Reflectorites
Here are excerpts from Yahoo! for the period 29 May - 7 June 2000, with
my comments in square brackets.
Steve
===================================================
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000607/sc/life_dc_2.html Yahoo! ...
June 7 ... Australian Scientists Find New Evidence of Early Life LONDON
(Reuters) - Australian scientists said ... they had discovered the fossil
remains of micro-organisms in 3,235 million-year-old sulphur deposits
usually formed by deep sea vents on the oceans' floor. The discovery ...
adds new evidence to the theory that life on Earth began in the very dark,
extremely hot deepsea hydrothermal vents. "They represent the first fossil
evidence of microbial life in a Precambrian (about half a billion years ago)
submarine thermal spring system, and extend the known range of
submarine hydrothermal biota by more than 2,700 million years" ... "Such
environments may have hosted the first living systems on Earth." How life
began on the planet is a hotly contested issue among scientists. Some claim
it began near the surface bathed in sunlight, while others claim it all started
near the deep hydrothermal vents where light cannot penetrate. Rasmussen
thinks the threadlike fossils are microbes that inhabited environments
beneath the sea floor and lived at temperatures near 100 degrees
Centigrade (212 F) using inorganic matter as an energy source. "Although
Rasmussen's work does not show that deep-water hydrothermal life came
before photosynthetic life, it does lend circumstantial support to the
argument that steps in the early history of life took place around
hydrothermal systems," ... [If this holds, it is the first actual fossil of an
organism. Previous claimed evidence of first life at ~3.85 bya, are trace
fossils. If life began at least 600 myrs before this latest find did, this cannot
be evidence that the first life began around hydrothermal vents. What
would be evidence for that would be if the *first* trace fossils ~3.85 bya
were found around hydrothermal vents. But they were photosynthesing
bacteria.]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000607/sc/gecko_dc_1.html Yahoo!
... June 7 ... Gripping Secrets of Geckos Uncovered LONDON (Reuters) -
Have you ever wondered how geckos scurry across bedroom walls and
ceilings defying gravity? Scientists at the University of California Berkeley
think they have figured it out. They may have also discovered a novel idea
for a new synthetic adhesive in the process. The speedy geckos, or house
lizards, have two million microscopic hairs on their toes and hundreds of
thousands of tiny pads called spatulae on the tip of each hair that allow
them to dangle effortlessly from a ceiling by just one toe. "These billion
spatulae, which look like broccoli on the tips of the hairs, are outstanding
adhesives," ... "Geckos have developed an amazing way of walking that
rolls these hairs onto the surface, and then peels them off again, just like
tape. But it's better than tape." ... The scientists showed that a single hair
could bend the wire or lift an ant. A million hairs covering an area the size
of a small coin could lift a child weighing about 45 pounds (20 kg). But ...
suction alone could not fully explain the adhesive power. They think
intermolecular forces that are created when unbalanced electrical charges
attract one another create the powerful adhesion. Unbalanced electrical
charges around molecules attract one another. The charges fluctuate and
even reverse but the net effect is to draw molecules together, such as
molecules on a gecko foot and molecules in a smooth wall or ceiling. "The
hairs allow the billion spatulae to come into intimate contact with the
surface, combining to create a strong adhesive force," ... The researchers
are using their findings to develop a strong, dry adhesive based on artificial
hairs similar to those of geckos. They are also looking at a way of studying
the force of individual spatulae. ... [It would be interesting to see a
Darwinist, tiny-step-by- tiny-step adaptationist explanation of this further
example of what Denton called, "the problem of perfection" (Geckos don't
weight 20kg!), and also why Geckos alone developed it.]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000607/sc/arts_david_dc_1.html
Yahoo! ... June 7 ... Michelangelo's David Not So Perfect After All
LONDON (Reuters) - Michelangelo's David, the towering sculpture
acclaimed for its depiction of male beauty, is not so perfect after all. He
squints. Laser images of David's face ... show he is not looking out into the
distance but is squinting. ... "The gaze directions of his eyes actually
diverge," ... In one view the statue is looking slightly to the left but from
the left profile he appears to be staring straight ahead. "It's a typical
Michelangelo trick. He optimized each eye for its appearance as seen from
the side," ... The flaw in the 17-foot statue is not visible to the admiring
public in its current home on a 6-foot pedestal ... Even if it were, the
frontal view is usually hidden by the statue's upraised hand. ... [An example
of how an intelligent designer can have design goals other than perfection.
