Are we there yet? Friday, 3 September 2010 - 17:51
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Tag Archives: Science

Proof of Supreme Being?

A little bit ago, Stu did the math for us:

“3 out of 4 Stars are in binary systems (3/4) and we can not exist in a binary system from the amount of radiation and the variation of the habitual zone. Only a small portion of a solar system, less than 10%, is in the “Goldie Locks Zone” where life has a chance (1/10). Only 2 object in our solar system have flowing liquid of the 154 planet and satellites that are known (1/77). Only one planet has a large moon to protect  it and keep it’s geology active (1/8). Out of all the species that are on the Earth (right now there are 3-30 million) only one is intelligent and self-aware  or at least claims to be (on the low end it is 1/3,000,000,000). We could get into the odds of life existing (1%) and the odds that it is intelligent (1%), or the odds of intelligent life existing at the same time as moon being able to eclipse the Sun (moves 1” away a year), but that of all of this stars that are singular, there is a rocky planet, that has a moon, that is large, that  it is in the Gold Locks Zone, that has flowing liquid, and has enough species’ to produce intelligent life.

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The Catholic Church and The Big Bang

How many times have I heard that the religion and science don’t mix?  How many times have I heard that religion is the enemy of science?  How many times have I heard the erroneous argument that the Catholic Church refused to believe that the earth revolves around the sun, never mind that Copernicus and Galileo were both Catholics? 

Did you know that  Father Roger Boscovich is credited with being the Father of Modern Atomic Theory?  Or that Athanasius Kircher, a Catholic priest is credited as the Father of Egyptology?  Or how about Nicholas Steno, a Catholic Convert who is know as the Father of both Geology AND Stratigraphy? 

Well, here is another little known fact, atheists pay attention…

The man who came up with the Big Bang Theory was none other than Catholic Priest, Monsignor Georges Lemaitre.

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Who to Believe in the Climate-Gate Scandal

image I am sure by now you have heard of climate-gate, the emails that were hacked into that show “some” climatologists were manipulating data, deleting data and suppressing opposing views on “Global Warming”. No matter what the truth is, it should be researched and if there is conflicting data it should be studied to understand why. I don’t care if the truth is there is man-made global warming, man-contributed global warming or the Sun is the cause. It should be looked into, just like any theory, and researched accordingly.

So now that the proverbial cat is out of the bag and we now know that data was manipulated, the global warming alarmists are trying to say “but it is still good data”. In a court of law tainted information and all that follows is thrown out. If this was your doctor and he told you he fudged the data, but still wanted to perform surgery. You’d get a second opinion.

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Putting Life In Perspective

image I have thought about writing a post like this for a long time. Part of it is just to share something interesting, part is to give perspective on how unique we really are, and part of it is to put out there why I believe it is is rational to believe in God (that there is an intelligent design)  without ever putting a single line of the Bible into a discussion.  We also discuss a lot on this site and sometimes we focus in on the little things pretty deeply. So I thought maybe you would like to see what “big” is and maybe get a perspective on just how little space we take up in this universe.

Please note, some of this is from memory and simple estimates.

1. There are about 100 billion stars in our galaxy… There are 100 billion galaxies.

100,000,000,000 x 100,000,000,000 = 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

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Global Warming is more ‘global’ than we think

Back in June there was report from Fox News which led me to this conclusion:

Wait a minute here!  So scientific data on scientific studies showed that there are questionable practices among scientific studies presenting scientific data.

And now we have the reports that the Global Warming reports may have had questionable practices in their research and reporting.   Hmm…if only we knew then what we know now – we could of had a lot of fun! 

To recap from the Fox News report:

Faking scientific data and failing to report commercial conflicts of interest are far more prevalent than previously thought, a study suggests.

One in seven scientists says that they are aware of colleagues having seriously breached acceptable conduct by inventing results.

Around 46 percent say that they have observed fellow scientists engage in  "questionable practices," such as presenting data selectively or changing the conclusions of a study in response to pressure from a funding source.

