Below are more web article summaries with links for the period 4-13
December 1999.
Some of the links may require free registration and some of the long links
may need rejoining because of word-wrapping in transmission.
Apologies if some have already been posted by others.
My comments are in square brackets.
Steve
==================================================
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/19991213/sc/mars_bacteria_1.html
Yahoo! Monday December 13 ...Man Is Not Alone... (Reuters) - British
scientists vowed ... to scour the universe in the new millennium for signs of
extraterrestrial life but quashed any hopes of finding little green men. They
forecast that the nearest neighbors to Earth were likely to be bacteria.
Launching a forum on "astrobiology" ... (56/581). Also at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_562000/562051.stm BBC
... Monday, 13 December, 1999, ... British scientists interested in searching
for life in space are getting together to launch the UK Astrobiology Forum.
... Many scientists believe that there is life out there, but as yet they have
no proof. ... the overwhelming majority ... do not believe the case has been
made, despite what they would like to believe in their hearts. The new
name ... is testimony to the two things that scientists cannot do without
these days: money and publicity ... scientists want the publicity in the hope
it will get them some money. ... (100/1006) [More confident
pronouncements from the discipline which has yet to demonstrate that its
subject matter exists (Yockey)! But there does seems to be a growing
realisation that the chance of finding *intelligent* life is negligible? The
frank admission that publicity and money are major drivers in science
today, should warn us to be skeptical of scientific claims in the media].
http://www.cnn.com/1999/TECH/space/12/10/mars.shoreline/index.html
CNN...December 10, 1999 ...(AP) -- Scientists studying polar areas of
Mars have found features that might once have been an ancient coastline.
...a group ...searched data collected by Mars Global Surveyor ...They found
a geological feature extending around the northern third of the planet like a
bathtub ring. This...could be evidence that ocean waves once lapped at a
coast there. ... (63/641) See also:
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/mars_ocean991210.html
[The SCIENCE article on which this is based, does say that scientists will
still need other evidence to confirm this.]
http://www.cnn.com/1999/HEALTH/12/10/simplest.cell/index.html CNN
... December 10, 1999 ... (CNN) -- Scientists are picking apart living
organisms as small as a single cell in hopes of understanding exactly what
genes are needed for the most basic life forms. The result could be the
invention of new creatures designed to help, or hurt, humankind...The
surprise came when they discovered that 103 genes have a function that is
a complete mystery....said Craig Venter... if you knock out one of them,
the cell dies" .... (80/841). Also at:
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/essentialgenes991209.html
[A variation on the Mycoplasma genitalium story below. Venter hopes to
create new life from scratch. This would support Intelligent Design and
creation - see my tag line quote from Stansfield below.]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_557000/557021.stm BBC
... Friday, 10 December, 1999 ... Bacteria have been found deep beneath
the Antarctic ice sheet, just above the sub-glacial Lake Vostock...one of
the deepest-known bodies of fresh water on the planet ...It will ...
strengthen the view of those who believe that ...the buried waters of
Vostok would act as a first step to finding extreme lifeforms elsewhere in
our Solar System.... Although the bacteria are similar to other known
bacteria, the scientists wonder whether the lake may contain larger, more
diverse populations...." (84/845). Also at:
http://www.cnn.com/1999/NATURE/12/10/vostok.ice/index.html CNN ...
Life found in Lake Vostok ice ... December 10, 1999...Microbes have been
found in ice just above Lake Vostok, a freshwater lake buried deep beneath
the Antarctic ice sheet, researchers announced in ...Friday's issue of
Science. "The ice we found the microbes in is refrozen water from Lake
Vostok...our data strongly imply that there is life in the lake-water itself ...
Lake Vostok...is the closest earthly analog to Jupiter's moon Europa,
which scientists believe may also contain the elements necessary for life....
(85/875) [No joy for `astrobiologists' at present. Despite their isolation for
millions of years, and unique environment, the bacteria found to date are
basically the same as already known bacteria elsewhere on Earth.]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/19991209/sc/science_life_1.html Yahoo!
...Thursday December 9 .... (Reuters) - Scientists trying to define the very
essence of life ...had found the secret ... about 300 genes. [They] ... tore
down the tiniest known living organism, Mycoplasma [genitalium]
bacterium, and found its essential genes... 265 to 350 of the 480 ... [It] has
fewer genes than any other organism... a good model for figuring out
precisely which genes are essential for life... (65/664) Also at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_556000/556958.stm BBC
... Friday, 10 December, 1999 ... to create a living organism from its basic
chemical building blocks would be the culmination of science's view, held
by the ancient Greeks...that living things are simply machines. It ...will
upset many.... the big question is whether higher animals like ourselves are
just more complicated than bacteria or fundamentally different. ...We have
100,000 genes...a larger and more complicated body with a sophisticated
brain. Our brains give us self-awareness and the ability to reason...make
decisions, ... have self-will...if we can create life in the lab from
scratch...Will we, in a sense, have become Gods?" (101/1013);
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_556000/556984.stm BBC
... Friday, 10 December, 1999...Scientists call for life creation debate ...It
would clearly be creating a new species of life that does not exist... It has
been suggested that this could be tested by trying to synthesise an artificial
bacterium in the lab - for scientists to create life from non-living chemicals.
