Reflectorites
Below are web article links, headlines and/or paragraphs for the period 11-
13 January 2000, in descending date order, with my comments in square
brackets.
Steve
==================================================
http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/01/13/dna.computer.ap/index.html
CNN ... Scientists create 'DNA computer' January 13, 2000 ... Scientists
have created a "DNA computer" from strands of synthetic DNA they
coaxed into solving relatively complex calculations, according to a report
in today's issue of the journal Nature. ... Also at:
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000112/sc/tech_dna_1.html Yahoo! ...
Wednesday January 12 ... Scientists Take DNA Computing Out of the Test
Tube LONDON (Reuters) - ...DNA computing has sparked intense interest
because more information can be stored on molecules of DNA than any
silicon computer chip. Scientists estimate that a dried gram of DNA can
store more information than a trillion CDs. ... &
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_600000/600323.stm BBC
... Wednesday, 12 January, 2000, ... DNA computers take shape Anchoring
DNA to a substrate may liberate its computing potential By BBC News
Online Science Editor Dr David Whitehouse ... DNA can do this through
the manufacture of enzymes, which are biological catalysts that could be
called the 'software' used to execute the desired calculation. ... The appeal
of DNA computing lies in the fact that DNA molecules can store far more
information than any existing computer memory chip. ... The logic behind
conventional digital computers represents information as a series of
electrical impulses using ones and zeros. DNA computing depends on
information represented as a pattern of molecules arranged on a strand of
DNA. [More evidence that the information encoded on DNA is the
essentially the same as human intelligently designed information encoded
on silicon.]
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/monkeyclone000113.html
ABCNEWS ... Copying the `Natural' Way Embryo Split Early, Creating a
Twin Researchers used a technique called embryo splitting to produce a
rhesus monkey named Tetra. The technique is commonly used among farm
animals, but it's taking a step into primate labs. ... The Associated Press
Jan. 13 - Researchers using a technique called embryo splitting hope to
grow genetically identical rhesus monkeys in the laboratory - a
breakthrough that would enable experiments such as growing new organs
from stem cells to be tested on monkeys rather than mice. ... Also at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_602000/602027.stm ...
Sci/Tech ... Friday, 14 January, 2000 ... Breakthrough as scientists 'clone'
monkey Tetra may help research into human diseases By BBC News
Online Science Editor Dr David Whitehouse Tetra is a rhesus monkey and
the first primate to be "cloned" using a method that splits the original cells
in an embryo to make multiple identical animals. [If they can grow
genetically identical monkeys by splitting embryos, one presumes they can
also grow genetically identical humans the same way?]
http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/01/13/global.warming/index.html
CNN ... Experts cite 'strong evidence' of global warming Panel finds
spike in temperatures over last two decades January 13, 2000 ...
The report, announced Wednesday night in a statement by the
National Academy of Science's National Research Council, takes
an unusually strong stand on the issue. It also undermines a
principal argument used by scientists who dissent with the majority
view, which is that global warming is well under way with possibly
dire environmental consequences. ... [I have ignored global
warming articles as off-topic, although it does have a connection
with the Creation/Evolution debate in terms of its effect on
extinction and with ID in terms of the type of society we are going to
have in the 21st century. For general information this is an
important statement on the subject by the NAS.]
http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/01/13/gay.blood.donors/ CNN ... FDA
ban on blood donations from gay men challenged The federal
government's ban on blood donations from gay men is being
challenged, but there is strong political and public pressure to keep
the policy in place January 13, 2000 ... From Correspondent Rusty
Dornin SAN FRANCISCO (CNN) -- While San Francisco
experiences an acute shortage of blood, one gay city official is
waging a campaign to change a federal policy that bars him, or any
gay man who has engaged in any homosexual behavior since
1977, from donating blood. ... [Whether one thinks homosexual acts
are OK or not, the fact is that homosexual activity has a strong
correlation with infectious disease like HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C. It
is the responsibility of blood donation and transfusion servcies to
ensure that risks to patients are minimised as far as possible. As a
father whose daughter needed 20 units of blood after a road
accident, and who prayed that she would not contract AIDS or
hepatitis C, I would be appalled if so-called `gay rights' were
pushed so far as to increase the risk of innocent patients
contracting a potentially fatal blood-borne disease.]
http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/01/13/us.kennewickman.ap/ CNN ...
