NEWSLETTER

of the

American Scientific Affiliation & Canadian Scientific & Christian Affiliation

NEWSLETTER of the ASA/CSCA is published bi-monthly for its membership by the American Scientific Affiliation, P.O. Box 668, 55 Market St., Ipswich, MA 01938-0668. Tel. 508-356-5656, FAX: 508-356-4375, Email: asa @junkyard. UUCP. Information for the Newsletter may be sent to the Editor: Dennis Feucht, RD 1 Box 35A, Townsville, PA 16360-9404. 0 1993 American Scientific Affiliation (except previously published material). All rights reserved.

See Ya At Seattle

There are all kinds of reasons for attending the ASA ANNUAL MEETING at Seattle Pacific University, August 5 to 10, even apart from "The Environment," a topic on everybody's mind these days, and Calvin De Witt of Au Sable Institute for Environmental Studies, a great keynote speaker to deal with that topic from a seasoned Christian perspective.

We'll have daylong field trips to two rich natural areas (Olympic and Mt. Rainier National Parks); a program with a full symposium ("Can There Be a Scientific Theory of Intelligent Design?") and many contributed papers (even a few empirical ones in the "Caring Research" category); meetings of our affiliated geology and biology groups; worship in praise and prayer; a mouthwatering salmon banquet in an Indian longhouse-1 ASA reports and business to attend to; fellowship with friendly folks serving Jesus Christ in various scientific & technological pursuits.

For the Weary Old Editor, a special treat: not having to cover every detail for the Newsletter. Special treat for our readers: meeting the editor who will steer the ASA/CSCA Newsletter into the 21st century, Dennis Feucht.

Yep, folks - you're now reading Walt Hearn's last issue. Not the last one he'll contribute to, for sure, but the last one he'll be fully responsible for. (We wanted to show you what 24 years as an editor can do to a guy, but our Everest. After passing the job on to Wait in 1969, Alton remained a productive writer and has been the Newsletter's most faithful reporter. Thanks, Alton, for the example you set; and thank you, Dennis, for picking up the reins.

Obso-Lessons: 2.

Expect the Newsletter to take on a new look-though even Dennis Feucht may not know yet what that will be. With his electronics background and interest in computers, though, he'll be able to keep up with what's going on in information gathering, processing, storing, and dissemination. Will the WOE just fade away? Not if he follows a precedent set by his predecessor, F. Alton

After taking that first step into word processing, the WOE left desk-top Publishing up to ASA's competent managing editor. New evidence of our obsolescence hits us every day. Visiting a lab, we see every instrument hooked directly to a computer. Ads for sophisticated programs beckon from scientific journals.

Journals themselves are going "online." Chemical & Engineering News is now available on the STN international scientific and technical network as "C&EN Online" The text of each issue of The Scientist can be read as soon as it is published by anyone with an Internet connection using FTP (file transfer protocol): Log onto Internet by entering the command ftp ds.internic.net. At the "name" prompt, enter anonymous. At the "password" prompt, type in your Internet address. At the next prompt, enter cd pub/the-scientist, then dir to get a listing of files in the directory. To download the 14 June 1993 issue, enter get the-scientist-930614. To end session, enter quit.

Simple, if you've got the RAM, the connections, and the patience to enter that much typesetter's "pi a la modem" without error. According to "Advances in Electronic Publishing Herald Changes for Scientists" by Stu Borman in the 14 June CIEN (hardcopy version), source of the above directions, already there's an online journal about online journals: Public Access Computer Systems Review.

One can subscribe to "Current Contents on Diskette"; participate in online scientific conferences; search selected journals electronically at certain libraries (Cornell, UCSF, Harvard) and print out full-page images of articles (including graphics). On various electronic bulletin boards (BBS), we're told, over a half-million bytes of commentary on Forrest Mims's 1990 dismissal from Scientific American have been logged.

It's not only the scientific world that's being turned upsidedownload. According to Religion Watch (Mar 1993): a Church Without Walls BBS from St. Albans Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., operates on Compuserve; a Quaker Electronic Project serves as a "library, meetinghouse, social center, and bulletin board" for Friends around the world; a relatively new Rose Hill Forum serves some of the same functions for theological conservatives. In the San Francisco Bay Area one can log on not only to the Pagan/Occult Distribution Network, Body Dharma, or Skeptic's BBS, but also to Computers for Christ, Corpus Christi, Orthodox Christian, or Logos BBS.

