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IBSS NEWSLETTERS

January 2001 News

Ancient Ashkelon
This month’s National Geographic (January 2001) has a very interesting article about “Ancient Ashkelon.” It was a city first built by the Canaanites and later conquered by the Philistines. Samson and Goliath probably walked the streets of Ashkelon before being destroyed by Nebuchadrezzar in 604 BC.In 1985 a team of archaeologists began excavating Ashkelon led by Lawrence Stager of Harvard University. Artifacts were found to be identical with the Hyksos who invaded Egypt and ruled for a century. Joseph probably rose to power during the Hyksos reign. The Expulsion of the Hyksos may be related with the Exodus from Egypt by Moses. Stager thinks the Hyksos were Canaanites, many which came from Ashkelon.
Around 1175 BC the Philistines conquered Ashkelon. In the Book of Judges the Philistines are mentioned which dates Samson after 1175 BC. The artifacts of the Philistines resemble the Mycenean Greeks that sacked Troy (Homer’s Iliad). Stager thinks that the Philistines were “immigrant Greeks.” Goliath wore Mycenean style battle gear. The story of Samson parallels an earlier Greek story (p.78). After Scylla cut a lock of hair from Nisus, her father, he lost his invincibility and was captured by King Minos of Crete.In Egypt there are pictures of a great battle with the Sea People who tried to invade Egypt during the reign of Ramesses III. The Sea People consisted of five groups of which the Philistines (Peleset) were one. The defeat of the Sea People led the Philistines to settle along the coast of Canaan causing the Israelites problems. Carvings of the Philistines can be seen in the mortuary temple of Ramesses III at Medinet Habu.
Right after this article there is another short one about the discovery of ancient shipwrecks off the coast of Israel by Bob Ballard who discovered the Titanic.
For more information you can go to National Geographic web page at nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0101.

Mysteries of the Bible

Michael Sanders claims to have discovered the location of the Garden of Eden. Most scholars would disagree. He also claims to have discovered the city of Sodom at the bottom of the Dead Sea. Sanders makes extraordinary claims with little or no evidence. I have written about some of his other claims at http://bibleandscience.com/archaeologyquestions.htm#Mysteries of the Bible

Creation/Evolution
There is some interesting streaming video about Evolution and Providence at www.counterbalance.org/ You can hear a number of different view points from Gish to Scott about creation/evolution.

IMAX Experience
There is a new IMAX theater in King of Prussia off of Mall Blvd. It is now featuring a movie about dinosaurs entitled T-Rex in 3-D. You wear special glasses to see it in 3-D. The screen is 4 stories tall. A great experience for the family. For the nearest IMAX see http://www.imax.com/index2.shtml

Noah's Ark in Hong Kong

John Morris of ICR will reveal plans of a creation museum in Hong Kong in the shape of a full size Noah's Ark in his next Acts & Facts issue.

Noah's Flood

There is another view out about where Noah's flood was, and the evidence for it at http://www.nypostonline.com/news/worldnews/21462.htm
A team of archaeologists believes they have pinpointed the location of Noah's Biblical flood in the Arabian Desert.

Holy Land Theme Park

Marvin Rosenthal of Zion's Hope is building a Holy Land theme park costing $16 million on 15 acres in Orland, Florida near Universal. There will be a recreation of Herod's Temple, the garden tomb, and the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. Their web site is at http://www.zionshope.org/
Others are not happy with this theme park. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/

Neuro-theology

This week in Newsweek magazine (January 29th issue) there is a very interesting article entitled, "Searching for the God Within."
Dr. Newberg and the late Dr. Eugene d'Aquili, both of the University of Pennsylvania, in a book to be published in April, conclude that spiritual experiences are the inevitable outcome of brain wiring: "The human brain has been genetically wired to encourage religious beliefs." The debate is whether God wired our brains this way, or it evolved this way. "As long as our brain is wired as it is," says Newberg, "God will not go away." For more information see http://www.msnbc.com/news/519130.asp?cp1=1#BODY
See our web page about the God-part of our Brain at Does God exist

Queen of Sheba
There is a good article about the temple of the Queen of Sheba at http://news.bbc.co.uk/
1/29/01

Theophostic Counseling
A New Fad in Christian Counseling?
Ed Smith, founder of Theophostic Ministries (www.theophostic.com), based in Campbellsville, Kentucky, started Theophostic counseling.
Smith teaches that demons, sometimes numbering in the hundreds, may inhabit and influence even a Christian's mind. These demons often work to keep people enslaved to what Smith calls the "lie-based thinking" causing their pain. He teaches that these demons have to be expelled for a client to see full relief." See full story at
http://christianitytoday.aol.com/ct/2001/002/19.18.html

Theophostic counseling sounds like faith healers casting out demons, only this is done in a counseling office with a fee. I do not think that demons cause mental illness. Certain mental illnesses are caused by chemical imbalances in the brain that can be corrected with the right medication. See more on counseling on our web page http://bibleandscience.com/counseling.htm

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NEW BOOK: Radioisotopes and the Age of the Earth

ICR has just published the book Radioisotopes and the Age of the Earth. I have written a brief critique of it at http://bibleandscience.com/radioisotopes.htm

A Response to Kent Hovind

There is a new web page entitled Dr. Dino's "Fractured Fairy Tales of Science"
A Response to Kent Hovind's Coast-to-Coast AM interview: August 2-3, 2000 by Karen E. Bartelt, Ph.D. that is very good. Check it out at http://www.stear@onthenet.com.au/~stear/hovind

On the Verge of Re-Creating Creation. Then What?
By JAMES GLANZ

"At a government laboratory near Exit 68 on the Long Island
Expressway, physicists appear close to recreating a drop of that
primordial sea by smashing together the central cores of gold
nuclei at nearly the speed of light. And next summer NASA plans to
launch a new satellite whose observations, along with experiments
like those on Long Island, could help scientists work out a
mechanistic, gears-and-levers theory of the genesis moment itself
the hows, if not the whys, of creation ex nihilo."
For the complete story see http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/28/weekinreview/28GLAN.html

Upcoming Conference

There is a conference at Haverford College in Philadelphia, June 14-19, 2001, on "Interpreting Evolution: Scientific and Religious Perspectives." This is an Advanced Summer Workshop, part of the CTNS Science and Religion Course Program <http://www.ctns.org> and is designed for faculty who are now or will be teaching courses on science and religion. The cost for qualified faculty is $100, which includes room, board, field
trips, and registration (others may attend at a cost of $850).
Speaking at the workshop are: Michael Behe, Audrey Chapman, William Dembski, Peter Dodson, Scott Gilbert, Kenneth Miller, Ronald Numbers, Holmes Rolston, Norbert Samuelson, Eugenie Scott, David Sloan Wilson, and others. There is also a call for papers. The workshop is being organized jointly by CTNS, the AAAS Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion <http://www.aaas.org/spp/dspp/dbsr/>, and PCRS
<http://www.pc4rs.org>. See the announcement on Metanews for
more information.