Come to think of it, it is interesting that the existing human eye orientation
is regarded as "perfect"!]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000607/sc/genes_dc_1.html Yahoo! ...
June 7 ... Congress Urged to Outlaw Genetic Discrimination ...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It will be impossible to keep details of
people's genes secret in the future, so Congress should pass laws to make
sure such information is not abused, Craig Venter, founder of gene-
mapping company Celera Genomics Inc., said ... "I argue that it is virtually
impossible to achieve full medical privacy," Venter, whose company is
working furiously to map and identify all the genes in the human genome,
told ... the Joint Economic Committee of the House of Representatives and
Senate. "Accepting this fact highlights our need for legislation prohibiting
discrimination on the basis of genetic information. It is essential if the
biotechnology revolution is to be realised." ... Scientists who are mapping
the human genome hope they will eventually be able to identify the genes
that make people susceptible to diseases ranging from cancer to
Alzheimer's. They also hope to be able to identify who responds well to
which drugs, so that medicine can be tailored to individuals. Already many
genes associated with disease have been identified, including many cancer
genes, a gene for Huntington's, which is an inherited and incurable brain
illness, and genes associated with haemophilia. People have already
expressed worries about being tested for such genes, saying they fear they
will be denied health insurance and might lose jobs if it became known they
were at risk of disease. In February President Clinton signed an executive
order prohibiting the government from using genetic information in hiring
or promotion decisions. And Congress is working on this ... "The biggest
concern is genetic discrimination," Venter said. "Because we differ subtly
from one another, some people want to overinterpret this in terms of
genetic determinism -- that you are what you are because of your genetic
code," he added. "It doesn't quite work like that." Venter stressed that
environment is at least as important as genetics. He pointed out if one
identical twin has schizophrenia, a disease with a genetic component, the
other twin has only a 50 percent chance of developing the illness, even
though the two have exactly the same genes. Venter said everybody has
one gene or another that, if they are allowed to, could give insurance
companies an excuse not to provide cover. "Every one of us is
uninsurable," he said. He said people should not want their genetic make-
up to remain secret, because there are benefits to knowing about it. "Each
one of us, when our genetic code is determined, and if I have my way every
one of us will have our genetic code determined within the next 10 to 15
years, will be able to do tailored and preventive medicine," he said. ...
Another fear is that people who wish to discriminate against various ethnic
groups might try and use genetics as a weapon. "We don't want the genetic
code to be used ... by people trying to justify their previous biases," Venter
. ... [This sounds like a vain hope. Once a person's genetic makeup is
known, employers could discriminate on that basis, but find some other
reason for not hiring the person. And what is to stop the information being
posted on the Web in another country? Venter's arguments against genetic
determinism are helpful.]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000606/hl/africa_aids_11.html Yahoo!
... June 6 ... South Africa Sees Poverty As Factor Behind AIDS CAPE
TOWN (Reuters) - South Africa's top health official said on Tuesday that
poverty and malnutrition were important factors behind AIDS, a view
shared by a controversial presidential panel debating what causes the
illness. ... Tshabalala-Msimang also highlighted the high incidence of
sexually transmitted diseases, malaria and tuberculosis as factors behind
AIDS, which infects one in 10, or 4.3 million, South Africans. "A better
understanding of these relationships is crucial for an appropriate and
comprehensive response," ... President Thabo Mbeki has sparked
controversy by allowing so-called "AIDS dissidents" onto an influential
presidential advisory committee that will help shape the country's AIDS
policy. ... Dissidents such as American Peter Duesberg, who is on the
panel, argue that AIDS is not caused by the human immunodeficiency virus
(HIV) but by a breakdown of the immune system brought on by poverty
and recreational drugs such as amyl nitrate or toxic anti- AIDS drugs such
as AZT. The panel is due to submit its report at the end of this month
before a major international AIDS conference in Durban in July. Virtually
all scientists agree that HIV causes Acquired Immune Deficiency
Syndrome (AIDS) and that debate over what is behind the disease is a
waste of time while millions face death from it. But Tshabalala-Msimang
said ... "We strongly believe that a successful response to HIV has to be
developmental in character and extend well beyond the narrow biomedical
model," ... many anti-AIDS drugs remained too costly to treat the country's
HIV-AIDS positive people. "The use of anti-retroviral triple therapy is
completely unaffordable in our context. This would be so even if there was
an 80 percent reduction in current market prices" ... [If poverty and
malnutrition cause AIDS, then maybe there is no single entity called
"AIDS", but rather a collection of immune-system diseases caused by
various factors? If this turns out to be the case then Duesberg, et al. will
have been vindicated.]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000601/sc/meteorite_leadall_1.html
Yahoo! ... June 1 ... Scientists Excited by Rare Meteorite Find in Canada
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Tagish Lake in rugged northern British
Columbia was frozen in January and Jim Brook [found] strewn for miles on
the ice... one of the largest and most significant fields of meteorite
fragments ever discovered. They believe the rare charcoal-like chunks hold
clues into the origins of the solar system. ... The 200-ton asteroid, now
known to be made of a very rare organic-rich substance and thought to be
4.5 billion years old... hit the ground. ... In April, the snow on Tagish Lake
melted and researchers spent days on the meter-thick ice, where the
fragments in the 10-mile (16 km) field of rocks had become embedded. ...
