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News:
March 8, 2005
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Religion in the News
Global Suspense
The trick of faith is to believe in advance what will only make sense in
reverse. By Philip Yancey.
Who's Driving
This Thing?
Everyone wants to name the leaders of the evangelical movement. By Ted Olsen.
Islam's Culture
War
Author says Muslims are troubled by our morals more than our politics. Reviewed
by J. Dudley Woodberry.
House
okays job training bill with faith provision
The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday approved legislation on job
training, despite Democratic objections to a provision that would allow
faith-based programs to use religion as a hiring criterion (Reuters).
High
court seeks line between law, religion
Kentucky case brings hundreds to Washington (The Courier-Journal,
Louisville, Ky.).
Hook, line,
and sink 'em
What's the NAE really trying to say? (Kathryn Joyce & Jeff Sharlet,
The Revealer).
Pastor
visits BTK suspect in jail
On the same day he was fired from his job, the suspect in the BTK serial
killings got assurances he will continue to be a member the church where
he is a leader (Associated Press).
Welcome to Doomsday
Fundamentalists want to destroy the earth (Bill Moyers, New York Review
of Books).
Science in the News
Archaeology/Anthropology
Vatican
archaeologist
Paul really is buried where the church said he is Giorgio Filippi, a archeology
specialist with the Vatican Museums, says a sarcophagus containing the remains
of the apostle Paul has been discovered in the basilica of San Paolo Fuori
le Mura (St. Paul Outside the Walls).
Tut
Not Murdered Violently, Scans Show
CT scans of King Tutankhamun found no physical evidence of murder. But they
did reveal unusual features, including a broken leg that may have helped
kill him.
'Man
The Hunter' Theory Is Debunked In New Book (February 26, 2005)
In a new book, an anthropologist at Washington University in St. Louis goes
against the prevailing view and argues that primates, including early humans,
evolved not as hunters but as prey of many predators, including wild dogs
and cats, hyenas, eagles and crocodiles.
Astronomy
Seeing The
Invisible - First Dark Galaxy Discovered? Manchester, UK (SPX) Feb 24,
2005
A British-led team of astronomers have discovered an object that appears
to be an invisible galaxy made almost entirely of dark matter - the first
ever detected.
Black Holes
In A Radar Trap Garching, Germany (SPX) Feb 25, 2005
European astronomers succeeded for the first time to confirm the signatures
predicted near Black Holes by Albert Einstein's theory of Relativity in
the light of the cosmic X-ray background.
Black
holes bend light the 'wrong' way
Refraction effect may be distorting astronomers' results.
NASA's Cassini
Spacecraft Continues Making New Discoveries Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 25,
2005
NASA's Cassini spacecraft continues making new and exciting discoveries.
New findings include wandering and rubble-pile moons; new and clumpy Saturn
rings; splintering storms and a dynamic magnetosphere.
New images reveal
volcanic hotspot on Mars
Pictures from the Mars Express spacecraft suggest recent volcanic activity
may have spewed out water and ash - it may be happening still.
In
The Stars: Starmaking's Helping Hand Washington (UPI) Mar 03, 2005
Science has come a long way since the days of the clockwork universe, when
the stars of the night sky remained fixed in their positions and the objects
the Greeks called planets, or "wanderers," followed precise and
simple paths across the heavens.
Launch site
secured for space tourists.
The race to launch the first commercial passenger spacecraft is gaining
pace as one of the Ansari X Prize competitors, AERA Corporation, signed
an agreement with the US Air Force on Monday to use the launch services
at Cape Canaveral, Florida. It is the first space tourism company to do
so and claims it may be ready to offer tourist flights as early as 2006.
Genesis capsule
reveals solar wind secrets
Particles of solar wind have been successfully extracted from NASA's Genesis
space capsule, despite its spectacular crash landing in 2004.