More on Neuro-theology

Andrew Newberg and Eugene d'Aquili are authors of that upcoming book, Why God Won't Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief, and an earlier one, "The Mystical Mind: Probing the Biology of Religious Experience. The two also wrote an article for Science & Spirit titled, "Wired for the Ultimate Reality: The Neuropsychology of Religious Experience." See http://www.science-spirit.org/articles/Articledetail.cfm?article

Mirror Neurons

How do we know what people are feeling? Scientists now think it is because of "mirror neurons. See full story at http://www.newscientist.com/features/features.jsp?id=ns22751 This is called the most important unreported story of the last decade. See also http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge69.html

Mysteries of History

There is a special Collector's Edition of U.S. News & World Report entitled Mysteries of History. It covers new clues and theories for solving the world's greatest history puzzles. It also uncovers the greatest hoaxes through history. See http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/000724/mysteries/great.htm

E. Coli Genetic Code Deciphered

Scientists have decoded the DNA of a lethal strain of E. coli bacteria - an advance that could one day save lives and prevent thousands of illnesses each year. This deadly bacteria's genome is sequenced, revealing "shocking" surprises. See http://www.newscientist.com/dailynews/news.jsp?id=ns9999357

Plate Tectonics

Alfred Wegener sparked a scientific revolution in 1912 by theorizing that great slabs of the Earth's rocky surface -- tectonic plates -- slide under, over or past each other, setting continents adrift. See the latest on this at - http://www.spacedaily.com/news/early-earth-01c.html

Ken Ham has reversed his position on plate tectonics in his newly revised book entitled the Answer Book. See http://bibleandscience.com/ken ham.htm

Pangea Puzzle Solved

Researchers at the University of Michigan and
the Geological Survey of Norway say they have solved a longstanding and controversial puzzle over the position of Pangea, the ancient super continent that began breaking up some 200 million years ago to form today's continents. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/early-earth-01a.html

The Earth's wobble

Millimeter deviations from the expected wobble
of the Earth's axis are giving geophysicists clues to what happens 1,800 miles underground, at the boundary between the Earth's mantle and its iron core reports Berkeley News.
See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/earth-01d.html

Ice Core Data

Data from ice cores from glaciers and mountain summits allow scientists a glimpse into the frozen past, providing valuable
information about the global climate that existed in recent years and
thousands of years ago. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/icecores-01a.html

Martian Water from Volcanoes?

Evidence from a Martian volcanic rock indicates
that Mars magmas contained significant amounts of water before eruption on the planet's surface, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Tennessee and other institutions report in the Jan. 25 issue of Nature. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-water-science-01c.html

Some Young-earthers think there was a global flood on Mars at the same time of Noah's flood on earth.

To keep up with all the NASA probes see http://spacescience.nasa.gov/missions/index.htm

New Predatory Dog-Sized Dinosaur Unearthed On Madagascar

Fossilized remains of a bizarre, dog-sized predatory dinosaur were recently recovered on the island of Madagascar. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/01/010125082950.htm

Madalyn Murray O'Hair

The man accused of kidnapping and extorting money from atheist leader Madalyn Murray O'Hair and her family agreed to a plea deal Wednesday that may unlock the mystery of their disappearance. See http://www.worldnews.com/?action=display&article=5443499&

February 2001 News
2/5/01
Religion in the News

Holy land Experience now opened amid protests
See http://www.usatoday.com/life/travel/
See also http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/03/national/03PARK.html

Ex-Gay Ministry Quits
Jeremy Marks, director of the United Kingdom organization Courage, is taking "sabbatical leave" from parent organization Exodus International because Courage founder Jeremy Marks says Exodus's mission to help people out of homosexuality doesn't work. See http://christianitytoday.aol.com/ct/2001/105/54.0.html

Left Behind movie
The movie Left Behind is now out in movie theaters. See http://www.leftbehind-themovie.com/ I remember a prophet of doom coming to my church when I was a teen. I was all excited that the world would end in 1975. Since then there have been many dates set for the Rapture and end of the world. After much study, my views of the Book of Revelation have changed. See http://bibleandscience.com/revelation.htm

Is the Brain hard-wired for God?
See http://salon.com/books/feature/2001/02/01/god_part/index.html

Why Religion Matters
Huston Smith's new book Why Religion matters is out. See http://www.latimes.com/news/religion/20010120/t000005600.html

Corporate shaken up in Watchtower
See http://christianitytoday.aol.com/ct/2001/004/25.html

Freeing Slaves in the Sudan
Baroness Cox has bought and freed 1,500 people. She calls it 'first aid'. Others call it folly see http://observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,429994,00.html

More on Madeline Murray O'Hair
http://www.worldnews.com/?action
http://www.worldnews.com/
I have written about her at http://bibleandscience.com/godexists.htm

Anomaly or Noah's Ark?
New satellite images of Mount Ararat show an anomaly which some say looks like a boat. Insight asked experts to analyze them. Here are the results at
http://www.insightmag.com/archive/200011218.shtml
For a picture see http://www.insightmag.com/archive/43/Ararat.shtml
See also the latest Acts & Facts issue (February 2001) at http://www.icr.org/pubs/af/pdf/af0102.pdf need acrobat reader.
To be honest I do not see any ark in the picture. Other pictures turned out to be just geological formations, and this location is on the opposite side of the mountain from which others claim the ark is located. See my views at http://bibleandscience.com/genesis.htm

Science in the News

Oldest Church discovered
See http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/

NEAR to land on EROS on February 12th
See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010201013454.4gcnhok3.html

Olbers Paradox
Olbers Paradox, is one of astronomy's great puzzles. Four hundred years ago, Johannes Kepler concluded that an infinite universe uniformly filled with stars and galaxies produces an infinitely bright night sky. The finite size of the Milky Way galaxy solves the paradox for stars. The finite age of an infinite, expanding universe eliminates the paradox for galaxies.
Now, two astronomers have shown that the dark night sky also tells us about the structure and formation of our solar system. In a recent paper published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters (547,L69) [], Scott J. Kenyon (Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory) and Rogier A. Windhorst (Arizona State University) have used the dark night sky to set new limits on the amount of material in the outer reaches of the solar system. Their results tell us about the formation of planets like Pluto in the outer solar system.
In 1992, Jane Luu (Leiden Observatory) and Dave Jewitt (University of Hawaii) discovered the first solar system objects outside the orbits of Neptune. Using ground-based telescopes, Luu, Jewitt, and others have now discovered over one hundred Kuiper Belt objects, KBOs for short, in orbit around our Sun. The largest KBO has a diameter of nearly 2,000 kilometers; the smallest KBO is only about 100 km across.
See full story at http://www.spacedaily.com/news/kuiper-01a.html

Human Cloning Approved in England
See http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2001/004/32.html

2/12/01
Religion in the News

Holy Land Experience Theme Park
So many visitors streamed in, that the park had to turn people away, reports The Orlando Sentinel.
See http://www.itec.com/projects/HOLYLAND/holyland.htm http://www.miamiherald.com/content/today/news/florida/

New Israeli Prime Minister
Newly elected Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon promised to seek security at home. See http://www.usatoday.com/hphoto.htm

Jay Bakker's new book Son of a Preacher Man
See http://www.feedmag.com/templates/default.php3?a_id=1598

New Book, The Case for Marriage:
Why Married People Are Happier, Healthier, and Better Off Financially:
See http://christianitytoday.aol.com/ct/2001/002/37.73.html

Dale Evans and Jack Hyles pass away. See http://archive.nextwerk.com/webpublisher21.nsf/
Is God.com Dead?
See http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2001/003/32.html

Secrets to Happiness
See http://psychologytoday.com/features3.html

Science in the News

Space Lab added to International Space Station See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010210234940.2jmdal65.html

NEAR to land on EROS on February 12th
See http://near.jhuapl.edu/ http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010201013454.4gcnhok3.html

Clues to life in space
See http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/history.html

Age of the Universe
The minimum age of the Universe is calculated using a new radiometric approach See http://www.newscientist.com/dailynews/news.jsp?id=ns9999396

Tiniest of Particles Pokes Big Hole in Physics Theory
See http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/09/science/09PHYS.html

Possible Unified Theory
See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/materials-01b.html

Dark Matter & Energy
Scientists think most of the universe made up of Dark matter or dark energy?
See http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/releases/2001/Q1/teg.html

Human Genome Project
Genome Analysis Shows Humans Survive on Low Number of Genes
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/11/health/11GENO.html

Insulin inhaler
A new inhaler for diabetics could replace daytime injections. See http://www.newscientist.com/dailynews/news.jsp?id=ns9999384

Lost King of the Maya
PBS has a new NOVA programme this week called "Lost King of the Maya." Delve deep into the ancient village of Copan and the magical world of the Maya, arguably the greatest indigenous civilization of the Americas. Take a virtual tour of some of Copan's greatest treasures with a world-renowned expert on the written language of the ancient Maya, read a riveting account of the 1839 "discovery" of the long-lost city, click through the main cities of the vast Mayan empire, and try reading some simple hieroglyphs.
http://pbs.org/nova/maya/

Anthropology
Modern man may have out-competed his Neanderthal cousins by having a finer touch See http://www.newscientist.com/dailynews/news.jsp?id=ns9999390
The oldest human DNA ever recovered dents the "out-of-Africa" theory see http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns9999307

