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Cell Biology

Stem Cell News: Adults Still Lead
August 6, 2010
Stem cells are still hot.  Most of the significant findings are coming from adult stem cells (AS) or induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) rather than embryonic stem cells (ES).  For example, a PhysOrg article described progress at the University of Michigan in predicting what cell types stem cells will become.  Nothing was said in the […]
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Darwin and Evolution

God Forbid: Public School Field Trips to a Creation Zoo?
August 6, 2010
Is it legal?  Can a public school take kids to a creation zoo?  Environment reporter Michael Marshall at New Scientist just about had a fit when he heard that “A UK zoo that pushes a creationist message has been approved as a destination for school trips by the government.”  That could never happen in America, […]
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Education

Best Face-on-Mars Photo Looks Dead
August 3, 2010
Conspiracy theorists will probably have little to say now that the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has taken the clearest photo yet of the alleged “Face on Mars” in Cydonia.  For the before and after photos, see PhysOrg.  The new photo is clearly an eroded, rocky mesa – that’s all, folks. Use this as a teachable moment.  […]
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Bible and Theology

Is Our World Natural?
July 27, 2010
At first glance, the headline sounds absurd: is our world natural?  Of course the world is natural.  Nature is natural, isn’t it?  Often, though, we picture what humans do as unnatural – oil spills, landfills, pollution, nuclear waste, crime, war.  But if humans are a part of nature, then whatever they do is natural.  Some […]
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Bible and Theology

The Evolution of Integrity
July 23, 2010
Scientists are having to deal with a crisis that overlaps with theology: integrity.  What is integrity?  Where did it come from?  How could it evolve?  How is it to be measured?  Questions like these are usually not answered with ammeters and test tubes, but they must be faced.  A crisis of integrity in scientific research […]
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Bible and Theology

Exorcising Nazi Ghosts Continues
July 18, 2010
With so many books and documentaries on the Nazi era and World War II, one would think the subject has been worked over to death by historians, and nothing else needs to be said.  Surprisingly, new documents keep coming to light.  Some new ones reported by Science magazine are especially disturbing: they show a willing […]
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Bible and Theology

Spinning Webs of Belief: Accounting for George Price
July 16, 2010
It’s instructive to take a story and compare how evolutionists and creationists report it.  A recent example can be found in the story of George Price: an ex-atheist scientist who, as a creationist, contributed original ideas to evolutionary theory.  How did reviewers from both sides of the origins aisle characterize his creationist beliefs?     […]
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Bible and Theology

Is Psychology Adding Scientific Knowledge?
July 8, 2010
Psychologists have a knack for proving the obvious.  It leads to a question, though: do we really need their help? Broken relationships are bad:  A press release on PhysOrg about a study at the University of Queensland reported that “Separation has an enormous impact on both men and women.” Rudeness at work is bad:  According […]
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Biomimetics

Productive Science Imitates Nature
July 7, 2010
Examples continue to accumulate that some of the most interesting and fruitful science projects involve copying design principles found in nature.  This “biomimetics” approach not only pleases the consumers who can look forward to greener, cheaper, better products, but leads to deeper understandings of nature’s workings. Gecko adhesives:  PhysOrg published a story on the ongoing […]
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Bible and Theology

Artifact Found from Biblical Time of Judges
July 4, 2010
A chariot linchpin has been found in Israel that appears to date from the time of the book of Judges.  The linchpin (a cover over the axle) contains a carved image of a woman, and is being dated at around 1200 BC.  The discoverer believes the location is the site of ancient Harosheth Haggoyim, the […]
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Education

What Good Are Science Societies?
June 25, 2010
It’s the 350th anniversary of the Royal Society, England’s oldest and most prestigious scientific organization.  Amid the celebrations are essays and commentaries about the role scientific societies play for the public, the government, and the advancement of natural knowledge.  It should only be expected that the scientific journals will give the positive side, but between […]
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Bible and Theology

Evolution Tries to Figure Out Dads
June 19, 2010
Why did evolution produce fathers?  After male adult humans deliver their genetic component of the zygote, what are they good for?  This is a subject in which the Darwinian and the Judeo-Christian concepts of fatherhood begin at opposite poles.  But they have to converge on the practical observations of what fathers do best when they […]
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Bible and Theology

An Ugly Head Rises in Lenin’s Land
June 16, 2010
According to Andy Coghlan, reporter for New Scientist, the spectre of an “ugly head” is rising in Russia.  What is it?  It’s not atheism, because Coghlan admits that Russia once made that the state religion.  It’s not communism, because Coghlan admits “Godless communism” once prevailed in the Soviet Union.  No, it is an ugly head […]
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Cell Biology

Stem Cells: Hope, Politics, Charity, and Clarity
May 30, 2010
Those promising little cells that can differentiate into almost any tissue continue to make news – but they also continue to generate controversy.  Actually, only some of them generate controversy: the embryonic stem cells.  Not all of the articles about stem cells make that clear.  Defining life:  With the stroke of a pen, South Korea […]
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Bible and Theology

The Factor Economists Neglected in their Models: Integrity
May 28, 2010
Is economics a science?  It’s on that borderland that has many things in common with the sciences; it is highly law-governed (law of supply and demand, for instance); it uses mathematical models; it uses experimental methods; it develops theories.  Granted for the time being that it is a kind of science (albeit a “soft science” […]
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