Biology
HIV
Protein's Protean Prowess Revealed
HIV is a consummate trickster. Availed of a human body, it can thrive for
years on end, foiling the immune system's attempts to squelch it. All the
while, it continues to infect host cells. Scientists have recognized for
some time that a single protein on the virus's outer membrane known as gp120
is responsible for much of this chicanery. New research is yielding fresh
insights into how the protein operates.
New retroviruses
jump from monkeys to humans
The discovery of two viruses in bushmeat hunters suggests the species jump
- which happened with HIV - may not be such a rare phenomenon.
Paste
for Teeth Repairs Cavities: March 1, 2005
A team of Japanese dentists has invented a paste of synthetic enamel that
seamlessly heals small cavities, according to a paper in the latest journal
Nature.
Creation/Evolution
"Hobbit"
Brains Were Small but Smart
Tiny, newfound fossils are in fact from a new human species, says a study
that could turn evolution theory on its head.
Science,
'frauds' trigger a decline in atheism
Godlessness is in trouble, according to a growing consensus among philosophers,
intellectuals and scholars (UPI).
Creationism: from the US, with love (Stephen Pincock).
Journals and intelligent design (Graciela Flores).
Bryan
Appleyard meets Richard Dawkins
The fault is not in our genes but in our minds. Here are two recent news
stories: we’ve found the genes that make people believe in God and
that make women unfaithful. At a stroke, scientists have scuppered religion
and taken the moral sting out of infidelity. If you think you have any of
these genes, go to your doctor at once and get them removed.
The
Science and Religion Dialogue: Where It Stands Today and Why It Matters,
by George F. R. Ellis
"Science and religion are two major long-term themes of human thought-indeed
two dominating aspects of human culture, each making major contributions
to how we live and think. At issue here is the way we understand ultimate
reality and humanity: the very nature of existence."
Evolution
revolution
Scientists and educators fear conservative muscle could force religious
ideology into public schools (Deidre Pike, Las Vegas City Life).
Earth Science
Antarctic Ice
Shelf Retreat Nothing New Say British Antarctic Survey Scientists Durham,
UK (SPX) Feb 24, 2005
The retreat of Antarctic ice shelves is not new according to research published
this week (24 Feb) in the journal Geology by scientists from Universities
of Durham, Edinburgh and British Antarctic Survey (BAS).
Geologists
Discover Clockwork Motion By Ocean Floor Microplates Durham NC (SPX)
Feb 24, 2005
A team of geologists from Duke University and the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution has discovered a grinding, coordinated ballet of crustal "microplates"
unfolding below the equatorial east Pacific Ocean within a construction
zone for new seafloor.
Physics
Moonbeams Shine
On Einstein, Galileo And Newton Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 07, 2005
Thirty-five years after Moon-walking astronauts placed special reflectors
on the lunar surface, scientists have used these devices to test Albert
Einstein's general theory of relativity to unprecedented accuracy.
Scientists Work
To Detect Mysterious Neutrinos Livermore CA (SPX) Mar 07, 2005
Livermore scientists are working to solve a 50-year-old question: Can neutrinos
– a particle that is relatively massless, has no electric charge yet
is fundamental to the make-up of the universe – transform from one
type to another?
Technology
Tiny particles
Could Solve Billion-Dollar Problem Houston TX (SPX) Feb 24, 2005
New research from Rice University's Center for Biological and Environmental
Nanotechnology finds that nanoparticles of gold and palladium are the most
effective catalysts yet identified for remediation of one of the nation's
most pervasive and troublesome groundwater pollutants, trichloroethene or
TCE.
Zoology
Hydrogen
And Methane Sustain Unusual Life At Sea Floor's 'Lost City'
The hydrothermal vents at the ocean bottom were miles from any location
scientists could have imagined. One massive seafloor vent was 18 stories
tall. All were creamy white and gray, suggesting a very different composition
than the hydrothermal vent systems that have been studied since the 1970s.