How old is Kennewick Man? January 13, 2000 ... YAKIMA, Washington
(AP) -- The federal government on Thursday will release results of carbon-
dating tests on Kennewick Man, one of the oldest and most complete
skeletons found in North America. The U.S. Department of the Interior
also will decide whether to classify the human remains as Native American
under federal law. .... Initial tests indicated Kennewick Man was about
9,200 years old. ... [This might be an interesting test of which has the
priority: science or Native American culture?]
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/lifeorigins000112.html
ABCNEWS ... Are We All From Mars? Earth and Mars May Have
Swapped Microbes ... By Kenneth Chang ATLANTA, Jan. 12 -
New calculations show through the history of the solar system,
billions of Martian rocks blasted into space by colliding comets and
meteors eventually crashed into Earth, and vice versa. ... Mars,
smaller than Earth, would have cooled to hospitable temperatures
first. And most planetary scientists envision that early Mars would
have been a warm, wet place - conditions considered amenable to
life. .... in the first half billion years of the solar system's history,
when there was a lot more stuff whizzing through, some 50 billion
Martian rocks would have tumbled down on Earth. ... [Personally I
have no problem with life originating somewhere else and being
transported to Earth by meteorite(s). As a Moderate Concordist I find
it 0significant that Genesis 1 does not say that God created first life
on Earth.]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000112/sc/space_mars_3.html
Yahoo! ... Wednesday January 12 ... Did Bacteria Survive Trip
From Mars? ATLANTA (Reuters) - Astronomers reported on
Wednesday they had found a tough but peaceful pair of bacteria
that might have been able to survive the arduous trip from Mars,
back when the Red Planet could have supported life. ... The
bacteria -- Bacillus subtilis (wild) and Deinococcus radiodurans R1 -
- are resistant to high speeds, extreme heat and radiation... [It
should be possible to tell if these bacteria are primitive, by
subjecting them to a molecular cladistic test. If they are at or near
the root of the presumed bacterial family tree, then it is possible
that they originated from Mars. But if they are not then it is more
likely they later adapted to life in extreme environments. But what is
interesting about this article is that it seems to indicate that science
is giving up on the first origin of life on Earth and is now looking for
it in space. It is of course much less likely that they will find bacteria
on other planets, and even if they do, in proving they did not come
from Earth. Given NASA's habit of crash-landing space craft on
nearby planets :-), it would always be possible that they hitchhiked
from Earth. Only if such life were radically different could it be
proven that they did not originate on Earth. The article does say
that it is unlikely that life began outside our Solar System. But I
would have thought there would be an easy way to test whether life
arose naturalistically by simulating all plausible planetary
environments and placing plausible combinations of chemicals in
them. If the materialist-naturalist assumption is correct that life
arose when the conditions were right, then scientists should
eventually see life arise out of non-living chemicals in a laboratory
here on Earth.]
