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This is a quick review of Season 1 and how to locate the actual published articles. Then I outline my plan for Season 2 and describe how Season 2 differs from Season 1.
So, if you found Season 1 interesting, I do hope that you will continue to listen and think with me about ideas in both faith and science in Season 2 of Science & You.
See you soon!.
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Some of the most difficult questions to answer are often the simplest to pose. For example, "Why?" is often impossible to answer. Many have made the observation that the universe and all physical, chemical and biological processes can be understood mathematically, and their mathematical descriptions have a surprising level of consistency to the real world they are intended to represent. There exists, then, this conspiracy of reason in the understanding of the universe. But why should it be so? We are told the universe began in chaos and developed by random chance, without having humans in mind at the beginning. But a random universe is a pointless, purposeless universe, and what is the point of using mathematics to study a pointless universe? Creation Matters Vol. 20 No. 3, p.4, May-June 2015. References: Wiker B and J Witt, 2006. A Meaningful World - How the Arts and Sciences Reveal the Genius of Nature. InterVarsity Press. Downers Grove, IL; Wigner EP 1979. Symmetries and Reflections: Scientific Essays of Eugene P. Wigner. Ox Bow Press: Woodbridge, CT.
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Saknas det avsnitt?
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Animals and people that use a closed circulatory system under positive pressure from the heart face a problem. How to supply every single cell of the body with oxygen and remove metabolic waste? The reason this is problematic is that as the size of a blood vessel decreases, its resistance to the flow of fluid within it increases. If blood were simply water, the heart could not generate the pressure needed to push it through vessels the size of capillaries. This is just a physical fact. The miracle is that in blood, this does not happen because the flow characteristics of blood are changed because it contains 45% by volume of cells. We are not even aware that the design of our circulatory system faced this problem because of the solution that was put in place by the Creator from the very beginning. Creation Matters Vol. 20 No. 2, p.4. March-April 2015. References: Denny, M and A McFadzean, 2011 Engineering Animals: How Life Works. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
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Water makes our planet habitable and life possible. It does so through many unique properties, one of which is the ability to both absorb and dispense heat energy. The water cycle is one key way that heat is moved from warm climates to cooler ones, helping to maintain world-wide temperatures within the range suitable for life. Water is the perfect substance to absorb, store, circulate, and dispense heat on a worldwide basis. These physical properties are what Wiker and Witt call "pre-biological" properties. That is, these abilities were present before life, yet are perfectly suited to support life on Earth. Since by definition, natural selection occurs only in living animals, and water is part of the non-living world, it cannot be natural selection that is responsible for the properties of water. Rather, it means that the Creator had us in mind from the very beginning. Creation Matters Vol. 20 No 4, p.3, July-August 2015. References: Wiker B and J Witt, 2006. A Meaningful World - How the Arts and Sciences Reveal the Genius of Nature. InterVarsity Press. Downers Grove, IL.
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A number of animals have the ability to sense the earth's magnetic field and to orient and move in relation to it. It seems that navigating using this magnetoreception sense is an elegant solution to the problem of finding one's way through an otherwise featureless environment like the ocean, but one that not all sea or land creatures share. Could this same sense have evolved separately in different animal species in response to similar problems? Or is it an example of selective and intelligent application by the Creator of a solution for a known biological problem? Creation Matters Vol. 21 No. 3, p.3, May-June 2016. References: Behe, MJ 1996 Darwin's Black Box. New York: The Free Press (Simon and Schuster); Denny, M and A McFadzean, 2011 Engineering Animals: How Life Works. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; Eder, SHK, H Cadiou, et al. 2012 Magnetic characterization of isolated candidate vertebrate magnetoreceptor cells. PNAS 109(30): 12022-12027; Hart VT, P Kusta et al. 2012 Magnetic alignment of carps: evidence from the Czech Christmas fish market. PLoS One 7(12): e51100; Windheuser, A. 2014 Fishy Business. Personal Communication. Douglas County/USD 497 District science and engineering fair.
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Science has many secrets. Not deep, dark, conspiratorial secrets, but practical secretes that are well-known to trained scientists yet not often revealed to the public. Scientists like to project an aura of authority and calm, unbiased rationality, which might be in jeopardy if these "secrets" were widely appreciated. This is especially true in a world where scientific proof is expected and where scientific arguments influence everyday life. Uplook Magazine, January-February 2010, p.20.
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Using both plants and animals for food by humans is supported by both the Bible and Biology. The biological truth is that animals themselves live off the death of other living things, be they plants or other animals. In this sense, death is essential for life because death provides the building blocks and fuel for life. In many of its films, Disney promotes a fictitious view of nature. Case in point is Bruce, the great white shark in Finding Nemo, goes to a recovery group where he is taught "fish are friends, not food". . . Really? Uplook Magazine, November-December 2007, p.15. References: W.S. Harris. "Fish oil supplementation: Evidence for health benefits," Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine vol. 71(3), 208-221.
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Knocking down the "straw man" is a common debating technique. An opposing view is first described as challenging what everyone knows is true, then showing it is in fact true, and then highlighting how silly it is to believe what the opponent is said to believe. Some people, including a few Christians, seem to think the world is flat. It isn't. But believing this concept opens Christians as a whole to needless ridicule. In a discussion on the origins of life, what is needed is thoughtful, informed discussion because the question of how life originated is still and open question in the 21st century. Uplook Magazine, July 2005, p.18. References: Johnson, P.E. Darwin on Trial. InterVarsity Press. Downers Grove, IL, 1993.
