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News:
2001 Archive

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December 30, 2001

Religion in the News

Life After Christmas
Quotations to stir the heart and mind after the Christmas season.
Compiled by Richard A. Kauffman. See http://christianitytoday.com/ct/2001/015/38.66.html

Is Islam a Religion of Peace?
The controversy reveals a struggle for the soul of Islam.
By James A. Beverley. See http://ChristianityToday.com/ct/2002/001/1.32.html

A Many Splintered Thing
Though Muslims shared allegiance to Muhammad and to the Qur'an, Islam faced division as
soon as the prophet died. By James A. Beverley. See http://ChristianityToday.com/ct/2002/001/43.38.html

Dead Sea Scrolls reveal real origins of Christianity
http://www.inq7.net/lif/2001/dec/25/text/lif_5-1-p.htm

The Search for the Biblical Jesus: The hard, technical, theological work on Christ was essentially a 400-year Bible study. A Christian History Interview with Thomas Oden. See http://christianitytoday.aol.com/ch/51h/51h042.html

Science in the News

Science's Top Ten: nanoscale computing circuits named top scientific advance of 2001
December 21, 2001 The journal Science, along with its publisher, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) named this year’s top scientific achievements in the December 21st issue. The big winner is molecular-scale circuits that link together tiny transistors, wires, and switches to carry out basic computing operations. The nanocircuits, named the Breakthrough of the Year by Science's editors, leads their list of the top ten scientific developments in 2001. See http://www.cosmiverse.com/science12210101.html

Best Bets for Hot News in 2002: As in the past, Science has chosen six hot topics to watch in 2002. This year, their choices include: U.S. stem cell research in private industry and abroad, the field of proteomics, the maiden voyage of several new telescopes, multifactorial diseases, optical clocks and fundamental constants, and visualizing complex molecules and biological interactions.

Creation/Evolution

PRIMITIVE MICROBE OFFERS MODEL FOR EVOLUTION OF ANIMALS
A microorganism whose evolutionary roots can be traced to the era of the first multicellular animals may provide a glimpse of how single-celled organisms made a critical evolutionary leap. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011218072534.htm

New Book: No Free Lunch: Why Specified Complexity Cannot Be Purchased without
Intelligence. By William A. Dembski published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc

Anthropology/Archaeology

The Lost Ark of the Covenant. See http://tlc.discovery.com/tlcpages/ark/ark.html

The Bible Unearthed
http://www.middleeastwire.com/commentary/stories/20011227_1_meno.shtml

Astronomy

ALL-TERRAIN ROVERS MAY SCALE MARS' CLIFFS
NASA researchers are developing new prototype robots that can drive up steep hills and descend almost-vertical cliffs. Working alone or as a team, these autonomous robotic explorers may go where no rover has gone before -- the cliffs of Mars. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011220081817.htm

Quick-look data from our Mars Odyssey spacecraft reveals big hydrogen
deposits, possibly indicating extensive water ice. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011212/sc/space_mars_dc_2.html

HOT GALACTIC ARMS POINT TO VICIOUS CYCLE TRIGGERED BY BLACK HOLE
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has revealed the aftermath of a titanic explosion that wracked the elliptical galaxy known as NGC 4636. This eruption could be the latest episode in a cycle of violence triggered by gas falling into a central massive black hole. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011221082136.htm

Last Friday NASA selected two new Discovery missions: Dawn, which will orbit
the two largest asteroids in our solar system, and Kepler, a spaceborne telescope, which will search for Earth-like planets around nearby stars. There's an announcement at ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2001/01-254.txt , or you might like to check out Dawn at http://www-ssc.igpp.ucla.edu/dawn/ and Kepler at http://www.kepler.arc.nasa.gov/

Biology

Scientists Discover DNA Master Switch in Protein
December 24, 2001. Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have found a new cellular protein that seems to be a crucial molecular component of a master switch that turns genes on and off. See http://www.cosmiverse.com/science12240104.html

JEFFERSON SCIENTISTS SUGGEST POTENTIAL MECHANISM UNDERLYING THE ORIGIN OF COLON CANCER
Researchers at Jefferson Medical College may have figured out one way in which a mutation in a gene thought to be responsible for colon cancer may actually cause the disease in the first place. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011217082450.htm

NEW PICTURE OF INTELLIGENCE HIGHLIGHTS THE OVERLOOKED ROLE OF VISUOSPATIAL ABILITIES
When we say that people know their way around, we really mean theyre smart. Now, psychologists have evidence that strong visuospatial skills and working memory may be at least as good as verbal skills and working memory as indicators of general intelligence. New research correlates visuospatial abilities, less extensively explored than verbal abilities in intelligence research, with the brains executive function, the central cognitive command and control that may lie at the heart of smarts. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011217082547.htm

PROTEIN STUDY SUGGESTS WAYS TO HELP HUMANS THWART VIRUSES
Scientists have unraveled a genetic anomaly that protects some mice from a common cancer-causing virus. The findings may help develop gene therapies that can be used to help humans defeat similar viruses, such as the human T-cell leukemia virus and the AIDS virus, says David A. Sanders, associate professor of biological sciences at Purdue University and lead author of the study. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011219062000.htm

BREAST CANCER RESEARCH MAY LEAD TO FEWER MASTECTOMIES
Women with breast cancer which fails to show up in routine scanning do not necessarily need a mastectomy to maximise their chances of survival, according to research by the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011219062240.htm

STANFORD SPINE EXPERT OFFERS RELIEF FROM COMMON BACK PAIN
Indigestion isn't the only thing that may prevent Americans from enjoying holiday cheer during the next few weeks. According to the American Physical Therapy Association, the holiday season - and the over-eating, traveling and gift lugging that come with it - leads to a substantial jump in the number of people with back and neck pain. A procedure called nucleoplasty being performed at Stanford University Medical Center, however, may offer relief. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011219061901.htm

IBUPROFEN BLOCKS ASPIRINS ABILITY TO PROTECT AGAINST HEART ATTACKS; COMMON ARTHRITIS DRUGS CAN STOP ASPIRIN FROM THINNING THE BLOOD
The ibuprofen that you take to ease arthritis pain can counteract the aspirin that you take to protect your heart, according to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. The researchers studied how aspirin, taken to prevent second heart attacks, interacts with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), a group of drugs that includes ibuprofen, commonly taken to treat rheumatoid arthritis. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011220081520.htm

STUDY FINDS DASH DIET AND REDUCED SODIUM LOWERS BLOOD PRESSURE FOR ALL
The DASH diet plus reduced dietary sodium lowers blood pressure for all persons, according to the first detailed subgroup analysis of the DASH study results. The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension study was supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011220082349.htm

Earth Science

NEW STUDY SHOWS EARLY SIGNALS OF CLIMATE CHANGE IN EARTH'S COLD REGIONS
Global mean temperatures have risen one degree Fahrenheit over the past 100 years, with more than half of the increase occurring in the last 25 years, according to University of Colorado at Boulder Senior Researcher Richard Armstrong. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011210163124.htm

GEOPHYSICIST STUDIES LIFE IN THE EARLY SOLAR SYSTEM
The early Earth may have been an interrupted Eden - a planet where life repeatedly evolved and diversified, only to be sent back to square one by asteroids 10 or 20 times wider than the one that hastened the dinosaurs' demise. When the surface of the Earth finally became inhabitable again, thousands of years after each asteroid impact, the survivors would have emerged from their hiding places and spread across the planet - until another asteroid struck and the whole cycle was repeated. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011217082959.htm

ANTARCTIC MUD REVEALS ANCIENT EVIDENCE OF GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE
Scientists concerned about global warming are especially troubled by dramatic signs of climate change in Antarctica - from rapidly melting glaciers to unexplained declines in penguin populations. Records show that average winter temperatures are 10 degrees higher in parts of Antarctica today than they were 50 years ago. If that warming trend continues, say many climate experts, the vast Antarctic ice sheets could melt, causing catastrophic coastal flooding as the world`s oceans rise. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011219062844.htm

ON CALIFORNIA'S CHANNEL ISLANDS, NATIVE PREDATORS BECAME PREY WHEN FERAL PIGS REARRANGED THE FOOD WEB
Feral pigs have created ecological havoc in many parts of California, uprooting native plants and turning meadows into mudholes. But nowhere have their effects been as dramatic as on the Channel Islands, where they have caused a complete restructuring of the food web, threatening the native island fox with extinction. A team of biologists has now documented the remarkable extent to which the introduced pigs have disrupted the island ecosystem. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011219062351.htm

