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USAToday, CNN, USNews, TimeMag, ScienceNews, ScientificAmerican, Discover, ScienceDaily

This has been one of the main messages of LIB from its beginning!

See Information About Hill Roberts and Tom Couchman's Teaching Efforts in Russia in February 2001

Newly Announced Hominid Fossil
Kenyanthropus

“We’ve always assumed Lucy was our ancestor and now we need to
re-evaluate that idea,”
said geologist Frank Brown, dean of the College of
Mines and Earth Sciences at the University of Utah.

Skull Of New Early Human Relative
Found In Kenya -- Did Humans Descend
From Lucy Or From Newly Discovered
Creature?
SciDaily 3/23

Or maybe neither? (gasp)
Once again, producing more data only muddies the case for human evolution.
And they were so sure about Lucy!!!
(Well, Johanson was. The Leakey's never accepted Lucy as ancestral, but then the Leakeys didn't discover Lucy.)

Photos of the volcanic lava flows on Io, one of Jupitur's moons.
Stunning!!!
CNN.com/SPACE (2/27/01)
JPL Galileo Photo Site

New Evidence for Life on Mars?
Ivan Noble
ARN

Human Genome Map Has Scientists Talking About the Divine --
Surprisingly low number of genes raises big questions
Tom Abate
ARN

"I saw a TERRIFIC bit on Discovery about the Weaver Ant.
Simply AMAZING.  When I looked on the web,
I saw this interesting page on the Miracle of Ants.
What I found most interesting was the author's perspective.
He attributes the intellect in these insects to Allah.

Studies such as these, aside from immediate applications for personal vanity,
are showing us that the long lifetimes recorded in the Bible are not scientifically incredible.
It has long been held by many believing scientists that
accumulated chromosomal damage unnaturally shortens life.
These findings seem to be leading in that direction.

This evidence demonstrates for the first time how rapidly adaptation can lead to
 reproductive isolation, and it is about 10 times faster than the previously accepted
maximum. "This should really make us rethink the importance of natural selection
and adaptation to the rapid generation of new species and the generation of
biological diversity."

Hendry does offer a word of caution: "Despite our findings of rapid adaptation and
reproductive isolation, I don't necessarily presume these two salmon populations
will evolve into what would be recognized as separate species. We have simply
used new populations to demonstrate the same processes that lead to new
species."  (emphasis added:HR)
ScienceDaily 10/20/2000

Professors Russell H. Vreeland and William D. Rosenzweig say they have awakened a 250-million old bacteria found inside a salt crystal retrieved from deep underground in New Mexico. The bacteria was identified as a strain of _Bacillus_ and a relative of another salt-loving bacteria, _B. marisomortui_. The findings, published in yesterday's _Nature_, easily surpass all previous longevity records for organisms revived from apparent suspended animation. The
discovery has captured the imaginations of the press and the scientific community, and possibly lends support to those who argue that life fell to earth after drifting across space for countless millennia. There are also skeptics, of course, including those who argue that the bacteria the scientists grew in the lab were simply contemporary microbes that somehow got into their sample.

http://www.nature.com/nature/fow/001019.html
http://web.philly.com/content/inquirer/2000/10/19/front_page/ANCIENT19.htm
http://www.discovery.com/news/briefs/20001018/ea_oldbugs.html
http://www.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/10/18/oldest.microbe/index.html
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/front/2000/1019/fro3.htm
http://www.wcupa.edu/_academics/sch_cas.bio/

ScienceNews (155:24) June 12 1999

Ribosomes Revealed
Now we can see a ribosome "reading" the gentic code to assemble enzymes and proteins.
Amazing Design Complexity!

Debunking the Digital Brain
Brain processing turns out to be Even More Complex than previously known.
Notice how often the article references the complexity of neurons!

Score One for Punk Eek (Punctuated Equilibrium)
While the article claims this proves PE, what it seems to show is that
genetic limits prevent such processes from exceeding only a microevolutionary capability.
Notice that after only two punctuations, no more were obtained; yet
this experiment was done with some of the most highly adaptable critters known, bacteria.
If such bacteria hit a hard limit in two events, higher life forms are pretty well out of luck for doing any PE.
Such is the nature of some of the critiques within the article itself.

Remember the fundamental truth of this experiment:
in an equivalent 60,000 yrs of evolution, these E. coli turned into ...
somewhat larger E. coli.
That's very limited adaptation, not macroevolution.

Recent Neanderthals
This article shows that the relation between Neanderthal and Sapiens is just not well understood.
The article gives some good background on the bum rap N. has traditionally gotten.

