Today's New Reason To Believe Archives

September 2006

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Saturday, September 30, 2006
Resonances Reveal Solar System Design

  • Detailed analyses of known extrasolar planet systems continue to reveal the fine-tuning of the solar system. More than 20% of planetary systems contain gas giants in a 2:1 resonance (in which the closer planet orbits twice for each orbit of the more distant planet). However, strong resonances like the 2:1 resonance destabilize any other planets that might exist in the system. The passage of Jupiter and Saturn through a strong resonance early in the formation of the solar system likely disrupted the outer solar system, causing the late heavy bombardment of comets and asteroids into the inner solar system (approximately 3.8 to 4 billion years ago). Interestingly, the gas giants in the solar system reside near but outside any strong resonances-dramatically increasing the stability of the solar system. Such fine-tuning comports well with a supernatural Designer fashioning a suitable habitat for life, especially human beings.
  • Related Resource
  • Product Spotlight

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Friday, September 29, 2006
Animal Death: Part of God’s Good Design

  • New research details the critical importance that parasites play in food webs, in accord with the views of old-earth creationists. Unlike young-earth creationists, old-earth creationists maintain that animal death existed prior to the Fall and that it is part of God’s good design. According to this view animal death plays a key role in promoting ecosystem stability. Ecologists continue to affirm the critical importance of animal death. As Job 38 and 39 teach, predatory activity appears to be part of the natural order that God instituted at the time of creation.
    • Kevin D. Lafferty, Andrew P. Dobson, and Armand M. Kuris, "Parasites Dominate Food Web Links," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 103 (2006): 11211-16.
  • Related Resource
  • Related Product 

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Thursday, September 28, 2006
Evidence for Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud

  • Scientists have employed a new technique to help account for small objects beyond Neptune, supporting RTB’s cosmic creation model. Observations monitoring a distant X-ray source have provided evidence of a vast number of small bodies (objects from the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud) in the outer solar system. Solar-system-formation models imply an enormous population of small icy objects beyond the orbit of Neptune. While early observations had found tens of thousands of larger bodies, the smaller objects remained beyond telescopes’ detection abilities. However, because these small objects are so numerous, they should occult (or pass in front of) more distant stars. Using X-ray measurements of Scorpius X-1, a team of astronomers observed a significant number of these occultations, similar to what solar system models predict. Thus, an important component of RTB’s creation model is now buttressed by experimental data.
  • Related Resource
  • Product Spotlight

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Wednesday, September 27, 2006
More Evidence that Neanderthals Did Not Evolve into Humans

  • Analysis of an older Neanderthal specimen still shows no evolutionary link to humans. Ancient DNA analysis of 12 Neanderthal specimens had already indicated that Neanderthals are genetically distinct from modern humans and have no evolutionary connection to them. These specimens all date to no older than 40,000 years in age. New work repeats this analysis on DNA taken from a 100,000-year-old specimen and confirms earlier studies. RTB’s creation model for humanity’s origin regards Neanderthals and other extinct hominids as nonhuman primates that lacked spiritual capacity. On this basis, the RTB model predicts that humans and Neanderthals should be biologically distinct from one another. The scientific evidence continues to distinguish modern humans from Neanderthals, in line with RTB’s explanation for the hominid fossil record.
  • Related Resource
  • Related Product

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Mars-A Tough Environment for Organic Molecules

  • Scientists continue to demonstrate how uninhabitable Mars is by studying chemical reactions on the planet. Methane in the Martian atmosphere recently generated a lot of excitement that it might be biological in origin. While nonbiological explanations eventually won out, processes that remove methane also argue against a biological source. Lightning discharges likely produce large quantities of hydrogen peroxide, which break down organic molecules. The quantity of hydrogen peroxide produced may coat the planet’s surface with a peroxide "snow." Consequently, any proposed Martian organisms would face an extremely hostile environment. In contrast, Earth provides an incredibly friendly habitat for life, consistent with the intervention of a divine Designer fashioning it for that purpose.
  • Related Resource
  • Product Spotlight

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Monday, September 25, 2006
Biochemical Design: Another Irreducibly Complex Biochemical System

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Sunday, September 24, 2006
Direct Proof of Dark Matter