Along with Christian Leadership Ministries, the Christian College Coalition, and other groups of Christian professionals, the American Scientific Affiliation now lists members' e-mail addresses in its membership directory. What's next? We'll leave that to Dennis.

Coming Soon

What we do know that's coming is the 1993 version of ASA's Teachi . ng Science in a Climate of Controvers v. due from Science Press this summer. Since its conclusions on the "open questions" it posed still hold, the Committee for Integrity in Science Education decided simply to reprint the 1989 text, adding the background and text of the 1991 ASA resolution, "A Voice for Evolution as Science," plus a 16page Addendum containing a classroom exercise to teach critical thinking about evolutionary evidence and inference. At the same time, the format has been changed to that of a slightly smaller paperback book with a spine, so it can be sold in bookstores. It will be available from ASA, soon.

Also on the way: InterVarsity Press is bringing out a new paperback edition of Phillip Johnson's Darwin on Trial containing an added Epilogue. In that Epilogue, Johnson summarizes criticisms of the first edition and replies to his most prominent critics.

A new paperback due out this summer is Hugh Ross's The Creator and the Cosmos, which will be available from Reasons to Believe (P.O. Box 5978, Pasadena, CA 91117). Also new from that source is a book many heard about from its author at an ASA-sponsored symposium some years back: Hubert Yockey's Information Theory and Molecular Biology, a "heavy" hardback offered at a discount price. The just-released second edition of the high-school supplementary text, Of Pandas and People, in hardcover, is also on the current Reasons to Believe book list.

This summer Dordt College Press in Iowa will publish Evolutionary Theory: A Christian View, by Dordt emeritus professor of chemistry Russell Maatman; Russ is disappointed that it won't be out in time for the 1993 Annual Meeting. We've heard that the U. of California Press has secured from Knopf the paperback rights to Ronald Numbers's The Creationists.

Also on its way is the annual volume of the Journal of Disciplinary Studies from the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies (2828 3rd St. #11, Santa Monica, CA 904054150); edited by Oskar Gruenwald, Vol. 5 focuses on "The Unity of the Arts & Sciences: Pathways to God's Creation?" and includes papers by Robert Ensign and LeRon Shults.

Bulletin Board

- Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (2065 Half Day Road, Deerfield, IL 60015) has begun two new programs featuring concentrations in bioethics. The Life Issues programs begin this summer with two courses cosponsored by Trinity's extension office and nearby Lake Forest Hospital: 1) Bioethics & Public Policy, taught by Harold 0. J. Brown, Guy Condon, Ben Mitchell, & Rita Marker, 30 Jul-7 Aug; and 2) Matters of Life & Death: Introduction to Bioethics, taught by Nigel Cameron, 2-6 Aug. Contact: Dr. Stephen Kemp, Asst. Dean, Office of Extension & Continuing Education: tel, 708-317-6550. fax, 708-317-6509.

- "Experiencing the World/Interpreting the World-The Two Ways: Science & Religion" is the topic of a symposium to be held 31 Aug-2 Sep 1993 in the Oriental Institute's Breasted Hall at the University of Chicago. The symposium is cosponsored by The Templeton Religion Trust. Contact: The Chicago Center for Religion & Science, 1100 East 55th St., Chicago, IL 60615; tel, 312-753-0670.

- For the second year, scholarly papers exemplifying a Theology of Humility as defined by The John Templeton Foundation will be considered for cash awards by the Foundation. In the first year of the program 100 papers were reviewed and twelve prizes of $2,000 each were awarded. Many more prizes will be awarded in 1993, for papers in press or published in the past three years in a refereed scientific or theological journal (book chapters are not acceptable this year). Papers should be between 2,000 and 10,000 words in length, submitted in double-spaced typewnitten form or as reprints of published papers, in duplicate, to: The John Templeton Foundation, P.O. Box 1040, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010-0918. Deadline: 31 Oct 1993.

- The Pew Evangelical Scholars Program (formerly the Evangelical Scholarship Initiative) awards grants for the pursuit of research in the humanities, social sciences, and theological disciplines. Over the past several years the number and size of the awards has increased. For 1994-95, fourteen grants of $35,000 each will be awarded. Applicants should hold earned doctorates in their fields, be either North Americans or employed at North American institutions, and be interested in showing how their Christian faith informs their scholarly work. Proposals on both religious and non-religious topics are invited, from Christian scholars of all ecclesiastical backgrounds, and projects that proceed from demonstrably Christian perspectives are encouraged. For information on how to apply, contact: Michael S. Hamilton, Pew Evangelical Scholars -Program, G123 Hesburg Library, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556. tel. 219-631-8347; fax, 219-631-8700. Deadline for receipt of applications: 30 Nov 1993.

