Focus: news of interest about creation and evolution
Ice increasing
Notwithstanding recent well-publicized collapses in the ice shelves, there is more
Antarctic ice than there was 20 years ago. Satellite pictures show an increase of
over 200,000 km2 (77,000 sq. miles) of ice floating in the Southern Ocean
around Antarctica.
Does this imply that the planet is getting colder? Ironically, it has been interpreted
as ‘further proof of global warming.’ NASA researchers attribute the
ice build-up to greater snowfall, resulting from the higher humidity due to the
increased evaporation generated by warmer temperatures.
New Scientist, 1 June 2002, p. 6.
Higher humidity, increased evaporation, and greater snowfall would have also applied
during the Ice Age. But long-age theorists cannot explain how these prerequisites
for an ice age came about. (The ‘solar warming’ mechanism cannot account
for the vast ice sheets of the past.) An ice age requires the seemingly paradoxical
situation of warm oceans and cold land masses—precisely what creationists
say existed following the Flood, with ocean waters still warm from mixing with the
‘fountains of the great deep’ (Genesis
7:11), and associated volcanic ash/clouds shading the land. See interview
with Michael Oard (Tackling
the big freeze) and his book,
An Ice Age caused by the Genesis Flood, ICR, California, 1990.
Cell ‘switchboard’
Large manufacturers need centralized communication so things are supplied when and
where needed, and in the right amounts. So, too, in living cells—researchers
have discovered that cells have a ‘switchboard system’ that coordinates
‘the barrage of cues and messages they receive and transmit.’
It had been thought that cell communication, or ‘signal transduction,’
was an ‘automatic’ cascade of biochemical events. But this study found
that even before a message makes it through the outer cell membrane to the inner
nucleus, the cell activates a molecular switch to guide how and in what form the
message will be delivered.
‘Our results add a layer of complexity to understanding how messages are communicated
by cells,’ says one researcher. ‘Without this switchboard system, the
cell would go crazy and overload.’
Nature, 20 June 2002, pp. 858–861.
Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, <www.hopkinsmedicine.org/press/2002/June/020625.htm>,
5 August 2002.
In Darwin’s time, the cell was considered a simple ‘blob of protoplasm’—a
basic building block of life. But as research progressively reveals the staggeringly
complex structure and function of the cell and its subcomponents (e.g. see
The World’s Tiniest Motor), how can anyone
continue to claim ‘no Designer was necessary’?!
Ancestral trio?
Evolutionists have long taught that all life on earth originated from a single ancestor
cell.
But this is now being challenged by a new theory. It argues that ‘the three
fundamental types of cells that [are thought by evolutionists to] form the building
blocks of present-day life actually evolved independently, not in an orderly succession
from a common ancestor.’
New Scientist, 22 June 2002, p. 10.
It seems that the scientifically hopeless task of explaining how one ancestor organism
could arise from dead matter has just become three times harder.
Norwegian ‘Nessie’?
A scientific team which previously looked for the Loch Ness monster has turned its
attention to Lake Roemsjoen in south-eastern Norway.
The most recent sighting of the ‘Roemsjoen monster’ was in 2001, with
the eyewitness describing how, after she spotted it on the shore and threw a stone
at it, ‘the large black animal’ slipped into the water. Earlier reports
(dating back as far as the 18th century) speak of a creature, with humps,
up to about 15 m (50 ft) long, and of local people being startled by sudden waves
and turbulence.
In scouring the 15-km (9-mile)-long lake, the team hopes to detect and photograph
the creature using high-tech radar and sonar equipment.
BBC News, <news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_2043000/2043588.stm>,
12 July 2002.
Sunday Herald, <www.sundayherald.com/25493>, 12 July 2002.
Past blast—future date?
One morning in 1908 a mysterious explosion—long thought to have been a comet
(or something similar) disintegrating a few kilometres above ground—flattened
and burnt more than 2,100 km2 (800 sq. miles) of a remote Siberian forest.