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/clusters000112.html
ABCNEWS ... Spotting a Stellar Nursery Understanding How Globular
Clusters Arise ... By Kenneth Chang ... ATLANTA, Jan. 12 - Astronomers
have spotted jampacked clumps of hundreds of thousands of infant stars
still nestled within their stellar nurseries of gas and dust. The discoveries
could help explain how these huge stellar groups, known as globular
clusters, form - and how they manage to not blow themselves apart as they
form. ... [This could have implications for the standard hot big bang model
because the article says that now old and stellar globular clusters have been
found but no middle-aged ones. However as a unrepentant Big-Banger I
would speculate that maybe there is a "survival of the fittest" among
globular clusters in that they mostly blow themselves apart in early- to
middle-age and those which survive to old-age are rare?]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000112/sc/health_height_3.html
Yahoo! ... Wednesday January 12 6:46 PM ET Height Matters, Study
Shows By Patricia Reaney LONDON (Reuters) - Charles Darwin
suggested it, Hollywood producers have long insisted on it and British and
Polish scientists have now confirmed it -- tall men get the girls. Their
research shows that tall men are more sexually attractive and have more
children than shorter men. "They tend to have more children presumably
because they are more attractive. They are more likely to get married and
whether they get married or not they are more likely to produce more
offspring," Robin Dunbar told Reuters. Also at:
http://cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/men/01/12/tall.men.ap/index.html CNN
WEB SITES: CNN ... Tall men get the girls and have more kids than short
guys, study says January 12, 2000 ... Buss, who has written two books on
human mating habits, said the female preference for taller males harkens
back to the earliest stages of human evolution. That was a time when
prehistoric women chose mates who could offer them the best protection
and provide for their needs. ... Also at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_600000/600481.stm BBC
... Thursday, 13 January, 2000 ... Tall guys get the girls ... "Height is also a
cue to the kind of resources a husband can bring into a relationship and this
has a huge impact on the survival chances of their offspring." ... "I suppose
one of the important consequences of these results is really to show up that
human behaviour is driven, at one level at least, by evolutionary processes.
It doesn't mean that everything we do is genetically determined but
evolution is guiding our behaviour," Professor Dunbar told the BBC.
Professor Dunbar says short men should not lose heart - the process of
choosing a mate is very complex and height will only be one factor. ... [A
good (?) example of Darwinian extrapolation. From a sample of only 4,400
men in one country (Poland) and finding that: 1) "childless men in all age
groups were about 1.2 inches shorter than men with at least one child"; 2)
"Bachelors were also shorter than married men"; and 3) "The only
exception...was for men born during the 1930s who reached adulthood
shortly after World War Two when there was a shortage of eligible men",
the evolutionary psychologists concluded that "the effect of height on
reproductive output might be due to shorter men being disadvantaged in
the search for a mate" and that "their findings support Darwin's theory of
sexual selection...based on preferences for specific traits in one sex by
members of the other sex". But the fact that married men who were
childless already had found a mate, and the article admitted that "tall men
and women are more successful than shorter individuals on average in
many different walks of life", would indicate that the lower fecundity rate
of shorter people in Poland might be due more to their rational decisions to
delay or not to have as many children based on economic factors. In any
event for Darwinian evolutionary psychologists to extrapolate from
fecundity rates in a minority of the population in a 20th century,
impoverished, politically subjected, European industrial nation, to
Darwinian conclusions about all human societies throughout all history and
even prehistory, just shows how pseudoscientific Darwinian ways of
thinking can be! In the BBC article it is interesting how Prof. Dunbar
personalises "evolution" as "guiding our behaviour"! But he has an escape
clause which vitiates everything he has just said: "the process of choosing a
mate is very complex and height will only be one factor"!]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000112/sc/space_asteroids_1.html
Yahoo! ... Wednesday January 12 ... Scientists Reduce Estimate of Near
Earth Asteroids By Patricia Reaney LONDON (Reuters) - The number of
asteroids capable of colliding with the Earth and causing massive
devastation is only about half of previous estimates, American scientists
said on Wednesday. Researchers said there were only 500-1,000 asteroids
large enough to cause a catastrophe -- rather than 1,000-2,000 -- and 90
percent of them would probably be detected within the next 20 years. ...
Also at:
http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/space/01/12/space.asteroids.reut/
CNN...Scientists slash estimate of near-Earth asteroids January 12, 2000...
Scientists believe an asteroid could hit the Earth in the far distant future,
some time over the next 100,000 years, but in the next 100 years there is
only a small chance. ... &
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_600000/600172.stm ...
