Science & You

This is a quick review of Season 1 and how to locate the actual published articles.  Then I outline my plan for Season 2 and describe how Season 2 differs from Season 1. So, if you found Season 1 interesting, I do hope that you will continue to listen and think with me about ideas in both faith and science in Season 2 of Science & You. See you soon!.

Some of the most difficult questions to answer are often the simplest to pose.  For example, "Why?" is often impossible to answer.  Many have made the observation that the universe and all physical, chemical and biological processes can be understood mathematically, and their mathematical descriptions have a surprising level of consistency to the real world they are intended to represent.  There exists, then, this conspiracy of reason in the understanding of the universe.  But why should it be so?  We are told the universe began in chaos and developed by random chance, without having humans in mind at the beginning.  But a random universe is a pointless, purposeless universe, and what is the point of using mathematics to study a pointless universe?  Creation Matters Vol. 20 No. 3, p.4, May-June 2015.  References:  Wiker B and J Witt, 2006.  A Meaningful World - How the Arts and Sciences Reveal the Genius of Nature.  InterVarsity Press.  Downers Grove, IL; Wigner EP 1979.  Symmetries and Reflections: Scientific Essays of Eugene P. Wigner.  Ox Bow Press: Woodbridge, CT.

Animals and people that use a closed circulatory system under positive pressure from the heart face a problem.  How to supply every single cell of the body with oxygen and remove metabolic waste?  The reason this is problematic is that as the size of a blood vessel decreases, its resistance to the flow of fluid within it increases.  If blood were simply water, the heart could not generate the pressure needed to push it through vessels the size of capillaries.  This is just a physical fact.  The miracle is that in blood, this does not happen because the flow characteristics of blood are changed because it contains 45% by volume of cells.  We are not even aware that the design of our circulatory system faced this problem because of the solution that was put in place by the Creator from the very beginning.  Creation Matters Vol. 20 No. 2, p.4.  March-April 2015.  References: Denny, M and A McFadzean, 2011 Engineering Animals: How Life Works.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Water makes our planet habitable and life possible.  It does so through many unique properties, one of which is the ability to both absorb and dispense heat energy.  The water cycle is one key way that heat is moved from warm climates to cooler ones, helping to maintain world-wide temperatures within the range suitable for life.  Water is the perfect substance to absorb, store, circulate, and dispense heat on a worldwide basis.  These physical properties are what Wiker and Witt call "pre-biological" properties.  That is, these abilities were present before life, yet are perfectly suited to support life on Earth.  Since by definition, natural selection occurs only in living animals, and water is part of the non-living world, it cannot be natural selection that is responsible for the properties of water.  Rather, it means that the Creator had us in mind from the very beginning.  Creation Matters Vol. 20 No 4, p.3,  July-August 2015.  References:  Wiker B and J Witt, 2006.  A Meaningful World - How the Arts and Sciences Reveal the Genius of Nature.  InterVarsity Press.  Downers Grove, IL.

A number of animals have the ability to sense the earth's magnetic field and to orient and move in relation to it.  It seems that navigating using this magnetoreception sense is an elegant solution to the problem of finding one's way through an otherwise featureless environment like the ocean, but one that not all sea or land creatures share.  Could this same sense have evolved separately in different animal species in response to similar problems?  Or is it an example of selective and intelligent application by the Creator of a solution for a known biological problem?  Creation Matters Vol. 21 No. 3, p.3, May-June 2016.  References:  Behe, MJ 1996 Darwin's Black Box.  New York: The Free Press (Simon and Schuster); Denny, M and A McFadzean, 2011 Engineering Animals: How Life Works.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; Eder, SHK, H Cadiou, et al. 2012 Magnetic characterization of isolated candidate vertebrate magnetoreceptor cells.  PNAS 109(30): 12022-12027; Hart VT, P Kusta et al. 2012 Magnetic alignment of carps: evidence from the Czech Christmas fish market.  PLoS One 7(12): e51100; Windheuser, A. 2014 Fishy Business.  Personal Communication.  Douglas County/USD 497 District science and engineering fair.

Science has many secrets.  Not deep, dark, conspiratorial secrets, but practical secretes that are well-known to trained scientists yet not often revealed to the public.  Scientists like to project an aura of authority and calm, unbiased rationality, which might be in jeopardy if these "secrets" were widely appreciated.  This is especially true in a world where scientific proof is expected and where scientific arguments influence everyday life.   Uplook Magazine, January-February 2010, p.20.  

Using both plants and animals for food by humans is supported by both the Bible and Biology.  The biological truth is that animals themselves live off the death of other living things, be they plants or other animals.  In this sense, death is essential for life because death provides the building blocks and fuel for life.  In many of its films, Disney promotes a fictitious view of nature.  Case in point is Bruce, the great white shark in Finding Nemo, goes to a recovery group where he is taught "fish are friends, not food". . . Really?  Uplook Magazine, November-December 2007, p.15.  References:  W.S. Harris. "Fish oil supplementation: Evidence for health benefits,"  Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine vol. 71(3), 208-221.

Knocking down the "straw man" is a common debating technique.  An opposing view is first described as challenging what everyone knows is true, then showing it is in fact true, and then highlighting how silly it is to believe what the opponent is said to believe.  Some people, including a few Christians, seem to think the world is flat.  It isn't.  But believing this concept opens Christians as a whole to needless ridicule.  In a discussion on the origins of life, what is needed is thoughtful, informed discussion because the question of how life originated is still and open question in the 21st century. Uplook Magazine, July 2005, p.18. References: Johnson, P.E. Darwin on Trial. InterVarsity Press. Downers Grove, IL, 1993.

Part 2 of Living in the Light answers the question about whether the first people, continuously exposed to sunlight during daylight hours, would have faced and increase risk of skin cancer and which type of light is badly needed in our lives today.  Uplook Magazine September 2012, p.30.

After camping in the outdoors it sometimes feels strange to return to living in a box with artificial light.  The Bible tells us people were meant to live outside, wearing only our skin.  Humans need a certain amount of sunlight because our skin makes vitamin D in response to sun exposure.  Because of the way we live now, most people are vitamin D and calcium deficient.  So likely the first two humans had plenty of vitamin D, but did they also have a lot of skin cancer?  Uplook Magazine July-August 2012, p.30.