Today’s New Reason To Believe

by Hugh Ross

New understanding of the solar system by team of five theoreticians from three different continents has produced even more evidence for the design of the solar system’s gas giant planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) for the benefit of advanced life on Earth. The masses and orbits of the solar system’s four gas giant planets are crucial for life on planet Earth. Without the gas giant planets, Earth would suffer from frequent life-destructive collision events from asteroids and comets. Additionally, a too-frequent cometary impact rate could have resulted in too much surface water for Earth.

The four gas giant planets act as gravitational shields for Earth. The more massive the planet and/or the closer the planet to Earth, the more effectively that planet will either deflect asteroids and comets away from a collision path with Earth or absorb the collisions itself. However, the gas giant planet cannot be too massive or too close to Earth. If it is, then, over time, its gravity will disturb Earth from the highly fine-tuned orbital path essential for the support of advanced life. For the same reason the gas giant planet’s orbital eccentricity (degree of ellipticity) and inclination (tilt) must be close to zero.

In order to adequately protect Earth from collision events without being gravitationally disturbed, the protection must come from not just one gas giant planet, but rather several. Previous work by certain members of the team of theoreticians, and others, shows that the mass and orbital characteristics for each of the solar system’s gas giant planets are exquisitely optimized to make the long-term survival of a wide diversity of both primitive and advanced life-forms on Earth possible. Their latest publication demonstrates exactly how these four planets attained their remarkable characteristics.

The team determined that in the presence of the gas disk about the Sun, from which all four gas giants formed, the configurations where the planets lock into a “quadruple mean-motion resonance,” are the only configurations for these planets that are able to reach a steady state (stable constant orbits) ¹. That is, each planet would be making exactly one, two, three, four, etc., or one-half, one-third, one-quarter orbits for every single orbit of its neighbor. After the disappearance of the gas the team found that just two configurations, where the four planets are spread far apart from one another, allowed the planets to remain stable for more than just a few million years.

Gas giant planets exert powerful gravitational influences on other planets. Because of this, it is crucial that the gas giant planets maintain stable orbital configurations for a few billion years in order for life to be possible for more than just a short time period within the planetary system. However, over time, mean-motion resonances among the gas giant planets would destabilize the orbit of a life-friendly planet in the same system. Therefore, the team concluded that some special feature of the solar system must operate to move the four gas giant planets from their original stable configuration with a quadruple mean-motion resonance into another configuration free of mean-motion resonances among the gas giants that, nonetheless, is stable over a very long time period.

The team discovered that such an extraordinary event could occur if, after the disappearance of the gas disk, a just-right planetesimal disk (a disk made up of very large asteroids and comets) remains just beyond the orbit of the outermost gas giant planet, namely Neptune. Such a planetesimal disk would gravitationally interact with the four gas giant planets, causing the four planets to migrate outward from their stable birth configuration to the orbits they currently maintain. A bonus arising from the interaction and migration is that the orbits of the four planets would become more circular, less inclined, and, thus, much less likely to ever destabilize the orbit of Earth.

In summary, the team demonstrated that Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune could not have formed in their present positions without becoming unstable. They had to have formed in highly fine-tuned positions and in a highly fine-tuned configuration. However, if they had remained in that configuration, long-term life on Earth would have proved impossible.

Another highly fine-tuned solar system feature was necessary for long-term life to become possible on Earth: a planetesimal disk of the just-right distance from the Sun, of the just-right width, of the just-right mass, and of the just-right distribution of planetesimal masses and orbits. Furthermore, to avoid endangering advanced life on Earth by planetesimal encounter events and to prevent the gas giant planets from continuing to migrate outward, it was vital that at some point in the outward migration of the four planets that about 99 percent of the planetesimals be scattered out of the planetesimal disk. This scattering event would have been a relatively late occurrence in the history of the solar system and helps explain why life did not appear on Earth, at least not in any measurable quantity, until 3.8 billion years ago.

The recent work done by the internationally diverse team of theoreticians illustrates in dramatic fashion that the more astronomers learn about the solar system, the more evidence they find that reveals the handiwork of a supernatural, super-intelligent Creator.

1. Alessandro Morbidelli et al., “Dynamics of the Giant Planets of the Solar System in the Gaseous Protoplanetary Disk and Their Relationship to the Current Orbital Architecture,” Astronomical Journal 134 (November 2007): 1790-98.

David H. Rogstad, Ph.D.

Originally Published on November 9th, 2007

As a scientist it can be tempting to take credit where it’s undeserved or avoid blame where it’s deserved. In that vein, some of the most obvious reasons to believe in the validity of the Bible come from the timeless wisdom it offers in practical matters.

Early in my career as a Technical Group Supervisor at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, I led a team of scientists, engineers, and programmers in the design and implementation of a special high-speed digital-signal-processing system called a Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) Correlator. One application of this machine was to be for NASA’s Geodynamics Program, where radio signals from distant quasars are collected by several large antennas and processed in such a way as to provide very precise information about the distances between the antennas, even if they are many miles apart. If the antennas are located on opposite sides of an earthquake fault zone, these distances can reveal movements along the fault and possibly serve to predict future earthquakes.