  • NASA’s X-ray telescope Chandra has provided a definitive verdict-dark matter exists-that buttresses RTB’s creation model. Measuring X-rays from a distant colliding galaxy cluster-1E0657-56-and comparing the measurements with optical observations, scientists clearly established that the dominant mass in the cluster is spatially separated from the X-ray-producing gas and anything else emitting electromagnetic radiation. Dark matter, by definition, interacts only gravitationally and not electromagnetically. As the collision proceeded, electromagnetically induced frictional drag slowed down the hot gas while the dark matter continued to move unimpeded. This direct proof of dark matter’s existence dramatically confirms big bang cosmology, which is a major component of RTB’s cosmic creation model.
  • Related Resource
  • Product Spotlight

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Saturday, September 23, 2006
Biochemical Design: Elegant Chemical Logic

  • Scientists have gained understanding of the elegant chemical logic of cell systems that provides more evidence for biochemical intelligent design. This new work identifies the sequence of events in the assembly of new Golgi, complex membrane systems that play a role in secreting materials produced by the cell into the extracellular milieu. To make new Golgi, the cell employs an orderly process in which the structural components are put in place first, followed by assembly of the molecular machinery that processes materials to be secreted. This orderly process limits mistakes by minimizing molecular clutter during the assembly, ensuring that the right pieces are put in place before the cell invests resources to finish the job. The biosynthesis of Golgi reflects planning and elegance that bespeak a divine Designer.
  • Related Resource
  • Related Product

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Friday, September 22, 2006
New Technique to Probe Gravity

  • A team of Italian physicists has developed a new tool that can be used to test how well RTB’s creation model describes gravity. While scientists’ understanding of gravity on large scales (planets, galaxies, etc.) is well established, gravity is not well tested at microscopic scales. However, a sophisticated experiment in which ultracold strontium atoms are trapped and subjected to various forces will permit scientists to measure gravitational forces over distances as small as 0.0000001 meters. The unprecedented precision of the method provides an avenue to subject RTB’s creation model to experimental tests, which comprise the heart of true scientific investigation.
  • Related Resource
  • Product Spotlight

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Thursday, September 21, 2006
New Doubts about the Role of Extremophiles in the Origin of Life

  • Biological studies of archaea-a major division of living organisms-raise doubts about a popular evolutionary explanation for the origin of life. The discovery of extremophiles-organisms that thrive under unusually harsh conditions-has prompted some scientists to speculate that life originated under extreme conditions. Extremophilic origin-of-life models appeal to some researchers because the scientific consensus regards early Earth as a hostile, hellish environment. But new work by scientists from the University of California, Los Angeles (conducted from an evolutionary perspective) indicates that archaea (the domain of life populated by extremophilic microbes) did not give rise to the root of the so-called evolutionary tree of life. This conclusion renders extremophilic origin-of-life models untenable.
  • Related Resource
  • Related Product

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Wednesday, September 20, 2006
More Constraints on Habitable Planet Locations

  • Properties of ultraviolet (UV) radiation further constrain the location of habitable planets, illuminating additional design in the solar system. A team of Argentinian scientists investigated UV radiation’s effects on life. Too much UV radiation destroys essential biomolecules. However, too little UV radiation hinders biochemical reactions early in Earth’s history. These two constraints allowed the scientists to identify UV "habitable zones" (previous work has focused on life-essential liquid-water "habitable zones") around stars with known extrasolar planets. For almost 60% of stars that could be studied, the UV and water habitable zones did not overlap. In the remaining systems where the habitable zones overlapped, the location of the gas-giant planets would prevent the formation of a life-supporting rocky planet. As predicted by RTB’s cosmic creation model, the possibility of natural processes producing a life-supporting planet becomes more remote as scientific understanding increases.
  • Related Resource
  • Product Spotlight

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Biochemical Design: Optimal Amino Acid Compositions in Proteins

  • New research demonstrates that the amino acid compositions of proteins found in bacteria are optimized, providing further evidence for biochemical intelligent design. The research indicates that in six representative bacterial species, proteins are made from amino acids that are the least costly for the microbe’s biochemical machinery to produce. Optimization like this defines many of the cell’s biochemical systems and pathways. Optimization is also a hallmark of well-designed man-made devices. As such, the optimized fine-tuning characteristic of biochemical systems suggests that life originated from the Creator’s hand.
  • Related Resource
  • Related Product

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Monday, September 18, 2006
Anomalous Moon Measurements Explained