The idea is currently the subject of an ethical review and the scientists
involved say no attempt will be made to proceed with the daring
experiment until there has been a full and public debate. The prospect of
"scientists playing God", as some will undoubtedly see it, is bound to
provoke some fierce arguments... (108/1102);
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_558000/558194.stm
BBC ... Friday, 10 December, 1999 ... The mysteries of creation Jeremy
Rifkin from the Foundation on Economic Trends has no doubt that many
people will reject the whole idea. "Certainly, if ever there was a moment in
time to stop and pause and reflect on the future use of technology, this
experiment is it," he told the BBC. "This is a divide which takes us into a
brave new world - a world in which scientists and companies can begin to
create their own genesis. Do any of the scientists involved really have the
wisdom to know how best to dictate the future evolution of life on this
planet?" (111/1211);
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-12/10/113l-121099-idx.html
Washington Post ... Genetic Find Could Lead to Creation of Life
for philosophers to answer the question "What is life?" the
researchers ... concluded that about 300 genes are needed ... to
pass for "alive"... the new research may enable scientists to
engineer life in the laboratory ... from essential chemical
ingredients.... That ability could be liberating or could sow seeds of
destruction....Novel cells could be designed to clean up toxic
wastes with unprecedented efficiency... Or they could be
programmed to serve as horrendous biological weapons." (97/978)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_558000/558194.stm
"Certainly, if ever there was a moment in time to stop and pause and reflect
on the future use of technology, this experiment is it," he told the BBC.
"This is a divide which takes us into a brave new world - a world in which
scientists and companies can begin to create their own genesis. Do any of
the scientists involved really have the wisdom to know how best to dictate
the future evolution of life on this planet?"; and
http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/121499sci-human-genome.html
New York Times. December 14, 1999.... the concept of being able
to define life in such simple terms has disturbed a group of
ethicists... "There is a serious danger... that the synthesis of
minimal genomes "will be presented by scientists, depicted in the
press or perceived by the public as proving that life is reducible to,
or nothing more than, DNA." ... But ... the ethicists ...give the green
light to the general principle of creating minimal genome organisms,
while preaching caution about the possible hazards of each
particular case. Thus, after consulting members of their panel
drawn from the Roman Catholic, Jewish and Protestant faiths, the
ethicists concluded, "There is nothing in the research agenda for
creating a minimal genome that is automatically prohibited by
legitimate religious considerations..." (130/1390) [If 300 genes are
the *minimum* essential for life then how did the first gene arise? If
the chance of 300 genes self-assembling is effectively impossible,
then Mycoplasma genitalium is another example of irreducible
complexity. It is doubtful that under materialistic-naturalistic ethics,
there would be any objection to creating a new form of life, but
there may be public unease and even outrage that science is going
too far, too fast. I would be interested if the religious consultants
reflected the views of the majority of their adherents. The problem
is that even all religious discussion these days proceeds on
materialistic-naturalistic terms. But even creating a bacterium from
scratch would not settle the question of whether humans have a
non-material soul - no one claims that *bacteria* have a soul!
Besides, intelligent human designers creating life from scratch is an
analogy of *Intelligent Design* not `blind watchmaker' evolution.]
http://www.smh.com.au/news/9912/04/spectrum/spectrum4.html
The Sydney Morning Herald ... Saturday, December 4, 1999..
Minds over grey matter. The brain is one of mankind's greatest
mysteries - and no amount of dissecting, drugging and probing has
revealed its secrets... We believe we live in an age of science, and
that we have examined our world and come up with answers to
many questions. Put the two strands together, and the result is a
common assumption that science pretty much knows how the brain
works. It's the assumption that underlies psychiatry, psychology
and a host of related disciplines in which a rational application of
knowledge of the mind is used to help somebody - you, me, the
gatepost - piece themselves together and get through their lives.
But that assumption is challenged in The Undiscovered Mind: How
the Human Brain Defies Replication, Medication and Explanation
(The Free Press), a new book by an American science journalist,
John Horgan, which argues that the human brain remains
essentially unknowable... (162/1961) [Horgan does not say that the
human mind is "unknown" but "unknowable"! If materialistic science
cannot, even in principle, know the human mind, then that is good
evidence that the human mind is at least partly non-material.]
==================================================
--------------------------------------------------------------------
"When we come to the origin(s) of life, both creationists and evolutionists
are forced into the role of speculators. Laboratory experiments conducted
with presumed primitive earth atmospheric conditions (methane, ammonia,
hydrogen, water) and various energy sources (electrical discharge,
ultraviolet radiation, high energy radiation, and heat) have yielded small
amounts of amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) and nucleic acid
precursors (the building blocks of genetic information and components of
the protein synthesizing machinery of contemporary cells). Certain
conditions have seen the formation of microspheres, which are chemically
complex entities surrounded by a double-layered membrane suggestive of
the gross structure of certain cellular components. Creationists have looked
forward to the day when science may actually create a "living" thing from
simple chemicals. They claim, and rightly so, that even if such a man-made
life form could be created, this would not prove that natural life forms were
developed by a similar chemical evolutionary process. The scientist
understands this and plods on testing theories." (Stansfield W.D., "The
Science of Evolution", [1977], Macmillan: New York NY, 1983, Eighth
Printing, pp10-11)
Stephen E. Jones | sejones@iinet.net.au | http://www.iinet.net.au/~sejones
--------------------------------------------------------------------