Wherever God Wants Us: 29.

- The Middle East remains in the political news but respect for western technology continues. A Christian-based secular agency has been designed for the purpose of technology transfer to institutions in that region. In addition to physicians with various specialties and surgical room nurses, opportunities are presently open for 
professors of physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, engineering, food technology, computer science, and science education. Teachers of English as a Second Language are also needed. Contact: Scientific Technology & Language Institute (STLI), 3349 Golden Rain Rd #1, Walnut Creek, CA 94595.

- The Republic of Haiti is also in the political news; Christianity Todzn, (21 June) ran a major story on Christians working to ease the suffering in that "poorest country in the Americas." About 120 miles SW of Port-au-Prince is the city of Les Cayes, where the American University of the Caribbean (formerly, American U. of Les Cayes) is looking for Christians to teach in both degree and non-degree programs to contribute to the economic development of Haiti and other Caribbean countries. Bachelor's degrees are offered in agronomy, accounting, business management. English, and community health. A training program for school teachers is under development; the Haitian Foundation for Private Education (FONEP, with 5,000 schools) has asked the university to devise a Christian-based curriculum that can be taught in English, French, and Creole. Accredited by the Ministre de I'Education Nationale of the Republic, the eight-year-old university is the only educational institution in Haiti offering degree programs in the English language. In 1992-93 there were 250 students, but the main building, funded by American Schools & Hos~pitals. Abroad, can handle 700.

The American University of the Caribbean is a Christian enterprise with an unpaid volunteer faculty who come for a semester or for as little as 30 days. At least a Master's is needed to teach upperdivision courses, but volunteers with only a Bachelor's degree can be put to work. Each course is of onemonth duration and students generally take only one course at a time. Most Haitians earn less than $300 a year, so tuition is kept low and the university depends on donations from the United States. Enrollment has declined under the OAS embargo because prospective students are unable to earn enough to pay tuition.

Even so, the university has a library with 40,000 books, a typing lab, language lab, and computer center. It has a biology lab (held up in customs for six months) and physics lab equipment (to be shipped when the embargo ends). Classroom video monitors are connected to a satellite dish antenna to take advantage of televised instruction from abroad. Nevertheless, according to president Charles Schomaker, this is "a developing institution in a developing country." A provost is responsible for activities in Les Cayes but an executive office is maintained in the U.S. by a 15-member board of directors. For a list of courses you might teach, an informative faculty handbook, and a statement of the university's history, mission, and doctrinal basis, contact: American University of the Caribbean, P.O. Box 673, Herndon, VA 22070.

Squibs

- When the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) met in New Orleans the end of March, over 10,000 scientists in nine societies gave some 5,000 papers in eight cross-disciplinary research areas. As usual, the long-standing Federation Christian Fellowship (FCF) had its own meeting as a small part of that huge gathering, with cardiologist Jay Hollman speaking on "Fighting Humanism in Science and in the Church." Jay urged FCFers to educate fellow Christians about science, to debunk bad science, and to take active roles as church leaders. Will the FCF need to choose a new name? That's not clear, though the term "Federation Meeting" wasn't used this year. Instead, four of the nine FASEB societies invited five "guest" societies, including the Society for Experimental Biology & Medicine, to meet with them, calling the event "Experimental Biology '93."

- Information for the above item came from physiologist Ken Dormer of the U. of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City. Ken also reported on the 19 March annual Kurt Weiss Lecture in Biomedical Ethics there, given by John Templeton lecturer Armand Nicholi, Jr., of Harvard Medical School. The lecture, contrasting views of health and happiness expressed by Sigmund Freud and C. S. Lewis, was well received by a large group of students, staff, and faculty. Armand also spoke at an evening dinner award ceremony, where the Christian Medical Coalition's first scholarship was awarded to the 3rd-year medical or dental student "best exemplifying the humanitarian and compassionate behavior consistent with the JudeoChristian ethic." (The late Kurt Weiss %&as a faculty member at the Health Sciences Center and a president of ASA.)

