Today's New Reason To Believe Archives

May 2005

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Gravitational Lens Test for Cosmic Design

  • A team of American astronomers has developed yet another accurate confirmation of the two most highly fine-tuned cosmic design parameters. Combining the Cosmic Lens All-Sky Survey with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the team produced the first accurate determination, based on gravitational lensing, for the cosmic mass density (22-26 percent of the total cosmic density) and the cosmic dark energy density (74-78 percent of the total cosmic density). Their measured values agree very well with independent accurate measures achieved by the WMAP of the cosmic background radiation and by type Ia supernovae of the velocities of distant galaxies. The team demonstrated that astronomers’ confidence in the big bang creation model and in the extraordinary fine-tuning of the cosmic density parameters for the benefit of life is indeed very well justified.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Monday, May 30, 2005
Hominid Fossil Record Confusion

  • A recently discovered hominid jawbone casts uncertainty on a widely held human evolutionary scenario. This jawbone was assigned to Homo antecessor. Up until this time, H. antecessor has been defined by a handful of dental and jawbone fragments from immature individuals. Many anthropologists consider this hominid to be part of the transitional sequence that led to modern humans. According to this view H. antecessor descended from H. ergaster and, in turn, gave rise to H. heidelbergensis. Anthropologists believe that H. heidelbergensis separately produced the lineage that led to Neanderthals and modern humans. Analysis of the new jawbone, however, indicates that H. antecessor is not part of this evolutionary sequence. Rather, it more closely resembles the erectine hominids found in Asia. This discovery creates a gap in the fossil record between H. ergaster and H. heidelbergensis and points out how speculative the various human evolutionary scenarios are, since the discovery of a single jawbone can overturn human evolutionary models.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Sunday, May 29, 2005
More Evidence for First Generation Stars

  • A team of American astronomers has confirmed an important prediction of the biblically predicted big bang creation model. The team analyzed x-ray spectra data for the intracluster medium (ICM) of a large number of galaxy clusters. They demonstrated that the data are "consistent with a significant fraction of the ICM metals produced by an early generation of Population III stars." What these words mean is that this discovery confirms a key prediction of the big bang creation model, namely that the universe’s first stars (Population III stars) will be very massive and virtually metal-free. Consequently, the young-earth and many atheistic cosmic models stand refuted while the biblical cosmic model stands supported.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Saturday, May 28, 2005
No Neanderthal-Human Genetic Link

  • Scientific evidence continues to indicate that modern humans were clearly distinct from Neanderthals and other hominids. RTB’s creation model for humanity’s origin regards Neanderthals and other extinct hominids found in the fossil record as nonhuman primates that lacked spiritual capacity. A recent study powerfully confirms this view. Based on mitochondrial DNA sequences, researchers demonstrate that Neanderthals and ancient modern humans were not only genetically, and hence evolutionarily distinct, but that they never interbred. Such evidence confounds evolutionary scenarios but resonates with RTB’s explanation for the hominid fossil record.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Friday, May 27, 2005
Seismic Anisotropy of the Upper & Lower Mantle

  • French and German geophysicists have confirmed important design features of Earth’s interior for the long-term support of life. They performed experiments on olivine minerals under temperature and pressure conditions mimicking those present in the upper and lower mantle. Their results confirm that the seismic anisotropy (the observation that seismic waves propagate with different speeds in different directions) of Earth’s upper mantle measures high while the lower mantle measures extremely low. Such seismic anisotropy values for the upper and lower mantle must be fine-tuned for Earth to possess the just-right levels of plate tectonic activity at the just-right locations for the support of abundant life on Earth’s surface for a long period of time. The exquisite nature of this fine-tuning is best explained as the handiwork of a supernatural Creator intent on preparing the best possible resources for the launch and maintenance of human civilization.
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    • Journey Toward Creation, 2nd ed., by Hugh Ross (VHS or DVD)

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Thursday, May 26, 2005
Biochemical Design: Quality Control In Yeast Enzyme