In total, the team found 500 pieces, the largest about the size of a small
potato, before the ice melted ... The meteorite, made of a substance called
carbonaceous chondrite, likely originated from a larger body from the
asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Only about 3 percent of meteorite
finds are of this type. The last major ones were three decades ago in
Australia and Mexico. ... "Carbonaceous chondrites are very special
because they date from the dawn of the solar system, and in fact they also
contain stardust grains that predate the solar system." In the fragments are
organic substances that contain building blocks for biological material,
many of which could have fallen on the early earth. The Tagish Lake
fragments may also contain water, preserved by keeping them frozen, he
said. "A big question is where the water on earth arrived and how it arrived
and where it formed. If you can find samples of water trapped in calcium
carbonates in this meteorite, as you probably will...that will tell us a lot
about the origin of water on the earth." ... [An exciting find. It will be
interesting to find out if it has any preponderance of L-amino acids.]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000601/sc/science_cells_1.html
Yahoo! ... June 1 ... Stem Cells Find Their Own Way in Experiment ...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Swedish scientists said on Thursday they
found that adult stem cells, the seed cells from which all other cells arise,
can find their own way in the body. They said their experiment shows that
stem cells taken from both adults and embryos are not only extraordinarily
powerful, but can be controlled and guided using the body's own systems.
But the experiment, described in a paper in the journal Science, will not tip
the balance either way in a U.S. battle over whether adult stem cells are
good enough substitutes for embryonic stem cells, whose use is
controversial. ... "Embryonic stem cells remain the golden standard," ...
Scientists hope that stem cells can be used eventually as tissue transplants
to help in diseases such as juvenile diabetes and Parkinson's and perhaps
someday as the basis of grow-your-own organ transplants. But research
remains to be done and there are two sources of the cells -- the adult body
and embryos. Some groups in the United States oppose the use of human
embryonic stem cells because the embryo -- usually taken from the
leftovers of test-tube fertility efforts -- is destroyed in the process of
deriving them ... "It is known that embryonic stem cells are totipotent, i.e.
that they can generate all cell types," ... "This has not been described for
any adult stem cells. What we now have demonstrated is that they can
generate very many cell types, but we do not have evidence for them being
able to give rise to all cell types." In its experiment, ... "The neural stem
cells generated many different cell types, for example in kidney, heart and
liver," ... hearts in the mouse embryos contained normal-looking heart cells
that were, in fact, the product of the neural stem cells. "These data
demonstrate that the adult neural stem cells can integrate into the
developing chick and mouse embryo, give rise to embryonic cells of
various fates, and contribute to the generation of tissues and organs," ...