Sea Change
Ice in the heart of Antarctica is melting, causing sea level rise. See http://www.newscientist.com/dailynews/news.jsp?id=ns9999383

Scientists Track Giant Sunfish by Satellite
See http://www.ngnews.com/sections/archaeology/

Top Ten Science Stories of 2000
See http://www.popsci.com/scitech/features/top_10/
2/18/01
Religion in the News

NBC SPECIAL: BIBLICAL MYSTERIES
On Sunday, March 4, 2001 at 7:00pm a NBC SPECIAL: BIBLICAL MYSTERIES: ARK OF THE COVENANT
On Sunday, March 11, 2001 at 7:00pm a NBC SPECIAL: BIBLICAL MYSTERIES: SODOM & GOMORRAH
Bible Mysteries web site is at http://www.biblemysteries.com
I do not agree Mike Sanders from Bible Mysteries. He is not a Bible scholar. See what I have to say about the Ark at http://bibleandscience.com/archaeologyquestions.htm

Psychoanalyzing Samson
New Scientist reports: In a relatively short space of time he lost his friends, his lover, his sight and his hair. By anyone's standards, Samson did not have an easy life. Now, Eric Altschuler from the University of California at San Diego claims to have evidence which suggests that in addition to his many other woes, the celebrated Biblical strongman may also have been suffering from antisocial personality disorder...
http://www.newscientist.com/news/newsletter.jsp?id=ns9999421

U.S. Marshals seize Indianapolis Baptist Temple.
See http://christianitytoday.aol.com/ct/2001/107/34.0.html

Allegations of past child abuse threaten Hare Krishnas' existence
(San Francisco Chronicle) See http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/
Couple have mixed views about upbringing in Hare Krishnas' sect and continuing to keep their faith (San Francisco Chronicle) See http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/

Colorado considers outlawing faith healing:
Former Christian Scientist urged lawmakers to outlaw healing prayer (The Denver Post) http://www.denverpost.com/news/news0214b.htm
Colorado lawmakers advance bill revoking exemptions for faith-healing parents. (Associated Press) See http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?
Colorado Panel approves effort to prosecute parents who deny medical care to seriously ill kids (Rocky Mountain News) See http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/legislature/article/
Psychiatrist criticizes faith healing. Texan speaks after death of teen-ager in Western Slope sect (Rocky Mountain News). See http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/state/article/

New tests show Web filters don't screen objectionable material fully.
Software generally fails to block one out of every five sites deemed objectionable, says Consumer Reports (Associated Press) See http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?

Children of God
Escaping a free love legacy, Children of God sect hopes it can overcome sexy image (San Francisco Chronicle) See http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/
Daughter of family's founder renounces his teachings (San Francisco Chronicle) See http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/

Scientology
Tom Cruse and Nicole Kidman separate. Is it because of Scientology? See http://people.aol.com/people/010219/magstories/index.html
Leaving the fold, Third-generation Scientologist grows disillusioned with faith church (San Francisco Chronicle) See http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/
Scientology founder's family life far from what he preached. L. Ron Hubbard had at least seven children by three different wives, including one bigamous marriage (San Francisco Chronicle) See http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/

Science in the News

The Kansas Board of Education
The Kansas Board of Education on Wednesday was set to reconsider science standards adopted in 1999 that removed most references to evolution as a scientific principle and opened the way for teaching the biblical version of creation in science class. (UPI) See http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=159655

Kansas Board of Education votes 7-3 vote to dismiss state testing standards from August 1999 (Reuters) http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010214/sc/education_evolution
CNN Video "Kansas Takes its Evolution Seriously." See http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/02/14/kansas.evolution/index.html

Deep Space
Distant Nebulae Pumping Out Brown Dwarfs By The Hundreds
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/stellar-01a.html
Stunning picture for download at
http://www.spacedaily.com/images/subaru-s106-desk.jpg

Our Genes: Less is More
http://www.newscientist.com/news/newsletter.jsp?id=ns227841

2/25/01
Religion in the News

Creation in the Classroom
New Pennsylvania education standards accused of sneaking creationism into classrooms. Standards include the expectation that students explain how the theory of evolution works by analyzing "evidence of fossil records, similarities in body structures, embryological studies and DNA studies that support or do not support the theory of evolution." (Associated Press) See http://foxnews.com/national/021801/evolution_penna.sml

New Book on the Bible and Archaeology
Israel Finkelstein, chairman of the Archaeology Department at Tel Aviv University, who, with archaeology historian and journalist Neil Asher Silberman, has just published a book called "The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Text." They claim that the bondage of Israel in Egypt, the Exodus from Egypt, the Conquest, and the United Kingdom are all myths. This has upset a number of people. See http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2001/02/07/solomon/index.html
Many archaeologists today do not see archaeology supporting the Bible from Genesis to the United Kingdom. Archaeologist William Dever would disagree with Finkelstein about assigning the "Solomonic gates" to Ahab, a hundred years later. I have written about the date of the Exodus at http://bibleandscience.com/dateofexodus.htm and the archaeological evidence for the exodus at http://bibleandscience.com/evidenceofexodus.htm I have also written "Does God have a Wife?" At http://bibleandscience.com/biblearchaeology.htm

Pope installs 44 new cardinals (Associated Press)
http://www.worldnews.com/?action=display&article

Ex-monk explains why he ended 40 years of celibacy
Gerry McCann, a Franciscan friar since he was 18, fell in love at a Christian conference (Ananova) See http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_211735.html
Rocking monks strike platinum. The Free's I Learned to Live Free CD sells more than 50,000 copies as the Greek Orthodox monks' latest hit, Little Computer Chip, hits number four on the charts (BBC) See http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/newsid_1182000/
Bono finally speaks on his faith Is U2 Christian?
http://www.beliefnet.com/frameset.asp?pageLoc=/story/67/story

Why did Pat Boone go bad?
http://christianitytoday.aol.com/ct/9tb/9tb056.html
Pat Boone backs Eminem
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010218/en/boone_eminem_1.html

Pat Robertson worried about Scientologists, Hare Krishnas, and Moonies getting government money. See http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37734-2001Feb21.html

Faith healing bill advances
Colorado House narrowly approves repeal of child abuse exemption for religions that practice faith healing (The Gazette, Colorado Springs) See http://www.gazette.com/archive/01-02-23/daily/top1.html

Federal lawsuit:
College committed student after dispute over religious protest Temple University senior was involuntarily committed for organizing protest (Associated Press/Freedom Forum) http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=13116

Dr. Laura will go to bat for divorce bill
State House bill would require parents to go through a year of counseling before a divorce is final. (The Gazette, Colorado Springs) See http://www.gazette.com/archive/01-02-20/daily/loc7b.html

Antichrist fears put church in crisis
Russian Orthodox Church's Theological Commission warns that Patriarch Alexy II and the Holy Synod will be deemed traitors of Orthodoxy if they give their blessing to Russians to accept the "number of the beast" (The Moscow Times) See http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2001/02/21/003.html
I have written about the Book of Revelation and the mark of the beast at http://bibleandscience.com/revelation.htm

New book on Star Trek and Religion http://christianitytoday.aol.com/ct/2001/003/21.65.html

Science in the News

Physicists Find Extra Dimensions Must Be Smaller Than 0.2 Millimeter
Seattle - Feb. 19, 2001 - University of Washington scientists using gravity measurements to hunt for evidence of dimensions in addition to those already known have found that those dimensions would have to occupy a space smaller than 0.2 millimeter. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/physics-01b.html

Texas Physicist Makes New Advance For Theory Of Quantum Gravity
College Station - Feb. 21, 2001 - In 1905, Einstein made major changes to laws of physics when he established his theory of relativity, a century later Einstein's laws could need significant changes, to take into account the emerging concept of Quantum Gravity and the possibility the speed of light is not constant. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/physics-01c.html

Some young-earth creationists say the speed of light has slowed down. Scientists have actually stopped light, but this is under special laboratory conditions. The evidence from starlight is that the speed of light has not changed. The above article refers to very specific conditions. See http://bibleandscience.com/ageofearth.htm