  • Studies of the early Earth-Moon system resolve an anomaly in the Moon’s shape and strengthen both scientists’ understanding of the solar system’s development and RTB’s cosmic creation model. In 1799, Pierre-Simon Laplace first discovered the discrepancy between the measured and predicted bulge at the Moon’s equator. The rotation rate and tidal stretching of today’s moon cannot explain the size of the bulge. However, a more eccentric, faster-rotating moon would resolve the discrepancy. Shortly after the collision that formed the Moon (about 4.5 billion years ago), its surface was a fluid magma ocean. Recent studies confirm that the Moon’s rotation rate during this time was higher and could have been much more eccentric than today. As the magma ocean cooled during this early period of lunar evolution, it solidified the expanded equator, and the Moon’s shape has not changed since. In a good model, future work resolves past anomalies, thereby increasing its explanatory power. As evidenced by this work, RTB’s cosmic creation model (which incorporates scientists’ understanding of solar system development) demonstrates this characteristic.
  • Related Resource
  • Product Spotlight

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Sunday, September 17, 2006
Stem Cells from Hair Follicles

  • New research has demonstrated that stem cells that behave just like embryonic stem cells can be isolated from hair follicles. The stem cells isolated from scalp tissue can be coaxed into a variety of cell types needed to replace damaged tissue in the heart, muscle, and brain. These stem cells can also be harvested with simple procedures and don’t require the destruction of a human embryo. Thus, this new technique may be an ethically acceptable alternative to embryonic stem cell research.
  • Related Resource

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Saturday, September 16, 2006
Timing of Humanity Fine-tuned

  • New understanding of tiny airborne particles’ effects on cloud cover buttresses the prediction of RTB’s cosmic creation model for an optimal timing of humanity on Earth. The sun’s luminosity (energy output) has increased significantly since life’s introduction on Earth, and it will continue to increase in the future. Changes in the atmosphere have historically mediated an increase in Earth’s surface temperature by reducing greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide. However, the carbon dioxide content cannot decrease much further without dramatically affecting the quantity of biological life. Aerosols mitigate greenhouse warming by reflecting sunlight back into space, but they also produce much greater cloud cover. The past and future 100,000 years-humanity’s likely duration on Earth-correspond to the time of maximum biodiversity and atmospheric clarity. These findings support the idea of a super-caring Creator preparing an optimal habitat for humanity to fulfill its purposes on Earth.
  • Related Resource
  • Product Spotlight

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Friday, September 15, 2006
Convergence of Fatty Acid Synthase in Animals and Fungi

  • New work has uncovered yet another remarkable example of convergence. In biological convergence, nearly identical traits or designs appear in otherwise unrelated organisms. Scientists have discovered that fatty acid synthases in fungi and animals carry out the same function, but have a different structural make up. This means that, from an evolutionary perspective, these enzymes must have evolved independently. According to Stephen Jay Gould, if one were to rewind the tape of life and replay it, the outcome would be different each time. This idea, known as historical contingency, maintains that evolution will not produce the same outcome repeatedly, since its mechanism relies on a sequence of chance events. This newly discovered example of convergence challenges the veracity of the theory of evolution, but finds ready explanation if a Creator repeatedly used the same good designs as He brought life into existence.
  • Related Resource

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Thursday, September 14, 2006
More Design in Milky Way Galaxy Location

  • Scientists have learned more about the nature of galaxies in large clusters, and their work reveals more fine-tuning in the location of the Milky Way Galaxy (MWG). Most large galaxies contain a very massive black hole (more than a hundred million times the mass of the sun) at their centers. Depending on the environment around the black hole, these galaxy centers can be very active in the sense that the massive black holes accrete large amounts of matter. This accumulation leads to large jets emanating from the galaxy centers and even larger amounts of high-energy radiation-x-rays and gamma rays. This radiation adversely affects the possibility that a galaxy can host a life-supporting planet. Recent observations revealed that galaxies located in large clusters more frequently contain active massive black holes. The MWG, by contrast, resides on the outskirts of a sparsely populated cluster and does not have an active black hole. These results comport well with the work of a super-intelligent Creator fashioning a galaxy capable of sustaining a life-supporting planet.
  • Related Resource
  • Product Spotlight

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Wednesday, September 13, 2006
New Study Raises Questions about Evolution’s Mechanism

  • An extensive study of sheep birth weights in Scotland raises questions about evolution’s ability to generate change. According to the evolutionary paradigm, a population transforms as a consequence of natural selection operating iteratively on inheritable genetic variation. When biologists evaluate the capacity of this mechanism to generate evolutionary change, they typically regard the environment as constant. This, however, is unrealistic, since the environment is variable. New work indicates that when organisms (in this case, sheep) find themselves in an ever-changing environment, this leads to stasis, or no change. This outcome results because in harsh environments, natural selection is strong, but genetic variability is low. In more moderate environments, natural selection’s influence is low, but genetic variability is high. These counteracting effects hamper the evolutionary process. It seems that life’s diversity is best explained as the work of a Creator, not mechanistic processes.
  • Related Resource
  • Related Product