But with no fragments of any cosmic object ever having been found, some geologists
now say the evidence points to an explosion of a large gas cloud, which formed over
the area when underground gases were released (and later ignited).
This theory accounts for the unusual weather and increased seismic activity in the
days before the explosion. The cooling effect as the escaping gas rapidly lost pressure
could also explain why some trees near the blast centre were not burnt.
But one puzzle remains. Geologists who tried to carbon date the soil found it so
enriched with carbon-14 that it shows up as a future date.
New Scientist, 7 September 2002, p. 14.
Dating techniques assume that the amount of a certain
isotope in the material being analyzed is an indicator of the age
of that material. Such assumptions can be quite wrong, as this example demonstrates.
(See also
The Answers Book, ch. 4.)
Arctic Redwood
‘Spectacularly preserved’ Metasequoia wood has been found at
the Fossil Forest site of Axel Heiberg Island (Canadian High Arctic).
‘Some of this stuff looks about like driftwood on the beach, but it’s
45 million years old,’ said one researcher. ‘These fossils are chemically
preserved at a level you usually would expect to see in something that’s only
1,000 years old.’
GSA Today, January 2002, pp. 4–9.
Science Daily Magazine, <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/03/020322074547.htm>,
26 May 2002.
This is not surprising, given the biblical thousands-of-years timeframe for the
world, rather than the claimed 45 million years for this wood.
Evolution in pollution?
Under a headline ‘Darwin’s theory holds true in Northern Territory,’
the media release from the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation
explained that, ‘thanks to 40 years of evolution,’ fish in Australia’s
Finnis River have learned to live with copper pollution from mine wastes.
‘Each year a majority of rainbow fish were killed in the first flush of heavy
metals downstream at the start of each wet season,’ said one researcher. ‘However,
the few remaining fish passed their ability to survive onto their offspring.’
But the down-side is that the adaptation to high levels of pollution ‘may
have occurred at the expense of some other traits that are important for their survival.’
ANSTO, <www.ansto.gov.au/info/press/2002/p063.html>,17 September
2002.
While the headline might shout that evolution is true, closer reading shows that
it was not evolution but simply natural selection. Fish which had the genetic makeup
to survive copper pollution were already present in the population,
i.e. no new genes evolved. And in common with many similar examples of adaptation
to some new harsh external factor, ‘at the expense of some other traits’
suggests a mutational loss of information.
Church teenagers better behaved
US teenagers who regularly attend church (at least once per week) are much less
likely than their peers to commit crimes or get into other troubles that plague
many adolescents, according to a University of North Carolina study.
Teens professing strong religious commitment were less likely to smoke, drink, use
drugs, commit theft or be involved in violence. They received fewer traffic tickets,
wore seat belts more, tried to stay healthy, and were more likely to be involved
in volunteering and other community activities.
‘Religious 12th graders argued with parents less, skipped school
less, exercised more, participated more in student government, and faced fewer detentions,
suspensions, and expulsions,’ said one researcher. ‘These findings were
statistically significant even after we controlled for race, age, sex, region, education
of parents, the number of brothers and sisters, and other factors.’
University of North Carolina, <www.unc.edu/news/newsserv/research/smithcr091702.htm>,20
September 2002.
‘For the Lord gives wisdom … to deliver you
from the way of evil, … So you will walk in the way of good men and keep
to the paths of the righteous’ (Proverbs
2:6, 12, 20).
Early astronomers
A stone obelisk near Quito in the Ecuadorian Andes marks the equator—as calculated
by an expedition of French astronomers in 1736. Unfortunately, it is in the wrong
place. The actual equator, as measured by satellite positioning equipment, lies
about 300 m (1,000 ft) to the north, where a low semicircular wall dating from the
tenth century stands. This wall precisely follows the arc of the sun’s shadow
as the earth tilts between the winter and the summer solstices, 22 December to 21
June.
