New way to make stem cells is safe: research

Another interesting article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080925/sc_nm/us_stemcellssci

I have been of the opinion for the last several years that there can be much gained from taking the time to really understand how stem cells actually work. There is so much that is not known in the area of adult stem cells, which makes wanting to use embryonic stem cells rather reckless. We are now seeing more and more what can be done with regular old skin cells. The fact is that people around the world have been doing research using embryonic stem cells, and it does not seem that they have had any greater advances than those researchers using adult stem cells.

Interesting study

Antibodies still protect 1918 flu survivors: study
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSN1647217720080817?sp=true

Polishing a diamond

The message at the service this weekend was very thought-provoking. In a nutshell, the speaker talked about how we are being shaped and polished as diamonds. The process is not easy. Because the diamond is the hardest naturally occurring material, it is not easily scratched or marred by its environment and it can only be polished by another diamond. Chipping away the impurities and getting to the pristine core leaves only a fraction of the rough stone. In the same way, we as believers are being refined and polished, so that we will reflect the Light of the Lord while remaining uncompromised by the world.

Fragility and Resiliency

I was thinking in light of yesterday's sad news how the human body is both resilient and fragile all at the same time. These are very opposite properties (it reminds me a little of the light/particle discussion I posted a few months ago). I think of Helena and how her little body went through so many medical procedures and rebounded quite well. Then it was over, and they don't know exactly know why. Her heart and lungs seemed to be functioning fine independently, but somehow she wasn't able to maintain high enough blood O2 levels. I imagine that God decided she had endured enough, and He took her home.

Who wants some cloned beef?

Today the FDA made a rather foolish (in my opinion) ruling by allowing products from cloned animals to enter the national food supply. What's even better is that no labels or warnings are needed on these products. They suggest a several month prolonged ban, but as far as I can tell these products (milk, meat, etc.) can start being sold tomorrow. This seems crazy to me. Yes, I understand that the FDA has "evaluated" the risks and has not found these products to be hazardous, but they were also the ones to evaluate Vioxx, Aprotinin, Valdecoxib, Bextra, Zelnorm, Baycol, etc. and then subsequently pull them later due to overlooked adverse effects. I am not sure that I want them to decide whether or not cloned meat is good for me. I think the Europeans had a better approach. As I understand it the EU will allow the cloned products to be sold, but they have to be labeled as coming form a cloned animal. This makes much more sense to me. Maybe I should look into starting that farm...

The Past 5000 Years

An article was posted this week that described how evolutionists now say that changes to the human population have occurred at a much faster pace in the past 5000 years than they did before. It seems they are suggesting that something happened to speed up the evolutionary process. It would be very helpful if they would have explained what they define as evolution. The article describes significant changes to human genetics over the past 5000 years, which are then extrapolated to complement the widely-held belief of slow-moving random evolution in years previous. However, it is interesting to note that the article itself only talks about changes within the human species, which is not sufficient evidence to support between-species leaps.

Let's see, from the Bible what happened 5000 years ago? Wasn't that around the time of the flood? Hmm...could there be any connection with their findings? We find that life spans shortened significantly after the flood, and that the world-wide gene pool was dramatically changed with only 8 people remaining, so could it be possible that the rapidly changing genetics is a result of this event? The grouping of people in terms of their languages happened around this time as well, which would have likely spurred on genetic mutations from familial intermarriage. In addition, the age at which children were born became younger after the flood (according to the Bible), so genetic mutations would have happened more quickly than before.

The article stated, "Even with these changes, however, human DNA remains more than 99 percent identical, the researchers noted." This would indicate to me that humans come from a single source.

Again, we find that science confirms what is written in the Scriptures. Unfortunately, much of the scientific world is not willing to acknowledge it.

Light: A particle or a wave?

I am sure much has been said relating light to the nature of God, but I had a new thought yesterday (I am sure others thought of this before). I was thinking about how God is both a God of mercy and a God of justice, and the Scriptures say that Jesus is the lion and the lamb. At initial glance, we think "How could He be both of these seemingly opposing characteristics?" It is something of a mystery to us, but we know it is true. Similarly, we know that light is both a wave and a particle. How can this be? The properties of light baffled physicists for a long time until Einstein came along and showed how light has both aspects. From a physics perspective, particle and wave characteristics are very different. Wave characteristics include refraction, diffraction, interference, reflection, while particle properties are evidenced in different ways through "bits" or "photons" which are sent like impulses as demonstrated in x-rays and other ways . Everything has both a particle nature and a wave nature, and depending on the frequency, one will be more dominant than the other. Each serves a different purpose, and both are necessary. When Yeshua (Jesus) said He is the Light of the world, why should we wonder how he can be both the Lion and the Lamb?

God's Word: The invisible super glue

I have been discussing creation with different groups of friends lately, and I shared the following with some of them, and they suggested I write it on my blog.

The Bible tells how God performed His creative acts by speaking it into existence. His Word caused something to be created out of nothing. I believe that even still today it is the reverberation of His voice that is holding our universe together. Atoms in a molecule are under constant vibration, which helps to hold the molecules together and determines the energy level of the molecule. Sound is created by pressure waves that cause vibration. It is my opinion that the reverberations caused by God speaking things into existence is what is still holding things together & keeping chaos in check (although the enemy is doing his best to try to break things apart).

I think of how much impact what we speak can make. Proverbs tells us that the power of life and death is in the tongue. I am reminded of how important it is to speak words of life to other people.