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Design in Early Solar System Mixing

  • Observations of a man-made impact with a solar-system comet reveal fine-tuning in the early formation of the solar system. The material ejected from the impact (of a NASA space probe with the comet) revealed the presence of highly volatile ices, solids formed in aqueous environments, and crystalline silicates requiring high temperatures to form. These materials could not have been formed at a common location and, therefore, require different regions of the solar system to mix together. The mixing must have occurred early and efficiently-before the formation of gas giants that prevent mixing of the inner and outer solar system. Too-efficient mixing would have affected the development of small bodies in the solar system (and likely the final heavy-element composition of Earth). What astronomers observe is a "just-right" level of mixing consistent with the work of supernatural Designer preparing a long-standing, life-supporting planet like Earth.
  • Related Resource
  • Product Spotlight

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Monday, September 11, 2006
Virus Genetic Diversity Tracks Population Structure and History of Its Host

  • New research provides new prospects for using genetic diversity patterns of human parasites to track humanity’s origin and spread. Parasites serve as a powerful proxy for the human host because of the intimate associations between host and parasite. A new study indicates that the human erythrovirus remains in tissues after an infection and exists in a variety of forms. This feature makes it ideal to characterize the structure and history of human populations. Previous parasite studies (along with other genetic research) indicated that humanity originated recently, from a single region (at or near where biblical scholars think the Garden of Eden was located), and spread from near the Middle East to rapidly populate the Earth in a pattern consistent with the biblical text. In the future, the insights from the human erythrovirus will lead to additional opportunities to test the RTB model and the biblical account of humanity’s origin.
  • Related Resource
  • Related Product

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Sunday, September 10, 2006
Galaxy-Formation Problem Resolved

  • Recent simulation results resolve a discrepancy in galaxy-formation models, thereby buttressing RTB’s cosmic creation model. Theoretical modeling of galaxy formation in big bang models with cold dark matter (slow-moving matter whose existence can only be detected by gravitational interactions) has consistently predicted substantial dark matter density enhancements in the center of galaxies. However, these enhancements have not been seen in astronomical observations. New work shows how including the bulk motion of the gas in early galaxies dramatically reduces the density enhancements in galaxies and brings theoretical predictions in line with current observations. As scientists test and refine big bang cosmology, it becomes more successful in explaining and predicting the origin and evolution of the universe. Consequently, these results further strengthen RTB’s cosmic creation model, which incorporates big bang cosmology.
  • Related Resource
  • Product Spotlight

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Saturday, September 9, 2006
More Evidence that Pseudogenes are Not Junk DNA

  • New research has identified function for "junk" DNA sequences known as pseudogenes. This most recent analysis identifies a number of duplicated pseudogenes that function as bona fide genes. Junk DNA has become an icon of evolution. Evolutionary biologists maintain that because junk DNA is an imperfection, it provides incontrovertible evidence for evolution. But 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.
  • Related Resource
  • Related Product

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Friday, September 8, 2006
X-ray/Radio Measurements Affirm Distant Cosmic Expansion Value

  • Recent X-ray and radio measurements of distant galaxy clusters buttress RTB’s cosmic creation model by confirming the value of the Hubble constant-which measures the expansion rate of the universe. Previous measurements of the Hubble constant using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to observe Cepheid variables gave the value in the nearby universe. A team of astronomers used X-ray and radio observations to prove the expansion rate of the universe at much greater distances by measuring how the cosmic microwave background radiation (the radiation left over from the universe’s beginning) changes as it passes through distant, dense clusters of galaxies. The resulting value of the Hubble constant in the distant universe agrees with the value determined by the HST using Cepheid variables. One characteristic of a good scientific model is that future experiments confirm past results. This discovery illustrates that RTB’s cosmic creation model demonstrates this characteristic.
  • Related Resource
  • Product Spotlight

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Thursday, September 7, 2006
Convergence of Cell Cycle Control in Yeast and Bacteria

  • New work has uncovered yet another remarkable example of convergence. Scientists have discovered that the regulatory networks that coordinate DNA synthesis with and cell division in yeast and the bacterium Caulobacter crescentus are identical and must have arisen independently from an evolutionary perspective. This newly discovered example of convergence challenges the veracity of the theory of evolution, which maintains that evolution will not produce the same outcome repeatedly, since its mechanism relies on a sequence of chance events. But convergence makes sense if a Creator repeatedly used the same good designs as He brought life into existence.
  • Related Resource