  • Well-designed systems include quality control checkpoints at critical junctures to ensure efficient production of high quality products. Many biochemical operations inside the cell employ such quality control procedures, and hence appear to be designed. New research characterizes the quality control properties of the Trf4p enzyme from yeast. This enzyme attaches what biochemists call a poly A tail to tRNA molecules that are improperly made and folded. The poly A tail marks these malformed tRNA molecules for destruction. This quality control operation ensures that protein synthesis occurs with high fidelity. As biochemists continue to characterize the cell’s chemical systems, the evidence for design mounts, and with it evidence that life is the product of a Creator.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Rarity of Planets with Non-Eccentric Orbits

  • A team of American astronomers has confirmed an important design feature for the solar system. Their research on the upsilon Andromedae planetary system, the best observed extrasolar planetary system, establishes that the gas giant planets in that system got their high-eccentricity orbits through planet-planet scattering (a kind of gravitational slingshot effect). Specifically, at some time in the past upsilon Andromedae had four gas giant planets, rather than the present three. The fourth came too close to the third, kicking it into a highly eccentric orbit which in turn disturbed the orbit of the second. The fourth planet was ejected from the system. The team believes that such planet-planet scattering explains why all extrasolar planets located more distant from their stars than Venus is from the Sun exhibit orbits too eccentric to permit the existence of a life-support planet in the same system. Consequently, the team leader, Frederic Rasio, concluded, "While planetary systems around other stars may be common, the kinds of systems that could support life … may not be so common." Thus, the circular orbits of the solar system planets appear to point to supernatural design rather than natural outcome.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Biochemical Design: Information In mRNA Splicing

  • New research designed to characterize the functional expression of information in eukaryotes (organisms such as animals, plants, fungi, and protozoans) affirms the conclusion that life stems from an Intelligent Designer. Instead of a single gene specifying a single protein, in eukaryotes a single gene can specify several different proteins. This function is achieved through alternative splicing of messenger RNA (mRNA). During the process of protein production the cell’s machinery "copies" the information contained in DNA in the form of mRNA. The cell’s machinery, in turn, uses the information delineated in mRNA to produce proteins. After copying mRNA, the cell’s machinery removes parts of the molecule and splices the remaining pieces together. Alternative splicing yields mRNA molecules with different information that can be used to direct the production of different proteins. Messenger RNA splicing patterns play a key role in gene expression and vary from cell to cell and tissue to tissue. The elegant information-rich biochemical systems of the cell point to the source of life’s information¾the Creator described in the Bible.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Monday, May 23, 2005
Parasites and Bird Population Control

  • A new study provides another answer to one of the most common atheist challenges to the Christian faith: why would an all-loving God create parasites? A field study by American and British biologists conducted in England has demonstrated that a certain gastrointestinal nematode (worm) that feeds on grouse reduces the bird’s fecundity so that grouse populations do not experience huge rises and drops. Such amelioration of grouse population levels enhances the quality of life for the grouse, for the species that the grouse feed on, for the predators that feed on the grouse, and for the stomach worms. Thus, rather than parasites appearing to be a destructive consequence of natural evolution, they provide evidence for a caring, supernatural, superintelligent Creator.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Sunday, May 22, 2005
Transplant Procedure Obviates Need for Embryonic Stem Cells

  • For some people, embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) holds promise to treat debilitating diseases, for others, ESCR presents an ethical nightmare. ESCR involves the destruction of human embryos. Recent advances, however, suggest that there may be an ethically acceptable alternative to ESCR. New research indicates that type I diabetes may be treated by transplanting the insulin-producing islet cells from a live donor into a diabetic patient. This approach may allow patients suffering from type I diabetes to live without any dependence on insulin. This advance is one of many discovered recently that may obviate the need for ESCR. Thus, scientific breakthroughs may provide the way out of the ethical dilemma created by emerging biotechnologies.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Saturday, May 21, 2005
Biological Control of Silica Recycling

