Today's New Reason To Believe Archives

January 2007

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Biochemical Design: Voltage-Sensitive Membrane Channels

  • The case for biochemical intelligent design received a boost from work highlighting the machine-like character of the voltage-dependent potassium ion channel from the bacterium Aeropyrum pernix. This protein is embedded in the cell membrane and regulates the flow of potassium ions through the membrane in response to voltage changes across the membrane. Voltage changes cause two "paddle" regions in the protein to swivel, opening and closing the channel. The latest work identifies the role that phospholipids (cell-membrane components) play in the paddle-swiveling action. The paddles’ elegant design and an uncanny resemblance to man-made devices indicate that biomolecular machines, like the voltage-dependent potassium ion channel, must be the work of a divine "Motor Maker."
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Ancient Galaxies Confirm RTB’s Creation Model

  • Recent observations by the most powerful optical telescopes available have confirmed critical aspects of RTB’s cosmic creation model. After the big bang creation event, the universe consisted only of hot uniform gas. To produce the galaxies and stars seen today, galaxy formation must have started within a billion years of the big bang. Using the Hubble Space Telescope and the ground-based Subaru telescope, astronomers have discovered a galaxy that formed when the universe was only 750 million years old. Additionally, since fewer of these distant galaxies were found than expected, it appears that astronomers are now seeing the start of galaxy formation, which matches predictions of the big bang. As scientific knowledge advances, the evidence for RTB’s creation model continues to increase.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Monday, January 29, 2007
Biochemical Design: Bacterial Type-III Secretion Machines

  • A new study provides additional evidence for biochemical intelligent design and helps revitalize one of the most well-known arguments for God’s existence. Researchers have learned more about the machine-like character of the bacterial type-III secretion machine. This ensemble of proteins pumps proteins from bacterial cells into the cells of plants and animals. It also plays a key role in mediating symbiotic interactions and the diseases caused by pathogens. Authors of a review article describe the assembly and operation of these biomolecular machines, highlighting their similarity to man-made devices. The elegant design and stark resemblance to man-made motors indicate that biomolecular machines, like the bacterial type-III secretion machines, must be the work of a divine "Motor Maker."
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Sunday, January 28, 2006
Helium-Abundance Problem Solved

  • Simulations of star formation and evolution have resolved a long-standing observational discrepancy, thus strengthening support for RTB’s cosmic creation model. The amount of a particular isotope of helium observed in the universe matches that formed in the first minutes after the big bang. But this isotope of helium is also produced by stars, so it appears that the observed amount is too little to match the predictions of the big bang model. Recent results of star modeling show that instead of ejecting the helium into interstellar space, stars recycle it deep into their interiors, where further nuclear burning converts it into a much-more-abundant form of helium. These results mean that there is no longer a discrepancy between the predicted and observed amounts of this particular form of helium. Thus, RTB’s creation model, which incorporates big bang cosmology and stellar evolution, rests on even more solid ground.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Saturday, January 27, 2007
New Class of RNA Molecules Expands Functional Role of "Junk" DNA

  • New research identifies yet another role for "junk" DNA sequences. Junk DNA has become an icon of evolution. Evolutionary biologists maintain that because junk (noncoding) DNA is an imperfection, it provides incontrovertible evidence for evolution. Numerous recent studies, however, have identified functions for many types of junk DNA. This most recent analysis has identified a new family of micro-RNA molecules. These biomolecules are produced by the cell’s machinery from regions of DNA that don’t code for functional proteins. Micro-RNAs play a key role in regulating the activity of genes that specify proteins. The growing recognition of the functional importance of noncoding DNA undermines one of evolution’s best arguments and suggests that careful planning by an intelligent Designer, rather than undirected, random biochemical events, shaped the genomes of organisms.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Friday, January 26, 2007
More Difficulties Forming Planets

  • As scientists learn how planets form, their simulations continue to provide evidence buttressing RTB’s claim that a supernatural Creator prepared Earth as a life-supporting planet. Many gas giants (planets like Jupiter and Saturn) migrate toward their host stars after formation, dramatically influencing the formation of Earth-like terrestrial planets. Recent simulations have shown that gas-giant migration kicks the planetesimals that would otherwise form terrestrial planets into eccentric and inclined orbits, which prevents any further growth into terrestrial planets. Only if the migration occurs very rapidly or if the gas giant is much smaller than Jupiter can any subsequent planet formation occur. These results highlight the difficulty of natural processes forming a planetary system with the high degree of design exhibited by Earth’s solar system. Such complexity points to the careful intervention of a supernatural Designer.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Thursday, January 25, 2007
Advances in the Biochemistry of Aging Corroborate the Bible’s Long Life Spans

