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News:
April 11 2004
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Museum Project
There is now more information and photos about our museum project. If you know any one that is interested in helping us with this project please contact me, Stephen Meyers at ibss@comcast.net. For more pictures and information see //www.bibleandscience.com/museum/.
Religion in the News
What
Makes This Week Holy?
Jewish and Christian celebrations this week aren't just springtime rituals.
By Timothy George.
Holy
Weeklies After The Passion
Time does the atonement, and The New Yorker breaks the bone box. Compiled
by Ted Olsen.
Christian
History Corner: Why does Easter's date wander?
And why the Eastern Orthodox Church is nearly two weeks behind schedule.
By Farrell Brown.
Jesus
and Paul: Looking at a Journalistic Approach to Christianity's Beginnings
A full review of ABC's Jesus and Paul: The Word and the Witness By Darrell
L. Bock.
Kerry's
communion controversy
It is unclear where Sen. John Kerry will take communion this Easter Sunday,
amid questions of how enthusiastically Catholic leadership will respond
to the pro-choice Democratic nominee (CBS News).
Jehovah's
Witnesses join religions facing child-abuse cases
Richard N. Ostling is a national religion reporter for the Associated Press
NASHVILLE - It's an all-volunteer organization with little money. It mustered
only two dozen attendees at an inaugural national meeting two weeks ago.
But the group, called silentlambs, has gained visibility in its campaign
to change the abuse policies of Jehovah's Witnesses.
The
road to understanding for Christians, Jews
As we Christians and Jews celebrate Passover and Easter this year we might
take a moment to pray that understanding among Christians and Jews continues
to grow, so that generations to come shall not be enslaved by hostility
and ignorance and instead find new life in friendship and understanding
(Robert Leikind and Philip A. Cunningham, The Boston Globe).
'God
bless atheism'
It is only in dialogue with others that our faith is tested, our ideas made
explicit, our errors corrected (E. J. Dionne Jr, The Washington Post).
Science in the News
Internet2 May
Change The Way Scientists Conduct Research. Narragansett - Apr 07, 2004
When Dr. Robert Ballard went on a scientific expedition to Black Sea this
past summer, he was able to take with him virtually any scientist or student
who wanted to go. With the capability of Internet2 and a high bandwidth
satellite link, scientists, for the first time, were able to work on the
ocean floor from the comfort of their university laboratories.
Archaeology/Anthropology
Controversy
revisits Shroud of Turin By Dan Vergano, USA TODAY
A documentary on the Shroud of Turin suggests the cloth, a religious relic
once believed to be the burial shroud of Christ, might be authentic, and
some archaeologists are crying foul.
Jewish
remains give clues on crucifixion.
Jesus is the best known victim of crucifixion. But thousands of other Jews
were put to death on the cross by the Romans, trying to quash Jewish rebellions
in the Holy Land in the first century. Yet strangely the remains of
only one victim have ever been found. He was Yehohanan Ben Hagkol, a Jewish
man whose heel bone, excavated by archaeologists near Jerusalem in 1968,
still had a nail embedded in it. "It is the only case ever found in
the world where there is indisputable evidence of crucifixion," said
Joe Zias, a physical anthropologist who examined the remains of Yehohanan
Ben Hagkol.
Builders Of Ancient
Tombs And Temples Followed Sun And Stars. Milton Keynes - Apr 01, 2004
Two studies of ancient monuments in southwest Europe reveal the influence
the Sun and stars had on their builders according to Dr Michael Hoskin,
a historian of astronomy at Cambridge University.
NASA Radar Aids
High-Tech Digs. Pasadena CA - Apr 08, 2004
History can be hard to find. A forgotten letter molders in an attic. An
ancient temple hides beneath jungle greenery. Even knowing that something
is there doesn't necessarily make it easier to find - the classic needle
in the haystack.
Astronomy
New 3-D Map
Offer Animated View Of Local Cosmo Stockholm - Apr 07, 2004
For the first time, we now have a three-dimensional map of our closest cosmic
neighbourhood which shows not only how our nearest neighbour stars are distributed
today - it also shows precisely how fast each of them moves, and in which
direction.
Two
Storms Caught In The Act On Saturn
Three months before arrival at Saturn , the Cassini spacecraft caught two
storms in the act of merging into one larger storm. This is only the second
time this phenomenon has been observed on the ringed planet.
Titan
Casts Revealing Shadow. Cambridge MA - Apr 06, 2004
A rare celestial event was captured by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory
as Titan -- Saturn's largest moon and the only moon in the Solar System
with a thick atmosphere -- crossed in front of the X-ray bright Crab Nebula.
The X-ray shadow cast by Titan allowed astronomers to make the first X-ray
measurement of the extent of its atmosphere.
The
star-formation history of the Universe from the stellar populations of nearby
galaxies
ALAN HEAVENS, BENJAMIN PANTER, RAUL JIMENEZ & JAMES DUNLOP
Biology
Headaches
Don't Have to Rule Your Life
By Rita Mullin. Minor occasional headaches happen to most of us, but serious,
regular headaches are another matter altogether and can seriously interfere
with your enjoyment of life. Here are ten tips for reducing your headache
risk.