  • A team of American earth scientists has found yet more fine-tuning for one of the design features for sustaining life on Earth. A stable, efficient cycling of silica plays a crucial role in sustaining life. Silica buffers soil acidification, it regulates atmospheric carbon dioxide, and it provides an important nutrient for both marine and terrestrial life. For several decades scientists assumed that weathering and hydrology (the water cycle) played the dominant role in cycling silica throughout the environment. The team’s measurements across the Hawaiian Islands, however, established that biological processes (for example, plants taking up silica from the soil and plants depositing silica into the soil through decaying leaf litter) dominate weathering and hydrology in cycling silica. Their finding implies that a supernatural, superintelligent Being must have created the just-right kinds of life in the just-right amounts in the just-right locations at the just-right times throughout the past 3.8 billion years so that silica cycling was maintained at the ideal levels for all life.
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    • Journey Toward Creation, 2nd ed., by Hugh Ross (VHS or DVD)

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Friday, May 20, 2005
Biochemical Design: Quality Control In DNA Repair System

  • New research explaining how cells repair DNA damage also provides evidence for biochemical design. Researchers have gained further insight into the operation of the ATM (ataxia-telangiectasia mutated) kinase mediated repair system. This quality control apparatus repairs DNA damage caused by double-stranded breaks in the DNA helix. If not repaired, double strand breaks can be lethal. The ATM kinase protein activates DNA repair enzymes when double strand breaks occur. It turns out that the ATM kinase gets input from a protein complex (Mre11-Rad50-Nbs1) that functions as a sensor for DNA double strand breaks. This new research reveals the complexity, sophistication, and elegance of the ATM kinase mediated DNA repair system. As biochemists continue to characterize the cell’s chemical systems, the evidence for design mounts, and with it evidence that life is the product of a Creator.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Thursday, May 19, 2005
Level of Design in Muscles

  • An American chemist, while reviewing the latest advances in constructing artificial muscles, has revealed new insights into the remarkable designs present in the muscles of advanced organisms. Studies show that natural muscles can 1) convert chemical energy into mechanical energy with 40 percent efficiency, 2) they can contract at 50 percent per second, 3) they can increase in strength and change stiffness in response to need, 4) they can self-repair, and 5) they can even transform into fuel for a starved body. Although amazing advances have been made in designing and constructing artificial muscles, the very best such designs fall far short of even just the mechanical capabilities of natural muscles. In the chemist’s words, "humankind is still far behind in much of nature’s game of providing high-strain muscles." Thus, the designer of nature’s muscles must be far more intelligent, knowledgeable, and capable than our best scientists and engineers.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Challenge to Biological Evolution: Convergence

  • Scientific advance continues to uncover examples of the repeated, independent origins of complex biomolecules. Such discoveries contravene evolution because chance events should not produce repeated outcomes. This research describes the repeated, independent origin of the muscle protein, troponin C, in various insect orders. Troponin C, a complex biomolecule, requires an improbable sequence of events to bring about its independent, multiple origins. Such events challenge the veracity of the theory of evolution, but find ready explanation if a Creator repeatedly used the same good designs as He brought life into existence.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Animal Humor and Animal Joy

  • An American neuroscientist has helped establish the biblical claim that birds and mammals are fully endowed with "soulishness," that is, the capacity to engage one another and humans (but not God) through their minds, wills, and emotions. He made note of field observations and laboratory experiments involving a large number of different species of mammals and birds. Individuals within the species experience considerable pleasure and mirth at humorous situations that arise in their play. While this capacity for humor and joy appears to be ubiquitous among all bird and mammal species, it is decidedly absent for all lower animals. The sudden appearance of humor and joy in bird and mammal species remains an unsolved and apparently unsolvable mystery for naturalistic models, but is the predicted outcome for all biblical creation models.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Monday, May 16, 2005
Biochemical Design: Organization of Simplest Life

  • Recent advances in the study of bacteria counter the long-held view that these life forms are merely a "container" of haphazardly arranged molecules. Microbiologists now understand that these simplest of life forms possess a remarkable degree of internal organization at the molecular level. This review article summarizes some of the recent work along these lines. For example, not only do bacteria display subcellular localization of proteins and biochemical processes, they also make use of a cytoskeleton that further helps organize the cellular interior. Such internal organization of the simplest life forms serves as a marker for biochemical design and is expected if a Creator is responsible for life.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Sunday, May 15, 2005
Design of Cellular and Protein Aerosols