Physics

RELATIVISTIC HEAVY ION COLLIDER BEGINS COLLIDING HIGH-ENERGY POLARIZED PROTONS; EXPERIMENTS WILL PROBE SPIN STRUCTURE OF PROTONS AND THE NATURE OF THE STRONG FORCE
The newest and largest particle accelerator at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory is taking a break from recreating the conditions of the early universe to investigate another fundamental question that has puzzled physicists: Where do protons get their spin, a property of elementary particles as basic as mass and electrical charge? To begin to answer the question, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) has accelerated beams of polarized protons to the highest energy ever, and will begin colliding the beams this week. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011218073117.htm

WORLD'S SMALLEST ATOM STORAGE RING IS FIRST TO GUIDE ULTRA-COLD NEUTRAL ATOMS; A STEP TOWARD "ATOM FIBER OPTICS"
In a development that could lead to dramatic improvements in aircraft guidance systems and open new areas of study in basic physics, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have demonstrated the first storage ring able to confine and guide the flow of ultra-cold neutral atoms in a circular path. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011219062506.htm

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON RESEARCH BOOSTS UNDERSTANDING OF HOW HYDROGEN TRANSFER WORKS
During the last 40 years, chemists have developed an understanding of how an electron transfers from one group to another to create new compounds. Now a team of University of Washington chemists has found that the same ideas apply to transferring a hydrogen atom an electron and a proton together. That understanding could prove important to scientists trying to devise new classes of chemical reactions. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011221081705.htm

IBM'S TEST-TUBE QUANTUM COMPUTER MAKES HISTORY; FIRST DEMONSTRATION OF SHOR'S HISTORIC FACTORING ALGORITHM
Scientists at IBM's Almaden Research Center have performed the world's most complicated quantum-computer calculation to date. They caused a billion billion custom-designed molecules in a test tube to become a seven-qubit quantum computer that solved a simple version of the mathematical problem at the heart of many of today's data-security cryptographic systems. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011220081620.htm

Zoology

RARE SQUID FOUND IN GULF OF MEXICO
Texas A&M University oceanographer William Sager spotted and photographed an unusual squid while investigating natural oil seeps deep in the Gulf of Mexico. The results of his serendipitous encounter will appear in the Dec. 21 edition of the prestigious research journal Science. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011221081841.htm

December 24, 2001

Religion in the News

Presidential Christmas Message
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/12/20011220-5.html

Books of the Year
The Top Ten: By John Wilson. See http://christianitytoday.aol.com/ct/2001/151/11.0.html

Book Review: The Past as Legacy: Luke-Acts and Ancient Epic by Bonz, Marianne Palmer. See http://www.bookreviews.org/Reviews/0800632257.html

Are the Crouches thieves?
Christian apocalyptic fiction has been controversial for decades, but now it's spawning lawsuits. Tim LaHaye's lawsuit against the makers of Left Behind: The Movie is already old news. Now, reports the Los Angeles Times, Paul, Jan, and Matt Crouch and the whole Trinity Broadcasting Network are being sued for $40 million by the author of The Omega Syndrome. Sylvia Fleener, who the paper says "is on her deathbed and wants justice served before she passes," claims the Crouches stole from her book in the creation of their 1999 film The Omega Code. A settlement was reached out of court.

Religious reality TV? Oh, brother… Christian network plans "Big Brother" clone, only without prizes, evictions, and nudity (Sunday Times, South Africa).

Promise Keepers rally draws 14,000 Organization's first youth-oriented meeting designed to instill values in young men and culminate with their passage into manhood (Associated Press).

The Bible and the Lord of the Rings Compared
What makes 'The Lord of the Rings' such a great work? Both Tolkien and the Bible elude a reading that is historical or rigid, says one author. Both books ask not "What is real about this text?" but "What is true about this text?"

Poll: Are Near-Death Experiences for Real?
A new study of patients who flatlined before being resuscitated finds that biological factors can't explain why some report near-death experiences. Do NDEs prove anything?

Early Christians hid the origins of the Bethlehem star
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991713

Bill Gothard discussion group: See http://billgotharddiscussion.com/

Science in the News

Creation/Evolution

Old Earth or Young Earth?

Old Earth Evidences - by Hill Roberts
The Creation Date Controversy - by Dr. Hugh Ross - Addressing the "fears" of biblicists.
The Origins Solution - Some sound answers in the creation-evolution debate.
Christianity and Science Resource Center - Christianity is to be based on reality, facts and reason.
The "SCIENCE SPEAKS" newsletter - God speaks through His creation. Links from http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/8830/rewards.html

Darwinism Under Attack: View that 'intelligent force' shaped life attracts students and troubles scientists. By BETH MCMURTRIE. See http://chronicle.com/free/v48/i17/17a00801.htm

Stanford researchers develop system for field testing mechanisms of evolution. STANFORD, Calif. - Evolutionary biology has always faced a major hurdle - how to test a process that takes place over thousands, if not millions, of years. Researchers at Stanford University may have come up with a solution. See http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2001-12/sumc-srd122001.php

RESEARCHERS FIND CLOSEST LIVING RELATIVE OF FIRST LAND PLANTS
By studying gene sequences of common fresh water algae, a team of University of Maryland researchers, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) has identified a group of algae that are the closest living relatives of the first land plants. The scientists have moved a step closer to understanding how land plants evolved and came to dominate the terrestrial biosphere. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011214080951.htm

The Monkey in the Mirror: Essays on the Science of What Makes Us Human
by Ian Tattersall. New book at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0151005206/darwinanddarwini/

Anthropology/Archaeology

U.S. News: Biblical archaeology matters politically
Jeff Sheler, religion reporter for U.S. News & World Report, is no stranger to arguments over biblical archaeology. He's also the author of the 1999 book Is the Bible True? How Modern Debates and Discoveries Affirm the Essence of the Scriptures. Now, in this week's U.S. News cover story, Sheler gives an update on biblical archaeology, and examines how findings matter not just religiously, but politically. See http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/011224/ideas/24bible.htm

Archaeologists rewrite timeline of Bronze and Iron Ages, including
early appearance of alphabet: See http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Dec01/Carbon-14.bpf.html & Aegean Dendrochronology Project

Ancient civilizations shaken by quakes, say Stanford scientists
Stanford - Dec 17, 2001 - Archaeology sometimes raises more questions than it answers. How do you explain a city that bustled with activity one day only to be buried under feet of silt the next? Or walls that collapsed in an instant, crushing the people standing next to them? Or rows of heavy stone columns, all toppled in the same direction? See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/earthquake-01g.html

Astronomy

Abiogenesis - Life on Earth may have got off to a sweet start nourished by sugar from space. The suggestion is based on the discovery of sugar in two meteorites that are billions of years old. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1719000/1719236.stm

JUPITER'S IO GENERATES POWER AND NOISE, BUT NO MAGNETIC FIELD
A great roar of acoustic waves near the north and south poles of Jupiter's moon Io shouts about the power of the volcanic moon. The wave data, new pictures and other information collected recently by NASA's Galileo spacecraft provide insight into what happens above Io's surface, at its colorful volcanoes and inside its hot belly. Scientists presented the findings Monday at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011211080022.htm

Biology

CHEMICAL ENGINEERS SUGGEST ALZHEIMER'S ONSET TIED TO CHOLESTEROL, BRAIN CHEMICALS
A group of unlikely Alzheimer's researchers -- chemical engineers in Texas A&M University's Dwight Look College of Engineering -- are developing new understanding of how the disease robs Alzheimer's sufferers of their memory and reason. They've also found hints of new ways to eventually prevent its onset. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011210072308.htm

STUDY IDENTIFIES NEW TREATMENT OPTION FOR HEART FAILURE PATIENTS
Final results of the Valsartan Heart Failure Trial (Val-HeFT) published in the Dec. 5 New England Journal of Medicine demonstrate that adding the angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB) valsartan to prescribed therapy for patients with heart failure leads to significant, incremental improvements in symptoms and in outcomes. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011206073453.htm

NEW TECHNOLOGY TESTED AT STANFORD OFFERS UNIQUE VIEW INSIDE SMALL INTESTINES
Stanford researchers are the first in the Bay Area to test an ingestible, pill-sized camera that detects bleeding in the small intestine. The device, developed by Israel-based Given Imaging, Ltd., provides doctors their only glimpse inside this hard-to-view organ without invasive surgery. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011210072428.htm

UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO RESEARCHERS IDENTIFY SWITCH THAT CONTROLS AGING IN WORMS
Two University of Colorado at Boulder researchers working with GenoPlex Inc. in Denver have identified a biological switch that controls lifespan in tiny worms, a finding that could have applications for mammals, including people. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011210162845.htm

