Today's New Reason To Believe Archives

June 2006

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Friday, June 30, 2006
GRB Measurements Confirm Cosmological Parameters

  • Cosmological measurements determined by a new technique confirm RTB’s cosmic creation model. One way scientists test previously successful models is by developing new, independent testing methods. A pair of Chinese astronomers developed a novel technique for extracting cosmological parameters using distant, powerful gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The usefulness of GRBs lies in their tremendous energy output, which enables astronomers to see them at larger distances than supernovae. Using GRBs, the astronomers determined the mass density and space-energy density of the universe and found that both values matched previously determined quantities. This independent confirmation of the cosmological parameters affirms the validity of RTB’s cosmic creation model.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Thursday, June 29, 2006
More Evidence that Pseudogenes are Not Junk DNA

  • New research indicates the functional importance of two types of "junk" (noncoding) DNA sequences known as duplicated and processed pseudogenes, respectively. Junk DNA has become an icon of evolution. Evolutionary biologists maintain that because junk DNA is an imperfection, it provides incontrovertible evidence for evolution. Numerous recent studies, however, have identified functions for many types of junk DNA. This most recent analysis of human, chimpanzee, and mouse genomes identifies a number of duplicated and processed pseudogenes that function as bona fide genes in the aforementioned genomes. The growing recognition of the functional importance of junk DNA undermines one of evolution’s best arguments and suggests that careful planning by an intelligent Designer, rather than undirected, random biochemical events, shaped the genomes of organisms.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Wednesday, June 28, 2006
More Design in the Solar System

  • Planetary scientists’ increasingly tumultuous picture of the early solar system argues for greater fine-tuning to produce a life-supporting planet such as Earth. Comets reside largely in the cold outer reaches of the solar system. However, recent samples returned from a cometary mission contain bits of rock forged in white-hot heat. Either violent activity from the early sun melted inner solar system material and flung it to the far reaches of the solar system, or material from similar activity around other stars mixed with the early solar nebula when the comets formed. In either case, as the image of the early solar system becomes more turbulent, the likelihood of a stable, life-supporting planet forming amidst the tumult diminishes. RTB’s cosmic creation model posits a supernatural Creator who works within these hostile conditions to ensure a suitable habitat for man.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Bat Echolocation: One of Nature’s Optimal Designs

  • Recent work characterizing the strategy used by insectivorous bats to catch prey provides another example of thoughtful design in nature. Researchers demonstrated that echolocating (detecting by sound waves) bats use a strategy called constant absolute target direction to pursue and intercept prey that moves erratically. This is different from the strategy (constant bearing) used by most pursuit animals to intercept moving prey. Researchers have learned that a constant-absolute-target-direction strategy minimizes the time it takes to intercept targets that move unpredictably. In fact, this strategy is employed in guided missiles for the same reasons that bats use it. Such optimal designs in nature point to the existence of an intelligent Creator.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Monday, June 26, 2006
Martian Lowlands are Old

  • Planetary scientists have found more evidence against Mars’ ever being inhabitable. Scientists have long known that Mars’ southern highlands formed more than 4 billion years ago and show no evidence of liquid water since that time. However, the northern lowlands were believed to have formed significantly later, possibly being reshaped by abundant liquid water. However, new observations by the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter revealed a large population of visible and buried impact basins, which were then used to determine the age of the northern lowlands. The scientists concluded that the northern lowlands formed within 500 million years of Mars’ formation. This puts the lowlands’ formation before the end of the late heavy bombardment (a time when the inner solar system was bombarded with numerous cometary and asteroidal impacts), essentially precluding significant resurfacing by liquid water. Without abundant liquid water, the possibility of Mars’ suitability for life dramatically diminishes and Earth looks even rarer as a suitable habitat for advanced life.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Sunday, June 25, 2006
Animal Death Caused by Sharks May Play a Role in Ecosystem Stability

