Friday, August 6, 2010

DNA Frontloading

One of the interesting results of genomic research is the challenge to evolutionary assumptions. From Science Daily:
"report the draft genome sequence of the sea sponge"

"All living animals are descended from the common ancestor of sponges and humans, which lived more than 600 million years ago"

"essentially all the genomic innovations that we deem necessary for intricate modern animal life have their origins much further back in time that anyone anticipated"
Now the evolutionist will say, "See, we use the same proteins; therefore we have a common ancestor!"

However, there is a much more subtle (and damaging) point.

If the earliest life forms have all the complexity - then deep time (the billion year hammer) buys you nothing. Later forms use multiples of these genes, often with slight modifications.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Prehistoric Conditions

One of the most interesting things about uniformitarians is their inconsistency. They insist the present is the key to the past (that current conditions tell us about how things operated in the past).

But the data shows that conditions in the past were unlike anything seen today.

Take this article from Science Daily:
"These elevated [oxygen] concentrations have been linked to gigantism in some animal groups, in particular insects, the dragonfly Meganeura monyi with a wingspan of over two feet epitomizing this." (italics in original)
Insects have an open circulatory system. This system is fairly inefficient, and limits the body size in insects today. In other words insects today could never be so big (they wouldn't get enough oxygen). So, the presence of these insects indicates higher oxygen pressure (either more oxygen or more atmospheric pressure or both).

Current oxygen levels are ~20%, "levels around 30 to 35%, as have been proposed for the Late Paleozoic". High levels of oxygen would also cause large amounts of coal to form.

Things were very different, that much is agreed on. That's what the evidence shows.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

ASC Research

An interesting article from Science Daily:
"engineers used human mesenchymal stem cells, which are found in bone marrow and other connective tissues such as fat. The stem cells differentiated into bone when grown on stiffer scaffolds, and into fat when grown on more flexible scaffolds."

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Ray Bradbury on God

An interesting article at CNN.

For those not familiar with him, Ray Bradbury is a fairly famous science fiction author. I have a certain grudge against him, because the one SF novel I got to read in high school was his "Illustrated Man". It wasn't particularly interesting (I remember it as half the stories being about the last moments of people in exploding rockets).

I had always thought of Bradbury as British, but apparently he was born in Illinois.

His theology is unusual among SF authors (who tend towards atheism), but nothing like Biblical faith:
"He considers Jesus a wise prophet, like Buddha and Confucius."
"'Jesus is a remarkable person,' Bradbury says. 'He was on his way to becoming Christ, and he made it.' " (not sure what that means!)
"We must move into the universe. Mankind must save itself. We must escape the danger of war and politics. We must become astronauts and go out into the universe and discover the God in ourselves."
I guess that last one says it all. Please pray for Mr. Bradbury.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

ASC Supply

An interesting article from Science News:
"The findings 'represent a huge and important progression in the field,'...The new studies accomplished the reprogramming feat by using viruses to deliver a four-gene cocktail that reverts the cells"