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Wednesday, September 6, 2006
Eliminating Oscillating Universe Models

  • Evidence against some oscillating universe models contrasts with successful predictions of RTB’s cosmic creation model. The theological implications of the beginning of a big-bang universe are well known and have motivated many scientists to propose alternative models with no beginning. One class of models avoids a beginning by postulating that the universe repeatedly expands and then collapses back on itself. The cycle repeats, with the universe "bouncing" after each collapse. Recent theoretical calculations rule out a substantial number of these models motivated by string theory. The growing body of evidence against bouncing cosmologies stands in stark contrast to the ever-increasing weight of evidence supporting RTB’s cosmic creation model, which holds that a supernatural Creator caused the universe in a "big bang."
  • Related Resource
  • Product Spotlight

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Tuesday, September 5, 2006
Biochemical Design: Organization of Simplest Life

  • Recent advances indicate that bacteria, the simplest of life-forms, possess a remarkable degree of internal organization at the molecular level. New research on the dynamic restructuring of the cytoskeleton of the bacteria Caulobacter expands upon this emerging paradigm. The cytoskeleton in bacteria imparts structural integrity and organization to the cell. Until recently, microbiologists didn’t think that bacteria had a cytoskeleton, viewing this structure as a defining feature of more complex eukaryotic cells. The internal organization and complexity of the simplest life-forms serves as a marker for biochemical design and is expected in a model explaining that a Creator is responsible for life.
  • Related Resource
  • Related Product

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Monday, September 4, 2006
Tighter Constraints on Varying Constants

  • New laboratory measurements will strengthen RTB’s cosmic creation model by providing tighter constraints on variability in the fine-structure constant. RTB’s biblical creation model argues for constant laws of physics (Jeremiah 33:25-"the fixed laws of heaven and earth") throughout the history of the universe. Scientists can investigate this constancy by measuring the fine-structure constant in distant quasars (where measurements provide information from billions of years ago) to search for differences from the value measured in the laboratory. Accurate laboratory determinations of the spectral lines used to study the quasars are needed to detect any possible differences. Otherwise, systematic effects that either mask or falsely generate differences are introduced. Laboratory experiments by a team of astrophysicists significantly reduce the uncertainty in the spectral lines previously used and provide new spectral lines to use in future studies of distant quasars. RTB’s creation model predicts these future studies will provide increasing evidence that the laws of physics are indeed constant.
  • Related Resource
  • Product Spotlight

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Sunday, September 3, 2006
Adult Stem Cells Can Be Reprogrammed To Behave Like Embryonic Stem Cells

  • Recent advances suggest that there may be an ethically acceptable alternative to embryonic stem cell research (ESCR). New research, for example, has demonstrated that, using a relatively simple recipe, stem cells isolated from adult tissues can be reprogrammed in the lab to behave like embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cell-like cells are produced without the destruction of human embryos. Scientific advance will undoubtedly provide the way out of the ethical dilemma created by emerging biotechnologies such as stem cell therapies.
  • Related Resource

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Saturday, September 2, 2006
Early Earth a Water World?

  • New studies of ancient zircon show consistency with RTB’s creation model prediction that the early Earth was covered in water (see Genesis 1:2). Results published earlier this year in Science had argued for large-scale continental crust formation within 200 million years of Earth’s formation-a finding clearly at odds with RTB’s model. But new research shows that the criteria used for concluding that the ancient zircons were formed in continental crust can be mimicked by zircons extracted from mid-ocean ridges where no continents exist. The later research concludes that the ancient zircons permit models where no continental crust is formed until much later in Earth’s history. Thus, ancient zircons are not evidence against RTB’s creation model.
  • Laurence A. Coogan and Richard W. Hinton, "Do the Trace Element Compositions of Detrital Zircons Require Hadean Continental Crust?" Geology 34 (2006): 633-36.
  • Related Resource
  • "Big Bang-The Bible Taught It First!" by Hugh Ross and John Rea
  • Product Spotlight
  • Origins of Life, by Fazale Rana and Hugh Ross

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Friday, September 1, 2006
Biochemical Design: Molecular Motors

  • Two new studies highlight the machine-like character of kinesin and provide additional evidence for biochemical intelligent design. This protein plays a key role in transporting cellular cargo within the cell. The British natural theologian William Paley argued that just as a watch requires a watchmaker, so life logically requires a Creator, since biological systems appear to be machine-like. On this basis, the elegant design and stark resemblance to man-made motors indicates that biomolecular machines like the kinesin linear motor must be the work of a divine "Motor Maker."
  • Related Resource
  • Related Product