STUDY FINDS BRAIN'S REWARD AREAS ALSO ACTIVATED BY PAIN; IMAGING STUDY MAY LEAD TO IMPROVED DIAGNOSTIC, TREATMENT METHODS
The experiences of pain and pleasure have been described as the extreme ends of a continuum. Now a study from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) supports that concept by finding that brain structures previously shown to react to rewarding experiences are also activated, although in distinctive ways, by pain. The result, which appears in the December 6 issue of Neuron, may lead to a better understanding of the effects of pain within the brain and eventually to new ways to diagnose and treat pain. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011206073539.htm

STUDY OF KEY ENZYME SHEDS NEW LIGHT ON PROGRAMMED CELL DEATH AND MAY LEAD TO NEW DRUGS FOR REDUCING THE SEVERITY OF STROKE
Critical new data on a complex enzyme that lies at the crossroad between cell suicide and tumor suppression has opened a promising new front in the battle to find effective treatments for stroke and cancer. Scientists at Vanderbilt University and Northwestern University have determined the three-dimensional structure of a critical region of Death Associated Protein Kinase (DAPK) and created a quantitative assay capable of measuring its activity. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011210164654.htm

SCIENTISTS AWARDED PATENT FOR COAL-PURIFYING BACTERIA
Pushing the concept of "survival of the fittest" to the extreme, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have developed strains of bacteria able to live in harsh environments while chowing down on carbon-rich materials such as coal. The bacteria's digestive action removes potentially harmful pollutants, and could be used to yield more-efficient, cleaner-burning coal. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011213084238.htm

Earth Science

Geophysicist Studies Life In The Early Solar System
Stanford - Dec 17, 2001 - Between the cataclysmic impact that created the Moon around 4.5 billion years ago and the first evidence of life 3.8 billion years ago, there may have been long periods during which life repeatedly spread across the globe, only to be nearly annihilated by the impact of large asteroids. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/early-earth-01m.html

DROPLETS IN SALT CRYSTALS CONFIRM HISTORIC OCEAN CHANGES
Microscopic water droplets trapped inside ancient salt crystals have provided evidence supporting a radical theory that the chemical composition of Earth's oceans has changed over the past 500 million years. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011210163624.htm

METHANE EXPLOSION WARMED THE PREHISTORIC EARTH, POSSIBLE AGAIN
A tremendous release of methane gas frozen beneath the sea floor heated the Earth by up to 13 degrees Fahrenheit (7 degrees Celsius) 55 million years ago, a new NASA study confirms. NASA scientists used data from a computer simulation of the paleo-climate to better understand the role of methane in climate change. While most greenhouse gas studies focus on carbon dioxide, methane is 20 times more potent as a heat-trapping gas in the atmosphere. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011210163439.htm

DEEPSEA CORES OFFER NEW CLUES TO EARTHQUAKE CYCLES
Off the country's Pacific coast, an undersea subduction zone stretches unseen from Canada's Vancouver Island to California's Cape Mendocino. This Cascadia subduction zone, long thought to be strangely dormant, presented an enigma to earthquake scientists. But now paleoseismologists - researchers who study ancient quakes - have put together clues that indicate the zone's fault was active as recently as 300 years ago. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011205065937.htm

RESEARCHERS INVESTIGATE MYSTERIES OF THE AFRICAN RIFT
The formation and evolution of the African Rift Valley are shaded in mystery, but geoscientists at Penn State are mapping the history of the Rift through space and time by analyzing the chemistry of ancient lava from Lake Turkana, northern Kenya. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011213084056.htm

Large Volcanic Eruptions Help Plants Absorb Co2
Greenbelt - Dec 17, 2001 - New NASA-funded research shows that when the atmosphere gets hazy, like it did after the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines in June 1991, plants photosynthesize more efficiently, thereby absorbing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/greenhouse-01za.html

THE SUN'S CHILLY IMPACT ON EARTH
A new NASA computer climate model reinforces the long-standing theory that low solar activity could have changed the atmospheric circulation in the Northern Hemisphere from the 1400's to the 1700's and triggered a "Little Ice Age" in several regions including North America and Europe. Changes in the sun's energy was one of the biggest factors influencing climate change during this period, but have since been superceded by greenhouse gases due to the industrial revolution. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011210164606.htm

Technology

Scientists Discover New Material That Expands Under Pressure
Upton - Dec 17, 2001 - Most materials get compacted or fall apart under pressure, but scientists working in an international collaboration between the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and the School of Chemical Sciences at England's University of Birmingham have discovered some that expand. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/materials-01t.html

ULTRACOLD PLASMAS ARE A CHILLING PUZZLE
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technologys Physics Laboratory have created ultracold plasmaswith the electrons about a degree above absolute zeroby cooling neutral atoms to within a hundred-thousandth of a degree of absolute zero and then zapping them with just enough laser energy to separate the electrons and ions to achieve the plasma state. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011210071925.htm

December 16, 2001

Religion in the News

The Kamikaze of God
Two enemies--one attacked Pearl Harbor; the other bombed Tokyo--find their lives eventually
woven together by a divine wind. By David Seamands. See http://christianitytoday.aol.com/ct/2001/015/7.58.html

Behold, the saviors of Christian Web sites
LifeAudio.com, run by four Princeton grads in their mid-twenties, has announced it's taking over Pat Robertson's Christianity.com Web site. It has already pulled one Christian Web site out of the ashes: streaming-audio site Lightsource.com.

High court allows graduation prayers: Justices decline to review ruling that gives students final say on 'message' (USA Today). See http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20011211/3688933s.htm

21 Fun Ways to Celebrate Christmas
Don't let the season pass you by without trying some of these holiday heart warmers. From Campus Life. See http://christianitytoday.aol.com/cl/2001/006/12.58.html

Area Baptists face cutoff over stand on issues: Southern Convention would sever ties (The Washington Post)

Chinese crack down on religion: President Jiang Zemin has demanded tighter control over religion, state press reported, in a clear indication strict state restrictions over worship in China are not about to be relaxed. (AFP)

God as a postmodern: John Milbank proposes "radical orthodoxy" (Time)

Ball, Edward, ed. In Search of True Wisdom: Essays in Old Testament
Interpretation in Honor of Ronald C. Clements. See Review at
http://www.bookreviews.org/Reviews/1841270717.html

Science solves more mysteries of the Bible: More "startling revelations" about the most impossible tales from the ancient Scriptures, including Jonah, manna, Jericho, and other stories (Popular Mechanics). See http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/research/2001/11/science_mysteries/

Science in the News

Creation/Evolution

Ken Ham's Creation Museum http://www.myinky.com/ecp/local_news/article/0,1626,ECP_745_903177,00.html

Dembski has designs for new organization
Last year, Dembski was fired as head of the Michael Polanyi Center for Complexity, Information, and Design at Baylor University, and the school had several battles over the center itself. Dembski is still a research professor at Baylor, but is now heading the new International Society for Complexity, Information, and Design based in Princeton, New Jersey. He tells UPI that "things have been patched up" at Baylor, but that he still works from home "because the environment is very hostile over there." The new center is launching with essay contests, offering young scholars prizes of $1,000 and $2,000. It will also conduct summer workshops and offer postdoctoral fellowships and research grants. All this, for now, is funded by Dembski, who UPI says "commands impressive fees on the lecture circuit."

Archaeology/Anthropology

Ark relic found in cupboard: The rediscovered tabot was looted by the British army when it captured the fortress of Magdala in 1868. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_1695000/1695102.stm

Bird Searches for Ark
World's highest-resolution commercial imaging satellite will investigate the "Ararat Anomaly." By Ted Olsen. See http://christianitytoday.aol.com/ct/2001/015/33.16.html

Fascinating Insights into the Apostle Paul's Shipwreck
http://www.parsagard.com/shipwreck.htm

US News & World Reports: In the Holy Land, archaeology itself is a battleground. Will the Bible win out? Digging for the Truth: Archaeology and the Bible, premièring this week on the History Channel. See http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/011224/ideas/24bible.htm Also Biblical proportions: Where history is all too alive today

Biblical Archaeology in the News: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/usinfo/popunder1.htm

New Course on Biblical Archaeology
Beginning January 1, 2002, a web-based course entitled Archaeology and the Bible will be available through the Seventh-day Adventist Seminary. It is a 15-lesson course that introduces new students to the world of the Bible via archaeology. For information, go to http://www.andrews.edu/archaeology.