But they did not find any of their marked cells in several places -- notably
the bone marrow. The next step is to find out how the stem cells that got
into the heart "knew" to become cardiac cells. "The short answer is that we
have no clue," .... "The neural stem cells presumably respond to molecules
secreted by their new neighbors, but the nature of these signals is yet
unknown to us." ... [This is better news. If adult neural cells can give rise
to most other cells then there may be no need to harvest embryos, with its
ethical problems.]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000601/sc/health_celera_1.html
Yahoo! ... June 1 ... Celera Says It Sequences One-Third of Mouse Genes
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Celera Genomics said Thursday it had
sequenced a third of the mouse genome, more than a billion "base pairs" of
the compounds that link up to make DNA. The company is racing to be the
first to sequence, or map, all the genes in the human genome and plans to
sell information based on the map. It is also mapping animals frequently
used by scientists to compare to humans, such as mice and the fruit fly
Drosophila, whose sequence it finished in March. ... The company said in
an announcement it had finished sequencing about 1.15 billion base pairs of
mouse DNA. "The availability of the mouse genome is crucial to
understanding the human genome," ... Sequencing is only the first step to
understanding a genome. It establishes the order of the nucleotides -- the
As, Cs, Ts and Gs that make up genes -- but does not provide any
information about where the actual genes are. ... [I find it hard to believe
that knowing the mouse genome is "crucial" to understanding the human
genome. A cynic might think that Celera's frequent announcements of
milestone in sequencing different genomes is PR designed to keep the stock
price high!]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000601/sc/health_antibiotics_1.html
Yahoo! ... June 1 ... Stop Trying Too Hard to Kill Bacteria, Expert Says ...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Americans have to lose their illogical fear of
bacteria and stop trying to kill them all if the problem of drug- resistant
"superbugs" is to be licked, an expert said on Thursday. Not only will
people have to stop over-using antibiotics, but they should stop buying
anti-bacterial soaps and detergents because they are a waste of time, Dr.
Stuart Levy of Tufts University in Boston said. "People have to understand
that bacteria are necessary ... Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are becoming a
bigger and bigger problem. ..."The problem with an antibiotic is it is not
really the miracle we would like it to be," Levy said. The best way to deal
with the problem, he added, is to let more bacteria live. "Let the susceptible
strains come back," he said. The battle against bacteria, the oldest forms of
life on Earth, is sure to be a losing one anyway, Levy said. ... "Let's make
peace. We should say 'be kind to bacteria. They are our friends'." For
instance, people cannot digest food without the several pounds (kilos) of
bacteria that live in the gut. ... [I thought this might be of interest since
bacteria are usually thought of as an evil.]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000530/sc/health_genome_1.html
Yahoo! ... May 30 ... Scientists Poised to Decode Human Genome ...
ROCKVILLE, Md. (Reuters) - Deep in the heart of Celera's headquarters
is a control room that looks like something right out of a space fantasy.
Banks of computer screens line the walls and a console stretches along the
floor, but the swivel chairs in front of each workstation along the console
are empty. "We only use this room when something goes wrong," ... And
so far, very little has gone wrong for the firm, which is pushing ahead to
decipher the human genome -- the entire collection of human genes. Celera
was founded on the premise that it could use a radical shortcut called
whole-genome shotgun sequencing to map the genome. Much more
quickly than even its brash founder Craig Venter thought possible, it has
accomplished this project. Sometime in June, Celera is expected to
announce it has the complete rough-draft sequence of the human genome.
At about the same time, an international team of publicly funded scientists
will announce the same thing. But the word complete is misleading. What
they will have will be just the first step -- a bare-bones outline -- of all the
genes that make us tick. The sequence will be 3 billion repeats of four
letters, A, C, T and G, that represent the nucleotides that make up DNA.
Both Celera and the Human Genome Project will know the order of these
repeats, but the real work will lie in deciphering this repetitive code. ... "It
is pretty exciting to be at this stage at last where we can see the whole
genome, see exactly what needs to be done and be able to move on to the
next stage," ... The ultimate prize will be an understanding of what life is:
how it begins, how it develops and what makes it end. ... Scientists will
understand what genes turn on and off at each stage of development and
will be able to grasp the precise nature of disease. But this is decades away.
What scientists will have next month is a long, mostly undecipherable
stretch of code -- like ATTGCTGCAT -- that will have to be read. ... But
codes do not read straightforwardly. Not all groupings of A, T, C and G
make for a gene. Some are special codes that signal the start of a gene,
some signal the end, and some are "junk DNA" that may be key to fully
understanding the genome. Powerful computers at Celera and the Human
Genome Project's member labs will be used to sort out where the genes
are. ... There is disagreement on just how many genes there are. The
official estimate is somewhere between 60,000 and 100,000, but several
papers published in this month's issue of Nature Genetics show what an
imprecise science genomics still is.... . Celera is using the genes of five
people. It has finished the first step of sequencing one person already and
plans to overlap this with the four others. ... The publicly funded Human
Genome Project he referred to is using a mosaic of about 10 different
people ... But ... most of the samples the Human Genome Project
laboratories are analyzing come from a single man. The samples come from
sperm or blood. DNA is removed and inserted into colonies of bacteria ...