A Matter of Domination
San Francisco - Feb. 21, 2001 - The seemingly unremarkable fact that the universe is full of matter turns out to be something physicists can't quite account for. According to the big bang theory, equal amounts of matter and antimatter were created at the birth of the universe, but precious little antimatter is to be found in the universe today. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/physics-01d.html

NASA TV Channels on Realplayer
http://realguide.real.com/news/?s=space

The Sun's magnetic field flips every 11 years
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2001/ast15feb_1.htm?list52322
Earth's magnetic field also flips. See http://istp.gsfc.nasa.gov/earthmag/reversal.htm
Some claim that the decay of the earth's magnetic field shows the earth to be young, but this is not true because the earth's magnetic field reverses. See my web page on "How old is the earth?" At http://bibleandscience.com/ageofearth.htm

Water found in deep space
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/

NEAR spacecraft
On February 12, NEAR Shoemaker became the first spacecraft ever to land, or even attempt to land, on an asteroid. And it's still alive! The last image from the descent, at 120 meters above the surface, shows rocks as small as one centimeter (!!!) across. Follow developments at http://near2.jhuapl.edu/index.html see
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/missions/near_data_010219.html
Black Holes Heat Up Proto Galaxies
San Francisco - Feb. 13, 2001 - Galaxies and black holes are so intimately connected that it is almost impossible to find one without the other, according to University of Michigan astronomer Douglas Richstone. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/blackhole-01a.html

Search For Distant Biospheres Sniffs First Molecules Of Life
San Francisco - Feb. 21, 2001 - Using spectral tools for submillimeter wave and infrared observations, astronomers are looking for the building blocks of life in all the right places: where there might be oxygen and where it is wet. "We may now have the tools to find those elements that are the preconditions for life." says Martin Harwit, professor emeritus of astronomy at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-01f.html

The Rise and Fall of Dino World
Washington - Feb. 22, 2001 - New findings provide evidence that Earth's most severe mass extinction -- an event 250 million years ago that wiped out 90 percent of the life on Earth -- was triggered by a collision with a comet or asteroid. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/deepimpact-01a.html

News in Brain Research
See http://human-nature.com/nibbs/
To subscribe to this weekly newsletter: Send blank e-mail to nibbs-newsletter-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Herbal Medicine Warnings
See http://msnbc.com/news/522365.asp
Interactive guide to herbs see http://msnbc.com/modules/altmed_dw/default.asp?0sp=h2a5

Human Genome Project
Human Genome Research Institute is offering a free packet of information for use by teachers and the public. The packet can be ordered for free at
http://www.nhgri.nih.gov/educationkit
The Human Genome Project is one of the most important projects ever attempted. They found out that there are not as many human genes as expected, and they are concentrated in certain areas of the chromosome. Human proteins are more complex than other animals. More than 200 of our human genes are the result of horizontal transfer from bacteria. Some of the so-called "junk DNA" may have an important function. On Junk DNA see http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/molgen/ and http://www.don-lindsay-archive.org/creation/dna_virus.html Some say our genome shows how we evolved. Dr. Caplan states that cracking the human genome confirms the theory of evolution
http://www.msnbc.com/news/534127.asp or http://www.med.upenn.edu/bioethics/

March 2001 News
3/04/01
Religion in the News

Fraud at the Christian Brotherhood, a faith-based substitute for health insurance
http://www.newsnet5.com/news/specialassignment/

Good News Bible Club suit at Supreme Court
http://christianitytoday.aol.com/ct/2001/109/42.0.html

Holy Land Theme Park
http://christianitytoday.aol.com/ct/2001/004/34.101.html

Is Lent for Protestants too? http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/059/metro/

Lieberman hails religion's rising role in American public life (The Washington Times) See http://www.washtimes.com/culture/default-20013221646.htm

AIDS activists upset over "Christian Response to AIDS" pamphlet
The ACLU and ACT-UP are protesting a pamphlet that preaches compassion and love for people with AIDS.The problem is that this pamphlet, titled "A Christian Response to AIDS," uses Bible verses to back up that advice, and is available from the D.C. Health Department's Administration for HIV/AIDS. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64079-2001Feb27.html

Science in the News

Archaeology

Tomb of Giants unearthed in Peru
Archaeologists have uncovered a series of tombs rich with treasures of an extinct Peruvian culture. The 1,200-year old graves held five unusually tall young men surrounded by textiles, ceramics, llama skeletons, and decorative metal works. See http://www.ngnews.com/sections/archaeology/

World's Oldest Love Song from Egyptian Tomb
An inscription on the walls of a 4,000-year-old Egyptian tomb may be the world's oldest love song. Archaeologists hope that the song, and other finds from the tomb, will shed light on the end of the age of pyramid builders in Egypt. See http://www.ngnews.com/sections/archaeology/
Secrets of the Pharaohs on PBS at http://aolsvc.pbs.aol.com/researchandlearn/wnet/pharaohs/
Egyptian Resources see http://www.newton.cam.ac.uk/egypt/

Destructive archaeological frenzy in Afghanistan
http://www.archaeology.org/online/news/afghanistan/index.html

Astronomy

Scientists Find Evidence of Ancient Microbial Life on Mars
An international team of researchers has discovered compelling evidence that the magnetite crystals in the martian meteorite ALH84001 are of biological origin. The researchers found that the magnetite crystals embedded in the meteorite are arranged in long chains, which they say could have been formed only by once-living organisms. Their results are reported in the Feb. 27 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-life-01b.html also http://amesnews.arc.nasa.gov/releases/2001/01_11AR.html

Case For Life On Mars Withstands Criticisms As Support Grows
Researchers who stunned the world in 1996 with
the announcement that a Martian meteorite contained evidence of ancient life on the red planet have released new evidence that strengthens their original hypothesis and allays many of the criticisms leveled at the first paper. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-life-01c.html

Meteorites Point To Abundant Water On Mars Long Ago
Chemical analysis of Martian meteorites supports
the controversial theory of water on Mars, according to Meenakshi Wadhwa, PhD, associate curator of meteoritics at The Field Museum in Chicago. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-meteorite-01a.html also http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/pao/media/rel/2000/J01-20.html

Meteorite Analysis Suggests Comets Delivered Life's Key Ingredients
An object that fell to Earth more than 136 years ago has revealed new clues about the origin of meteorites in space and new information about how life may have started on early Earth. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-01g.html

Rare Meteorites Rekindle Debate Over Birth Of Solar System
A new meteorite study is rekindling a scientific debate over the creation of our solar system. The study, published in the March 2 issue of the journal Science, is based on the microscopic analysis of two rare meteorites recently discovered in Antarctica and Africa. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/early-sol-01a.html

Io Blows Its Top As Lava Flows Tracked Over Multiple Flybys
A newly released pair of images taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft has captured a dynamic eruption at Tvashtar Catena, a chain of volcanic bowls on Jupiter's moon Io. They show a change in the location of hot lava over a period of a few months in 1999 and early 2000. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/galileo-01b.html

Scientists Find Evidence For Wet, Slushy Ganymede, Jupiter's Largest Moon -
interesting new findings from Voyager and Galileo data. Europa and Callisto may have subsurface oceans today; Ganymede may have once had flowing water on the surface. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/03/010301073611.htm
Galileo at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/

Galaxy clusters are essentially stable following initial star formation,
says a Canadian researcher. Looks like the Universe settled down while still a toddler? http://www.newsandevents.utoronto.ca/bin1/010222b.asp

Hubble sees Galaxy on its edge
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1196000/1196524.stm

Biology

Key Step found for the Origin of Life
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/02/010220072030.htm

DNA Shows Malaria Helped Topple Rome
New findings provide support for the hypothesis that a widespread outbreak of malaria in the fifth century contributed to the decline of the Roman Empire. See http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/20/science/20ROME.html

Plant Genome may lead to Long Life
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/03/010302074820.htm

Treating Schizophrenia with thought control http://www.newscientist.com/features/features.jsp?id=ns22803

Geology

Rock reveals Dino Lights
At the time of the dinosaurs the earth's magnetic field was three times stronger causing more Northern lights to be seen. See
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1196000/1196652.stm