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Too perfect to be perfect

Perfection.  The Western Civilizations latest obsession.  All must be perfect.  And if you aren’t perfect, go to drugs.  We see it all the time in our commercials (infomercials being the worst).  The interviews with the Beautiful people who had pimples that were too embarrassed to go out into public until they used anti-pimple drug X and now…..dum dum, dum….they are able to be seen in light again!  Ahhhh…..now their lives are complete.  Or how about that woman with the scar on her shoulder?  Because of the horrible scar she can’t **gasp** wear a strapless dress and parent yelling can’t meet any men!  But never fear, drug Z cream will cure her of that nasty scar and now she is the life of the party with all the men desiring only her.  The list goes on and on.  In the age of *cough* “tolerance” we find ourselves out casted by the slightest flaw.  In the age of *sniffle* “we are all equal and we must accept everyone” we chastise anyone who isn’t beautiful a.k.a. perfect.  And because of these imperfections, we cannot socialize, go out in public or feel sexy in any way.  Because of these flaws, we are not perfect and don’t’ deserve the attention. 

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Men? We don’t need no stinkin’ men!

It looks like we will not be needing men to reproduce anymore.  (This is just part of the article from the Telegraph.)

young_frankenstein Researchers at the pioneering Northeast England Stem Cell Institute say they have made the breakthrough using stem cells from an embryo.

They claim that with some minor changes the sperm could theoretically fertilise an egg to create a child.

It could even be possible to create sperm from female stem cells, they say, which would ultimately mean a woman having a baby without a man.

This is the first time human sperm has been created anywhere in the world in a laboratory. However, the experiment has proved controversial, threatening to reopen the fierce debate over embryo research.

Led by the leading stem cell biologist Professor Karim Nayernia, the team has already used the technique in mice which have then gone on to produce offspring.

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A Tooth for an Eye

This is for all us medical geeks/junkies:

When Martin Jones met his wife four years ago, he never imagined that one day he would get to see what she looked like.

The 42-year-old builder was left blind after an accident at work more than a decade ago.MartinJones

But a remarkable operation – which implants part of his tooth in his eye -  has now pierced his world of darkness.

The procedure, performed fewer than 50 times before in Britain, uses the segment of tooth as a holder for a new lens grafted from his skin.

‘The doctors took the bandages off and it was like looking through water and then I saw this figure and it was her,’ he said today.

‘She’s wonderful and lovely. It was unbelievable to see her for the first time.’

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Ewwwwwwwww!

Such a professional title, huh?  But it is the only way I could describe this next story.  Eww….

The German entrepreneur, who describes himself as a plastinator, has earned international fame for his Body Worlds shows which feature corpse-sex-berlin-exhibit human cadavers arranged in lifelike poses.

But his latest project Cycle of Life, which opens in Berlin today, has been condemned as indecent and offensive for arranging two dead bodies as if they were making love.

Von Hagens has defended his piece, insisting it is not intended to be sexually stimulating and the models gave their consent to the pose.

He was once accused of using the bodies of executed prisoners from China in his plastination process and in 2004 he returned seven corpses which had head injuries because he said he could not prove they had not been executed.

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Mad Scientists are everywhere!

Run for your lives!

Aw, alright, you caught me.  Just trying to be melodramatic, but it isn’t that much fun.  Actually it’s quite scary if you really think about it:

Faking scientific data and failing to report commercial conflicts of interest are far more prevalent than previously thought, a study suggests.

One in seven scientists says that they are aware of colleagues having seriously breached acceptable conduct by inventing results.

Around 46 percent say that they have observed fellow scientists engage in  "questionable practices," such as presenting data selectively or changing the conclusions of a study in response to pressure from a fourguards funding source.

Daniele Fanelli, of the University of Edinburgh, who carried out the investigation, believes that high-profile cases such as that of Hwang Woo-Suk, the South Korean scientist disgraced for fabricating human stem cell data, are less unusual than is generally assumed.

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