outnumber the familiar kind
populated by shining stars and gas, perhaps by as
many as 100 to 1.”
Let’s get this dark matter thing straight. They don’t know what it is, they
can’t see it, and they don’t know how to look for it, but they
know it’s there. Well, they got their headline. Let us know
when the other 99% of reality turns up.
Tennis Players Do Math Better 01/05/2001
When you react to the ball bouncing erratically toward your side of the court, your
brain is rapidly solving complex equations of chaos theory, according to a report in
Nature.
Robot designers have a hard time getting their creations to do such tricks.
Enough said? Truly we are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14).
Next headline on: Brain.
Music is Glorified Birdsong 01/05/2001
Several news sources have picked up on a report in
Science
Magazine “The Music of Nature and the Nature of Music,“ which
examines the commonalities in human and animal music. The canyon wren’s
call, for instance, sounds similar to Chopin’s “Revolutionary”
etude. After considering humpback whale songs and Cro-magnon flutes, and asking
more questions than providing answers, the authors conclude:
“Such an impenetrable vagueness about this most basic of human
creations seems to signal that the roots of music lie closer to our ancient
lizard brain than to our more recent reasoning cortex, that music has
a more ancient origin even than human language.”
So what are we supposed to make of this story? That Mozart wrote
mating calls, or marked his territory with operas? Or that whales should
be allowed to perform at Lincoln Center?
With the possible exception of Rap, there’s no comparison between the intricacies of a Bach concerto or
a Brahms symphony and the instinctive grunting of the deep or the chirping in the
trees. While no one would deny the pleasure of listening to a meadowlark, the
comparison should emphasize the tremendous gulf between man and the
animals. Notice how the last sentence commits the common fallacy
of the Darwinians: they just assume evolution instead of demonstrating any
evidence for it. (In truth, the canyon wren sounds more
like Chopin’s “Winter Wind” etude.)
Next headline on: Darwinism. •
Next dumb story.
Tooth or Consequences: Did Molars Evolve Twice? 01/04/2001
The major news media are echoing a report in
Nature
that mammal and marsupial molar teeth, though similar, apparently evolved separately on southern and
northern continents after the split of the fabled Gondwana land mass
from Laurasia 100 million years ago.
“Tribosphenic teeth have such a complex and
intricate assembly, people thought it inconceivable that they would have
a multiple origin,” explains Zhe-Xi Luo of the Carnegie Museum of
Natural History. The scientists admit many gaps in the lineage.
So-called “convergent evolution,” or the independent development
of similar characters, is a
serious problem
for evolutionary theory. Today’s story is but
one example of many alleged cases of “complex and intricate
assemblies” that supposedly arose without design not just once but multiple
times. Do these discoveries ever cast doubt on the Darwinian
paradigm? Never: “evolution is a fact,” they say, no matter
what miracles it must perform. To a creationist, all this storytelling
about the evolution of mammal teeth is mythology, resting on unreliable
dating methods and a prior commitment to evolutionary naturalism.
Next headline on: Mammals.
African Elephants Closer to Mammoths than to Asian Elephants 01/03/2001
According to a paper in the Proceedings of the
Royal
Society of London,
gene sequence studies between 5 mammoths, 14 Asian and 8 African elephants
show a closer relationship between the mammoths and the African elephants
(see also this summary in
Nature.)
This contradicts morphological evidence and expectations the Asian and
African elephants would be more closely related than the more
“primitive” mammoth.
According to the authors, ”the fossil record is patchy and adaptive
convergence is a serious problem,” (i.e., the idea that characteristics
evolved several times independently).
Mammoths are anything but primitive, being just as complex as any other
living thing and well adapted to their environment. They lived in
recent times and were hunted by man. This report, however, shows the
problems biologists get themselves into when they try to force-fit their data
into the preconceived notions of evolution.
Next headline on: Fossils.
The Royal Society, by the way, was founded by
devout Christian creationists such as
Robert Boyle. You can find the first edition of their Philosophical Proceedings, the world’s longest-running scientific journal, at the Royal Society website. It contains clear statements of the society’s purpose to use science for the glory of God.
2001, A Science Odyssey 01/02/2001
Science
Magazine lists six hot fields to watch in the coming year, including
research into how messenger RNA protects against disease, and how cells tell
left from right.
Much of scientific research these days is riddled with the assumption of
evolution, but the evidence continues to emphasize the amazing complexity
of the cell – complexity that never could have arisen by chance.
Stone Age Camp Found Under Sea of Galilee 01/02/2001
The receding shoreline of the Sea of Galilee in Israel has revealed a
Stone Age community, according to a report in
National
Geographic.
First discovered in 1989, the fishing community, estimated to be 20,000
years old, appears to have cared for their
aged and lived on the site for long periods, contrary to expectations
for an Ice Age hunter-gatherer culture.
The age estimates for these digs should always be viewed with suspicion,
relying not on known history but on dating methods riddled with unverifiable
assumptions. Nevertheless, this and many other archaeological sites
confirm that early people were not wandering brutes but had culture,
religion, morals and intelligence wherever they are found. Christian
philosopher Francis Schaeffer often called this the “mannishness”
of man, a humanness that stands out from the animals in every culture
and time. It is possible
that early settlers of the Palestine region arrived here not long after the
Flood and the Tower of Babel.
Next headline on: Early Man. •
Next headline on: Bible.
Stars Appear Too Early 01/02/2001
The discovery of a new class of starburst galaxies raises questions about the process of star formation, according to a report in the
BBC News.
The galaxies, seen by the Hubble Space Telescope and an Australian telescope,
are alleged to be 11 billion years old, very soon after the
Big Bang, and may outnumber all other previously known distant galaxies.
This is another example of the “lumpiness problem” in cosmology,
where structure appears too soon after the assumed Big Bang. From
COBE and BOOMERANG measurements we know the Cosmic Background Radiation
was extremely smooth, so how did we get so quickly to lumpy structures
like stars and galaxies? The
lumpiness problem has a counterpart in biology, where life appears too soon
after the origin of the earth, and the Cambrian explosion shows every phylum
appearing suddenly without precursors (that is, assuming the
age estimates of the evolutionists).
There is so little we know about
the distant universe, and so much room for interpretation of the data, that it
makes good sense to refrain from jumping to conclusions. In this
case, astronomers are weaving stories of frenzied star birth out of faint
pixels of light. Be careful to discern between raw data and storytelling,
in which your assumptions can make all the difference. It is worth
noting, however, that these observations cause problems for their own
theories.
Next headline on: Cosmology. •
Next headline on: Stars.
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