  • A letter exchange in Science raises the possibility that the predatory activity of sharks promotes the stability of coral reef ecosystems by controlling grouper fish numbers. Young-earth creationists blame animal death on Adam and Eve’s rebellion in the Garden of Eden, insisting that death did not exist before the Fall. Old-earth creationists, on the other hand, maintain that animal death existed prior to the Fall and that it is part of God’s good design. According to the latter view, animal death plays a key role in promoting ecosystem stability. This view gains support as ecologists continue to affirm the critical importance of animal death. Predatory activity appears to be part of the natural order that God instituted at the time of creation.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Saturday, June 24, 2006
Human Degradation of the Environment

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Friday, June 23, 2006
Can Man Do It Better? Nature’s Design Inspires Engineers

  • The recent production of a man-made artificial eye highlights the elegant designs found throughout nature. Engineers turned to insect compound eyes for the inspiration and insight needed to produce an artificial compound eye. Prior to this work, technologists had limited options for applications that required wide-field-of-view imaging and detection. Lenses were bulky, expensive, and extremely difficult to align. The new design compares favorably with the compound eyes of insects and holds promise for diverse applications ranging from medicine to security surveillance. Does it make sense to view the elegant designs in nature as the product of blind, undirected, random processes when they inspire and teach the best engineers in the world how to design superior systems?
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Thursday, June 22, 2006
Supernova in LMC Much Older than 10,000 Years

  • Astronomers have discovered another piece of evidence for an ancient universe. The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) galaxy resides 160,000 light years from Earth. The fact that astronomers can observe the galaxy argues for a cosmos at least 160,000 years old. Recently, observations from the Chandra X-ray satellite permitted the dating of a supernova in the LMC at 30,000 years. These results fit naturally and expectedly in RTB’s cosmic creation model, in which the universe dates to 13.73 billion years. However, the same data strains any model positing a 6,000- to 10,000-year-old cosmos. As scientific advance reveals more data about the universe, the case for an old cosmos grows-as do the problems for young-cosmos models.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Faulty Design in Photosynthesis Discovered To Be Perfectly Optimized

  • New work on the characteristics of an enzyme that plays a key role in photosynthesis provides an effective response to one of the most compelling arguments for evolution. Biologists point to seemingly faulty designs in nature as evidence for evolution. One widely recognized example of a "poor" biochemical design is the enzyme ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase, which plays a key role in photosynthesis. This enzyme (which converts carbon dioxide and ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate into two 3-carbon sugars that eventually yield glucose) works at an extremely slow rate and is readily confused by the presence of oxygen. The biochemical confusion results because carbon dioxide and oxygen are featureless molecules that are difficult to tell apart. However, scientists have found that by slowing down the rate of chemical conversion, the enzyme is able to discriminate between carbon dioxide and oxygen. Thus, the enzyme appears to be perfectly optimized to handle carbon dioxide binding in the presence of oxygen. This classic example of a biochemical imperfection is now recognized as an elegantly designed system.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Meteorites Reveal Design in Solar System Formation

  • New understanding of the formation and movement of iron meteorites reveals fine-tuning in the early solar system. The iron meteorites currently populate the main asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter), but astronomers have great difficulty finding suitable locations in that region of the solar system where the meteorites could form. In the early solar system, there were not enough radioactive materials to cause the required melting. Instead, recent research indicates the meteorites were formed closer to the sun and subsequently scattered out to the asteroid belt. However, such movement of solar system bodies during the early solar system necessitates greater fine-tuning to prevent catastrophic disruptions to Earth’s capacity to support life. Such fine-tuning is expected by RTB’s biblical creation model.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Monday, June 19, 2006
Biochemical Design: Molecular Fine-Tuning