Ape-Human Difference? It's in the Teeth. See http://dsc.discovery.com/news/reu/20011203/teeth.html

Astronomy

Fantastic Voyage Inside the Sun Reveals Hidden World of Surprising
Complexity - SOHO results at
http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/news-release/releases/2001/01-112.htm SOHO at
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/

Slippery Surface of Europa Slides, Migrates around Moon - more evidence
that Europa has a subsurface ocean, with an icy crust that can't stay put. See
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/europa_icecrust_011130.html

Unveiling A Lack Of Dark Matter
Sydney - Dec 11, 2001 - The Universe's mysterious invisible Dark Matter is distributed on large scales in exactly the same way the galaxies are, according to scientists analysing data from the giant 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey done with the 3.9-m Anglo-Australian Telescope in eastern Australia. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/darkmatter-01c.html

Biology

Study, review and editorial focus on religion, spirituality and medicine:

ROCHESTER, MINN. -- A study that appears in the December issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings outlines the importance of religion and spirituality in medicine with many patients, but notes it is difficult to prove that the result is better health from intercessory prayer -- prayer by one or more people on behalf of another. See http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2001-12/mc-sra121001.php

Earth Science

Droplets in Salt Crystals Confirm Historic Ocean Changes
Baltimore - Dec 10, 2001 - Microscopic water droplets trapped inside ancient salt crystals have provided evidence supporting a radical theory that the chemical composition of Earth's oceans has changed over the past 500 million years. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/early-earth-01l.html

Methane Explosion Warmed The Prehistoric Earth, Possible Again
Greenbelt - Dec 10, 2001 - A tremendous release of methane gas frozen beneath the sea floor heated the Earth by up to 13 degrees Fahrenheit (7 degrees Celsius) 55 million years ago, a new NASA study confirms. NASA scientists used data from a computer simulation of the paleo-climate to better understand the role of methane in climate change. While most greenhouse gas studies focus on carbon dioxide, methane is 20 times more potent as a heat-trapping gas in the atmosphere. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/early-earth-01k.html

December 9, 2001

Religion in the News

Tens of Thousands of Filipino Christians
Flee Homes as Muslims Attack
Plus: Burying the cloning ban in a big hole, rescuing the Burnhams, criticizing modern missions, and other stories. Compiled by Ted Olsen See http://christianitytoday.aol.com/ct/2001/149/21.0.html

The Art and Ethics of Fundraising
Evangelical relief agencies raise money to help hurting people. Critics say they manipulate donors. Agencies say they highlight the most telling truths. Who is right? By Ken Waters http://christianitytoday.aol.com/ct/2001/015/5.50.html

Theologians divided over implications of free will: Open Theism dominates meeting of Evangelical Theological Society (The Colorado Springs Gazette).

Science in the News

Walking With Prehistoric Beasts: This Sunday at 7 PM on the Discovery channel. For other times see http://dsc.discovery.com/tuneins/beasts.html For a look at a Prehistoric Zoo see http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/beasts/zoo/zoo.html

Creation/Evolution

The International Society for Complexity, Information, and Design (ISCID)
herewith announces its formation and official launch. ISCID is a
cross-disciplinary professional society that investigates complex systems
apart from external programmatic constraints like materialism, naturalism,
or reductionism. The society is fully web-driven and can be reached via the
Internet at http://www.iscid.org. Announcement by WILLIAM A. DEMBSKI

"We Now Know" The boast of imperial science. By John Wilson
http://ChristianityToday.aol.com/ct/2001/149/11.0.html

Astronomy

Does Europa's Rosy Glow Betray A Flourishing Colony Of Bugs
London - Dec 5, 2001
for New Scientist - The red tinge of Europa, one of Jupiter's moons, could be caused by frozen bits of bacteria. Their presence would also help explain Europa's mysterious infrared signal. Europa is mostly frozen water, but it absorbs infrared radiation differently to how normal ice does. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/jupiter-europa-01e.html & http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991647

Study Lifts Veil on Jupiter Moon Europa: Dec. 4 — Jupiter's moon Europa is covered by a thin ice sheet that slips and slides over a global ocean, according to a new study by a college student. See http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20011203/europa.html

A Giant Star Factory In NGC 6822
Baltimore - Dec 6, 2001 - Resembling curling flames from a campfire, this magnificent nebula in a neighboring galaxy is giving astronomers new insight into the fierce birth of stars as it may have more commonly happened in the early universe. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/stellar-01c.html

First Image and Spectrum of a Dark Matter Object
Paris (ESA) Dec 5, 2001 - Astronomers have observed a Dark Matter object directly for the first time. Images and spectra of a MACHO microlens - a nearby dwarf star that gravitationally focuses light from a star in another galaxy - were taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope. The result is a strong confirmation of the theory that a large fraction of Dark Matter exists as small, faint stars in galaxies such as our Milky Way. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/darkmatter-01b.html

The Sun's Chilly Impact On Earth
A new NASA computer climate model reinforces the long-standing theory that low solar activity could have changed the atmospheric circulation in the Northern Hemisphere from the 1400's to the 1700's and triggered a "Little Ice Age" in several regions including North America and Europe. Changes in the sun's energy was one of the biggest factors influencing climate change during this period, but have since been superceded by greenhouse gases due to the industrial revolution. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/iceage-01g.html

SOHO'S LATEST SURPRISE: GAS NEAR THE SUN HEADING THE WRONG WAY
Mysterious clouds of gas falling towards the Sun have been spotted with the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft. They go against the fast-moving streams of gas that pour out continuously into space in the solar wind. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011128162617.htm

A recent image from our Galileo spacecraft adds evidence to a theory that
Callisto, the outermost of Jupiter's four large moons, may hold an
underground ocean. http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/releases/2001/release_2001_230.html

More Galileo news: a slumping cliff, migrating eruptions and churning lava
lakes appear in new images of Jupiter's sizzling moon
Io. http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/releases/2001/release_2001_228.html

Improved Earth telescope beats Hubble
Paris (AFP) Dec 04, 2001 - European scientists announced Tuesday they had boosted the accuracy of a ground-based telescope to surpass the picture resolution of the orbiting US Hubble space telescope but at just a fraction of the cost. See http://spacedaily.com/news/011204185633.oazku4wz.html

SIMULATION EXPLAINS MYSTERY OF GIANT PLANETS' TINY MOONS
In what could be the ultimate in fast-forward, Cornell University planetary scientists have used one of the world's most powerful computing clusters to simulate motions of the small moons of Jupiter over a one billion-year epoch. From this, the researchers have learned how the tugs and pulls of the sun and planets -- even from hundreds of millions of miles away -- shake out the permanent moons of the giant planets from those that get tossed away. In a three-month computing marathon, the Velocity I cluster at the Cornell Theory Center was able to mimic cosmic conditions over eons that would cause physical perturbations in the moons of Jupiter. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011203061301.htm

Biology

"GIFT OF THE MAGI" BEARS ANTI-CANCER AGENTS, RESEARCHERS SUGGEST
Researchers have identified a compound in myrrh, one of the gifts presented to Jesus by the Three Wise Men, that they believe could be developed into a potent anticancer agent. The compound, which kills cancer cells in the laboratory, shows particular promise for the prevention and treatment of breast and prostate cancer, according to the researchers. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011205070038.htm

Sediments in Ice-Bound Antarctic Lakes May Harbor Unique Lifeforms
Washington - Dec 5, 2001 - Liquid lakes buried thousands of meters below the Antarctic ice sheet are likely the home to unique habitats and creatures that thrive in them. Exploration of those lakes will therefore require extreme care and an international cooperative effort, according to a team of authors writing in the Dec. 6 issue of Nature. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-01zu.html

STEROIDS MORE EFFECTIVE THAN ANTIHISTAMINES WHEN USED AS NEEDED FOR ALLERGIES
Researchers from the University of Chicago have demonstrated that corticosteroid nasal sprays are more effective than antihistamines when used "as needed" for treatment of seasonal allergies. This finding, published in the November 26 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, suggests that the current guidelines and prescribing patterns, which favor the use of antihistamines as the first-line treatment for mild or moderate allergies, need to be revised. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011127004650.htm

BRAINS OF DEAF PEOPLE REWIRE TO "HEAR" MUSIC
Deaf people sense vibration in the part of the brain that other people use for hearing which helps explain how deaf musicians can sense music, and how deaf people can enjoy concerts and other musical events. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011128035455.htm

DELAYED TREATMENT OF SPINAL CORD INJURY MAY IMPROVE RECOVERY
Rats given an experimental therapy several weeks after their spinal cords were severed showed dramatically greater regrowth of nerve fibers and recovery of function than rats treated immediately after injury, a new study shows. The report suggests that the window of opportunity for treating spinal cord injury may be wider than previously anticipated. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/12/011203060542.htm