Volcano Helps Meteorologists Find Answer to Climate Change Mystery
With some help from the massive eruption of a Philippine volcano, scientists from North Carolina State University and the National Climate Center of China believe they have solved a climate change mystery. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/greenhouse-01h.html

Physics

Cool Quantum Gas
See the two kinds of atoms, bosons and fermions at http://www.sciam.com/news/030201/4.html
ABC's of Nuclear science see http://www.lbl.gov/abc/
See also http://sciviz.colum.edu/gallery/archive/si/main.html for Nuclear fission & fussion
---------------------------------
3/11/01
Religion in the News

Franklin Graham's Samaritan's Purse under fire in possible dry run of faith-based aid controversy. NY Times article at http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/05/world/05SALV.html

$16 million law suit for fraud against the Christian Brotherhood Newsletter
See http://christianitytoday.aol.com/ct/2001/005/23.html

The ID (Intelligent Design) movement and the Religious Right
http://christianitytoday.aol.com/ct/2001/110/11.0.html
The Assault on Evolution by Larry Arnhart. See http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2001/02/28/idt/index.html
Learn about the Creation Controversy at http://bibleandscience.com/creationcontroversy.htm

Christian music in trouble, says The Wall Street Journal
See http://www.msnbc.com/news/536939.asp

Future of environmental debate lies in religion, says Outside magazine
In a lengthy essay, Outside magazine contributing editor Bruce Barcott profiles Christian environmentalism past, present, and future. See http://www.outsidemag.com/magazine/200103/200103christian1.html

Russian church members fear mark of the beast
See http://christianitytoday.aol.com/ct/2001/110/55.0.html

Prophecy Conference shrinks
See http://news.tbo.com/news/MGA4Y63EJJC.html
What is the Book of Revelation all about? See http://bibleandscience.com/revelation.htm

Dispute over a theme park brings unexpected publicity.
Florida park received a needed jolt from protesters (The Wall Street Journal/MSNBC) See http://www.msnbc.com/news/539788.asp

John Paul first pope to visit mosque
(Associated Press) See http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010306/wl/syria_pope_1.html

Monks had decided to leave monastery on their own
(The Jerusalem Post) See http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/03/06/News/News.22486.html

For son of slain atheist, a close call Weeks after the discovery of O'Hair's remains, Murray speaks again for faith (The Washington Post) See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/
See my web page about Atheism at http://bibleandscience.com/doesgodexist.htm

Science in the News

Astronomy

Discovery Space Shuttle Discovery blasts off
March 8, 2001 - Space Shuttle Discovery was launched with the first replacement crew on board and heading for a three month stay on the International Space Station. While in the payload bay is the Italian built science carrier module Leonardo that will be later returned to Earth. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/shuttle-01f.html

Is Eros An Ancient Planetesimal Leftover From Solar System's Birth?
Laurel - March 5, 2001 - When NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft left for asteroid 433 Eros five years ago, scientists weren't certain what they would find when the probe arrived. Was Eros a 30-km fragment from a planet that broke apart billions of years ago? Or perhaps a jumble of space boulders barely held together by gravity? Was Eros young or old, tough or fragile .. no one knew for sure. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/early-sol-01b.html

Adaptive Optics System Reveals New Astroidal Satellite
Pasadena - March 7, 2001 - Yet another of the rare astroidal binaries has been spotted. Caltech astronomers Mike Brown and Jean-Luc Margot found the newly discovered moon orbiting asteroid (87) Sylvia which joins only six other known asteroids with companions. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/asteroid-01b.html

GALAXY FORMATION NOT RANDOM, SAYS ASTRONOMER
Gaze into the vastness of the universe this evening and in all likelihood those galaxies look just as they did five billion years ago, and they didn't get to their locations by random chance, says U of T astronomy professor Raymond Carlberg. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/02/010226070416.htm

Galaxies in Collision
By studying globular clusters of stars in the nearby galaxy M82, HST has determined that M82 collided with M81, another nearby galaxy, around 600 million years ago. Implications for galaxy evolution at
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/PR/2001/08/index.html

A new meteorite study is rekindling a scientific debate over the creation of our solar system. See http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/pr/01/meteorite37.html

Bionic Research Points To Smart Flexible Aerospace Materials
Huntsville - March 5, 2001 - The "personal aircraft" that replaces the beloved automobile in people's garages may still lie in the realm of science fiction or Saturday-morning cartoons, but researchers at NASA's Langley Research Center (LaRC) are developing exotic technologies that could bring a personal "air-car" closer to reality. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/materials-01f.html

Biology

SCIENTISTS MAP BIOLOGICAL CHANGES IN EARTH'S TROPICAL FORESTS
International tropical forest researchers at the Centre for Tropical Forest Sciences (CTFS) have established a world network of tropical forest plots to map changes in the biology of one-tenth of the Earth's rainforest tree species- one centimetre at a time. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/02/010226070313.htm

DEEP GREEN SPAWNS DEEP GENE AND DEEP TIME TO CONTINUE WORK TOWARD A COMPLETE TREE OF LIFE FOR THE GREEN PLANTS
The highly successful Deep Green project to construct a "tree of life" for the green plants has ended, but it has seeded new projects to strengthen the branches and root the tree more firmly in new genetic and fossil data. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/02/010220073020.htm

SCIENTISTS IMPROVE TECHNIQUES FOR IDENTIFYING ELUSIVE AND HIGHLY VALUABLE STEM CELLS AT THE GENETIC LEVEL
A new study led by Dr. Daniel Geschwind, assistant professor of neurology at UCLA, and Dr. Harley Kornblum, assistant professor of pharmacology and pediatrics at UCLA, increases our understanding of how to pinpoint the elusive and highly valuable stem cells in the human body. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/02/010226070549.htm

CHRONIC STRESS MAY INFLUENCE EFFECTIVENESS OF VACCINES
Chronic stress can have an impact on the overall effectiveness of immunizations designed to protect against infectious diseases such as flu, hepatitis and pneumonia according to a critical review of published studies. The news could be important to people who have suppressed immune function, especially the elderly. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/03/010301072313.htm

BIOLOGISTS CREATE A NEW TOOL FOR OBSERVING A "MESSENGER" MOLECULE IN LIVING CELLS
Researchers have developed an important tool for understanding how one key molecule regulates a wide range of physiological activity in mammals. Using the natural tendency of certain proteins to glow - their fluorescence - research funded in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF) has revealed some surprising variations in how even cells of the same type behave. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/02/010227073905.htm

Genetic Research in agricultural breeding
See http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/07/business/07BREE.html

Geology

A Deadly Year But No More Earthquakes Than Usual
Menlo Park - March 7, 2001 - With more than 35,000 estimated deaths from earthquakes in the first two months of 2001, it may seem like the earth is more restless than usual. Not so, according to scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) in Golden, Colo. "While it's true that more people have died from earthquakes during the first two months of this year than in the last two years put together, the average number of earthquakes per month has stayed about the same," said NEIC chief scientist, Waverly Person. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/earthquake-01a.html
Every time there is an earthquake some preachers think the end of the world is near, but in reality the earth is not increasing in earthquakes. It has stayed about the same average per year. We just have better ways of detecting earthquakes, and communicating the information around the world.