  • Ongoing advances in the biochemistry of aging make the long life spans recorded in Genesis 5 and 11 scientifically plausible. In a recent study, researchers demonstrated that feeding the compound resveratrol to mice improved the function of their mitochondria and protected them from metabolic disease. Previous studies have shown that resveratrol increases life expectancy in laboratory organisms, and the compound is being explored as a life-extending pharmaceutical agent. This latest work provides a mechanistic explanation for resveratrol’s activity. If scientists can significantly increase life spans by administering pharmaceutical agents, it is not unreasonable to think that a Creator could adjust human biochemistry to permit long life spans (such as those recorded in Genesis 5 and 11) and then shorten life expectancy after the Flood. In light of this study, the long human life spans described in Scripture are scientifically reasonable.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Sun Born in Cluster with Massive Supernova

  • Studies of radioactive-decay products from meteorites provide evidence buttressing RTB’s creation model. Certain radioisotopes arise only in supernova explosions of massive stars. Using the abundance of these elements and their decay products, a team of scientists determined that the Sun formed in a cluster of stars containing at least one massive star that died in a supernova explosion. Furthermore, the distance to that supernova must have been close enough to enrich the solar nebula adequately, but not so close that it would have destroyed the disk from which the planets formed. Such fine-tuning comports well with the idea of a supernatural Creator intervening to ensure the formation of a stable solar system with a planet suitable for life.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Biochemical Design: Life’s Minimum Complexity

  • New research adds support to the notion that life is irreducibly complex, requiring close to 2000 genes in order to exist as a free-living independent life-form. For evolutionary origin-of-life scenarios 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. In a recent study, researchers sequenced and characterized the genome of the microbe Thiomicrospira crunogena XCL-2 and found its genome to include 1,965 genes. This microbe thrives at deep-sea hydrothermal vents and is considered to be a representative of some of the first and earliest life-forms on Earth. The remarkable complexity of the simplest independent life-forms provides clear-cut evidence that life is the product of a Creator.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Monday, January 22, 2007
Design in Supernovae and Bubbles

  • European scientists’ research of the immediate vicinity of the solar system provides evidence of the fine-tuning of Earth for human life. Astronomers have known for decades that the solar system currently resides in a low-density region known as the Local Bubble and that this decreased density appears beneficial for advanced life. The Local Bubble is a few hundred light years across with a density roughly one-tenth of normal interstellar space. A team of astronomers in Europe searched for the supernovae responsible for clearing out the Local Bubble and found a group of stars that seems to fit. They estimate that the Local Bubble began forming a few million years ago and that 15-20 different supernovae were responsible. The new research indicates that common but destructive-to-life processes were an integral part of ensuring Earth resided in a benign location in the galaxy. This fact comports well with RTB’s creation model, in which a supernatural Designer prepared Earth as a suitable habitat for humanity.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Sunday, January 21, 2007
Biochemical Design: Organizational Complexity of Cell Membranes

  • New biochemical research provides more evidence for the design of cell membranes. Biochemists have traditionally regarded the cell membrane as a chaotic system that lacks order beyond the phospholipids’ bilayer structure. A new picture, however, is emerging. A recent study demonstrates that proteins associated with the cell membrane cluster into compositionally specific regions that form "islands" separated by regions that are compositionally distinct. The "island" domains in the membrane can be further classified into distinct types. Some of the "islands" serve as contact points for the cytoskeleton. This remarkable complexity and organization bespeaks the work of an intelligent Designer.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Saturday, January 20, 2007
No Nearby Supernovae During Human History

  • Detailed analysis of ice cores reveals more evidence consistent with the work of a super-caring Creator preparing a supportive environment for life. While supernovae played an integral role in preparing the universe for life, one that occurs near a planet containing life could have catastrophic effects-particularly on more-advanced life. A team of US scientists analyzed ice cores dating to 70 thousand years ago and concluded that no supernovae occurred within 450 light years of Earth during that time. Thus, Earth and humanity have not been subjected to the potentially devastating effects that a nearby supernova would cause. Such results further affirm RTB’s cosmic creation model, which posits life-maintaining activities from a supernatural Creator.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Friday, January 19, 2007
More Evidence that Humans are Distinct from Neanderthals

