Articles » Intermediate

Symbols are powerful tools for communication. Is there anyone who does not know what the golden arches stand for, or the Nike “swoosh”? The Canadian maple leaf for example, and the Olympic five intertwined circles convey images in our minds of completely different institutions – the one a country situated just north of the United States, and the other an international body regulating competitions in amateur sport. In Canada the “crown” refers in symbolic terms to the authority of federal or provincial governments. In the 1960s a circle with an inverted Y inside conjured in everyone’s minds anti-nuclear messages typified by the “Ban-the-Bomb” slogan. In science, a circle with an arrow attached, borrows from Greek mythology. It is supposed to depict Mars (the war god’s) shield and by inference, the male gender. Similarly a circle with a handle was chosen to represent Minerva’s mirror, and by inference, the female gender. Most people recognize these symbols for male and female. Read the rest of this entry »

It is easy to imagine the excitement astronomers felt when the telescope was invented early in the seventeenth century. Until that time, mankind’s observations had been confined to five bright planets, moving against a starry background. Nevertheless 150 more years passed until another planet was discovered. In England in 1781, German-born musician and telescope maker, Sir William Herschel, announced that he had discovered a new planet. This body was named Uranus after the most ancient of the Greek gods. Read the rest of this entry »

In recent years, people have become really interested in genetics.  They ask questions like “Who were my ancestors?  What can I learn about my family through our genes?  What mix of nationalities do I have?”  As the genomes of various species, including humans, have been mapped, scientists have reflected on many issues.  One of those issues is molecular clocks.

In April 2006 Neil Shubin and others published an account of Tiktaalik, a fish fossil from Ellesmere Island in Canada’s north. More recently, scientists and the media alike have hailed this fossil as incontrovertible proof that the creationists are wrong. This fossil supposedly demonstrates that some fish developed legs in place of fins and left their watery habitat to “invade the land”. Read the rest of this entry »

Why secular scientists seek answers they don’t want and don’t expect to find

It scarcely sounds upbeat! Yet John Horgan’s 1996 book The End of Science was a runaway best seller. How could a book on the status of science at the end of the 20th century be hugely entertaining, wonderful, provocative and intellectually bracing as various reviewers proclaimed? For a start, the author is thoroughly familiar with his subject. John Horgan is a senior writer for Scientific American and has won several prestigious awards for his work. In addition, his position enabled him to secure interviews with many of the most influential scientists of our day. His list is a veritable who’s who of famous individuals including astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle, palaeontologist Stephen Jay Gould, cosmologist Stephen Hawking, evolutionary linguist Noam Chomsky, evolutionist Sir Richard Dawkins, cosmologist Andrei Linde, biologist Lynn Margulis, sociobiologist E. O. Wilson, DNA discoverer Francis Crick and mathematician Claude Shannon (who developed information theory). In some cases Mr. Horgan’s interviews came just in time since scientific philosophers Sir Karl Popper, Paul Feyerabend and David Bohm died within a few months of their interviews in the early 1990s. Read the rest of this entry »

It is interesting how dinosaur artifacts continue to amaze us. For example, in 1961, petroleum geologist R. L. Liscomb discovered a large bone bed on the banks of the Colville River in Alaska, not far from the Arctic Ocean. Since the bones were not perminieralized (fossilized), he assumed they were recent bison bones. He deposited some in a museum and for twenty years nobody gave the bones another thought. Then somebody noticed that these were Edmontosaurus bones (duckbill dinosaur). In 1985 palaeontologist William A. Clemens reported abundant dinosaur bones at the Liscomb site and in 1987 associate Kyle L. Davies described the condition of the dinosaur bones: “The quality of preservation is remarkable. The bones are stained a dark red brown but otherwise display little permineralization, crushing or distortion.” (J. Paleontology 61 #1 p. 198). Could such bones really be millions of years old as many scientists now supposed?