Oozing Magma of Ocean Ridge Tells About Mantle Below
Santa Barbara - March 5, 2001 - A recent article in Nature reports new information about the movement of the upper mantle immediately underneath the Earth's crust. Plate tectonics is the surface manifestation of this movement. The plate including India is crashing into Asia, pushing up toward the Himalayan Mountains. The recent large earthquake in India is part of this movement. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/tectonics-01a.html

Ancient Earth Had Much Stronger Magnetic Field
Rochester - March 6, 2001 - A new technique for measuring the Earth's magnetic field back to the days of the dinosaurs and beyond has revealed that the magnetic field was as much as three times stronger in ancient Earth than previous techniques suggested. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/earth-magnetic-01b.html

Physics

ELEPHANT-SIZED COLLABORATION CAN'T YET BUDGE PHYSICISTS' STANDARD MODEL
Question: How many physicists does it take to calculate one number? Answer: About 550. That may sound like a lot, but the number may help answer an important question: Why does matter predominate over antimatter in our universe? See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/02/010220072632.htm

SCIENTISTS INVESTIGATE "NANOWIRES" WITH VERY LOW RESISTANCE; WORK COULD LEAD TO SMALLER, FASTER ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS
In the world of electronic circuits, smaller is better: Small circuits, such as those used in computers, run faster and process more data. One key to developing smaller circuits is making tiny wires. Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and Stanford University think they've developed a good candidate, molecular wires millions of times smaller in diameter than a human hair. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/02/010223080307.htm

Homeschooling Helps
Online education
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/07/technology/07EDUCATION.html
History of the Genome Project
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/291/5507/1195
-------------------------------------
3/18/01
Religion in the News

Integrating Doubt, faith , and Science
Philip Clayton's story from Atheist to Christianity
http://www0.mercurycenter.com/premium/arts/docs/clayton10.htm

Examining Peacocke's Plumage
The winner of the 2001 Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion rejects everything resembling Christian orthodoxy, but that doesn't stop him from co-opting the language. See http://christianitytoday.aol.com/ct/2001/111/11.0.html

Bodies Identified as Those of Atheist O'Hair and Kin
http://www.worldnews.com/?action=display&article also
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/16/national/16ATHE.html

Vatican's New Ecumenical Officer May Smooth Relations with Protestants
See http://christianitytoday.aol.com/ct/2001/111/17.0.html

Overcoming Addictions
See http://christianitytoday.aol.com/ct/2001/004/28.88.html

Science in the News

Astronomy

Volcanoes May Have Heated Up Life's Melting Pot On Mars
Houston - March 12, 2001 - Two of the oldest volcanoes on Mars, which have been active for 3.5 billion years, are providing clues to the possibility of life on the planet, according to preliminary analysis by University at Buffalo geologists of new data from the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) and the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA), currently orbiting the planet. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-life-01d.html

Researchers Pinpoint Region Responsible for Mars Heyday
St. Louis - March 15, 2001 - Planetary scientists at Washington University in St. Louis and various collaborators have concluded that the Tharsis rise in Mars' Western Hemisphere is key to many of the Red Planet's mysteries, including its large-scale shape and gravity field, and its early climate and water distribution. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-general-01a.html

Scientists Continue To Prospect Lunar Data Mine
Los Alamos - March 12, 2001 - This week scientists from The Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory present their latest findings from NASA's Lunar Prospector mission at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in Houston, Texas.
See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/lunar-01b.html

Universe Weighed and 'Found Wanting'
Coonabarabran - March 8, 2001 - Only 35% of the Universe's contents is in the form of matter, according to findings published in the journal Nature today [8 March] by astronomers using the Anglo-Australian Telescope near Coonabarabran in eastern Australia. The rest is believed to be in the form of 'dark energy'. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/darkmatter-01a.html

Black Holes once ruled the universe.
For the first time, astronomers believe they have proof that black holes of all sizes once ruled the universe. The Chandra X-ray Observatory provided the deepest X-ray images ever recorded, and those pictures deliver a novel look at the past 12 billion years of black holes. Story and pics at
http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/01_releases/press_031301.html

Mir to splash down March 22, "early in morning"
Moscow - March 15, 2001 - Russia announced Thursday the most precise timing yet for its destruction of the Mir space station, saying debris from the 15-year-old orbiter would splash down into the Pacific Ocean "around 0800 GMT" on March 22. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mir-01t.html

Biology

Plants fend off Predators
http://www.worldscientist.com/?action=display&article

Physics

Stable Atom Clouds Foreshadows New Superconducting Materials
Arlington - March 12, 2001 - For the first time, a gas containing both of the fundamental types of atoms (Fermions and Bosons) has been cooled to a temperature just a hair short of absolute zero, and the first time a state of simultaneous quantum degeneracy has been created. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/materials-01h.html

3/25/01
Religion in the News

Publisher Plans Contract Cancellation for the book "On Becoming Babywise" by Gary Ezzo
Multnomah editor now considers Ezzo book "dangerous." See http://christianitytoday.aol.com/ct/2001/112/54.0.html
I do not recommend Ezzo's books. See why at http://bibleandscience.com/counseling.htm#ezzo

The David Seminar
"David was hardly the flawed-but-noble hero depicted in the Scriptures. He was more likely a ruthless, homicidal scoundrel whose legend was later embellished and sanitized to give a demoralized people a much needed folk hero." That's just one of the assertions scholars are saying about the biblical king, according to Jeffrey Sheler, religion writer for U.S. News and the author of a recent book on the reliability of Scripture. See the US News and World Report at http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/010319/david.htm
For Sheler's book see http://christianitytoday.aol.com/ct/2000/006/32.87.html

Can God Reach the mentally Disabled?
See http://christianitytoday.aol.com/ct/2001/004/31.94.html

Religious broadcasters quietly cut historic link to National Association of Evangelicals.
See http://christianitytoday.aol.com/ct/2001/005/13.26.html

Christians Call for India's Prime Minister and Government to Resign in Wake of Scandal
Web site releases tapes of party president taking bribes from men posing as arms dealers. See http://christianitytoday.aol.com/ct/2001/112/43.0.html

Science in the News

Anthropology

Scientists Discover Second Genus of Early Human
(Reuters) See http://dailynews.yahoo.com/fc/Science/Anthropology_and_Archaeology/
ABC News see http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DailyNews/hominid010321.html
Video of Meave Leaky discussing the find at http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/03/av/leakey.ram
(Real Player needed)

TALE OF THE TEETH: ARCHAEOLOGISTS FIND UNUSUAL BONE COLLECTION IN CHINESE CAVE
A team of researchers, including Lynne Schepartz, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Cincinnati, has discovered an unusual collection of animal and human teeth dating back over 200,000 years deep inside a southern China cave. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/03/010313073727.htm

Astronomy

Russia Burns Mir To The Ground
Korolyov - March 23, 2001 - Mir, the world's first international space station, exploded into thousands of pieces after a successful deorbit on March 23, 2001 over the western central Pacific. Eye witnesses on islands from southern Japan and across the Pacific saw the fireworks display of their life. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/010323071713.i0ucuoku.html

AN ASTRONOMY FIRST: TELESCOPES DOUBLE-TEAM HAWAIIAN NIGHT SKY
Proving that two telescopes are better than one, NASA astronomers have gathered the first starlight obtained by linking two Hawaiian 10-meter (33-foot) telescopes. This successful test at the W.M. Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea makes the linked telescopes, which together are called the Keck Interferometer, the world's most powerful optical telescope system. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/03/010315080053.htm

Io Date Gets Dumped
Pasadena - March 14, 2001 - The amount of lava gushing from individual volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io dwarfs earthly comparisons, and the pace at which lava is repainting Io's surface suggests a novel technique for determining the relative ages of surface regions there. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/galileo-01d.html

Math Program Cracks Cause of Venus Heat
Pasadena - March 12, 2001 - A mathematical model of the surface of Venus could show how the hot, dry surface has reacted to changes in temperature throughout the planet's history. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/venus-01a.html

Hubble Finds New Asteroid Moon
Los Angeles - March 21, 2001 - Asteroid (107) Camilla has joined the ranks of asteroids boasting a small moon. Astronomers from Towson University in Maryland found the satellite in five images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope earlier this month. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/asteroid-01c.html

Biology

SCIENTISTS FIND GREAT-GRANDDADDY OF ENZYME FAMILY
Scientists have traced a protein to the point in early evolution when it first began using a chemical, ATP, to power cells. ATP, or adenosine triphosphate, powers the machinery of cells by releasing energy when its phosphate chemical bond is broken. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/03/010312072401.htm

THE FROZEN ZOO: THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW ORLEANS AND THE NEW WORLD OF SAVING ENDANGERED SPECIES
University of New Orleans scientists and professors are working on several programs aimed at preserving genetic diversity, increasing endangered animal populations, and saving animals on the brink of extinction--by stockpiling the genetic material (eggs, embryos, and sperm). They freeze the samples at -320°F and store them in liquid nitrogen tanks. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/03/010309080531.htm