- Susan Howatch is an English writer whose novels (including the best-selling Penmarric) have sold over 20 million copies in the past 20 years. A few years ago she became a Christian and began writing a series of novels with a new outlook (e.g., Glittering Images), se in a fictional cathedral-town called Starbridge. To her surprise, the first five sold well enough to earn her another fortune while impressing many church leaders with their sound theology. Now living modestly as a Christian, this spring she put her wealth to a use that startled many scientists. After reading the works of physicist/priest John Polkinghorne, Howatch found herself sitting next to him at a dinner. Their conversation led to her gift of a million pounds to Cambridge University (where Polkinghorne presides over Queen's College) to finance in perpetuity "The Starbridge Lectureship in Theology and Natural Science." An 18 March editorial in The Independent newspaper of London described the novelist's hope for "a more fruitful relationship between science and theology," and her view that "these disciplines should no longer be seen as opposed but complementary."

- Endowment of the Starbridgle Lectureship in Theology and Natural Science and the editorial praising it (see above) brought forth a surge of letters to The Independent. A predictably sour note was sounded in the 20 March issue by biologist Richard Dawkins (of The Blind Watchmaker), who railed that "The achievements of theologians don't do anything, don't affect anything, don't achieve anything, don't even mean anything. What makes you think that 'theology' is a subject at all?" The blind mythmaker's blast was balanced by one from biochemist Denis Alexander, editor of Science & Christian Belief-, he cited the recent Templeton Lectures cosponsored by Christians in Science (ASA's counterpart in the U.K.) as evidence that "the partnership between science and theology appears remarkably healthy." By 22 March, chemistry Nobelist Max Perutz had weighed in, dissociating himself from Dawkins's attack, saying that he would have preferred a chair in science and ethics as a counter to "the increasingly prevailing law of the jungle in the scientific world." Perutz called a chair in science and theology "the next best thing," adding that , 'Scientists may not believe in God, but they should be taught why they ought to behave as if they did." By 23 March, the Letters page was full of comment, pro and con, including a serious rebuttal to Dawkins by Susan Howatch herself. On I April, an editorial in the scientific journal Nature called the Starbridge Lectureship an "empty" venture and asked if it was proper "that one of Britain's leading centres of learning should put a price on its academic rigour and accept her donation."

The two stories above are based on clippings sent by U. of Minnesota geneticist Elving Anderson, who participated, back in 1965, in a conference on a Christian philosophy of science held at Oxford, England. That conference was cosponsored by ASA and by what is now Christians in Science, then known as the Research Scientists' Christian Fellowship. (That was before CSCA came into being, but it was the financial support of a Canadian ASA member, engineer Norman Lea, now associated with St. Stephen's University in Maine, that made the conference possible.) One of the British participants was a young reader in mathematical physics at Cambridge named John Polkinghorne. He has since become an Anglican priest whose writings on science and Christian faith are widely influential. Evidently he has now influenced establishment of a lectureship in science & theology at Cambridge. One plants the seed, another waters, another harvests but "it is God who gives the growth" (I Cor. 3).

- Sharp-eyed geologist Ken Van Dellen of Grosse Point Park, Michigan, wrote that the TV series "How Do They Do That?" aired a recent piece about the dead-letter office of the U.S. Postal Service. While watching that show he recognized one of the lost items as a copy of Charles Hummel's Galileo Connection. Ken said that if anyone ordered the book but didn't receive it, he knows where it is.

- "Creation Science: A Challenge in the Classroom" is the title of a paper in the May 1993 issue of The Physics Teacher (pp. 300-304) by Gary Kessler, chair of the Physics Dept at Illinois Wesleyan U. in Bloomington. Kessler outlined his answers to eight questions posed to him in a freshman seminar on "Physics as a Liberal Art" by several assertive students whose information came from two books by Henry Morris of the Institute for Creation Research. The questions dealt with physics and astronomy. Sample: Globular clusters are supposed to be very old. Estimates, according to J. Wheeler of the U. of Texas, vary from 7 billion to 26 billion years old, yet there are both "old" red stars and "young" blue stars. How can this be? Kessler spent some 40 hours tracking down the pertinent scientific literature to answer the students' eight questions, then found that some of them still weren't convinced. (Thanks to physicist Don DeGraaf of Flint, Michigan, for this one. -Ed.)