  • A German atmospheric physicist found more evidence that organisms must be specially designed in order to establish an ideal water cycle for life. Making use of measurements made in Germany and Siberia, he showed that cellular particles, namely fur fibers, dandruff, pollen, spores, bacteria, viruses, protein crystals, etc., comprise from 5 to 50 percent of the total aerosol particles in the atmosphere and that cellular particles are especially effective as cloud condensation nuclei and ice nuclei, which both facilitate precipitation. Therefore, Earth’s possession of an ideal water cycle for sustaining advanced life points to a Creator who has exquisitely designed life so as to pump the just-right quantities of fur fiber, dandruff, pollen, spores, bacteria, viruses, protein crystals, etc., into the atmosphere.
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    • Journey Toward Creation, 2nd ed., by Hugh Ross (VHS or DVD)

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Saturday, May 14, 2005
Biochemical Design: Life’s Molecular Machinery

  • Just as a watch requires a watchmaker, it logically follows that elegant designs in nature require a designer. This study adds new insight into the machine-like character of the enzyme, topoisomerase IB, found in eukaryotes. This enzyme relieves the torsional strain in DNA during replication and transcription. Topoisomerase IB forms a clamp around the DNA double helix as it operates to reduce the torsional strain of DNA. New research indicates that the torque of the DNA molecule and the friction between DNA and the topoisomerase IB clamp play a critical role in this enzyme’s mechanism. The elegant design and machine-like behavior of topoisomerase IB is evidence that this biomolecular machine must be the work of a divine "Motor Maker."
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Friday, May 13, 2005
Newly Discovered Fossil Fuel Deposits Benefits

  • Environmental scientists at University of California Berkeley and at Harvard have found more evidence that points to the exquisite design of Earth and past life on Earth to provide humanity with vast, recoverable reserves of fossil fuels. Their studies showed that in those parts of Africa where household energy use is predominantly wood burning, as opposed to fossil fuel use, greenhouse gas emissions are elevated, as are premature deaths due to air pollution. If the respective African nations were to switch from wood burning to fossil fuel burning, about 4 million premature deaths could be prevented and the impact on global warming reduced. Thus, humanity now has two more reasons to thank God for his exquisite design of planet Earth and for His creations and extinctions of life over the past 600 million years that have endowed humanity with such an abundant supply of easily recoverable fossil fuels.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Thursday, May 12, 2005
Biochemical Design: Quality Control

  • Well-designed systems include quality control checkpoints at critical junctures to ensure efficient production of high quality products. Similarly, many biochemical operations inside the cell employ quality control procedures, and hence appear to be designed. One set of quality control operations scans DNA looking for damage. Once located, the cell’s enzymatic machinery repairs this damage. New research characterizes the molecular basis for recognition of DNA damage by the repair enzyme, 8-oxoguanine DNA glycosylase I. Recognition of this type of damage (production of 8-oxoguanine from guanine) is especially challenging, since the damaged base differs by only two atoms from the native base. Researchers involved in this work conclude that this enzyme’s "structure reveals a remarkably effective gate-keeping strategy for lesion [damage] discrimination." As biochemists continue to characterize the cell’s chemical systems, the evidence for design mounts, and with it evidence that life is the product of a Creator.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Wednesday, May 11, 2005
More Precise Expansion Measure Tool

  • A team of Chinese astronomers has discovered a new tool for measuring galaxy distances that soon will dramatically improve the capacity of astronomers to uncover more evidence for the supernatural creation and design of the universe for the benefit of life. Accurate, direct distance measurements to faraway galaxies comprise a foundational step for determining 1) the manner in which the universe was created, and 2) the quality of design in the density parameters that govern cosmic expansion so as to make life possible. The team found a tight linear correlation between the peak luminosities of type Ia supernovae and their colors 12 days after peak brightness. This correlation now gives astronomers the ability to measure distances to very far away galaxies to about 3 percent precision. This improvement potentially will deliver even more impressive evidence for a superintelligent, supernatural Creator than we possess today.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Adult Stem Cells Offer Hope