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A well known nineteenth century musical comedy features the Mikado, a head of state who knew what he wanted. He wanted to execute people he did not like. Indeed he had a little list of these proposed victims. One of the most amusing solos in the musical is his refrain

I’ve got a little list
I’ve got a little list
There will none of them be missed
There will none of them be missed! Read the rest of this entry »

Recently American biologists tried to have a colleague fired from his job: a dual appointment to the National Institute of Health and the Smithsonian Institution. These mainstream scientists were extremely annoyed, on philosophical grounds, with Dr. Richard Sternberg. Read the rest of this entry »

Many of us may not realize it yet, but in recent years there has been a dramatic shift in thinking about nature on the part of some cell biologists. Indeed even traditional biotechnology is nothing compared to these new frontiers. In the past, over the millennia, people have wondered about nature and increasingly have applied themselves to finding out how it worked. Once we had some insights, not surprisingly, attempts were made to manipulate nature for mankind’s benefit. Thus we have progressed beyond plant and animal breeding to the insertion of specific pieces of genetic information into target organisms. Some observers have questioned the ethics of these approaches, but the objectives were mainly practical, not philosophically driven. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the pleasures of staffing a book table are the conversations that happen with people looking at the resources. On many occasions, individuals have requested an introduction to creation. Before responding, I have often inquired what the person’s interests are. If the person is interested in physics and mathematics, or in apologetics, there might be little point in showing them a work on fossils, for example. In the 1970s and 1980s, there were general introductory books like Scientific Creationism and What is Creation Science? But that was then, and this is now. There are many areas of science that were not even contemplated then, but which we have to deal with today. The good news now is that some general introductory works have appeared which can be very helpful to many people seeking insights into the issues. Read the rest of this entry »

Have you ever tried to imagine what a world without grasses would look like? The scenery might well be pretty bleak. Scientists have long declared that there were no grasses present in dinosaur communities. The plant-eating dinosaurs had to make do, we have been assured, with cycads, ferns, horsetails and trees of flowering plants such as palms and magnolias. Read the rest of this entry »

The people who came to Creation Weekend, October 25 and 26, 2024 were greatly impressed by Dr. Kurt Wise’s passion, depth of information and quality of his arguments.  His topics ranged firstly from the nature of dinosaur fossils and what these tell us about their lives and fate, and secondly to God’s dealing with His Creation and how this impacts our estimates of the age of the universe, and thirdly how Christians can interact with our modern society. Specifically we have no need to introduce the reality of God to anyone because everyone actually already perceives the existence of the Creator of Heaven and Earth, whether they  admit it or not.

During the 1960s and 1970s, improved strains of wheat and rice resulted in a doubling of crop yields. Despite predictions of disaster from some environmentalists, the world continued to feed quickly growing human populations. This green revolution, kick-started by the research of American plant scientist Norman Borlaug and Indian rice geneticist M. S. Swaminathan, provided much higher yielding crops. However for optimum growth, these crops require the widespread application of nitrogen fertilizers and other chemicals. As a byproduct of this practice, a significant amount of fertilizer ends up in natural waterways. As a result, scientists now consider the application of such chemicals as “so last century!” (Nature October 30, 2014 p. S52). The hunt is now on for crops that do not require chemical inputs and yet produce high yields. Read the rest of this entry »

There is no doubt that we are all tired of hearing about viruses! However, they actually do demonstrate some interesting features when we look at them more closely. These submicroscopic particles can reproduce themselves only inside a living cell. All life forms are susceptible to attack by at least one kind of virus. Basically, a virus consists of a protective protein coat with genetic information (RNA or DNA) enclosed inside. In that viruses commandeer the life processes of a cell which they have invaded, they tend not to need a lot of genetic information. Mainly their information deals with how to synthesize the protein coat and any associated molecular machines for packaging the genetic material into the protein capsid (coat). Read the rest of this entry »

Looking for a family friendly film that gets you thinking? Look no further than Life’s Story 2: The Reason for the Journey. Brought to us by the makers of the popular Incredible Creatures that Defy Evolution series, Life’s Story 2 has much to offer. Read the rest of this entry »