- The June/July issue of First Things had a great exchange of views on "God and Evolution" with a strong paper by Howard J. Van Till, professor of physics at Calvin College in Michigan, and a strong reply by Phillip E. Johnson, professor of law at the U. of California in Berkeley. Van Till wrote in response to Johnson's earlier First Things article, "Creator or Blind Watchmaker" (Jan 1993. Defending the "forgotten doctrine of Creation's functional integrity" against what he considers a variant of the "God-of the-gaps" perspective, Van Till argued that evolutionary processes "explore" or "discover" possibilities built in by the Creator but do not themselves create:

It seems to me that this theistic paradigm provides precisely what the naturalistic (broad) paradigm - the blind watchmaker hypothesis - could not. It provides the answer to the question, How is it possible that such a remarkable array of life forms is not only viable but historically realizable within the economy of the world at hand? Could anything less than the infinite creativity and faithful providence of God suffice?

Johnson replied that Christian intellectuals who interpret "evolution" to their audiences in a genuinely theistic manner need to realize that theistic evolution is not what the reigning authorities have in mind when they propose to teach every school child that "evolution is a fact." If people like Van Till were in charge, science education might be different, Johnson wrote, but it is the uncompromisingly naturalistic view of evolution taken by Gould, Dawkins, Saga, Futuyma, and company that dominates public education. Agreeing with Van Till that we must distinguish between "scientific theorizing and naturalistic propaganda," 1ohnson added that:

- we also need to recognize that the persons who now rule science do not themselves know how to make that distinction, and do not even want to make it. We will have to teach them that naturalistic philosophy and scientific investigation arc not the same thing, and we cannot even begin to do that if our first priority is to avoid conflict with the rulers of science.

Phillip Johnson (of Darwin on Trial) contributed a Review & Outlook piece on "Science Without God" in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ, 10 May 1993). Specifically he called attention to the reductionistic philosophy promoted by physics

Nobelist Steven Weinberg in Weinberg's new book, Dreams of a Final Theory (Pantheon). Weinberg expressed hope that discovery of a unified particle theory will convince the public that nature is governed by impersonal laws, and thus discredit "irrational beliefs." While calling Dreams of a Final Theory 11 a good book and an honest one," Johnson questioned how tolerant triumphant scientists would be toward those who do not consider reductionistic naturalism a rational philosophy. Within science. "only an unquestioned naturalism is allowed," so:
That means that the scientific community claims the sole right to decide for the nation that God is a product of the human imagination rather than the ultimate reality behind the cosmos. Whatever else one may say about this claim to power, it does not reflect either uncertainty or tolerance.

In its 16 June issue, WSJ published eight letters in response. As we understand it, Johnson sent Weinberg a pre-publication copy of his essay-review. Weinberg then called Johnson and they have since engaged in some crisp face-to-face dialog. Johnson thought Weinberg seemed a bit tense on that occasion - but maybe the U. of Texas professor had other things on his mind. Not long afterward, Congress struck a "GUT"'-wrenching blow to the Texas-sized supercollider, a project Weinberg was counting on to confirm his electroweak theory on the way to that "Grand Unified Theory."

Academic Freedom

Christian Leadership Ministries (CLM, 100 Sunport Lane, Orlando' FL 32809-7875), a division of Campus Crusade for Christ, has been working since 1980 to build a network of Christian professors on university campuses. According to national director Stan Oakes, that network now includes about 12,000 faculty members, each teaching (and influencing) on average perhaps 400 students a year. CLM's regular newsletter, The Real Issue, introduces Christian faculty to each other. CLM's occasional Campus Alert reports on academic freedom cases and causes.

A recent Alert featured placement of evangelistic ads the week before Easter in nearly 100 student newspapers, over the names of local faculty willing to "sign on" as believers in the resurrection of Jesus. The same issue pointed to the irony of certain actions at the U. of Alabama in Birmingham. Professor Phillip Bishop was ordered to cease even occasionally mentioning his Christian faith in his physiology classes there. then the faculty senate voted unanimously to support purchase of a controversial "art object" by Andres Serrano-a photograph of a plastic replica of Michelangelo's "Pieta" submerged in a tank of urine and cow's blood - on grounds that "it is the proper role of the university to examine a wide range of ideas and perspectives."