During the debugging phase of this implementation, my team could not track down a particular hardware bug, so a special effort by a few members of the team was planned to research it over the Christmas holidays. Just before leaving on holiday I made a “fix” to one part of the software to help this process.

When I returned two weeks later, the team reported no progress had been made because some new problem had arisen. Upon hearing this news, I began to suspect my fix was the culprit. Sure enough, when I checked, it was wrong. I surreptitiously corrected my mistake and when the others returned, they now reported that progress was being made because the new problem had mysteriously disappeared!

A managers meeting had been scheduled for the next morning, where I was to report on our progress, or lack of it. That night I could not sleep because of the churning going on in my head. Having a creative bent, I tried to think of any possible way I could tailor my report so as to take the blame off myself. But I was continually faced with my knowledge of Proverbs 28:13, which says “Whoever covers his sins will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.” After much turmoil, I finally came to an uneasy peace after choosing to just tell the truth.

When my time came to report, I told what had happened and took all the blame for a wasted two weeks. Instead of giving me a tongue-lashing (I wasn’t worried about getting fired, at least not at this point), the program director simply asked what our plan was at this stage, and went on with other things. This was remarkable for him because he was known for being a “table pounder” who had no patience with incompetence. In a conversation with my direct boss following the meeting, he observed that if I had tried to cover up or make excuses, everyone would have immediately seen through it and really laid into me. By being honest, I saved myself a lot of grief and instead gained respect.

This experience taught me how strongly I am tempted to cover up when I make a mistake, and how easily I think people won’t respect me if I am wrong or show weakness. What I discovered is just the opposite. I will be more respected when I am transparent. Also, acknowledging my failures encourages others to do the same.

For a book that’s so constantly maligned, the Bible’s message sure seems to comport well with human experience.

Breakthrough May Revolutionize Stem Cell Research

Originally posted on July 19th, 2007

I have always wanted to have my cake and eat it too, but alas, that have-it-all scenario is not possible. Or is it? Breakthroughs by scientists from Kyoto University in Japan and MIT and Harvard University in the US now make it possible to generate embryonic-like stem cells (ELSCs) without destroying human embryos. These research teams produced ELSCs from mice adult skin cells. Neither eggs nor embryos were necessary.

The biomedical community hopes that embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) will lead to techniques that can generate replacement tissues from embryonic stem cells (ESCs). They claim that implanting replacement tissue derived from ESCs into damaged and diseased organs provides the means to treat and possibly cure many horrendous diseases and debilitating injuries. Unfortunately, in order to harvest stem cells from human embryos, the embryo must be destroyed.

In addition to ethical concerns, use of ESCs is riddled with several serious technical problems. Perhaps the largest hurdle facing this biotechnology is rejection due to genetic mismatch between the ESCs and the patient. This problem is identical to rejection that can occur after organ transplant procedures. If the donor and recipient are not compatible, the recipient’s body rejects the organ. It’s almost certain that the recipient’s body will treat genetically incompatible ESCs as foreign material and reject the cells before they can deliver any promised benefit.

Both research teams were able to transform skin cells called fibroblasts into ELSCs by transferring four genes into these easily isolated cells using a retrovirus as a carrier. The ELSCs can develop into all the different cell types in the human body, just like ESCs. ELSCs don’t raise any ethical concerns, however, since they derive from adult cells, not embryos. Biomedical applications of ELSCs won’t be frustrated by rejection because the fibroblasts used to produce them can be taken from the patient.

At this point, it is not clear if human fibroblasts can be coaxed to form ELSCs. Safety concerns are also a factor. Researchers are troubled by the use of a retrovirus to introduce genes into the fibroblast. They are also cautious because one of the transforming genes is involved in tumor formation. Still, the initial results are exciting and future work should address these potential pitfalls.

The discovery of methods to generate ELSCs from adult fibroblasts augments exciting advances already taking place with adult stem cells. These cells can be readily isolated from adult tissues like scalp, dental pulp, bone marrow, the olfactory bulb, the umbilical cord, and the placenta. No embryos are destroyed and no human life is lost in the process of isolating adult stem cells.

Numerous new discoveries indicate that several types of adult stem cells behave like embryonic stem cells. Under laboratory conditions these adult stem cells can be coaxed to develop into a wide range of cell types that are suitable for use in tissue replacement therapies. An increasing number of biomedical researchers are focusing their efforts on adult stem cells. The number of papers published in scientific journals on adult stem cells and their potential as therapeutic agents is growing week by week. Use of adult stem cells in tissue replacement therapies has an added advantage. Adult stem cells do not suffer from the problems associated with use of embryonic stem cells, like rejection and tumor formation.

As biomedical applications for adult stem cells (and hopefully ELSCs) matriculate to clinical applications, treatments for diseases and injuries that cause dreadful human suffering will be available without requiring the destruction of human embryos. That prospect leaves a good taste in my mouth.

Now if only someone could come up with cake that can be eaten without causing weight gain…

For more information on stem cell research see “A collection of interview questions posed to, and answered by, Dr. Fazale “Fuz” Rana.â€?