PACKARD, STANFORD RESEARCHERS UNCOVER GENE FAMILY CRITICAL TO ASTHMA DEVELOPMENT
A novel gene family that appears critical to the development of asthma in mice has been identified by researchers at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford. The finding may revolutionize treatment and diagnosis of the more than 15 million people in the United States who suffer from asthma. It may also explain why incidence rates have climbed rapidly in industrialized countries over the past 20 years, say the researchers. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011130074127.htm

RADIO FREQUENCY ENERGY ZAPS TUMORS WITHOUT SURGERY
Interventional radiologists are using the same kind of energy that puts sound into your radio to heat and kill tumors, an approach that is proving to be an increasingly promising treatment for kidney cancer. Guided with pinpoint accuracy under magnetic resonance imaging, the tools that deliver radio frequency (RF) waves essentially boil tumors to death. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011129044739.htm

HEALY RESEARCHERS MAKE A SERIES OF STRIKING DISCOVERIES ABOUT ARCTIC OCEAN
Contrary to their expectations, scientists on a research cruise to the Arctic Ocean have found evidence that the Gakkel Ridge, the world's slowest spreading mid-ocean ridge, may be very volcanically active. They also believe that conditions in a field of undersea vents, known as "black smokers," could support previously unknown species of marine life. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011129050111.htm

LOW TAR CIGARETTES: EVIDENCE DOES NOT INDICATE BENEFIT TO PUBLIC HEALTH
Millions of Americans smoke low-tar, mild, or light cigarettes, believing those cigarettes to be less harmful than other cigarettes. In a new monograph from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) titled Risks Associated with Smoking Cigarettes with Low Machine-Measured Yields of Tar and Nicotine, national scientific experts conclude that evidence does not indicate a benefit to public health from changes in cigarette design and manufacturing over the last 50 years. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011130074838.htm

COMPREHENSIVE SET OF VISION GENES DISCOVERED: IDENTIFICATION COULD HELP IN DIAGNOSING AND TREATING BLINDING DISEASES
Harvard Medical School researchers have discovered nearly all the genes responsible for vision, which could help in diagnosing and treating blinding diseases. Macular degeneration alone affects twenty-five percent of people over age 75. The discovery of the full set of photoreceptor genes expressed in the retinal cells, which was made in mice, could also lead to new methods for preserving and restoring the vision of those affected. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011130075457.htm

Earth Science

Chicxulub Drilling Project Could Have Major Impact On Extinction Studies
Telegrafenberg - Dec 4, 2001 - On December 3, a scientific deep drilling projects starts on the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico into the Chicxulub crater that was formed some 65 million years ago by the impact of an asteroid, which is believed to have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs and other species. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/deepimpact-01h.html

A Curve Ball into the Snowball Earth Hypothesis?
Boulder - Dec 3, 2001 - The idea that the Earth was encased in ice some 650 million years ago has sparked much scientific debate in recent years. In the ongoing Snowball Earth "fight," scientists continually uncover and report new evidence that supports their respective views. Martin Kennedy, from the University of California, Riverside, has just tossed a curveball into the Snowball Earth theory with new data he reports in the December issue of Geology. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/iceage-01f.html

New Details Of Earth's Internal Structure Emerge From Seismic Data
Santa Cruz - Dec 3, 2001 - About 1,800 miles beneath the surface, Earth's internal structure changes abruptly where the solid rock of the mantle meets the swirling molten iron of the outer core. But the boundary between the core and the mantle may not be as sharply defined as scientists once thought. By analyzing earthquake waves that bounce off the core-mantle boundary, researchers have found evidence of a thin zone where the outermost core is more solid than fluid. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/tectonics-01l.html

Physics

Higgs boson: are physicists spending billions on a wild goose chase?
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991649

Technology

High-Tech, Low-Cost Scooter Debuts: See http://dsc.discovery.com/news/reu/20011203/scooter.html

December 3, 2001

Religion in the News

Heather Mercer and Dayna Curry meet with Bush
"It's a wonderful story about prayer, about a faith that can sustain people in good times and in bad times," said President Bush Monday.

Martin and Gracia Burnham interviewed in captivity
One thing is clear from the videotaped interview of missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham: they're tired of being hostages.

Franklin Graham is no Billy, and that suits him just fine: Attacking Islam as "evil" and moving headquarters out of Minneapolis is just the beginning of the Franklin era (Associated Press).

AOL Time Warner buys Word Entertainment for $84.1 million
Gaylord Entertainment (Opryland) wanted out of the Christian music business and were looking to sell off Word Entertainment, the third-largest Christian music label. They found a buyer in AOL Time Warner, selling for $84.1 million.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia is offering to help the Baptist minister in his lawsuit against Virginia. The state won't let Falwell's Thomas Road Baptist Church expand into a new sanctuary because no church is allowed to own more than 15 acres in a city, though cities can make an exception for up to 50 acres.

Orlando's Holy Land Experience, a Christian theme park, just can't catch a break. Every two months or so, somebody's attacking it. First there were rumors that it was targeting Jews for conversion. Then Jews complained that it was putting Torah scrolls on display in its antiquities museum. Now it's fighting its county on taxes. The county says the park is "predominately a profit-making activity" and "is not being used for religious purposes." Thus, it can't claim nonprofit status and must pay property taxes. Park creator Marvin Rosenthal has enlisted the American Center for Law and Justice in his battle. "We find it terribly inconsistent that the Orlando Science Center charges approximately the same amount for admissions, charges for parking, has a gift shop and it has a tax-exempt status," he tells The New York Times. "If you teach science, you get a tax exemption, but if you teach about God, you don't. That's discrimination." Rosenthal also says the park may not break even this year, as attendance has been down since the September 11 attacks.

The Magi and the Star: What was the Star of Bethlehem? See
http://www.bib-arch.org/brd01/magi1.html

Bible Prophecy Sales Boom
Whether scholarship or fiction, prophetic books are top sellers after September 11.
By Mark A. Kellner. See http://christianitytoday.aol.com/ct/2001/015/16.22.html

Science in the News

Creation/Evolution

The Evolutionists: The Struggle for Darwin's Soul. Need to register to see link.
http://news.bmn.com/hmsbeagle/115/reviews/review

The article "Evolution of biological complexity" is freely available on-line from PNAS at http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/97/9/4463

Astronomy

Hubble Makes First Direct Measurements of Atmosphere on World Around
Another Star - way cool. Ten years ago it was just a hope that we would be
able to detect extrasolar planets. Now there are over 70 of them known,
and for the first time an atmosphere has been detected around one. It's
not good air to breathe, but a heck of a story at
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/PR/2001/38/index.html

Shuttle Ready To Collide With Some Dust
Boulder - Nov 21, 2001 - A University of Colorado at Boulder experiment will ride into orbit on a NASA space shuttle to explore gentle collisions between particles of space dust -- a fundamental process in the formation of planets and the evolution of planetary ring systems. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/dust-01a.html ALSO students in schools worldwide are anticipating the next space shuttle mission as their experiments, including another disco-ball Starshine satellite, venture into space. 900 mirrors and more at ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2001/01-234.txt & Starshine at http://www.azinet.com/starshine/

GENESIS SPACECRAFT ENTERS ITS ORBIT TO BEGIN COLLECTING SOLAR WIND PARTICLES
NASA's Genesis spacecraft has entered perfectly into orbit around the balanced-gravity point Lagrange 1, where it will collect solar wind particles. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011120041713.htm

Water May Have Stayed On Mars Surface Longer
St. Louis - Nov 26, 2001 - An analysis of high-resolution topographic maps and photographs, as well as recent studies of Martian meteorites suggest the presence of water on the Red Planet for a longer time scale than scientists had previously believed. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-water-science-01q.html

NASA Spacecraft to Hunt for Elusive Gravity Ripples - Cassini isn't just
for Saturn anymore! While cruising towards the ringed planet, Cassini will
try its hand at astrophysics. A versatile voyager at
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/releases/2001/release_2001_227.html

Biology

Report Of Early-Stage Human Clone Changes Face Of Biotechnology
Washington (AFP) Nov 25, 2001 - US biotechnology researchers announced Sunday they had successfully created an early-stage human embryo, paving the way for future harvesting of stem cells to treat disease. The announcement is expected to spark another debate on the controversial medical procedure. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14231-2001Nov25.html http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-01zr.html

WHAT PROTECTS US FROM RADIATION? SOME ANSWERS ARE FOUND IN MORE THAN 100 YEAST GENES
A novel search of 3,760 "nonessential" yeast genes has revealed 107 new genes that may determine how we resist, or are hurt by, radiation -- and whether we succumb to, or survive, cancer. More than tripling the number of mutant genes known to influence radiation damage, the work was carried out at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and reported in the journal Nature Genetics. Previously, fewer than 30 such genes were known. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011119071637.htm