A juggling act

Sometimes I feel like I am becoming an expert at juggling--not with physical balls or knives, but with projects. Today was one of those days where at any given moment my attention would be changed to a totally different project. With emails and telephone calls going in and out all day--firing off another one while waiting for a reply--my multi-tasking brain circuits are definitely getting used. Just thinking about how the human brain works and can be processing so much information at once is absolutely amazing.

Did you know that we have sensors for temperature, pressure, moisture, and pain all over our skin? If we were to physically try to wire the amount of sensors that our human body has to a super computer, it would not be able to process information as quickly as our brain does it. The tremendous trick is that our brain is able to ignore so many signals and yet respond as soon as one fires. We can phyisically hold a phone (head to shoulder), look at a computer screen, type with both hands, listen to a conversation, see info on a screen, reply by talking back, feel how hot it is in the room, think about the time, and feel thirst all at the same time. We can even operate multiple simultaneous coupled 6-degree-of-freedom motions with our bodies (limbs, etc.) without becoming unstable. Find a computer that can do all of that and recharge itself with 8 hours being turned off. The human body is a wonderful creation designed by an intelligent Creator.

Humans from single origin

A Reuters news article this week said, "The genetic evidence has always strongly supported the single origin theory, and now results from a study of more than 6,000 skulls held around the world in academic collections supports this case." Hmm...doesn't the Bible also state that humans come from a single origin?

Science Spin

The last couple days I have noticed the media and politicians "spinning" science. First, yesterday morning I heard a news program where the host kept saying things like, "Why is Bush so against stem cell research?" The guest would respond with statements like "the President feels that embryonic stem cell research is crossing an ethical line." The host, either intentionally or unintentionally, kept putting embryonic stem cell research and other stem cell research in the same category. This definitely causes people to think that if you are opposed to embryonic stem cell research that you are against all stem cell research. I personally think that a tremendous amount of knowledge and understanding can come from studying stem cells that are obtained from less controversial sources (such as skin or umbilical cord blood). By limiting the types of stem cells, the research will hopefully be more carefully constructed, which will likely lead to better scientific outcomes.

Then I heard a prominent politican make a statement about how she thought it was terrible that "ideology was placed before science." That is a scary statement. Who wants science to be placed before morals and ethics? Just because it is scientifically possible does not mean it should be done. Why do you think there are ethical review boards for human science experimentation? In some countries they test drugs and other medical devices directly in humans before doing animal trials and other types of validation. Do we really want that type of mentality here? Stop the science spin!

Ocean Views

I went to the Oregon coast this weekend with my cousin. As we walked along the beach yesterday evening we enjoyed the ocean air and admired God's beautiful creation around us. This morning when I looked out the window I noticed two things (1) the tide was much lower than it was last night and (2) two people were busy writing a message in the sand. Each of these things was very fascinating to me.

1. The phenomenon of ocean tides is really remakable. Think about how a massive body of water like the Pacific ocean is following the gravitational pull of the moon. I am in awe of how God designed the world together so intricately, yet from a distance it appears that things are operating independently. I know sometimes I start thinking more about how I can operate independently, but I forget the fact that we do not function well on our own unless were are working together with others.

2. I watched with excitement as two people were finishing what they were writing in the sand. This much had been written "Blair (heart)'s Barbra," and they were starting to write "will you marry me?" I was trying to figure out if the one doing the proposing was one of the people writing or if he had sent 2 of his friends down to write the message for him (the hotel level was significantly higher than the beach). I was agonizing over the fact that the word "marry" was looking more like the word "mnrrt," when one of the guys went running back out to the message in the sand. I thought he was going to fix that word, but instead he went to add an "a" to the intended's name. They had spelled "Barbara" wrong!

Evolution

I think that the introduction of evolutionary theory was probably the most detrimental philosophy that has invaded our culture. You might ask why a theory that attempts to explain the origin of species could have such a negative effect on culture. At a surface level, it would seem that evolutionary theory is just another scientist's hypothesis that can't totally be proven or disproven in a laboratory, so how could that affect a culture? By the way, I am a scientist who believes that God created the universe and all that is in it.

Lately, I have been noticing some things that I have never tied together before. I would propose that the macro theory of evolution, which attempts to answer how humans, plants, animals, and everthing else came into existence, has had a much deeper impact on our worldview than we realize. This theory has created much confusion and misguided intentions.

1. Medicine--The fact that humans exist as a product of chance makes disposing of human life much more justifiable (from abortion to euthanasia).

2. Law--did you know that in the U.S. the laws were originally made to coincide with Biblical laws? When a new law was being proposed, a common question would be, "where do you find that in the Bible." I have been told that in the mid 1800s the legal approach in the U.S. began to change when the idea of progressive law was introduced at Harvard. The idea is that laws and their intrepation build on previous decisions, so they should progressively improve over time. Unfortunately, I don't think improvement actually occurs because when a bad decision is made, it can negatively influence future decisions. In the end there is nothing solid to use as a foundation, but instead we end up with a moving target.

3. Environment--Have you noticed how some people are prone to worshiping nature? I see this especially on the West Coast. It is my opinion that this stems from Darwin's theory of evolution because inherently we all want something to believe in. We want to rally behind a cause. This poses a problem when God has been erased from the picture. If we don't believe that He exists, then what is there that we can stand behind? Many people decide to "save the world." While I believe that we need to be good stewards of the earth that God has given us, I do not believe that it or the animals on the earth should be held in higher esteem than God Himself. There is a verse in the Scriptures that says that people choose to serve what has been created rather than the Creator. If a person starts with the premise that there is no Creator, then what else is there other than created things for that person to serve? I saw a bumper sticker today that said "Praise dog." I was totally appalled. Only our Father in Heaven who created the Universe deserves all of the honor, glory, and praise.