  • New understanding of an "imperfection" in cellular chemistry reveals evidence for design. Transfer RNAs (tRNAs) play an important role in protein synthesis. During protein synthesis, the cell uses tRNAs to ferry amino acids to the ribosome. It’s here that the ribosome’s machinery links amino acids together to form proteins. The cell uses 20 different amino acids to form proteins. Each amino acid has its own specific tRNA molecule that binds it and takes it to the ribosome. If the amino acid binds to the wrong tRNA, an error in protein synthesis will occur. New work shows the critical importance of unusual structural features in tRNAs, called mispaired bases. These mispaired bases occur infrequently and would typically be considered imperfections in this molecule’s structure. The latest research, however, indicates that these few mispaired bases play a significant role by ensuring the proper binding of amino acids to tRNAs. Such fine-tuning of biochemical systems points to the work of a supernatural Creator.
  • William H. McClain, "Surprising Contribution to Aminoacylation and Translation of Non-Watson-Crick Pairs in tRNA," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 103 (2006): 4570-75.
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  • "Fine-tuning of Aquaporin Membrane," ("The Physics of Sin") Creation Update (6-04-2002)
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  • Travels to the Nanoworld, by Michael Gross

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Sunday, June 18, 2006
Design Revealed in Local Cluster of Galaxies

  • A better understanding of the dynamics of the local cluster of galaxies has provided more evidence for design in the Milky Way Galaxy (MWG). Astronomers have long known of a warp in the disk of the MWG, but they did not understand the warp’s cause. Recent simulations show that the interaction of the MWG with the Magellanic Clouds-two small satellite galaxies in the local cluster-accurately reproduces the observed warp. However, if the Magellanic Clouds (or any other satellite galaxies) were any closer to the MWG, the warp of the disk would cause detrimental instabilities to the solar system region. RTB’s cosmic creation model predicts such fine-tuning as the work of a supernatural Creator preparing a fit habitat for life.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Saturday, June 17, 2006
Biochemical Design: Quality Control of Protein Production

  • Researchers have buttressed the evidence that life’s chemistry emanates from a Creator by shedding light on a previously poorly understood feature of the quality control operations associated with protein synthesis. During protein synthesis, the cell employs molecules called transfer RNAs (tRNAs) to ferry amino acids to the ribosome. It’s here that the ribosome’s machinery links amino acids together to form proteins. The cell uses 20 different amino acids to form proteins. Each amino acid has its own specific tRNA molecule that binds it and takes it to the ribosome. If the amino acid binds to the wrong tRNA, an error in protein synthesis will occur. The cell employs a quality control procedure to ensure that the proper amino acid binds to the tRNA. The better understood aspect of this procedure occurs after the amino acid binds. But the new work provides details about the quality control operation prior to amino acid binding. Human engineers design systems that include quality control checkpoints at critical junctures to ensure efficient production of high-quality products. Since many biochemical operations inside the cell also employ such quality control procedures, it makes sense to invoke the work of an intelligent Designer.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Friday, June 16, 2006
New Constraint on "Changing" Constants

  • Detailed measurements confirm the biblical idea of unchanging laws of physics ("the fixed laws of heaven and earth"-Jeremiah 33:25). As light passes through hydrogen gas, the gas absorbs very specific wavelengths of light. The wavelengths absorbed depend on the ratio between the proton and electron masses. A team of European scientists compared the wavelengths absorbed in laboratory experiments with astronomical results obtained from gas clouds 12 billion light years away from Earth. The comparison revealed that the proton-electron mass ratio has not changed by more than one part in 5000 over the last 12 billion years-the most precise measurement to date. These results affirm RTB’s cosmic creation model, which predicts the near constancy of the laws of physics.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Thursday, June 15, 2006
Insects Are Part of God’s Good Design

  • A new study reveals the critical importance of insects in the wild for supporting advanced civilizations. Researchers from the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation estimated the minimum worth of wild insects to the US economy at $57 billion. These workers considered only four activities in their assessment: disposal of dung; control of crop pests; pollination; and nutrition for wildlife. They did not factor into their study the activity and worth of domesticated insects, like honeybees. When asked what his study of nature told him about God, the legendary biologist J. B. S. Haldane quipped, "The Creator must have an inordinate fondness for beetles. He made so many of them." For Haldane, the existence of large numbers of seemingly unnecessary beetle species was prima facie evidence for evolution. But recent work indicates that the bewildering diversity of insects may well have a divine purpose.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Too Much Galactic Structure

