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News:
July 25, 2004
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Religion in the News
Promise Keepers Coach Has a New Team, Aiming to Unite Christians and Messianic Jews.
Reclaiming
Occupied Territory
The Great Commission and the cultural commission are not in competition.
By Charles Colson with Anne Morse.
Baylor's
Sloan Keeps His Job—for Now
Regents take no vote to remove president, but reaffirm Vision 2012. By Deann
Alford and Timothy C. Morgan in Waco, Texas.
These religious Times
The Times has been busy on the religion beat lately. Be sure to check
out yesterday's front-page story on evangelical
singles, which prominently features Camerin Courtney, an editor with
our sister publications Christian
Singles Today and Today's
Christian Woman. This weekend also saw Times columnist Nicholas
Kristof return to the religion beat with "Jesus and jihad." His
bottom line: Americans should be more critical of religious intolerance.
Reality
show turns Amish into TV stars
Television is not part of the traditional Amish world. But the Amish are
now part of television, like it or not (Associated Press).
The ties
that bind can form the noose
Leaving an abusive marriage is difficult for any victim, but counselors
and victims say the stakes for Amish and Mennonite women are often even
higher (Intelligencer Journal, Lancaster, Pa.).
Scientology's
town
As Scientologists launch unprecedented expansion, downtown Clearwater's
identity is at stake (St. Petersburg Times, Fla.).
How
Disney bypassed God to preach the gospel of dreams coming true
Entrepreneur who became icon of family values shied away from religious
imagery, and none of his company's theme parks contains a church (The
Guardian, London).
Christian
History Corner: All of Christian History in 6 Hours
This audio tour de force is strong meat for a mature Christian audience.
By Chris Armstrong.
Science in the News
Archaeology/Anthropology
Death
on the Nile.
Recent discoveries at Abydos including the evidence for human sacrifice
when early Egyptian kings were buried.
50
Minoan graves found.
Archaeologists have found 50 graves in a Late Minoan cemetery at Aghios
Ioannis in Crete. Artifacts indicate that some are warrior burials and others
are family tombs.
Ancient
DNA Reveals Skin Color July 19, 2004
Researchers may be able to make more accurate reconstructions of what ancient
humans looked like with the first ever use of ancient DNA to determine hair
and skin color from skeletal remains.
Family
words came first for early humans
A trawl of a thousand languages suggests that common family words may have
come from the Neanderthals.
Astronomy
First Contact Within
20 Years: Shostak. Mountain View CA (SPX) Jul 22, 2004
If Intelligent life exists elsewhere in our galaxy, advances in computer
processing power and radio telescope technology will ensure we detect their
transmissions within two decades. That's the bold prediction from a leading
light at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute in Mountain
View, California.
Mars
Rover Spirit Finds Bedrock. July 16, 2004
Six months after arriving at Mars for detailed geologic studies, the Spirit
rover finally has reached what scientists came for: bedrock.
New
Martian Meteorite Found In Antarctica. Moffett Field CA (SPX) Jul 21,
2004
While rovers and orbiting spacecraft scour Mars searching for clues to its
past, researchers have uncovered another piece of the red planet in the
most inhospitable place on Earth - Antarctica.
Allan
Hills Meteorite Abiogenic? Moffett Field CA (SPX) Jul 22, 2004
The scientific debate over whether a meteorite contains evidence of past
life on Mars continues to intensify, with colleagues of the team that announced
the possibility in 1996 revealing new findings that may cast doubt on some
of that earlier work.
A Day In The Lives
Of Galaxies. Baltimore MD (SPX) Jul 23, 2004
Like a photographer clicking random snapshots of a crowd of people, NASA's
Hubble Space Telescope has taken a view of an eclectic mix of galaxies.
Space Scopes
Image Massive Black Hole Surrounded By Doughnut-Shaped Cloud. Greenbelt
MD (SPX) Jul 21, 2004
Using ESA's Integral and XMM-Newton observatories, an international team
of astronomers has found more evidence that massive black holes are surrounded
by a doughnut-shaped gas cloud, called a torus.
Astronomers Measure Mass Of A Single Star - First Since The Sun.