RESEARCHERS DISCOVER NEW FAMILY OF NATURALLY OCCURRING ANTIBIOTICS
Two North Carolina State University researchers, Drs. Edward Noga and Umaporn Silphaduang, have isolated a previously undiscovered family of naturally occurring peptide antibiotics. The antibiotics were found in fish. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011116064744.htm

SIGNALS FROM NERVOUS SYSTEM INFLUENCE IMMUNE SYSTEM, STUDY SHOWS
In a discovery that demonstrates a clear link between the mind and body at a molecular level, scientists have shown that a chemical signal which normally allows nerve cells to communicate with each other to alter sleep cycles, for example -- can also re-direct actions of the immune system. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011116064459.htm

STANFORD RESEARCHERS MAKE LUNG CANCER FINDING THAT COULD VASTLY IMPROVE TREATMENT AND OUTCOME
Researchers at the Stanford University Medical Center have uncovered a group of genes that could distinguish between different forms of lung cancer. This finding may help doctors predict individual treatment strategies and may someday lead to better lung cancer drugs. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011119072349.htm

POTENTIAL OF TAILORING DRUGS TO GENETIC MAKEUP CONFIRMED, BUT CHALLENGES REMAIN
At a time when harmful drug reactions are thought to rank just after strokes as a leading cause of death in the U.S., the potential benefits of tailoring drugs to a patients genetic makeup have been confirmed in a systematic study led by University of California, San Francisco scientists. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011114071430.htm

NEW UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO ELECTRON MICROSCOPES PROVIDE CELL IMAGES NEVER SEEN BEFORE
The University of Colorado at Boulder has acquired two new state-of-the-art electron microscopes and a suite of complementing computers that are providing three-dimensional images of cellular structures that have never been seen before. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011120044036.htm

ANTHRAX GENOME MAY CONTAIN NEW CLUES TO FIGHT INFECTION, SAYS SCIENCE "FUNCTIONAL GENOMICS" ARTICLE
The completed anthrax genome--expected within the next few months--should provide new clues to help explain what makes the infection a killer, and perhaps how best to fight different strains, researcher Kathryn Beauregard reports on the Science Functional Genomics web site. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011120050509.htm

UT SOUTHWESTERN SCIENTISTS EXPLAIN HOW THE INJURED BRAIN REMODELS ITSELF
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have begun to reveal the cellular mechanisms critical for restoring brain functions after traumatic injuries - a step that could lead to effective treatments of paralysis and other brain and spinal-cord damage. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011120055541.htm

Earth Science

New Method Confirms Magnetic Field Switch 10 Million Years Ago
The Hague - Nov 26, 2001 - NWO researchers have developed an improved method of identifying the magnetic signals in old geological strata. The researchers used the new method to show that the earth's magnetic field really did reverse itself ten million years ago. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/earth-magnetic-01d.html

Mount St. Helens: Disobeying the Rules of Recovery - scientists have
long studied the ways in which a forest recovers from a catastrophe
like a volcanic blast in the neighborhood - but at Mount St Helens
the expected recovery pattern was nowhere in evidence; nature was
instead revealing some surprising strategies. Need to register to see this link. See
http://news.bmn.com/hmsbeagle/115/notes/feature1

ALLIGATORS ON A TREADMILL HINT HOW DINOSAURS BREATHED; ROTATING BONE IN PELVIS HELPS GATORS WALK AND BREATHE SIMULTANEOUSLY
University of Utah biologists trained alligators to walk on a treadmill during studies that revealed new clues about how dinosaurs breathed. The researchers discovered that alligators, unlike lizards, are able to walk and breathe at the same time by using a rocking pubic bone - part of the pelvis - to help them inhale and exhale. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011119070351.htm

RINGS TELL TALE OF STRINGED HISTORIC INSTRUMENT'S ORIGIN
A University of Arkansas researcher and his colleagues used tree ring records to accurately date the wood used in a famous violin purported to be made by Stradivarius and showed that the wood was hewn during the violin maker's lifetime. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011119072029.htm

DARTMOUTH RESEARCHER USES COSMIC RAYS TO CALCULATE EROSION RATES
People build houses, plant fields and construct cities on the top layers of the planet's surface. These layers, however, are far from solid. They are flexible and mobile, some parts more than others. Arjun Heimsath, Assistant Professor of Earth Sciences at Dartmouth, measures this dynamic land movement by calculating erosion rates in different parts of the world. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011120052740.htm

GLOBAL WARMING PERIODS MORE COMMON THAN THOUGHT, DEEP-SEA DRILLING OFF JAPAN NOW DEMONSTRATES
Core samples from a deep-sea drilling expedition in the western Pacific clearly show multiple episodes of warming that date back as far as 135 million years, according to one of the projects lead scientists. Analysis of the samples indicates warming events on Earth were more common than researchers previously believed. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011120045859.htm

LARGEST FOSSIL COCKROACH FOUND; SITE PRESERVES INCREDIBLE DETAIL
Geologists at Ohio State University have found the largest-ever complete fossil of a cockroach, one that lived 55 million years before the first dinosaurs. The cockroach, along with hundreds of other fossil plants and animals from a coalmine in eastern Ohio, could help scientists better understand the diversity of ancient life and how the Earth's climate has changed throughout history. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011120053611.htm

Last Mid Ocean Ridge Explored
Washington - Nov 28, 2001 - Contrary to their expectations, scientists on a research cruise to the Arctic Ocean have found evidence that the Gakkel Ridge, the world's slowest spreading mid-ocean ridge, may be very volcanically active. They also believe that conditions in a field of undersea vents, known as "black smokers," could support previously unknown species of marine life. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/tectonics-01k.html

CORNELL'S DIGITAL EARTH PROJECT OFFERS GLOBAL DATABASE AND MAPPING TOOL FOR GEOLOGISTS, STUDENTS AND TEACHERS
An institute at Cornell University is building a "digital Earth" that will become an important resource for geoscience researchers and also will provide easy-to-use teaching tools for educators from elementary school through college. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011120045025.htm

Psychology

Holiday Depression
Holiday "blues" can be much more serious than you think. Take the Depression Assessment to see how you score. See http://health.discovery.com/tools/hra/depress/depress_pg1.html

Technology

Nebraska Chemists Create First Plastic Magnets
Lincoln - Nov. 25, 2001 - A team of chemists at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have created the world's first plastic magnets. It took 13 years of painstaking investigation, but Andrzej Rajca, a professor of chemistry, Suchada Rajca, his wife and research partner as a research assistant professor at Nebraska, and doctoral candidate Jirawat Wongsriratanakul finally achieved success earlier this year. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011119071918.htm & http://www.spacedaily.com/news/materials-01r.html

A "Trillion" Computers In A Single Drop Of Water
Rehovot - Nov 26, 2001 - A group of scientists headed by Prof. Ehud Shapiro at the Weizmann Institute of Science has used biological molecules to create a tiny computer -- a programmable two-state, two-symbol finite automaton -- in a test tube. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/nanotech-01o.html

PHOTON SWITCH ON LEADING EDGE OF MORE POWERFUL COMPUTERS
Researchers at the University of Toronto have discovered a "switch" involving the manipulation of a photon that may lead to the creation of an optical transistor and usher in a new era of more powerful computers. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011120045133.htm

Device Could Aid Production Of Electricity Without Moving Parts
Boston - Nov 27, 2001 - An MIT scientist and a colleague have invented a semiconductor technology that could allow efficient, affordable production of electricity from a variety of energy sources without a turbine or similar generator. The researchers presented their work at a poster session Tuesday during this week's Materials Research Society meeting in Boston. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/energy-tech-01a.html

Superconductors That Work At Room Temperature
London - Nov 28, 2001 - Tiny tubes of carbon may conduct electricity without any resistance, at temperatures stretching up past the boiling point of water. The tubes would be the first superconductors to work at room temperature. In a report to be published this week by New Scientist, two scientists at the University of Houston in Texas - Guo-meng Zhao and Yong Sheng Wang - say they have found subtle signs of superconductivity. "It wasn't zero resistance, but it's the closest anyone's got so far. "I think all the experimental results are consistent with superconductivity," Zhao says. "But we cannot rule out other explanations." See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/carbon-01h.html

November 25, 2001

Religion in the News

Bush: Thanksgiving reminds Americans to always trust in God
See http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/11/20011116-3.html