  • A new analysis of the archeological record indicates that modern humans and Neanderthals (also known as "Neandertals") behaved in fundamentally different ways. RTB’s creation model views Neanderthals and other extinct hominids as nonhuman primates that lacked spiritual capacity. On this basis, the RTB model predicts that humans and the hominids should be biologically and behaviorally distinct from one another. It turns out that the activities of male and female Neanderthals were very similar to each other. In contrast, modern-human males and females, who were contemporaries of Neanderthals, displayed different and complementary activities. To say it another way, Neanderthals displayed a much-less-complex social organization than humans, in line with the expectations of the RTB creation model. This degree of difference in male and female roles likely promoted the survival of humans and led to the extinction of Neanderthals.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Thursday, January 18, 2007
Fine-tuning in Planet Formation

  • As planetary scientists study planet-formation processes, their research shows the difficulties in forming planetary systems with life-supporting planets like Earth. As a gas cloud collapses to form a star and potentially a planetary system, a disk of gas and planetesimals (the "building blocks" of planets) forms around the star. For a gas giant to form, its core must grow faster than the timescale by which it will migrate into the star-around 10,000-100,000 years. This occurs only if the planetesimals are small enough. However, these same planetesimals are the components needed to form a rocky terrestrial planet like Earth. If these planetesimals are too small, the terrestrial planets don’t form before the disk is cleared out of the stellar system. Such fine-tuning comports well with RTB’s cosmic creation model, in which a supernatural Creator intervenes to ensure a habitable system containing both Earth and life-protecting gas-giant planets.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Biochemistry Supports Bible’s Long Life Spans

  • Another biochemical study on aging makes the long life spans recorded in Genesis 5 and 11 scientifically plausible. Researchers demonstrated that the adverse effects of aging on the immune system can be delayed by caloric restriction. Such a measure has been known to dramatically extend the life expectancy of model laboratory organisms due to the mediation by the sirtuin family of enzymes. It appears that indirectly affecting the activity of these enzymes delays aging in primates. If scientists can significantly influence life spans by simple biochemical intervention, it is not unreasonable to think that a Creator could adjust human biochemistry to permit long life spans and then shorten them after the Flood. In light of this study, the long human life spans described in Genesis are scientifically reasonable.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Disk-Planet Interactions Reveal Fine-tuning in Solar System

  • Studies of planet formation continue to reveal the fine-tuning of the solar system to ensure Earth can support life. During formation of planets, gas giants form before rocky terrestrial planets do. Earlier research showed that gas giants with eccentric orbits prevented the formation of earth-sized, watery planets. Now, a team of international scientists has shown how interactions of gas-giant planets with the disks of debris around their stars cause the eccentricity of the gas giants to grow-even if their orbits were initially circular. One feature of our solar system that remains unique among all known planetary systems is the very circular orbits of multiple gas giants. This circularity ensures the gravitational stability of Earth through time and also provides an environment for Earth’s growth and accumulation of water. Such fine-tuning comports well with the idea of a supernatural Designer fashioning a habitable planet where humans can dwell.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Monday, January 15, 2007
Are Humans Still Evolving?

  • An international team of geneticists has recently determined that lactase persistence-the ability of adults to digest lactose, the sugar found in milk-emerged independently in African people groups and Europeans around the time of cattle domestication. This discovery prompted news headlines announcing that humans are "still evolving." But the data do not support the notion that humans are on a continuous evolutionary journey and gradually developing into a new species. Nor do they support the naturalistic theory that modern humans emerged from ape-like ancestors over the course of the last 6 million years. These genetic changes merely represent micro-evolutionary changes. That is, the data indicate that humans adapted to dietary changes as they domesticated cattle a few thousand years ago. The ability of species (including humans) to adapt to new environments represents a design feature that provides them with the ability to survive in the face of environmental, predatory, and competitive pressures. This design fits RTB’s creation model perfectly.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Sunday, January 14, 2007
Spiral Galaxies are Disappearing

  • Astronomers continue to find evidence supporting an important premise of RTB’s creation model, namely that the universe will be habitable by advanced life for only a finite time. Spiral galaxies provide their planetary systems with stability against gravitational disruption and a shield from life-threatening cosmic radiation. Recently, a team of Chinese scientists demonstrated that as the universe ages, the number of spiral galaxies diminishes. Since star formation sustains the spiral structure, this result implies that star formation diminishes as the universe ages. Carried to its logical conclusion, this means the future universe will not produce the stellar or galactic structures required by advanced life. RTB’s cosmic creation model posits that this universe indeed will end but the supernatural Creator of this universe will replace it with a new, eternal one.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Saturday, January 13, 2007
More Human and Chimpanzee Genetic Differences