But not all stem cell research is on embryos.
Adult bone marrow stem cells proving quite useful.
ScienceDaily, Nov 1, 2000

Neptune Rising
Neptune's early influence on the Kuiper belt and Pluto
Discover, September 2000
Curtis Rist

This thoroughly secular article shows why life should not be hastily expected to be prolific in the universe.

Paleontologists at Oregon State University say the animal, Longisquama insignis, was a small reptile with feathers. It glided among
trees in central Asia 220 million years ago, around the time of the earliest dinosaurs and 75 million years before the first bird.

This discovery, to be outlined Friday in the journal Science, may answer some major questions about the earliest development of
birds, compel changes in widely accepted theories of evolution and ruffle some feathers in museum exhibits around the world.

"These are some amazing fossils, and at the very least they prove that feathers did not evolve in dinosaurs," said John Ruben, an
OSU professor of zoology. "The supposed link between dinosaurs and birds is pretty entrenched in paleontology, but it's not as
solid as the public has been led to believe."

(Thanks to Greg Kreis for bringing this item to our attention, as he has many others.)

One of the LIB teachers (Jeff Brewer) is a critical member of the Chandra team.
Jeff was/is a key engineer for the onboard power systems.

The genetic design is possibly the strongest evidence that life is not an accident but a complex intelligent design of purpose.
Since discovery of the double helix by Watson and Crick, genetic research has exploded to include the Human Genome Project and mammaliam cloning.
This suite of article touches on the technology, the applications and the ethical issues acknowledged by all. Well worth your time (small pun).
(Includes an e-discussion with Dr. James Watson from March 1999)

Message Encoded in DNA by winner of Intel Science Talent search scholarship.
This gives an undenial example of the information paradigm for intelligent design in the DNA genetic molecule.
Risca encoded in the DNA, "June 6 Invasion: Normandy" No accident ever produced such a statement.

                   WASHINGTON -- Most Americans want evolution taught in public
                   schools but are not opposed to discussions of both God and Darwin, says
                   a People for the American Way poll on the hotly debated issue.

(Always be skeptical of poll results. Polls are opinion surveys, not markers of truth. HR)

New neurological research is finding - unexpectedly - that the teen years play a major role in determining who we will be for the rest of our lives. Previously it was thought that one's "fate" was sealed about age six in terms of brain development. Not true according to the new research. This places a high premium on the continuing efforts of parents, teachers, Bible teachers, and especially Teens themselves.
It's a  "use it or lose it" situation. The teenage years are a critical time to "optimize" the brain.
(read the abstract of the article in Nature)

Creating matter in a mini-Big Bang (or not): CERN Photos
--
CERN photos of the particle tracks
(click photos for larger images of these events, ~2MB each)
Smashing lead atoms together hard enough at CERN may have resulted in "creating" a predicted state of matter only achievable at very high energies. These energies are thought to be comparable to those in a novice universe much less than a second old. While these particular results are marginal, additional experiements later this year will almost surely be adequate to determine if such a state of matter can exist. If so, this lends credence to some of the cosmological notions assumed for an early state of the universe which are consistent with a standard Big Bang model. This does not prove this is how it happened, but does show it could have happened in such a fashion. The term create is used in the sense of making matter in a state not previously existing, not in the sense of making something out of nothing.
The difficulty of converting energy to matter is enormous. In these experiments, we might can see though a mortal window into the power of the hand of God who created the Heavens and the Earth, and who upholds them moment by moment through the power of His will.

Now another "Ooops" revealed
The "missing link" that wasn't
USA Today Feb 1, 2000

National Geographic issues a retraction of its claims of finding a 125 million year old fossil
which is clearly half dinosaur and half bird, as reported in fall of 1999 by National Geographic.
As is turns out this is exactly correct.
The lower half was from a dinosaur and the upper half was from a bird!

Read the National Geographic retraction and the
USA Today report (1/25/00)
ScienceNews report
AP wire report

Also see scathing  letter from Smithsonian to NG
by Storrs L. Olson, Curator of Birds, National Museum of Natural History
Smithsonian Institution concerning the dino-to-bird mythology.

Be sure to notice on the Nat.Geo. page all the "related stories."
It is fascinating how much undoing there is to be done now in light of this revelation!
--

For Hill's discussion of the news concerning the revised Hubble and Cosmological Constants
Click Here for Hill's Overview

After reading my overview, see if this latest ScienceNews Article (Feb 12) makes more sense.
The Revved-Up Universe