The Bishop case went to court, so one can track its complex legal outcome in U.C. Berkeley law professor Phillip Johnson's "The Creationist and the Sociobiologist: Two Stories about Illiberal Education," (California Law Review, July 1992). In that essay-review of Dinesh D'Souza's Illiberal Education, Johnson compared the Bishop case with a cause celebre at his own university, an attack on U.C. anthropology professor Vincent Sarich by "liberal" students and faculty members over certain implications of Sarich's scientific views, which they' labeled racist, sexist, and politically incorrect.

The Sarich case did not go to court. Since Darwinist Sarich had criticized Johnson's Darwin on Trial, Johnson's defense of Sarich's academic freedom by juxtaposing the two cases probably caused some consternation among the Law Review editors. At one point, Johnson quoted a Berkeley anthropologist who "dismissed Sarich's theories from the realm of science in precisely the language Sarich would use in speaking of creationism: 'It isn't bad science; it isn't science at all.' " Johnson: "Professor Sarich, meet Professor Bishop.

More recently, San Francisco State biology professor Dean H. Kenyon has been on the hot seat. Though Dean has not been a member of ASA, his name is known to many of us. In 1969 he and colleague Gary Steinman wrote Biochemical Predestination, outlining a possible scenario for a strictly naturalistic origin of life. By 1984 he had come to such a profound reassessment that on the jacket of The Mystery of Life's Origin by Charles Thaxton, Walter Bradley, and Roger Olsen, Kenyon wrote that "The authors believe, and I now concur, that there is a fundamental flaw in all current theories of the chemical origins of life." With Percival Davis he authored Of Pandas and People (Haughton, 1989), a supplementary high school text setting forth "ititelligent cause" as an alternative to Darwinian theories of biological origins.

Kenyon, with degrees from the U. of Chicago and Stanford, has been tenured at S.F. State since 1970 and has been a full professor since 1974. His views on origins have been widely known on campus and were a source of conflict with the chair of the Biology Dept. Since at least 1977 Kenyon has participated in teaching Biology 100, a general education course in "Human Biology." In Oct 1992, after devoting half of his three lectures on origins and evolution to the prevailing view, he spent the other half critiquing the Darwinist hypothesis and offering his own views. A student complained, setting in motion an academic tango with a lot of back-and-forth steps.

In Jan 1993, we gather, department chair John E. Hafernik, Jr., indicated that Kenyon would not be teaching Biol 100 in either Summer or Fall 1993. Kenyon then formally requested that the university-wide Academic Freedom Committee (AFC) review his case and make recommendations.

In June the AFC completed a very thorough investigation, including review of university documents and a lengthy hearing (with Phil Johnson sitting in as Kenyon's legal advisor). The 15-page AFC report contained three findings, to the effect that: 1) Due process had not been followed in removing Kenyon from the class; 2) No matter how offensive his views, "accepted principles of academic freedom" recognize Kenyon's "right to present even objectionable viewpoints about the subject he is teaching"; and 3) Conflicts over curricular preferences of individual faculty "should be resolved by faculty peers." The AFC recommended 1) That the dispute should be ignored and Kenyon scheduled for Biol 100 as before; and 2),

That the School of Science give some thought to the prospect that the tensions arising from differences in perspective on issues of human origins and evolution are not likely to dissipate in the near future and in fact may increase. Recognizing the depth of belief and tenacity of feeling this topic evokes, the School might well wish to develop a collective and public response protective of the views and rights of all, an official response intended to minimize unproductive conflict or disruption of normal academic activities.

Because S. F. State's Academic Freedom Committee has no power to enforce its recommendations, however, "all is not won." Latest word is that Prof. Hafernik has decided to disregard the AFC's findings. "Professor Kenyon, meet professors Bishop and Sarich."

Mims Wins One

Readers of this Newsletter have been familiar with the name of Forrest Mims III of Seguin, Texas, since 1990. That's when he was shut out of writing "The Amateur Scientist" column for Scientific American, after editor Jonathan Piel probed into his religious beliefs. As a plenary speaker at the 1992 ASA Annual Meeting in Hawaii, Mims re lated that story and came across as both a serious Christian and a serious scientist.

In the Feb/Mar 1993 issue ("Mauna Loa Fallout," p. 4), we told how that trip to the University of the Nations in Hawaii enabled Forrest to calibrate his homemade Total Ozone Portable Spectroradiometer (TOPS) against the world standard Dobson ozonometer and thus detect an error in NASA's ozone measurements. We also mentioned his plans to set up a global network of ozone observers using his TOPS instruments.