  • New genetic research indicates that humans and chimpanzees display significant genetic differences. Previous studies demonstrated that gene-expression patterns (the ways genes are used) in human and chimpanzee brains differ. The latest work continues in this vein by showing that human and chimp genomes differ in microRNA content. These small RNA molecules regulate gene expression and could well help explain the biological differences between humans and the great apes. Instead of supporting an evolutionary connection, this study and others like it could be taken to indicate that the Creator used the same raw materials (genes) to construct both humans and chimpanzees but employed these materials in such a way to generate radically different organisms.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Friday, January 12, 2007
New Technique Matches Other Hubble Constant Measurements

  • A new technique for measuring the Hubble constant (Ho) provides additional evidence for the validity of RTB’s cosmic creation model. RTB’s model incorporates big bang cosmology and, as such, makes predictions about the expansion rate of the universe. The new technique analyzes the amount and type of galaxy clustering over a wide range of redshifts to determine distances. Coupled with the redshift measurements, this allows Ho to be determined. A California scientist applied the technique to observations taken with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and found the Ho measurement to be in perfect agreement with results from other methods. Such concordance indicates that big bang cosmology, and consequently RTB’s creation model, is a highly successful and accurate description of the universe.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Thursday, January 11, 2007
Biochemistry Supports Bible’s Long Life Spans

Today’s New Reason To Believe-Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Type Ia Supernovae are Standard Candles

  • Studies of distant supernovae confirm the fine-tuning predicted in RTB’s cosmic creation model. An unexpected dimness of distant type Ia supernovae explosions was first used to infer the existence of the incredibly fine-tuned space energy density, or dark energy. Some scientists questioned whether the dimness actually indicated the presence of dark energy or if, instead, the supernovae’s properties changed over time, resulting in the dimming. A team of scientists recently observed a sample of type Ia supernovae that was over 6 times larger than any previous sample. They were able to determine the "rise times" of the light curves to rule out any evolution between distant and nearby explosions. These results further strengthen the case for the presence of dark energy and the incredible fine-tuning it requires.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Tuesday, January 9, 2007
Biblical Account of Humanity’s Origin Confirmed by Genetic Study

  • A new genetic study confirms the biblical account of humanity’s origin and spread. Analysis of mitochondrial DNA from 81 people indicates that some people groups now living in Africa originated in Asia. These groups represent a "back-migration" into Africa after humanity originally spread from near the Middle East (likely including Africa). The movement by these peoples into Africa occurred between 40,000 and 45,000 years ago. The timing of this event and the pattern of human migrations is compatible with the biblical account of humanity’s origin.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Monday, January 8, 2007
Design in Water’s Ability to Lubricate Faults

  • Earthquake studies in Germany highlight more evidence consistent with the idea of a supernatural Creator fashioning a habitable planet for humanity. A just-right amount of tectonic activity is necessary for a planet capable of supporting life. Past research revealed the importance of water’s ability to lubricate faults in order to minimize the size of earthquakes. With the help of water, faults slip before too much pressure accumulates, resulting in smaller earthquakes. However, recent results from a team of German scientists reveal that too much lubrication makes some tectonically inactive regions susceptible to numerous small earthquakes. Just enough lubrication is needed to prevent large earthquakes, but not so much as to trigger a myriad of small earthquakes. Such fine-tuning of water’s lubricating effects argues for the activity of a supernatural Designer preparing Earth for human habitation.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Sunday, January 7, 2007
Scientists Sequence Nuclear DNA from Neanderthals for the First Time

  • An exciting breakthrough in ancient-DNA analysis promises to clarify the identity of Neanderthals and test evolutionary and creation models for humanity’s origin. Scientific teams from the Max Plank Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and the Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, California, report the first-ever nuclear-DNA sequences for a 38,000-year-old male Neanderthal specimen recovered from the Vindija Cave near Zagreb, Croatia. The teams used different methods to produce the Neanderthal genome sequences. One team sequenced about 1 million base pairs, or genetic letters; the other team sequenced about 65,000 base pairs. Preliminary analysis of Neanderthal nuclear-DNA sequences suggests that Neanderthals were distinct from modern humans and did not interbreed with them. Although more sequencing of the genome lies ahead, these results comport with previous studies of Neanderthal mitochondrial DNA and support RTB’s model of human origins.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Saturday, January 6, 2007
More Milky Way Galaxy Satellites May Resolve Discrepancy