Graham stands by comments on Islam: While saying he is called to love people regardless of their faith, evangelist Franklin Graham on Sunday wouldn't back away from his recent statement on a national news program that Islam "is a very evil and wicked religion." By KEN GARFIELD. See http://www.charlotte.com/partners/news/briefs/news_briefs_1_Nov19.htm

Foreknowledge Debate Clouded by "Political Agenda"
Evangelical Theologians differ over excluding Open Theists.
By David Neff. http://christianitytoday.aol.com/ct/2001/147/13.0.html

Dead Sea Scrolls Publication Complete: After more than half a century of research, bitter academic squabbles, and controversy, Israel has announced the publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls is complete. See http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/11/16/News/News.38257.html

The Buddhist equivalent of the Dead Sea Scrolls:
http://www.asiaweek.com/asiaweek/96/0906/feat5.html

Science in the News

Creation/Evolution

Speeding up the Evolutionary Process
Biotech firm uses patented method to accelerate development. See http://www.the-scientist.com/yr2001/nov/cohen_p12_011126.html

Deciphering Protein Evolution
Actin shares a common ancestor with a bacterial protein. See http://www.the-scientist.com/yr2001/nov/palevitz_p18_011126.html

Just Decades for Evolution? Last year, scientists described how partial reproductive isolation between two sockeye salmon populations had evolved at the astonishingly rapid rate of about 13 generations. This was stunning to many biologists, who think of reproductive isolation as a process that evolves over tens of thousands, or even millions of years, but certainly not decades. http://www.the-scientist.com/yr2001/nov/pray_p8_011126.html

National Geographic November 2001: In this issue there is an article about the evolution of whales. There is also an article about who built the pyramids. See http://aol.nationalgeographic.com/index.html

Anthropology/Archaeology

Sidon dig unearths more questions than answers. See
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/features/19_11_01_a.htm

"Darkness in El Dorado" by Patrick Tierney: This book has stirred up a huge controversy in anthropological circles about the Yanomano Indians of the Amazon. Tierney claims that anthropologists deliberately infected the Indians with diseases to observe their reactions. See latest articles in Skeptic magazine. See the preliminary reports at http://www.aaanet.org/edtfpr.htm and http://www.anth.ucsb.edu/chagnon.html

Astronomy

Evidence Of Martian Life In Meteorite Dealt Critical Blow
Tempe - Nov 20, 2001 - There may have once been (and perhaps still is) life on Mars, but the evidence for it is barely stirring. When, in 1996, a group of NASA researchers presented several lines of evidence for fossil bacteria in a Martian meteorite, a wave of excitement passed through the public and the scientific community alike. Of course, that wave was followed by a storm of controversy. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-life-01j.html

NASA'S HETE SPOTS RARE GAMMA-RAY BURST AFTERGLOW
A rare optical afterglow of a gamma-ray burst, the most powerful type of explosion in the universe, was recently discovered by NASA's High Energy Transient Explorer (HETE), the first satellite dedicated to spotting these frequent yet random explosions that last only for a few seconds. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011112074339.htm

RESEARCHERS THINK ELECTRONS CAN "SUPERNOVA SURF" AT NEAR LIGHTSPEED
Researchers have long been puzzled about the origins of cosmic rays high energy particles which move very close to the speed of light. Now a team of scientists from the UK and Sweden think that an idea for a particle accelerator first put forward twenty years ago might explain how high energy cosmic ray electrons are produced close to the remnants of exploded stars (supernovae). See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011114072057.htm

SUPERCOMPUTER SIMULATIONS PROVIDE DETAILS OF FORMATION OF THE FIRST STAR UNIVERSE
New cosmological simulations performed on a supercomputer have provided astrophysicists with the best indication to date of how the first star in the universe formed. The simulations, detailed in a paper in the November 16 issue of Science, suggest that the first star resulted from the gravitational collapse of a cloud of hydrogen and helium some 100 times more massive than the sun. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011116065005.htm

Biology

CRUCIAL GENETIC DIVERSITY ENZYME LONG SOUGHT BY BIOLOGISTS DISCOVERED BY SCIENTISTS AT THE SCRIPPS RESEARCH INSTITUTE
Simultaneous reports by two teams at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), led by Professor Paul Russell, Ph.D., and Associate Professor Clare H. McGowan, Ph.D., identify the "resolvase" enzyme that may be responsible for generating genetic diversity during sexual reproduction and could be a target for improved anti-cancer therapy. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011112073641.htm

JEFFERSON RESEARCHERS HAVE EARLY EVIDENCE OF BONE MARROW STEM CELLS ABLE TO BECOME BRAIN CELLS
Using a potion of growth factors and other nutrients, scientists at Jefferson Medical College have shown in the laboratory they are able to convert adult human bone marrow stem cells into adult brain cells. While it's early in the research, the results suggest such stem cells may have potential use in someday treating neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011112073405.htm

USING A PATIENTS OWN BONE MARROW CELLS CAN HELP AN AILING HEART
In the first study of its kind, researchers have used a persons own bone marrow cells to improve blood flow in otherwise untreatable coronary arteries, according to research presented today at the American Heart Associations Scientific Sessions 2001 conference. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011114071845.htm

HUMAN BRAIN OPERATES DIFFERENTLY IN DECEPTION AND HONESTY, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA RESEARCHERS REPORT
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have found that telling a lie and telling the truth require different activities in the human brain. The findings will be presented Tuesday, Nov. 13, at the national meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego, CA. By identifying the brain activity associated with deception and denial, the work paves the way for improvements in lie-detection techniques. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011112073302.htm

HIDDEN TOXIN GENE IN CHLAMYDIA LINKED TO CHRONIC ILLNESSES
After more than 50 years of searching, scientists have discovered a key gene that enables certain bacteria to cause blindness and debilitating genital tract infections. Using the recently completed genetic blueprint of the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis, researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) have found a gene that encodes a cell-destroying toxin. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011113071231.htm

IMMUNE SYSTEM DISCOVERY MAY LEAD TO PREVENTIVE THERAPY FOR DIABETES
By manipulating a cell that controls the immune systems response to infections, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and their colleague have prevented the onset of diabetes in mice predisposed to the disease. The finding one day may lead to the development of a preventive therapy for people at risk for type 1 diabetes. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011114072145.htm

COMPOUNDS IN GARLIC FIGHT MALARIA AND CANCER
A group of compounds commonly found in garlic may not only an effective treatment for malaria, the mechanism by which they inhibit the infection appears to be similar to the mechanism they use to fight cancer cells. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011114071753.htm

STOPPING INTERNAL BLEEDING WITHOUT SURGERY
It may sound like something out of Star Trek, but researchers at the University of Washingtons Applied Physics Laboratory are working on a device that could find and stop internal bleeding, without surgery. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011115072310.htm

ARSENIC AND OLD TELOMERASE: HOPKINS RESEARCHERS UNRAVEL EFFECTS OF ARSENIC ON HUMAN CELLS
Researchers at Johns Hopkins report discovering a mechanism that may account for the paradoxical effects of arsenic, which is both a treatment for cancer and a carcinogen. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011114070613.htm

COMBINING ENERGY DRINKS WITH ALCOHOL POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS
The newest rage among college students and teens is mixing energy drinks with alcohol, a potentially dangerous combination, says a Ball State University researcher. Mixing powerful stimulants contained in some energy drinks with depressants in alcohol could cause cardiopulmonary or cardiovascular failures, said David Pearson, a researcher in the Human Performance Laboratory. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011116065754.htm

STUDY SHOWS THAT ASPIRIN AND WARFARIN ARE EQUALLY EFFECTIVE FOR STROKE PREVENTION
A study appearing in the November 15, 2001, issue of The New England Journal of Medicine* shows that aspirin works as well as warfarin in helping to prevent recurrent strokes in most patients. The Warfarin versus Aspirin Recurrent Stroke Study (WARSS) was a 7-year double-blind, randomized clinical trial involving 2,206 patients at 48 participating centersthe largest trial to date comparing aspirin to warfarin for recurrent stroke prevention. The study was sponsored by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011115073129.htm

Earth Science

PACIFIC RECYCLES LAST YEAR'S WINTER
If you liked last winter, you'll like this one. If not, you won't. The Pacific ocean continues to be dominated by the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, an above normal sea level pattern that is larger and stronger than any El Nino/La Nina event, according to the latest information from the U.S.-French Topex/Poseidon ocean-monitoring satellite. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011112074049.htm

EARTHQUAKE STUDIES: FAULT MOVING FASTER THAN BELIEVED
Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and the University of California, Los Angeles, have concluded that earthquake fault zones in California's eastern Mojave Desert are moving in different ways than they expected. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011112074143.htm