  • A better understanding of how a galaxy’s spiral arms form reveals the special location and timing of the solar system. As dense molecular clouds pass through the spiral arms (regions of star formation that spiral out from the center), they drag material from the spiral arms into the voids as they leave the arms. As this material makes additional passes through the spiral structure, further substructure forms. Thus, as spiral galaxies age, they develop so much substructure that the probability for planetary systems, like the solar system, to encounter disruptive dense regions dramatically increases. So, a life-supporting solar system must form sufficiently late for stars to produce the life-essential metals but before the extensive disruptive substructure forms. The solar system not only formed at the proper time, but also its location allows it to avoid the disruptive substructure for the longest possible time. Such fine-tuning challenges evolutionary models but is predicted by RTB’s cosmic creation model.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Biochemical Design: Machine-Like Biomolecules

  • Biochemists from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have shown that electrical conductance in DNA-repair processes adds to the evidence that life comes from a Creator. In the last two decades scientists have come to recognize that some of the cell’s biomolecules consist of components that are strict analogs to the parts of man-made devices. Along these lines, biochemists have known for some time that DNA can function as a molecular wire, conducting electrical current through its interior along the axis of its double helix. Technologists have explored the use of DNA molecular wires to conduct electrical currents in nanodevices, but biochemists have failed to identify a biological role for DNA’s electrical conductance. Biochemists didn’t think that this interesting property had biological significance. This has now changed. The Caltech biochemists demonstrated that DNA’s electrical conductance serves as an electrical signal that repair proteins use to identify damaged regions in the DNA molecule. British natural theologian William Paley argued that just as a watch requires a watchmaker, so too, life logically requires a Creator, since biological systems appear to be machine-like. The elegant design and stark resemblance to man-made devices uncovered in this research adds vigor to Paley’s argument.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Monday, June 12, 2006
New Tools to Study Space Energy Density

  • A pair of Swiss physicists has identified an important local test to verify the mysterious space-energy density (or dark energy) responsible for causing the universe to expand at an ever-increasing rate. Currently, all the evidence for the existence and character of the space-energy density comes from measurements that span a sizable fraction of the universe-distant Type Ia supernovae, the cosmic microwave background, and large-scale structure. However, recent work shows how measurements of the solar system and Milky Way Galaxy in the near future can provide constraints on the space-energy density similar to those currently obtained by distant measurements. Thus, important verifications of the space-energy density can be obtained on a completely different length scale. Such predicting and testing are hallmarks of good scientific process and will provide essential details of the nature of the space-energy density. Any confirmation of the space-energy density increases the evidence for RTB’s big bang creation model.
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    • Journey Toward Creation, 2nd ed., by Hugh Ross (DVD)

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Sunday, June 11, 2006
Why Did God Create Viruses?

  • Many people wonder why a good God would create disease-causing organisms like viruses. New research into the role that viruses play in controlling cholera outbreaks provides important insight into this question. Cholera plagues developing countries like Bangladesh. This waterborne disease results when humans ingest food and water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. Researchers have demonstrated that viruses specific for V. cholerae can significantly limit cholera outbreaks by killing off this bacterium. (Viruses which infect bacteria are called bacteriophages. Viruses that infect V. cholerae are called vibriophages.) This work indicates that viruses play an important role in ecosystems and in some instances provide humans with protection against diseases. In this context, viruses can be thought of as part of God’s good creation.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Saturday, June 10, 2006
Galaxy Bulge Size Reveals Metallicity