  • Discoveries of numerous small satellite galaxies around the Milky Way Galaxy (MWG) appear to resolve a discrepancy in RTB’s cosmic creation model. The model, which incorporates big bang cosmology, posits a large amount of cold dark matter in the universe, which facilitates galaxy formation and growth. However, the particular form of dark matter included in the model generates many more small satellite galaxies in simulations than are currently observed. The discovery of an increasing number of satellite galaxies like the one described in the article below serves to close the gap between the predicted and observed numbers of MWG satellite galaxies. As observations continue to remove this discrepancy, the experimental validation of RTB’s cosmic creation model grows stronger.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Friday, January 5, 2007
Human and Chimpanzee Genetic Differences

  • Recent genetic research indicates that humans and chimpanzees display significant genetic differences. Many people consider the often-discussed 99% genetic similarity between humans and chimpanzees compelling evidence for evolution. But a new report demonstrates that it’s not the similarity of human and chimpanzee genes that’s biologically meaningful. Instead it’s the way the genes are used, known as gene expression. Previous studies demonstrated that gene expression patterns in the human and chimpanzee brains differ. The latest research continues in this vein by showing that the co-expression patterns of genes for humans and chimpanzees differ considerably in the cerebral cortex, while being largely similar in subcortical regions. This difference in gene expression corresponds to the profound differences in human and chimpanzee brain structures and cognitive abilities. Instead of supporting an evolutionary connection, this study-and others like it-could be taken to indicate that the Creator used the same raw materials (genes) to construct both humans and chimpanzees but employed these materials in such a way to generate radically different organisms.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Thursday, January 4, 2007
More-Precise Dates Provide More-Detailed Picture

  • Recent advances in dating technology have given earth scientists a much-more-detailed picture of Earth’s history-one that can be used to confirm the details of RTB’s cosmic creation model. Scientists continue to develop techniques to date events that occurred hundreds of million years ago within a precision of a hundred thousand years-a remarkable achievement; current precision yields dates with error bars as large as a few million years. The resulting detailed timeline will prove a powerful tool in testing the validity of RTB’s cosmic creation model, which works to correlate the creation events from Scripture with the cosmic and geological record.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Wednesday, January 3, 2007
"Junk" DNA May Explain Differences between Humans and Chimpanzees

  • New work continues to point to the functional utility of so-called "junk DNA." A recent study indicates that junk (noncoding) DNA may well play a critical role in establishing the biological differences between humans and chimpanzees. Based on this work researchers have concluded that conserved noncoding DNA sequences regulate the gene expression needed to establish connections between neurons. Gene expression, far more than genetic similarity, helps identify and differentiate between species. The functional importance of junk DNA indicates that careful planning by an intelligent Designer, rather than undirected, random biochemical events, shaped the genomes of organisms.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Tuesday, January 2, 2007
Erosion Rates Match Radioisotope Dates

  • Analysis of several new dating techniques provides consistent results, arguing that Earth is indeed older than 10,000 years. Dating techniques using erosion rates, thermal histories, and radioisotopes were applied to rocks from the western Canadian shield (a huge, U-shaped landmass covering much of Canada and parts of the northeastern U.S.). The radioisotope techniques provide information on when the crystals began migrating to the surface (because of erosion) and how deep in the crust they started. The results provided for the zircon and apatite crystals both matched the timescales given by measured erosion rates. One characteristic of a good model is that measurements of the same quantity made using independent techniques provide consistent results. Such consistency of results provides further support for RTB’s creation model, which puts the Earth at 4.5 billion years old.
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Today’s New Reason To Believe-Monday, January 1, 2007
Biblical Account of Humanity’s Origin Confirmed

  • A recent study supports the accuracy of the biblical account of humanity’s origin. New archeological finds in Austria, dated at 27,000 years ago, reveal two infant burials at sites occupied by modern humans. These appear to be ritual burials, based on decorations and adornments associated with the bodies. Prior to this discovery some anthropologists thought that the first humans regarded infants differently than adults, since infant burials from this time are rare in the archeological record. The newly uncovered burials, however, indicate that infants were indeed an important part of the earliest modern-human communities. These finds stand in sharp contrast to the burials at Neanderthal sites, which are clearly non-ritualistic. The Bible teaches that humans were uniquely made in God’s image. Accordingly, Neanderthals and other hominids are best understood as creatures that lacked the image of God. The stark contrast between the behavior of humans and the hominids, highlighted by these latest finds, affirms this notion.
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