Zinc
Supplements Could Help Treat ADHD
An article published in BMC Psychiatry this week shows that zinc supplements
could increase the effectiveness of stimulants.
Clemson
Research Advances Progress Toward Bone Therapies, Replacements, Materials
The latest issue of Science reports a discovery by a Clemson scientist that
challenges 40 years of marine biomineralization.
Brains like
feeling fat
Mapping mental responses to texture could lead to designer foods. 5 April
2004.
Appetite may
be hard-wired
Our future weight could be set in first weeks of life. 2 April 2004.
Quick test
to diagnose deadly infections
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria can be pinned down in hours. 1 April 2004.
Liquorice extract
sweetens old age
Carbenoxolone could aid verbal memory. 30 March 2004.
Diet
of worms can cure bowel disease
Successful trials mean a drinkable concoction containing thousands of pig
whipworm eggs could soon be launched.
Creation/Evolution
It's
life, but not as God planned it
Attempts to create synthetic life in a laboratory are no longer science
fiction (The Guardian, London).
Ga.
school-evolution debate goes to trial
A federal judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit against a school district's
practice of posting disclaimers inside science textbooks saying evolution
is "a theory, not a fact" (Associated Press).
Evolved DNA
stitches itself up
Could DNA have kick-started life on Earth instead of RNA? 31 March 2004.
Scientist:
Chimps, Humans Use Different Genes. April 7, 2004
Chimps and humans differ by only a tiny percentage in their genetic make-up,
but the reason why they're in trees and we're not lies in who has the most
active genes, a leading scientist said Monday. Svante Paabo, who has been
helping to decipher the genetic code of chimps, said the key lies in the
degree to which genes are used in each species.
Birds
Share 'Language' Gene with Humans
The process by which baby birds learn to sing shares a number of traits
with that by which toddlers learn to talk. Now researchers have identified
a common gene between birds and people that underlies both abilities. The
discovery marks the start of an effort to explore the genetic underpinnings
of vocal learning.
Proof
and evolutionary analysis of ancient genome duplication in the yeast Saccharomyces
cerevisiae
MANOLIS KELLIS, BRUCE W. BIRREN & ERIC S. LANDER
Emergence
of cooperation and evolutionary stability in finite populations
MARTIN A. NOWAK, AKIRA SASAKI, CHRISTINE TAYLOR &
DREW FUDENBERG
Earth Science
Possible
Answer To Earth's Magnetic Field Reversal Arlington VA - Apr 08, 2004
Earth's magnetic field reverses every few thousand years at low latitudes
and every 10,000 years at high latitudes, a geologist funded by the National
Science Foundation (NSF) has concluded. Brad Clement of Florida International
University published his findings in this week's issue of the journal Nature.
The results are a major step forward in scientists' understanding of how
Earth's magnetic field works.
Dependence
of the duration of geomagnetic polarity reversals on site latitude
BRADFORD M. CLEMENT
Ice Melt May
Dry Out US West Coast. London - Apr 08, 2004
By mid century cities and towns along the American west coast could be suffering
serious water shortages in response to climate change. As Arctic sea-ice
melts, annual rainfall is forecast to drop by as much as 30 per cent from
Seattle to Los Angeles, and inland as far as the Rocky Mountains reports
New Scientist.
In
Solving An Ancient Whodunit, Geologists Conclude That Even In The Miocene,
The Rhino Reigned Supreme. BUFFALO, N.Y.
Lions may get all the good press about being "king of the jungle,"
but the modern animal that has no predators in the wild, except for man,
is the rhinoceros and that probably was the case as long as nine million
years ago, recent University at Buffalo research demonstrates.
Barren
Siberia, Of All Places, May Be Original Home To Animal Life GAINESVILLE,
Fla.
Trilobites, the primitive shelled creatures considered by many to be among
the first animals to appear in the fossil record, may have originated in
a place known today largely for its barren lifelessness: Siberia.
Physics
World's Most
Precise Gyroscopes Ready To Test Einstein Theory Vandenberg AFB - Apr
05, 2004
NASA's Gravity Probe B mission, also known as GP-B, will use four ultra-precise
gyroscopes, orbiting the Earth in a unique satellite, to experimentally
test two extraordinary predictions of Einstein's 1916 theory that space
and time are distorted by the presence of massive objects.
Psychology
Surprises
Found In Gene Variation Associated With Schizophrenia
Approximately 2 percent of Caucasians have a gene segment variation that
can cause a certain form of schizophrenia.
Technology
Aerogels: 'Solid
Smoke' May Have Many Uses. Davis - Apr 05, 2004
It looks like glass and feels like solidified smoke, but the most interesting
features of the new silica aerogels made by UC Davis and Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory researchers are too small to see or feel. Lighter than
styrofoam, this strange material is riddled with pores just nanometers in
size, leaving it 98 percent empty.