So how did the builders of this wall calculate the position of the equator without
the benefit of modern satellites? One archaeologist believes he has uncovered evidence
of a pre-Incan civilization dating back to 1500 BC which had a sophisticated astronomy
to calculate the movement of the sun.
Geographical, September 2002, pp. 36–39.
Eugenics history suppressed
Until Oregon’s sterilization law was repealed in 1983, the Board of Eugenics
and its successor (from 1967), the Board of Social Protection, oversaw the forced
sterilization of 2,650 ‘defectives.’ But at a time when survivors are
seeking an apology from the Governor for the state’s eugenics law, documents
recording the forced sterilizations have disappeared or been shredded.
Ironically, it was the Portland Habilitation Center—one of the state’s
largest employers of people with disabilities—which held the state contract
to shred the records. As one official said, ‘The very people who at one time
would have been put in harm’s way by the Board [of Eugenics], instead made
a living wage shredding the remnants of its work.’
Some records do exist, e.g. that show 26 people were sterilized at Oregon State
Hospital over a two-year period, as well as medical notes such as the laboratory
analysis of tissue. But the rationale for the sterilizations does not appear, apart
from vague references to ‘hygienic reasons.’
The Oregonian, <www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?
/base/news/1028030290179750.xml>, 26 September 2002.
‘Eugenics’ is the term coined by Charles Darwin’s cousin, Francis
Galton, to denote the ‘science’ of improving the genetic condition of
the human race. As we have already reported, evolutionary theory inspired forced
sterilization programs in other places, e.g. Virginia and Vermont. (See
The Holocaust and evolution;
The lies of Lynchburg.) Nazi eugenics laws were modeled on those framed by US
evolutionists.
Altruistic seal
A seal saved an injured dog from drowning in the UK’s River Tees, near Middlesborough.
Eyewitness Chris Hinds, 43, reported that the stricken Alsatian-Labrador cross,
bleeding from its head and leg, was about to drown in the river’s wild and
dangerous currents. A seal suddenly appeared, and after circling the dog, used its
nose to shunt it firmly to the river bank. It then swam back to the middle of the
river and waited until Mr Hinds reached the dog.
‘It is the sort of thing you see in Disney films and children’s programmes,
complete fantasy nonsense, but it happened right in front of me,’ Mr Hinds
said. ‘It was truly amazing to watch.’
Daily Mail, 20 June 2002, p. 43.
Such things seem nigh-impossible for Darwinian (including ‘selfish gene’)
notions to explain. They give us a hint of what an unfallen world might have been
like (without the injury and drowning, of course).
‘Superbug’ did not evolve
A new strain of Staphylococcus aureus which is resistant to the antibiotic
vancomycin has been found in a hospital patient in Michigan, USA.
DNA sequence analysis revealed that the new strain did not ‘evolve’
resistant genes, but acquired them by gene transfer from relatively harmless gut
bacteria called enterococci, carried by the same patient.
Nature, 1 August 2002, p. 469.
That is, the information was already present. In every case known, antibiotic resistance
is never the result of new genetic information evolving into
existence. See Superbugs—not super after all
and Anthrax and antibiotics.
Grisly gems
You can wear your dear departed on a ring, says LifeGem Memorials.
This firm uses heat and pressure to convert cremated human remains into blue diamonds
which, they say, ‘possess the same quality as diamonds found at high-end jewellers.’
And which, ‘just like natural diamonds, are certified by the industry leading
European Gemmological Laboratories.’
Their advertising states that a ‘diamond that takes millions
of years to occur naturally can now be created from the carbon of your loved one
in a matter of months.’
LifeGem, <www.lifegem.com/secondary/history.htm>,
25 September 2002.
This is ironic, since their process (which we are definitely
not endorsing) actually shows the opposite, i.e. given the heat and pressure deep
in the earth, diamonds would not need millions of years to form naturally.
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