Faith-Science News

Distress After Darwin

In the decades after Darwin, we may ask what were the issues of greatest concern in the church? The theory of evolution began to hold sway not only among scientists, but also in the academic world and among Bible believers. Surprisingly, some conservative theologians held an ambivalent stance toward Darwin’s revolutionary proposal. For example, R. A. Torrey (1856-1928), evangelist and pastor associated with Moody Bible Institute, Moody Church, and many other well-known orthodox institutions, alarmed some of his friends in 1925 by saying that a man could “believe thoroughly in the absolute infallibility of the Bible and still be an evolutionist of a certain type.”
Assscience
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Does It Help To Pray?

Does it help to pray? Some people think that prayer is no more than wishful thinking. Some think that prayer is simply talking to one’s self. Some think that prayer works miracles. Some think that prayer is nourishment for the soul. Whatever you want to call it, people have strong opinions on the power of prayer.
Create Hope
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Enceladus water story reinforced

Enceladus
The Cassini probe returns yet more data to back up the idea of a sub-surface sea on Saturn's moon Enceladus.
BBC News
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How Well Do Scientists Understand How Changes in Earth's Orbit Affect Long-Term Natural Climate Trends?

The notion that scientists understand how changes in Earth's orbit affect climate well enough for estimating long-term natural climate trends that underlie any ...
Science Daily
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Virus-free technique enables Stanford scientists to easily make stem cells pluripotent

Tiny circles of DNA are the key to a new and easier way to transform stem cells from human fat into induced pluripotent stem cells for use in regenerative medicine, say scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Unlike other commonly used techniques, the method, which is based on standard molecular biology practices, does not use viruses to introduce genes into the cells or permanently alter a cell's genome.
Eurek Alert

Scientists identify first genetic variant linked to biological aging in humans

A new discovery has important implications for the understanding of cancer and age-associated diseases.
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Morality research sheds light on the origins of religion

The details surrounding the emergence and evolution of religion have not been clearly established and remain a source of much debate among scholars. Now, an article published by Cell Press in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences on Feb. 8 brings a new understanding to this long-standing discussion by exploring the fascinating link between morality and religion.
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The Road of Science and the Ways to God

The good news is that I just finished Stanley Jaki's The Road of Science and the Ways to God, and I'd like to spend a post or two on that. It was originally presented as the Gifford Lectures for 1975 and 1976. In case you don't know, these lectures were established at the bequest a certain Lord Gifford in order to "promote and diffuse the study of Natural Theology in the widest sense of the term -- in other words, the knowledge of God."
One Cosmos
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Review of Galileo Goes to Jail

by Jason Rosenhouse

In a couple of recent posts I have mentioned the book Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths About Science and Religion edited by Ronald Numbers. Since I have now finished reading it, I figure it is time for a proper review.
Short review: Mixed. As a compendium of interesting facts about the history of science and religion the book works rather well. The myth/reality format, however, is not always successful.

Galileo Goes to Jail consists of twenty-five short essays, each centered around some “myth” related to science and religion. Some of the myths are of the sort that make religion look bad (so that by correcting them religion's image is improved), while others are those that tend to make science look bad.
ScienceBlogs
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Pluto's dynamic surface revealed by Hubble images

By Paul Rincon
Science reporter, BBC News

Pluto
The maps of Pluto reveal a mottled brown and charcoal surface

The icy dwarf planet Pluto undergoes dramatic seasonal changes, according to images from the Hubble Space Telescope.

The pictures from Hubble revealed changes in the brightness and the colour of Pluto's surface.

Mike Brown, from the California Institute of Technology, suggested Pluto had the most dynamic surface of any object in the Solar System.

Hubble will provide our sharpest views of Pluto until the New Horizons probe approaches in 2015.
BBC News
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entry

First breath: Earth's billion-year struggle for oxygen

What happened in the aeons between the first whiff of the gas from bacteria and air we could breathe? A frozen globe and stinking oceans, for starters
New Scientist
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Understanding past and future climate

The notion that scientists understand how changes in Earth's orbit affect climate well enough for estimating long-term natural climate trends that underlie any anthropogenic climate change is challenged by findings published this week. The new research was conducted by a team led by Professor Eelco Rohling of the University of Southampton's School of Ocean and Earth Science hosted at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton.
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Bioethics memory aid can help assess patient decision-making capacity in medical emergencies

Physicians in training and bioethicists at Johns Hopkins have created an easy-to-remember checklist to help medical students and clinicians quickly assess a patient's decision-making capacity in an emergency.
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Princeton scientist makes a leap in quantum computing

Princeton University's Jason Petta has demonstrated a method that alters the properties of a lone electron without disturbing the trillions of electrons in its immediate surroundings. The feat is essential to the development of future varieties of superfast computers with near-limitless capacities for data.
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Last speaker of ancient language of Bo dies in India

By Alastair Lawson
BBC News

Boa Sr
Boa Sr remained the last Bo speaker for at least 30 years

The last speaker of an ancient language in India's Andaman Islands has died at the age of about 85, a leading linguist has told the BBC.

Professor Anvita Abbi said that the death of Boa Sr was highly significant because one of the world's oldest languages - Bo - had come to an end.

She said that India had lost an irreplaceable part of its heritage.

Languages in the Andamans are thought to originate from Africa. Some may be 70,000 years old.
BBC News
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The secret of a sperm's wiggle

A molecular passageway in sperm tails make them swim when they near the egg, offering a new target for male contraception
New Scientist
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Evidence Builds on Color of Dinosaurs

By CARL ZIMMER
An illustration showing the likely colors of Anchiornis huxleyi.
National Geographic

An illustration showing the likely colors of Anchiornis huxleyi.

For the second time in two weeks, paleontologists provided insight into what the prehistoric creatures looked like.
NYTimes

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Fossils Show Earliest Animal Trails

Trails found in rocks dating back 565 million years are thought to be the earliest evidence of animal locomotion ever found. The newly-discovered fossils, from rocks in Newfoundland in Canada, were analysed by an international ...
Science Daily
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New Research Rejects 80-Year Theory of 'Primordial Soup' as the Origin of Life

For 80 years it has been accepted that early life began in a "primordial soup" of organic molecules before evolving out of the oceans millions of years later. Today the "soup" theory has ...
Science Daily
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New on-off 'switch' triggers and reverses paralysis in animals with a beam of light

In an advance with overtones of Star Trek phasers and other sci-fi ray guns, scientists in Canada are reporting development of an internal on-off "switch" that paralyzes animals when exposed to a beam of ultraviolet light. The animals stay paralyzed even when the light is turned off. When exposed to ordinary light, the animals become unparalyzed and wake up. Their study appears in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
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