Sci/Tech ... Wednesday, 12 January, 2000, ... No escaping asteroids It hit
the dinosaurs and it could hit us By BBC News Online Science Editor Dr
David Whitehouse Whether an asteroid will hit the Earth is a question of
when, not if. Though it is an unlikely event, it will happen given enough
time. We might be unlucky and it may occur next year, or we may have to
wait a 100,000 years for a major impact. ... The number of Near Earth
Objects (NEOs) is about half of that previously estimated. But the threat
they pose is undiminished, according to a survey. ... [This is good news,
but as the BBC article says it is still only a question of *when*! It only
needs *one* large asteroid on a collision course with Earth to not be
detected or to be detected too late!]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000112/sc/health_hysteria_1.html
Yahoo! ... Wednesday January 12 ... Mass Hysteria May Be Rising
- U.S. Study BOSTON (Reuters) - Outbreaks of mass hysteria,
including fears of poison gases in the air, may be on the rise and
traditional efforts to combat them may only make them worse, an
article in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine found.
Researchers said it was likely that as fear of bioterrorism or
environmental toxins rose, outbreaks of short-term, widespread,
psychogenic illness were likely to increase. ... [It is interesting that
with the decline of Christian faith there appears to be an increase in
fear. This may tie in with Jesus' prediction that before He returns
"Men's hearts" will be "failing them for fear, and for looking after
those things which are coming on the earth..." (Luke 21:26 AV)?]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000112/sc/space_halo_1.html
Yahoo! ... Wednesday January 12 ... Milky Way's Halo Caused by
Exploding Stars - NASA ATLANTA (Reuters) - Thousands of
exploding stars left a tell-tale halo of searingly hot gas around the
Milky Way, NASA scientists reported ... The football-shaped halo is
huge, extending about 5,000 to 10,000 light years above and below
the plane of the Milky Way galaxy, which contains Earth... Also at:
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/fuse000112.html
ABCNEWS ... Understanding Heavenly Halos Looking to
Supernovae as the Source This computer image shows a halo
blown out by supernovae. The halo extends thousands of light-
years from the center. (NASA) By Kenneth Chang ABCNEWS.com
ATLANTA, Jan. 12 - Our Milky Way galaxy is bathed in the glow of
ultrahot gas likely blown out by the explosions of dying stars. ...
University of Wisconsin astronomer Blair Savage described it as a
"galactic fountain" where supernovae explosions blast interstellar
gas upward and downward away from the galaxy's central disk,
which then, tens of millions of years later, falls back to the center
by gravity. ... [Another obstacle to extragalactic panspermia, travel
and SETI?]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000111/sc/health_gehrigs_1.html
Yahoo! ... Tuesday January 11 ... Virus Found As Cause of Lou
Gehrig's Disease WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers said on
Tuesday they had found the best evidence yet that a virus causes a
deadly paralyzing disease known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
(ALS). ... best known ...for affecting physicist Stephen Hawking,
affects the motor nerve cells in the spinal cord, gradually
weakening muscles in the body and eventually causing paralysis.
Patient's brains are spared, leaving them trapped in a deteriorating
body. The disease is fatal and incurable but some people can live
with ALS for years. ... [This is only included because of its
connection with Stephen Hawking, although baseball fans might be
interested too.]
==================================================
--------------------------------------------------------------------
"In discussing the power of evolutionary theory, Root-Bernstein says: `In
the absence of evolutionary theories, any chronological ordering of the
fossil record would seem to be a possibility, and no means would exist to
choose one order over another.' This statement expresses the common
misconception that paleontologists arrange fossils in a theoretically
reasonable order and then use this order to construct a chronology. In fact,
no evolutionary theory at all is required to use fossils for geochronology.
The best evidence is that the geological time scale in its modern form was
fully developed by about 1840 - before Darwin's Origin of Species. The
time scale based on fossils was built by geologists who were creationists.
Since 1840, many details have been filled in, but the basic sequence has
remained unchanged." (Raup D.M., "Evolution and the Fossil Record",
Science, Vol. 213, No. 4505, 17 July 1981, p289).
Stephen E. Jones | sejones@iinet.net.au | http://www.iinet.net.au/~sejones
--------------------------------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Jan 17 2000 - 08:26:30 EST