MASSIVE MAGMA LAYER FEEDS MT. VESUVIUS, AND MAY HOLD CLUES TO ERUPTIONS, RESEARCHERS REPORT IN SCIENCE
Seismic data suggest the presence of a 400 kilometer square-wide reservoir of magma located eight kilometers below the famous Mt. Vesuvius volcano in Italy, according to a report by Italian and French researchers in the 16 November issue of the international journal, Science. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011116065452.htm

Ocean Circulation Shut Down by Melting Glaciers After Last Ice Age
Greenbelt - Nov 19, 2001 - At the end of the last Ice Age 13 to 11.5 thousand years ago, the North Atlantic Deep Water circulation system that drives the Gulf Stream may have shut down because of melting glaciers that added freshwater into the North Atlantic Ocean over several hundred years, NASA and university researchers confirm. Since the Gulf Stream brings warm tropical waters north, Western Europe cooled. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/iceage-01e.html

November 18, 2001

Religion in the News

Free at Last!
All 24 Shelter Now aid workers are going home.
Compiled by Ted Olsen and Todd Hertz See http://christianitytoday.aol.com/ct/2001/146/41.0.html

Team Is Ready to Publish Full Set of Dead Sea Scrolls http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/15/international/15SCRO.html?=MOREOVER

Inside the mind of the prophet Ezekiel
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991565

'Harry Potter' themes anger Christians: A small legion of conservative Christians claim the boy wizard leads to sin, but other believers insist the stories are harmless fantasies about magic and morals. (Associated Press) see http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011109/us/religion_harry_potter_1.html

Mysteries of Faith: Exploring the Bible with new insights and discoveries. Special Edition of U.S. News & World Report now at newsstands.

Arguments we think creationists should NOT use http://www.answersingenesis.org/Home/Area/faq/dont_use.asp

Science in the News

Astronomy

Scientists Find Mother and Daughter Asteroids
Boulder - Nov 12, 2001 - There are asteroids and there are asteroids. Most were once part of larger "parent bodies" and some supply meteorites that plunge to Earth. But how do you trace the family line of asteroids? Scientists compare mineralogy of asteroids by analyzing their near-infrared spectra. They also compare asteroids' orbits around the sun. And recently they found a perfect match -- "uniting" in a scientific sense, mother and daughter asteroids. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/asteroid-01k.html

Europa's Ice Crust Is Deeper Than 3 Kilometers, U.Arizona Scientists Find
Tucson - Nov 12, 2001 - Impact craters on Europa -- the jovian satellite that scientists say may hide a subsurface liquid ocean -- show that the moon's brittle ice shell crust is more than 3 to 4 kilometers (1.8 to 2.4 miles) thick, two University of Arizona planetary scientists report in Science (Nov. 9 issue). See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/jupiter-europa-01d.html

Buried Impact Craters on Mars Widens Possibility of an Ancient Martian Ocean
Boulder - Nov 8, 2001 - Soon after Mars was formed, it was bombarded by numerous large meteorites and asteroids. Scientists have discovered an unexpectedly large grouping of impact basins buried under Mars' northern plains that resulted from this pounding. They used Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) topographic data to find them, because they can't be seen in images of the Martian surface. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-surveyor-01e.html

More Evidence For Volcanism and Water Release On Mars
Boulder, Nov 12, 2001 - In their search for water and possible life on Mars, scientists are turning to new data generated by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) images and Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) topography from the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-volcano-01c.html

Soho Reveals How Sunspots Take A Stranglehold On The Sun
Paris (ESA) Nov 12, 2001 - A sunspot turns out to be a kind of whirlpool, where hot gas near the Sun's surface converges and dives into the interior at speeds of up to 4000 kilometres per hour. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/sunspots-01a.html

The brightening and dimming of the sun may account for a 1,500-year cycle
of cooling and warming on parts of the Earth. We're living in the Sun's
atmosphere at
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/space/11/16/solar.cycles.ap/index.html

First Estimate of the Formation Temperature of Ammonia Ice in a Comet -
suggesting at the comet was formed between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus
in the primordial Solar System nebula. A potential new tool for studying
comets at http://www.subaru.naoj.org/Science/press_release/2001/11/index.html

Biology

BIOCAPSULE CAN PROVIDE STEADY INSULIN SUPPLY; POTENTIAL BREAKTHROUGH FOR DIABETES PATIENTS
Pushing the frontiers of drug delivery technology, a biomedical engineer at the University of Illinois at Chicago has developed an implantable capsule that releases a steady supply of insulin to the bloodstream of people with diabetes. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/10/011030225614.htm

WEALTH OF NEW SPECIES DISCOVERED FROM THE ABYSSAL PLAINS OF THE ATLANTIC OCEAN
Preliminary findings from an expedition last year to the deep-sea of the Angola Basin are revealing a wealth of new information on biodiversity in the poorly known depths of the south Atlantic Ocean. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/11/011101060321.htm

A gene that protects against malaria is spreading in Africa
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991566

The Nature of Addiction
What is an Addiction? Why do so many people choose to smoke, drink, or take illegal drugs and misuse prescription medications? Read Dr. Pennington’s answer at http://chtah.com/a/hA777nBAFqpjxAHTDeDABqQyjTn/heal82b

Earth Science

Much Gold, Silver, Other Metals May Lie Undiscovered In Saudi Arabia
Columbus - Nov 12, 2001 - Oil may not be the only valuable commodity buried beneath the sands of Saudi Arabia. Ohio State University geologists have located new areas of potential metal deposits, based on the analysis of more than 2,100 known occurrences of gold, silver, copper, and other metals in the western third of the Saudi peninsula. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/earth-01l.html

Superplumes Add Lift To Continents
Tucson - Nov 12, 2001 - A budding theory to describe Earth processes could help solve some martian mysteries as well, believes Victor Baker, Regents' Professor and head of the hydrology and water resources department at the University of Arizona, and a group of his colleagues. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/tectonics-01j.html

Small, Mountain Rivers Play Big Role In Ocean Sediment
Columbus - Nov 12, 2001 - Shallow streams that wind through the mountains of New Zealand and Taiwan carry more sediment into the ocean than giant rivers like the Amazon or the Nile, according to Ohio State University geologists. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/earth-01m.html

Mass Extinctions May Be A Myth, Claim Scientists
London - Nov 13, 2001 - Catastrophic mass extinctions, such as the one that saw the demise of the dinosaurs,could be a myth according to the findings of recent research into 100 million-year-old marine fossils. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-01zp.html

Physics

PHYSICISTS ADVANCE THEORY FOR NEW CLASS OF QUANTUM PHASE TRANSITION
The complete workings of quantum mechanics and how it affects the universe is still a mystery, but Rice University-led physicists have made a key advancement in understanding how complex quantum fluctuations play a role in the transformation of metals from one electronic state to another. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/10/011029073453.htm

FROM NUCLEAR FUSION TO WIGGLING ANTS: SPIN-OFF OF ENERGY RESEARCH PRODUCES HIGH-RESOLUTION X-RAY IMAGES OF MINUTE OBJECTS
Using powerful machinery originally developed in the hope of discovering a way to generate energy from hydrogen fusion, scientists in Cornell's Laboratory of Plasma Studies are creating high-resolution images of minute objects, like fly hairs or the fine filaments that keep dandelion seeds afloat in the air. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/10/011030072703.htm

November 11,2001

Religion in the News

Christians Encouraged as 50,000 Dalits Leave Hinduism
Low-caste Hindus see conversion as their only escape from oppression.
By Manpreet Singh in New Delhi. See http://christianitytoday.aol.com/ct/2001/145/13.0.html

Wake-up Call
If September 11 was a divine warning, it's God's people who are being warned.
By Charles Colson. See http://christianitytoday.aol.com/ct/2001/014/32.112.html

Christianity.com Falls. Is Crosswalk.com Next?
http://christianitytoday.aol.com/ct/2001/145/32.0.html

Sales of Christian music praiseworthy: September 11 had effect, but sales increase can also be attributed to blockbuster releases by P.O.D. and Michael W. Smith (The Denver Post). See http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1002,78%257E204726,00.html

What Christians Believe
An atheist turned Christian answers some of the hardest
questions we could dig up. From Campus Life. See http://christianitytoday.aol.com/cl/2001/006/3.40.html

What Teens Wish Parents Knew
Teens reveal what bothers them most and tell what they really
need. From Christian Parenting Today.<

Institute for Biblical & Scientific Studies

News: 2001 Archive

Study, review and editorial focus on religion, spirituality and medicine:

News:
2001 Archive