  • Debate over the use of embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) may end as scientists continue to discover ethically acceptable alternatives. Adult stem cells from a variety of tissues display the capacity to develop into a wide range of cell types, just like embryonic stem cells. However, adult stem cells are not derived from embryos and do not involve the destruction of a human fetus. A new study illustrates the potential utility of adult stem cells to treat diseases. Researchers demonstrate that adult hematopoietic stem cells can differentiate into neurons in the microenvironment of a developing chicken embryo spinal cord. Researchers hope that this procedure, or one like it, will one day be used to generate neurons for implantation from a patient’s own bone marrow. Scientific advance may soon provide the way out of the ethical dilemma created by emerging biotechnologies.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Monday, May 9, 2005
Early Shutdown of Star Formation

  • A team of German and American astronomers has found more evidence that possible life sites in the universe must be rare. They used hydrodynamical simulations (a modeling technique) to establish that merger events between spiral galaxies (which were frequent when the universe was young) fuel powerful bursts of star formation. These bursts exhaust so much gas and dust that they lead to the termination of any significant future star formation. Such nearly complete termination of star formation implies that the galaxies that emerge from such merger events are devoid of stars born late enough in cosmic history that they can generate planets. The study confirms that planets are relatively rare in the universe. Given that a planet capable of supporting life must manifest dozens of extraordinarily fine-tuned characteristics, Earth’s capacity to support life cannot be reasonably attributed to chance.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Sunday, May 8, 2005
Biochemical Design: Life’s Minimum Complexity

  • What’s life’s minimum complexity? For the evolutionary model to work, life in its minimal form must be simple. In contrast, RTB’s creation model predicts that life in its minimal state is irreducibly complex. New research adds support to the notion that life is irreducibly complex, requiring minimally 1500-1900 genes to exist independently. In this study researchers sequenced the genome of the Wolbachia endosymbiont of the nematode (worm), Brugia malayi. Wolbachia is a bacterium that exists exclusively in the interior of B. malayi cells. This bacterium cannot survive on its own, because it relies on the metabolic pathways of the host organism. It turns out that the Wolbachia genome consists of about 806 protein-coding genes, far fewer than the 1500 required for independent life. All the data to date indicates that microorganisms with less than 1500 genes cannot exist independently in the environment. Since scientists know that the first life forms did exist independently, the irreducibly complex nature of independent life forms provides clear evidence that life is the product of a Creator.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Saturday, May 7, 2005
Absence of Planets in Globular Clusters

  • Australian astronomers have found more evidence that possible life sites in the Milky Way Galaxy are rare. They performed the deepest search to date for planets in the globular cluster 47 Tucanae, the globular cluster for which astronomers have the highest probability of finding planets. They found none and determined that their inability to find any planets was due to the low metal abundance of globular cluster stars. Since 98 percent of the stars in the Milky Way Galaxy are low-metallicity stars, this study confirms that only 2 percent of the Milky Way Galaxy stars are candidates for possessing planets. Since most galaxies are metal-poor compared to the Milky Way Galaxy, planets must be relatively rare in the universe. Since a planet capable of supporting life must manifest dozens of extraordinarily fine-tuned characteristics, Earth’s capacity to support life cannot be reasonably attributed to chance.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Friday, May 6, 2005
Origin of Life: First Life’s Complexity

  • As scientists learn more about the genomes of specific life forms, the more evidence they provide for supernatural creation. In order to explain the rapid appearance of complex metabolic forms of life so rapidly after the Earth became suitable for life, some naturalistic origin-of-life researchers speculate that life originated deep in the Earth’s crust. According to this hypothesis, life could have emerged much earlier in Earth’s history than 3.8 billion years ago because in a subsurface environment, life would be protected from the "hellish" environment of the Earth’s surface. Then, subsurface life eventually evolved to generate surface life that appears in the fossil record at 3.8 billion years ago. To support this idea, origin-of-life researchers point to subsurface microbial communities that exist several hundred meters below Earth’s surface. Recent work represents a challenge to this scenario. Researchers have sequenced the genome of a deep-sea bacterium, capable of surviving under high pressures. Its genome reveals remarkable complexity and specific features designed to allow it to thrive under high-pressure conditions, making these types of organisms much less suitable as the first life forms on Earth.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Thursday, May 5, 2005
Multi-Faceted Design of Air Pressure