which pump out DNA like little factories. ... robots sample the growing
colonies and find the "best" DNA, which is broken into pieces. ... a roomful
of gleaming "3700s," the machines made for shotgun sequencing by PE
Biosystems ... labor for 24 hours a day without supervision, sucking up
DNA in their 96 capillary tubes. ... A laser detects each one and a video
camera inside picks up the fluorescent flashes. This information is made
digital and sent to the computers. ... "We are taking tens of millions of
pieces of puzzle and putting it into a pile and telling the computer, 'Now
figure out the puzzle,"' he said. Only a computer could see the patterns in 3
billion repeats of just four letters. The whole room has 50 terabytes of
storage -- equivalent to 4 or 5 libraries of Congress. ... Celera hopes its
hastily assembled version of the genome will offer a good enough picture
to be worthwhile to subscribers. But Human Genome Project scientists
predict it will be too full of holes. Their more carefully assembled version
will take longer to produce but, they hope, will be of much higher quality.
One key will lie in just how important the "junk" DNA is. Celera thinks it
can get along fine by identifying the genes, but some researchers predict
that the junk DNA may, like a dusty antique store, harbor treasures --
perhaps sequences that control how and when genes work. ... [The full
article is well worth reading. Note the materialist assumption that genes =
life: "The ultimate prize will be an understanding of what life is...". The fact
that they cannot even agree on how many genes there are (read the full
article for the different estimates) shows that the Darwinist Williams was
right about one thing: "The gene is a package of information, not an
object... the DNA molecule is the medium, it's not the message"
(http://www.edge.org/documents/ThirdCulture/h-Ch.1.html). But Williams
doesn't realise that this destroys materialism. If life is ultimately
information, then where did the information come from? But life being
ultimately information fits in perfectly with the Bible's teaching that
creation was through the Word of God (see Genesis 1; John 1)]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000530/sc/space_eros_1.html Yahoo!
... May 30 ... Eros Asteroid May Be From Early Solar System ...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The asteroid Eros may be a primordial relic
left over from when the solar system first formed ... NASA's Near Earth
Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) mission had collected new information that
suggested Eros is made out of the same stuff as chondrites, which are
primitive meteorites found on Earth and believed to be left over from when
planets started forming from dust billions of years ago. The NEAR team
gathered the information after a powerful solar flare zapped Eros with X-
rays on May 4. The half-hour explosion prompted a response from
elements on the surface of the 21 mile (34 km) long asteroid. ... "Analysis
of X-rays from an area roughly 3.7 miles (6 km) across on Eros indicates it
has an elemental composition similar to the most primitive rocks in the
solar system, the chondritic meteorites," ... "Chondrites are the building
blocks of terrestrial (earthlike) planets," ... "If more data confirm Eros is
primordial, Eros will be a link between the chondrite meteorites found on
Earth and the history of the solar system's formation." ... [Yet another
design parameter? Some might think it fitting if life started by something
like Eros! :-)]
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20000529/sc/germany_genes_1.html
Yahoo! ... May 29 ... German Scientist Finds GM Genes Can Jump Species
BERLIN (Reuters) - A top German zoologist has found that genes used to
modify crops can jump the species barrier and cause bacteria to mutate but
he stressed Monday that the potential risk to human health was minimal.
Jena University professor Hans-Hinrich Kaatz, whose four-year study
found that the alien gene used to modify oilseed rape could contaminate
bacteria in the guts of bees, declined to comment in depth on his research
before publication this summer. ... But Kaatz, who fears a backlash from
the scientific community on the contentious topic of genetically modified
food, confirmed that gene transfer had taken place, albeit rarely. "To the
greatest possible extent though we can rule out danger to the bees," he
said, advising against overinterpreting a study which has yet to be reviewed
by his peers. Although Kaatz recognized his and fellow researcher Stefan
Woelfl's findings were "significant," he said he was not surprised and added
that while there may be implications for bacteria in the human gut, there
were no grounds for panic. "Research is being carried out on this, although
not by us." ... [The problem is that if a gene jumps and mutates and then
*does* cause harm, it might be impossible (or at least very expensive) to
stop it.]
===================================================
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Stephen E. (Steve) Jones ,--_|\ Email: sejones@iinet.net.au
3 Hawker Avenue / Oz \ Web: http://www.iinet.net.au/~sejones
Warwick 6024 -> *_,--\_/ Phone: +61 8 9448 7439
Perth, Western Australia v "Test everything." (1 Thess. 5:21)
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