In April, Mims won one of the 1993 Rolex Awards for Enterprise, established in 1976 to encourage "the 'Spirit of Enterprise' in individuals throughout the world by contributing to the realization of outstanding personal efforts or contributions made in selected categories of human endeavor." Five such awards are given each year by the Swiss company famous for its watches. Each Laureate is invited to Geneva to receive a check for 50,000 Swiss francs and a gold Rolex chronometer.

Forrest and Minnie Mims were set up in a swanky hotel in Geneva and were able to visit the church where John Calvin preached. Ever the investigator, Forrest made ozone measurements in the Alps and from the airplane window on the transatlantic flight. The airline crew first tried to stop such suspicious activity, but then the pilot invited him to the cockpit for over an hour of making measurements through its larger windows.

Forrest will use some of the Rolex money to build new instruments for the ozone measurement network, more important than ever now that the TOMS instrument on NASA's Nimbus 7 satellite has quit working. In June, Forrest returned to the U. of the Nations in Hawaii to teach electronics to 11 Christian students from 11 different countries and to make further ozone measurements. He has recently measured historically low levels of ozone over Texas, a cause for concern.

The sweetest irony in this story is that a Rolex ad announcing the awards appeared in the June 1993 Scientific American, with a picture of Mims holding a partially visible TOPS instrument. Three of Mims's "Amateur Scientist" columns had been published in the magazine before an eely Pie] repealed the deal; the fourth, which would have described the TOPS instrument, never made it. In a squib in The Scientist for 28 June (p. 4), Mims was quoted as saying, "My instrument finally made it into Scientific American."

The (Old Editor's Last Words: 28

Editorial deadlines are killers. but their lethal effect on your Weary Old Editor (WOE is me) has been gradual. This tongue-in cheek column probably began as an apology for some foot-in-mouth comment years ago, but I've-forgotten which one.

Mostly I've managed to appreciate all sorts of viewpoints, hoping that others would do unto me the same. To try on that many mind sets, it has helped to read as widely as possible. Professional journalists call that "research" or "deep background." Our Wedded Editor is more apt to refer to it as "goofing off."

Besides standard sources of news and commentary (like Science, American Scientist, The Scientist, Christianity Today, Religion Watch, Zygon, Science & Religion News,'  I've been known to browse for hours in whatever comes across the desk. It's fun to read accounts of the same "creation/evolution debate" in both ICR's Acts & Facts and NCSE Reports, for example. Tired of such polemics? Pick up the irenic  Origns  from-Loma Linda's Geoscience Research Institute, or the relatively open-minded ARN Origins Research or the NCSE journal, CreationlEvolution.

For "variety of religious experience," I read things like Radix; Fuller Seminary's Theology, News & Notes; Focus on the Family; CMDS Journal; NAACE's Firmament; Evangelicals Concerned's Record; USCWM's Mission Frontiers; even CSICOP's Skeptical Inquirer. To see what we're really up against, try Free Inquiry from the Council for Democratic & Secular Humanism (Summer 1993 theme: "Is Religion a Form of Insanity?").

All kinds of periodicals yield bits of news about ASA/CSCA members, opportunities for Christian service, issues we need to face, and so on. Newsletters, for example. (I'm inordinately fond of newsletters.) My favorites are those of our own members, like that of the Affiliation of Christian Biologists, Martin Price's Echo News, Hugh Ross's Facts & Faith, or the Calvin College Geogram. The "exchanges" will eventually go to the new editor, though he's counting on the rest of us to be his eves and ears.

I'm already tapering off, dropping some things (American Biology Teacher, Science Scope) and trying to resist trial- subscription-offers. This week I managed to turn down free copies of World Monitor and The Pope Speaks. With freebies, even if you cancel when they send a bill, your name is already on their mailing list and maybe sold to other hungry publishers, so you keep getting more offers. What I'd like to do now is skip the breadth and start reading deeply again-to explore my own viewpoint, you might say.

Maybe I'm hooked. I do expect to keep reading a few radical Christian publications that make me think: Peacework from the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America; The Catholic Agitator from the L.A. Catholic Worker Community; The Plough from the Hutterian Brethren; and of course the New Testament.

What a privilege to edit a Newsletter that so many thinking Christians have included in their reading. WOE is no longer me.