  • Earth’s atmospheric pressure manifests optimal design on several different levels. Scientists have learned that lungs operate best at an atmospheric pressure of 15 pounds per square inch. They cease to operate well at atmospheric pressures below one third or above three times the optimal level. The best atmospheric pressure for lung operation also is identical to the optimal air pressure for generating a climate ideal for globally distributed advanced life. A lower air pressure would produce higher wind velocities and more laminar jet streams, resulting in many more devastating hurricanes and tornadoes and much more unevenly distributed rainfall. A higher air pressure would produce lower wind velocities and much lower rainfall. That same ideal air pressure happens to be the best air pressure for aircraft transport. The fact that Earth possesses such ideal atmospheric pressure on three essential levels is evidence of God’s supernatural design of Earth for the benefit of humanity.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Wednesday, May 4, 2005
Advances in the Analysis of Molecular Fossils

  • Recent analysis of the bone protein, osteocalcin, from Neanderthals provides new insight into the biology of these past organisms. Researchers extracted and sequenced osteocalcin from two Neanderthal specimens (that date at about 75,000 years in age) and compared it to the osteocalcin sequences of humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans. Although the team found no differences among the sequences, they were able to detect differences between these osteocalcin sequences and those of other mammals. The difference appears to be related to the inability of primates to produce vitamin C. This work illustrates the power of ancient biomolecule analysis to provide critical information about the biology of past organisms and their relationship to contemporary organisms. As ancient molecule technology continues to mature it will provide a powerful way to test evolutionary and creation models.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Tuesday, May 3, 2005
Natural Nuclear Reactors in the Early Earth

  • Physicists at Washington University in St. Louis have found more evidence for the design of Earth for life. They discovered a uranium isotope that two billion years ago was responsible for life-limiting, natural, on-and-off nuclear chain reactions. However, the uranium isotope responsible for the chain reaction, U-235, has a half-life of 704 million years. Thus, natural chain reactions would be a problem for life only when Earth is less than 2.8 billion years old. Knowing this, the Creator could limit Earth life between 3.8 and 1.8 billion years ago to relatively radiation-resistant life forms like bacteria. Also, knowing how important an extremely high uranium abundance is for sustaining plate tectonics and a long-lasting internal dynamo, the Creator would create Earth at the peak uranium abundance epoch in cosmic history and ensure that Earth would receive an extra uranium abundance boost from the Moon-forming collision event. The fact that Earth exhibits such characteristics suggests advanced planning on the part of a supernatural Creator.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Monday, May 2, 2005
Ancient DNA Analysis Advances

  • Advances in ancient DNA analysis promise to provide new understanding of organisms’ history. In this new study, researchers analyzed ancient DNA isolated from two fossil specimens of the extinct giant eagle, Harpagornis moorei, found in New Zealand. These specimens became extinct in the 13th century when humans arrived on the island. Mitochondrial DNA sequences from H. moorei fossils indicate that these giant eagles arose through a microevolutionary process from one of the smallest known eagle species. This research illustrates the power of ancient DNA analysis to provide critical information about the biology of past organisms and their relationship to contemporary organisms. As this technology continues to develop, it will provide new tools for testing evolutionary and creation models.
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    • "Ancient DNA and Protein Studies to Aid Scientific Advance," Creation Update (05-13-2003)
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Sunday, May 1, 2005
Mass of Dark Gas in the Milky Way Galaxy

  • French astronomers have found more evidence for the design of our galaxy for life that at the same time provides a key link for star formation. Using the Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope, they detected 138 new gamma-ray sources. The gamma-ray profiles of these sources showed that vast clouds of cold dust and dark gas surround all the nearby interstellar carbon monoxide clouds. With the discovery of these cold dark gas clouds the "missing link" for current galactic star formation has been found. These clouds bridge the gap between diffuse atomic clouds and the dense cores that already have been observed to form stars. For a solar system to form with the just-right complement of stellar neighbors at the just-right time and location in the galaxy so that advanced life will be possible on Earth, requires fine-tuning of the quantity, location, sizes, and timing of cold dark gas clouds. Such fine-tuning augments the already impressive evidence for the supernatural design of the Milky Way Galaxy.
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