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Part 2 of Living in the Light answers the question about whether the first people, continuously exposed to sunlight during daylight hours, would have faced and increase risk of skin cancer and which type of light is badly needed in our lives today. Uplook Magazine September 2012, p.30.
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After camping in the outdoors it sometimes feels strange to return to living in a box with artificial light. The Bible tells us people were meant to live outside, wearing only our skin. Humans need a certain amount of sunlight because our skin makes vitamin D in response to sun exposure. Because of the way we live now, most people are vitamin D and calcium deficient. So likely the first two humans had plenty of vitamin D, but did they also have a lot of skin cancer? Uplook Magazine July-August 2012, p.30.
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Since the rise of Darwinism in the mid 1800's, and almost universal acceptance of evolutionary theory today, not all intelligent people are persuaded to place their faith in the theory. The sad truth is that the theory has failed to provide a sufficient basis for human morality and justice, for the purpose and value of individual people, and an enduring basis for just government, economics, politics and human freedom. Professor Short was unable to change the beliefs of any of his 150 medical students taking his course on human evolution and feels he has failed Darwin. His only solace is "having sown a few seeds of the truth".... Uplook Magazine November-December 2005, p.4. References: Short, R.V. "Darwin, have I failed you?" The Lancet 343:528-529, 1994; Johnson, P.E. Defeating Darwinism by Opening Minds. InterVarsity Press, 1997.
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Predictions of future dire catastrophes abound in our world today. For example, human population growth will ruin the natural world, a meteor may hit earth and wipe out all life, giant volcanic eruptions could put so much ash into the air that we would experience another ice age, and so on. But the problem with predictions is they cannot be validated until they come to pass. Unless.... Uplook Magazine October 2006, p.4. References: R. Carson, Silent Spring, (New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1962); G.O. Abell, Exploration of the Universe, (New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1974); P. Longman, The Empty Cradle: How falling birthrates threaten world prosperity, (New York, NY: Basic Books, 2004).
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One spring I inadvertently entered a war zone, my backyard. It was a war of my will and landscaping plans against the God-given drive of living things to survive and spread wherever they can. God has designed life to multiply and aggressively fill the Earth even if I have other plans for the same space. But perhaps this is not just a physical battle. Uplook Magazine January-February 2012, p.9.
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Gravity can be annoying. Gravity does not take vacations. It is relentless. Most adults courageously fight the good fight against gravity every day. Teenagers, on the other hand, have not yet taken up the struggle. Perhaps teenagers intuitively sense something that some theoretical physicists are now considering: could gravity be just a grand illusion??? Uplook Magazine December 2006, p.4. References: J. Maldacena, "The Illusion of Gravity," Scientific American, November 2005, 56-63.
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Many people believe that life on earth is fragile and that wild animals and plants need our help if we and they are to survive. As a biologist who is also a Christian, I have a somewhat different view of life and it is clear that without a Biblical perspective, nature is reduced to landscape decorations and a tool for political indoctrination instead of a vibrant reflection of the power and creativity of a loving God. Uplook Magazine November-December 2010, p.4.
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NASA recently sent two probes to Mars to look for water. They must either find existing life, evidence of past life, or conditions that allow life to evolve outside of earth if they hope to convince people that life on earth also evolved from non-living chemicals by chance. Thinking people may ask, if this story is true then where is all the life? Everywhere we look and as far as we can sense with our best instruments, there is no life. There are elements, energy, even water - but no life. So who exactly would E.T. call? Uplook Magazine, January-February 2005, p.29. References: Ward, P.D. and Brownlee, D. Rare Earth: Why complex life is uncommon in the universe. Copernicus. Springer-Verlag, 2000
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Which came first, DNA or protein??? Some think it was proteins forming in warm ocean tidepools. Others think it was actually RNA first, then DNA, then protein. But in order to have DNA some proteins are required and to have functioning proteins the information in DNA is required. So what does it mean if one must have both DNA and protein simultaneously in order to have either one......? Uplook Magazine, March 2005, p. 18. References: A.E. Wilder-Smith. The Natural Sciences Know Nothing of Evolution, Master Books, San Diego, CA 1981.
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The two-word scientific classification for humans is Homo sapiens, which literally means wise or knowing man. But have we named ourselves wisely? Surely we know a lot of information and we are intelligent, but is intelligence the same as wisdom? Uplook Magazine, May-June 2007, p.4. References: B. Sterling, "Homo sapiens declared extinct," Nature, vol. 402, 1999, 125.
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Another word for noticing is observing. Observing is the step where doing science actually begins. But observing is more than just seeing, it is seeing on steroids. To observe is to look with keen interest and an inquiring mind. Seeing only regards what is. But observing (a.k.a. noticing) wonders "Why?" or "How?" and quickly expands into hypothetical reasons and answers. Since what God created does not come with instruction books, the only way to find the answer is by controlled experiments. So science is a logical result of being a noticer. Uplook Magazine, June 2012, p.7.
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Things are sometimes more than they appear, and can tell us more than the obvious. Seeds are not yet what they will be. An acorn is genetically an oak tree but only a fraction of the size and mass of the mature tree. Like all seeds, the job of the acorn is simply to survive until conditions are right for it to reactivate and begin to grow. There is truly a sense in which the seed form may die by germination but, in doing so, brings forth an abundance of fruit Seeds provide many unique ways for life to spread since the plant itself is tied to one spot. But what do seeds tell us beyond the obvious? Uplook Magazine September-October 2013, p.30.
- Visa fler