SDSS: Dark
Energy, Inflation, & Neutrino Mass News. Princeton NJ (SPX) Jul
21, 2004
Using observations of 3,000 quasars discovered by the Sloan Digital Sky
Survey (SDSS), scientists have made the most precise measurement to date
of the cosmic clustering of diffuse hydrogen gas.
Newborn Star
Observations Provide Details On Sol's Origin. Rochester NY (SPX) Jul
22, 2004
A new study has caught a newborn star similar to the sun in a fiery outburst.
X-ray observations of the flare-up, which are the first of their kind, are
providing important new information about the early evolution of the sun
and the process of planet formation.
Apollo 11 Experiment
Still Going Strong After 35 Years.
Scientists from various institutions who analyze the data from the lunar
laser ranging experiment have observed, among other things, that the Moon
is moving away from the Earth (3.8 cm. a year) and has a fluid core, and
that Einstein's Theory of Relativity is accurate. See also What Neil & Buzz Left On The Moon.
Analysis: NASA Vote
Opens New Space Debate. Washington (UPI) Jul 21 , 2004
The first substantive indication of congressional reaction to President
Bush's proposed space exploration plan appeared Tuesday when the House subcommittee
that oversees NASA's budget made deep cuts to the proposal, writes Frank
Sietzen.
Biology
Researchers
Uncover Surprising Degree Of Large-scale Variation In The Human Genome
A new study by Michael Wigler's group at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has
revealed surprising differences in the DNA of normal cells from different
people.
Green
light for 'designer babies' to save siblings
The last barrier to the creation of babies specifically to save the life
of an ailing brother or sister was swept away by the fertility regulatory
body yesterday to the delight of scientists and alarm of those who fear
the advent of a designer baby age (The Guardian, London).
Scientists
Discover New Intricacies In How Ulcer Bugs Stick To Stomach. St. Louis,
July 22, 2004
Scientists working to develop a vaccine for the bacterium Helicobacter pylori,
the primary cause of ulcers and a contributor to stomach cancers, have uncovered
new intricacies in the way the bacterium sticks to the lining of the human
stomach.
Chagas parasite
invades genome
Typanosomacruzi kinetoplast DNA found in the genomes of infected patients
and animals.
Creation/Evolution
Mutations go tick,
tock
Statistical analysis reveals evidence for molecular clock in neutral DNA
substitutions.
A new book called Random Designer.
The book is written by a Christian biologist and is a practical, authoritative,
and valuable resource. The author takes the reader from the Big Bang up
through the origin of life and the genetic code to the emergence of man.
Random Designer explains how these, and all the rest of the evolutionary
processes, are but the tools of a loving God to establish and nurture life.
Dinosaur Red Blood Cells Found in Fossils?
Earth Science
Moonglow Sheds
Light On Earth's Climate. Newark NJ (SPX) Jul 23, 2004
According to a new NASA-funded study, insights into Earth's climate may
come from an unlikely place: the moon.
Physics
Hawking
Flips on Black Hole Theory. July 16, 2004
It may be time to shift thinking on black holes, for decades believed to
be sucking maws in space from which even light cannot escape. Noted physicist
Stephen Hawking, who has long argued just that, now says he was wrong: black
holes may ultimately allow something to get free. His about face might solve
one of the longest-standing quandaries in quantum physics, called the black
hole information paradox. See also Hawking raises new black holes theory
and Hawking changes his mind about black holes.
Psychology
Good
mothers stop monkeys going bad.
Good mothering can abolish the impact of a "bad" gene for
aggression, suggests a new study, adding spice to the "nature-versus-nurture"
controversy.
Movies
Can Raise Or Lower Hormone Levels
A romantic movie or an action-adventure film can send your hormone levels
in measurably different directions, according to new research.
Technology
'Cool'
Fuel Cells Could Revolutionize Earth's Energy Resources.
Imagine a power source so small, yet so efficient, that it could make
cumbersome power plants virtually obsolete while lowering your electric
bill. A breakthrough in thin film solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) is currently
being refined in labs at the University of Houston, making that dream a
reality.
Tech
Researchers Funded To Smooth Out Kinks In Electromagnetic Propulsion.
Atlanta GA (SPX) Jul 23, 2004
When electromagnetic propulsion was first demonstrated more than a century
ago, it inspired science fiction dreams of rocket-less space launches, magnetic
levitation (maglev) vehicles and super guns.