PROPOSED ADDICTION TREATMENT BLOCKS ENVIRONMENT-TRIGGERED CRAVING
Treatment may help diminish addicts' tendency to relapse Upton, NY -- Anecdotal reports suggest that addicts crave drugs when they visit places where they've routinely used drugs. Now, a new study funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and conducted at Brookhaven National Laboratory shows that, in animals, such environmental cues trigger measurable increases in dopamine, a brain chemical closely linked with addiction. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/03/010307071250.htm

SONIC HEDGEHOG SHAPES THE BRAIN
The size and shape of brain structures can be controlled by a signaling molecule known as Sonic Hedgehog, University of Chicago researchers show in a paper the March 16, 2001, issue of Science. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/03/010312072303.htm
STUDIES SHOW POWERFUL NATURAL ANTI-CANCER SYSTEM EXISTS
Scientists at Johns Hopkins and Tsukuba University in Japan have confirmed the existence of a long-suspected natural system the body uses to block the cancer-causing effects of toxic chemicals in food and the environment. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/03/010313074202.htm

UCSD RESEARCH SHOWS COMMON ANTICOAGULANT DRUG PREVENTS SPREAD OF CANCER IN MICE
UCSD Cancer Center researchers have obtained evidence that the common anticoagulant drug heparin diminishes metastasis of certain cancers in mice by interfering with interactions between platelets (a type of normal blood cell) and specific molecules on tumor cell surfaces. This work also indicates that the early phase of these interactions is crucial for metastasis - a process in which tumor cells from the primary site enter the bloodstream, travel to distant tissues and establish new tumors. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/03/010313074446.htm

ANTARCTIC SEA URCHIN SHOWS AMAZING ENERGY-EFFICIENCY IN NATURE'S DEEP FREEZE
How well do you think you would grow if you lived in a freezer? Adam Marsh, a marine biochemist at the University of Delaware, and colleagues Rob Maxson and Donal Manahan from the University of Southern California, have discovered an important reason why the pincushion-like Antarctic sea urchin (Sterechinus neumayeri) can function so well in the polar seas surrounding the Earth's frozen continent. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/03/010309080313.htm

NEW VIEW OF EVOLVING GENES, PROTEINS TO AID BIOINFORMATICS
Today's evolutionary theory is not enough to tell us how even simple mutation biases may skew the evolutionary process, according to a report by scientists from the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute (UMBI). See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/03/010313074117.htm

THE AMOEBAS THAT CARE AND SHARE
http://www.newscientist.com/newsletter/news.jsp?id=ns228355

For Medical Journals, a New World Online
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/20/health/20JOUR.html

Teenagers Find Health Answers With a Click
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/20/health/20TEEN.html

Geology

RECORD OF ANCIENT CLIMATES CAN BE A MAP TO RICHES
The earth is like a birthday cake -- layered and containing prizes. Virginia Tech researchers are looking at the rock record from the last 600 million years to study the past history of climate change and to determine where oil and gas may be hidden. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/03/010312072652.htm

FIRST, DIRECT OBSERVATIONAL EVIDENCE OF A CHANGE IN THE EARTH'S GREENHOUSE EFFECT BETWEEN 1970 AND 1997
Scientists from Imperial College, London, have produced the first direct observational evidence that the earth's greenhouse effect increased between 1970 and 1997. Writing in the journal Nature (1), researchers in the Department of Physics show that there has been a significant change in the Earth's greenhouse effect over the last 30 years. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/03/010315075858.htm

Ice Probe Reveals First-Ever Images Deep Within Antarctic Streams
Pasadena - March 16, 2001 - Scientists have had their first inside look at ice layers, frozen debris and a surprising channel of water deep beneath an Antarctic ice stream, thanks to an ice probe designed by JPL. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/antarctic-01a.html

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4/1/01
Religion in the News
Author LaHaye Sues Left Behind Film Producers
Producers didn't make the blockbuster they promised, he says.
http://christianitytoday.aol.com/ct/2001/006/14.20.html
Why some pastors don't want flocks to read 'Left Behind' (The Plain Dealer, Cleveland) http://www.cleveland.com/religion/index.ssf?/living/pd/l23left.html
Revelation: Reinterpreted, over-interpreted - or prophesy? LaHaye's Left Behind enterprise not only distorts Revelation's message. It distracts us from it. (David Waters, Scripps Howard News Service/Abilene Reporter News. See http://www.reporternews.com/2001/religion/rev0225.html
For my views on the Book of Revelation see http://bibleandscience.com/revelation.htm

Southern Baptists break off official talks with Vatican
After 30 years of official doctrinal talks between the Southern Baptist Convention and the Roman Catholic Church, Baptists are pulling the plug. See http://www.worldnews.com/?action=display&article=6355487

CBN lays off 50
Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network is laying off 50 employees-5 percent of its workers-to trim $7 million. See http://www.worldnews.com/?action=display&article=6355564

Russell Crowe's religious film past
A little-known fact: one of the earliest works by Russell Crowe, the Australian who won Best Actor in last night's Academy Awards, was a pastoral recruitment video for the Seventh Day Adventist Church. In the film, the 18-year-old Crowe played a farm worker who decides to devote his life to the church. See http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_252338.html

Jury Convicts Greater Ministries of Fraud
Five leaders face jail time for one of the largest Ponzi operations ever. See
http://christianitytoday.aol.com/ct/2001/006/11.18.html

Child Abuse at a Church Creates a Stir in Atlanta
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/30/national/30ABUS.html

Bill to put God on Tennessee state flag offends atheist
"You'd think I was trying to put an obscenity on the flag," says Democratic sponsor (The Tennessean, Nashville) See http://www.tennessean.com/local/archives/01/03/03640950.shtml

Why the battle for religion in the public schools continues
There are plenty of church-state fights being waged in the U.S. right now, but the vast majority of the battlegrounds are in the public school system. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27863-2001Mar19.html

Enlisting science to find the fingerprints of a creator
Believers in 'intelligent design' try to redirect evolution disputes along intellectual lines. (Los Angeles Times) See http://www.latimes.com/news/state/20010325/t000025850.html

Arkansas lawmakers target textbooks that present theories as fact
Bill would require teachers to have their students make note of what is false information and what is theory when discussing evolution (Associated Press/Freedom Forum) See http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=13497

Creation Museum breaking ground
Answers in Genesis hopes to open first phase of the museum by the summer of 2002. (The Cincinnati Post) See http://www.cincypost.com/2001/mar/16/aig031601.html

Teaching Creationism
See http://www.the-scientist.com/yr2001/apr/let_010402.html

What Did Jesus look like?
The British news media is abuzz with stories and images from Son of God, a £1.5 million ($2.15 million) documentary series on the life of Jesus. The big news is that the filmmakers are claiming to have a more accurate representation of what Jesus might have looked like, based on computer extrapolations of a first-century Jewish skull. See http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,463793,00.html For the movie see http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/tv_and_radio/newsid

Purging flame!
Pa. church members burn Harry Potter, other books 'against God' (ABCNews.com) The congregation of a church in suburban Pittsburgh gathered around a bonfire Sunday night to burn Harry Potter books, Disney videos, rock CDs and literature from other religions, purging their lives of things they felt stood between them and their faith. See http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/book_burning010326.html

Club-Goer Puffy Combs: I'm a churchgoer now
(New York Post) See http://www.nypostonline.com/news/regionalnews/26656.htm

Senator pleads for faith-healing bill
"I'm stepping back and looking at this as a dad," says Republican Ron Teck (The Denver Post) See http://www.denverpost.com/news/leg/leg0328a.htm

How the Worldwide Church of God discovered the plain truth of the gospel.
See http://christianitytoday.aol.com/ct/2001/113/54.0.html

Technologists reflect on God http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2001-03-27-god-tech.htm

Science in the News

Astronomy

Looking at the beginning of Creation http://www.newscientist.com/newsletter/features.jsp?id=ns22841

Faint Sniffs From Eons Past
Cameron Park - March 26, 2001 - Newly analysed data from the Lunar Prospector spacecraft looks set to confirm evidence of residual interior venting in a few remaining areas on the moon's nearside surface. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/lunar-01c.html