  • A team of South American astronomers has discovered additional evidence for fine-tuning in the type of galaxy capable of supporting life. Any form of life requires sufficiently complex chemistry and a rocky planet capable of long-standing liquid water. Underlying both of these constraints is the production of abundant metals in stellar interiors. The team discovered that galaxies with smaller bulges lack the metal content of galaxies with larger bulges. These smaller-bulge galaxies will not produce adequate metals early enough to form a planet like Earth where life can thrive. Thus, astronomers continue to buttress RTB’s cosmic creation model, which predicts a high degree of fine-tuning as a result of a supernatural Creator preparing a fit habitat for life and, ultimately humankind.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Friday, June 9, 2006
Convergence of Sensitivity to Bitter Taste in Humans and Chimpanzees

  • Scientists have discovered that the origin of sensitivity to bitter taste in humans and chimpanzees arose independently-a find that leaves more than a bitter taste for evolution. Both primate species display varying sensitivity to bitter compounds. This variability traces to the same region of the human and chimpanzee genomes. The traditional evolutionary view maintains that this shared biological trait reflects the common ancestry of humans and chimpanzees. This new work, however, indicates that from an evolutionary standpoint, the protein receptors that bind bitter compounds in the two species evolved independently. This result is unreasonable given the chance-driven nature of the evolutionary process. According to evolutionary paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould, if one were to rewind the tape of life and replay it, the outcome would be different each time. The fact that the same outcome (bitter taste receptors in humans and chimpanzees) appears in the tape of life reveals yet another remarkable example of convergence. Evolution does not predict such good designs or physical traits to converge as solutions to problems in nature, but biblical creation certainly does.
  • Stephen Wooding et al., "Independent Evolution of Bitter-Taste Sensitivity in Humans and Chimpanzees," Nature 440 (2006): 930-34.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Thursday, June 8, 2006
Human Behavior Reflects God’s Image

  • Recent research into human cooperation has found a reflection of God’s image as described in Genesis 1:26-27. Scientists widely acknowledge that the degree of cooperation in humankind exceeds that exhibited by any other animal. One aspect of that cooperation pertains to the human ability to engage in behavior that extracts a high personal cost but provides benefit to society. A team of British economists demonstrated how important to a society it is for individuals to be willing to administer justice even at a large personal cost. Without a significant number of these people, the number of citizens who freeload off of society dramatically increases, and at a serious cost to the society as a whole. While evolutionary researchers can incorporate such altruism into their model, this behavior fits much more easily, and is in fact predicted, by RTB’s biblical creation model, where a supremely just God created man in His image.
  • Özgür Gürerk, Bernd Irlenbusch, and Bettina Rockenbach, "The Competitive Advantage of Sanctioning Institutions," Science 312 (2006): 108-11.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Wednesday, June 7, 2006
Biochemical Design: Molecular Motors

  • Biochemists have learned more about the mechanical operation and machine-like properties of the protein dynein, and their research provides additional evidence that life comes from a Creator. Dynein functions as a molecular machine. This protein complex transports cellular cargo along protein "railways" inside the cell. Biochemists have observed the dynein motor "shifting gears" in response to the load it carries. In a new study, researchers examined dynein’s stepping mechanism and revealed even more of its machine-like operation. Such elegant design and stark resemblance to man-made motors indicates that biomolecular machines like dynein must be the work of a divine "Motor Maker." It was 200 years ago that natural theologian William Paley presented his watchmaker argument. Though evolutionary scientists have ridiculed his argument since that time, it appears that scientific advance will have the final word.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Tuesday, June 6, 2006
Danger Near the Spiral Arms

  • Astronomers have discovered further evidence of the fine-tuned location of the solar system in the Milky Way Galaxy (MWG). By mapping the locations of both large and small molecular clouds in the MWG, two astronomers found that the larger clouds cluster near the spiral arms (where bright arms of star formation tend to spiral out from the center). If the solar system passes through a giant molecular cloud, the gravitational disruption and dust interactions would catastrophically disturb the delicate balances necessary for life on a planet like Earth. However, the solar system resides in between the spiral arms, thus minimizing the chances of an encounter with a giant molecular cloud. RTB’s cosmic creation model predicts such design in the location of the solar system.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Monday, June 5, 2006
Artificial Bladders without Embryonic Stem Cells