Personals

Kirk J. Bertsche, now of Cedar Hill, Texas, is employed as a physicist at the Superconducting Super-Collider (SSC) under construction about 40 miles south of Dallas. Kirk dropped in on the Newsletter editor this spring "on his way" to a biennial Particle Accelerator Conference in Washington, D.C. Actually he came to the Bay Area to continue a tradition begun while he was working on his Ph.D. at U.C. Berkeley -teaching a science segment in a course on contemporary issues in theology at Western Seminary of San Jose, an extension of Conservative Baptist Seminary, Portland, Oregon. (Considering the status of appropriations for the multi-billion dollar project, other SSC physicists may start exploring theology or other alternatives. - Ed.)

Paul S. Darby recently received his M.D. from Georgetown University School of Medicine. He is now doing an internship at Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Washington. Paul plans to do a residency in occupational & environmental medicine.

Leon Dennison of Olympia, Washington, studies Quaternary alluvial patterns. He recently completed a field study near Coalinga, California, where a 150-ft-deep gravel pit contains unlayered rounded boulders and cobbles as large as 3 ft in diameter. The pit is a remnant of a former 1000-ftdeep freshwater lake basin into which the gravel was evidently swept by alluvial forces.

Norman L. Geisler of Charlotte, North Carolina, is a prolific writer of books on theology and apologetics. His book on Islam and Christian Apologetics (Baker) will be out this fall. Meanwhile, Norm's When Critics Ask (Victor) was nominated for the Medallion Award. The new seminary in Charlotte where he teaches, Southern Evangelical Seminary, offers a degree in apologetics. In its first year of operation (1992-93) the seminary had 90 students.

Brett W. Gracely of Boulder, Colorado, is a water resources engineer for Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). He recently transferred from SAIC's Pleasanton, California, office to their office in Golden, Colorado. Brett has a B.S. in engineering physics from Westmont and a 1992 M.S. in civil engineering (water resources) from U.C. Berkeley. His daily commitment is to "apply his engineering skills and knowledge of water resources to the stewardship of creation."

Roger A. Hinrichs of the State U. of New York, Oswego, has been a Fulbright professor of physics at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman this past year. (News item from one of chemist John Chan's letters from SQU.-Ed.)

Gordon R. Lewthwaite retired from his position as professor of geography at California State U. at Northridge in Aug 1992 during a "downsizing" of the whole state university system. In Jan 1992 he had undergone angioplasty, and this spring his cardiovascular system acted up again. After suffering both a stroke and heart attack in March he had quintuple bypass surgery. A post-surgical aneurysm developed on his thoracic aorta but further surgery was deemed too risky. With good care from his wife Lydia, Gordon has recovered rather well (except for an almost 30-day gap in his memory)-though he says he may not make it to the ASA Annual Meeting. After a 1980 sabbatical trip to Israel, including a stay at the Institute of Holy Land Studies, Gordon introduced a course in Holy Land studies at Northridge.

Jeffrey Simmons received his Ph.D. in natural resources (forest science) from Cornell in May and now has a postdoctoral position in the Dept of Plant, Soil, & Environmental Science at the U. of Maine in Orono. He is investigating linkages between climate and nutrient cycling in forests. Jeff recently attended a U.S./Canadian conference held in Portland, Maine, on regional response to global climate changes in New England and eastern Canada.

Paul H. Whitaker is professor of mathematics and chair of the Mathematics & Computer Science Dept at Mount Vernon Nazarene College, Mount Vernon, Ohio. At a banquet in May he received Mount Vernon's Teacher of the Year award for 1993. Mount Vernon's vice-president for academic affairs cited Paul for going well beyond Arthur Chickering & Zelda Gamson's widely circulated "Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education" by demonstrating that "the revelation of divine love in Jesus Christ provides the most adequate basis for understanding the meaning of all events and facts." A student testimony: "Anyone who can make an 8 a.m. calculus class interesting is a genius."

POSITIONS LOOKING FOR PEOPLE. Biology: Fall 1994 tenure-track asst prof opening for Ph.D., preferably with teaching & research experience. Teach intro and 3 of following: cell, molecular, developmental, marine biol; genetics; physiology. Commitment to Christian liberal arts education & undergrad research. Lefler & c.v. to (ASA member) Dr. G. Ayoub, Dept of Biology, Westmont College, Santa Barbara, CA 93108; tel, 805-565-7019; fax, 805-565-7035.