2001 MARS ODYSSEY SET TO FIND OUT WHAT MARS IS MADE OF
When NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey launches in April to explore the fourth planet from the Sun, it will carry a suite of scientific instruments designed to tell us what makes up the Martian surface, and provide vital information about potential radiation hazards for future human explorers. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/03/010320073839.htm
The project's web page, including a live video feed from Cape Canaveral, is at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/odyssey/

When Will Television Invade Mars
Miami - March 28, 2001 - If you like TV, you'll love the Mars Channel. Take your seats for the network premiere of interplanetary telly. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-general-01b.html

Can Liquid Water Still Exist On Mars?
Moffett Field - March 28, 2001 - In 1998, NASA's Associate Administrator Wesley Huntress, Jr., stated, "Wherever liquid water and chemical energy are found, there is life. There is no exception." http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-water-science-01e.html

The Lure of Hematite On A Rusty World
Huntsville - March 28, 2001 - Scientists think Mars has a bad case of rust. Martian soil is full of iron-bearing compounds that, over the eons, have reacted with trace amounts of oxygen and water vapor in Mars' atmosphere to form iron oxide -- the same chemical that covers innumerable rusty nails in garages and workshops on Earth. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-general-01c.html

Solar Flares!
There's a whole lot of activity going on at the Sun's surface right now, including the largest sunspot in 10 years and a large coronal mass ejection that was launched our way yesterday. There may be some good aurorae this weekend. See
ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/2001/01-059.txt
http://www.spaceweather.com/

Two Spacecraft Watch A Towering Inferno On Io
Tucson - March 29, 2001 - Two NASA spacecraft jointly observing Jupiter's moon Io this winter captured images of a towering volcanic plume never seen before and a bright red ring of fresh surface deposits surrounding its source. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/galileo-01e.html

NASA RESEARCH SIMULATES HOW COLD STARS STAY IN SHAPE
In research with the potential to help study stars and improve space navigation, scientists have successfully used lasers to cool a cloud of lithium atoms sufficiently to observe unusual quantum properties of matter. Although current technology does not permit humans to travel to the stars, scientists can create a simulated star laboratory on Earth. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/03/010313074844.htm

Finding Your Own Cloud Nine
Pasadena - March 26, 2001 - In the continuous quest to find cost-effective methods to explore the planets, NASA engineers have risen to the occasion by developing a variety of new balloon methods inspired by centuries-old, solar-heated hot-air balloons, as well as by conventional helium light-gas balloons. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/future-01b.html

Detecting Planet Killers as a Sideline
Paris (ESA) March 27, 2001 - A 100 metre-wide space rock known as 2001 EC16 paid a passing visit to Earth's vicinity last Friday. As it swept by at a little over 1.7 million km from Earth - approximately four and a half lunar distances - the only people to pay it much attention were a dedicated band of astronomers. See http://www.spacedaily.com/news/deepimpact-01c.html

White dwarfs shed light on dark matter
A bunch of very faint, burned-out stars have been found on the outskirts of our galaxy. It appears that there are enough of them to account for a significant fraction of the Universe's missing mass. But there still has to be a lot of even weirder stuff out there. http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0103/23darkmatter/

Massive Infant Stars Rock their Cradle
HST results show how massive young stars sculpt the gas and dust in their neighborhood. See http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/2001/11/index.html

Biology

Is a Human Proteome Project Next?
It is the characterization of all proteins. See
http://www.the-scientist.com/yr2001/apr/steinberg_p1_010402.html
On the fast track in functional Proteomics! See
http://www.the-scientist.com/yr2001/apr/rayl_p10_010402.html

Stem Cells Yield Promising Results
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/31/health/31CELL.html
Stem cell debate rages
Administration steps into fray over federal funding (San Jose Mercury News) http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/depth/stemcl032501.htm

SMALL MOLECULE FOUND TO MIMIC KEY NERVE GROWTH FACTORS; MAY EVENTUALLY BE USED IN TREATMENT OF BRAIN DISORDERS
Scientists have found that a small, naturally-occurring molecule that enters the brain easily keeps nerve cells alive by stimulating the actions of growth factors. This points the way for the potential use in the future of small molecules to approach a number of disorders, which may include Alzheimer's disease, spinal cord injury and Lou Gehrig's disease. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/03/010306073037.htm

RESEARCHERS FIND NOVEL WAY TO KILL STREPTOCOCCI BACTERIA; USE OF MICROBE'S NATURAL ENEMY MAY OFFER ALTERNATIVE TO ANTIBIOTICS
Researchers at The Rockefeller University have discovered a powerful new way to destroy on contact the bacteria that cause strep throat, flesh-eating disease and a variety of other infections. The technique, which may not cause the bacteria to evolve resistant strains as antibiotics do, also could have applications for many other bacterial diseases. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/03/010320074915.htm

COMPUTER MODEL PREDICTS OUTCOME OF DNA SHUFFLING
Industries using DNA shuffling to improve enzymes, therapeutic proteins, vaccines and viral vectors may soon have a computational method for predicting the number and likely locations of crossovers, according to a Penn State research team. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/03/010313074239.htm

WEEDS IN DISTURBED AREAS MAY BE SOURCE OF MORE MEDICALLY IMPORTANT COMPOUNDS THAN PLANTS IN TROPICAL RAINFORESTS
Conservationists have long pointed out that primary tropical rainforests may have dramatic value because of important and undiscovered medicinal plants. New research by an anthropology graduate student at the University of Georgia, however, has found that weeds in easy-to-reach disturbed areas may be even more important. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/03/010316073300.htm

WITH ITS KEY ROLE IN PLANT MATURATION, A NEWFOUND GENE COULD YIELD A NOVEL CLASS OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED CROPS
Biologists at the University of Pennsylvania have identified the first gene known to mediate the maturation of plants from a juvenile stage to adulthood. The discovery could lay the foundation for crops that repel pests by taking advantage of natural differences between younger and older plants, reducing farmers' reliance on pesticides while sidestepping the controversy surrounding produce engineered with the addition of genes from other species. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/03/010322233450.htm

STUDY OF POISONOUS SNAKES BOOSTS OLD BATESIAN PRINCIPLE OF MIMICRY
In 1862, British naturalist Henry Bates proposed -- but could not prove -- that over time, some animal and plant species that taste good to predators come to resemble other animals and plants that pose a danger to the hungry hunters. Although widely accepted and taught as early as elementary school, Batesian mimicry has remained unconfirmed. Now, however, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill scientist believes experiments he and others conducted with fake snakes strongly show the Englishman was right. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/03/010315075129.htm

Chemistry

NEW TECHNIQUE ANSWERS ONE OF WATER'S BASIC MYSTERIES
The driving force behind one of the fundamental properties of water, its pH, has defied explanation for decades. Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Rochester, however, have created the first model of how water becomes acidly neutral -- a characteristic on which all life depends. The findings should help researchers understand and control other complex chemical reactions as well, ones that could be used to create medicines and better materials. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/03/010316073231.htm

Geology

LISTEN TO EARTH'S "SONGS," TWEEKS AND WHISTLES LIVE ON THE WEB
If humans had radio antennas instead of ears, we would hear a remarkable symphony of strange noises coming from our own planet. Scientists call them "tweeks," "whistlers" and "sferics." They sound like background music from flamboyant science fiction films. But this is not science fiction. Earth's natural radio emissions are real. And, although we're mostly unaware of them, they are around us all the time. See http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/03/010321073042.htm

Physics

Computing, One Atom at a Time
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/27/science/27QUAN.html

Technology

Imagine standing in Sydney and touching someone in New York. Another kind of virtual reality? Videoconferencing? No, this is tele-immersion. It's the real-world answer to Star Trek's holodeck and it promises to allow people in different parts of the world "to submerge themselves in one another's presence and feel as if they are sharing the same physical space" See http://www.newscientist.com/tech/beingthere.jsp

The Big Picture
Jumbo-sized televisions needn't weigh a ton or cost a fortune
http://www.newscientist.com/tech/sharpshooter.jsp

For the latest news on emerging technologies and archived features from New Scientist special report of 21 October 2000. See
http://www.newscientist.com/tech/index.jsp

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