  • Exciting new work by scientists at Wake Forest University School of Medicine mitigates the need for embryonic stem cell research (ESCR). Researchers have grown artificial bladders (from cells of patients) in the lab and grafted them onto defective bladders in human patients. The grafts improved bladder function in several patients. Although many biomedical researchers maintain that the best way to generate artificial organs is from embryonic stem cells (ESCs), the only way to obtain ESCs is through the destruction of human embryos. For this reason many people are opposed to ESC research, in spite of its promise to treat many diseases and debilitating injuries. However, these artificially grown bladders were produced without ESCs. Researchers generated them by taking cells from the patients’ own malfunctioning bladders. Breakthroughs like this one provide hope that scientific advance will ultimately settle the ethical dilemma created by emerging biotechnologies such as embryonic stem cell research.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Sunday, June 4, 2006
Most Distant Supernova Discovered

  • The deepest optical view of the universe has confirmed a recent (in astronomical terms) beginning to the universe as predicted by RTB’s cosmic creation model. Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers observed a small region of the sky to image the faintest, most distant objects ever seen. Using these observations, two NASA astronomers conducted the deepest supernova search to date. Interestingly, beyond a certain distance, no Type Ia supernovae were found, even though the sensitivity to this class of supernovae exceeded previous searches. However, these objects take a longer time to form than other classes of supernovae. In a universe with a beginning, astronomers expected to see this observed cutoff of Type Ia supernovae. Thus, this search provides another confirmation of a critical component of RTB’s creation model.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Saturday, June 3, 2006
Stem Cells from Testes

  • Stem cells from mice that can be grown to replace damaged organs provide hope that adult stem cells in humans may do the same. Proponents of embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) maintain that ESCR holds the promise to effectively treat several debilitating diseases and injuries. But opponents decry ESCR, since it involves the destruction of human embryos. Recent advances, however, suggest that there may be an ethically acceptable alternative to ESCR. This example demonstrates that stem cells which behave just like ESCs can be isolated from the testes of adult mice. Researchers think that the same stem cells can also be isolated from human testes. These testis-derived stem cells can be coaxed into a variety of cell types needed to replace damaged tissue in the heart, in other muscles, and brain. The stem cells can be harvested from testes with a simple biopsy and don’t require the destruction of a human embryo. In this way scientific advance shows its ability to provide the way out of ethical dilemmas.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Friday, June 2, 2006
New Measurements of Local Group Match Predictions

  • Measurements of the Local Group of galaxies provide further confirmation of RTB’s cosmic creation model. Observations of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a nearby dwarf galaxy, over a long period of time enabled scientists to better constrain the motion of the LMC in the Local Group. Since the Milky Way Galaxy (MWG) provides the dominant gravitational influence on the LMC, the team of astronomers also calculated the mass of the MWG. The mass obtained compares favorably with theoretical calculations and previous mass measurements. In a good model, future measurements confirm theoretical predictions and previous measurements of various parameters. This measurement confirms theoretical predictions of RTB’s cosmic creation model.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Thursday, June 1, 2006
Biochemistry Supports Bible’s Long Life Spans

  • A recent study in the biochemistry of aging affirms the scientific credibility of the long life spans recorded in Genesis 5 and 11. Researchers demonstrated that inactivation of the protein SIRT6 compromises genome stability and leads to premature aging in mice. Previous studies have shown that when the activity of proteins like SIRT6 increases, so does life expectancy. Biochemists believe that developing an arsenal of medicines that increase the activity of SIRT6 and proteins like it will one day dramatically increase human longevity, perhaps to several hundred years. If scientists can significantly manipulate life spans by biochemical intervention, it is not unreasonable to assert that a Creator adjusted human biochemistry to permit long life spans and then shortened them after the Flood. In light of this study, long human life spans described in Genesis are scientifically reasonable.
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