Watchman Newsletter

Missing piece found in particle puzzle: scientists

Reuters (Link) - Robert Evans (May 31, 2010)

Research scientists announced on Monday they had identified the missing piece of a major puzzle involving the make-up of the universe by observing a neutrino particle change from one type to another.

The CERN physics research center near Geneva, relaying the announcement from the Gran Sasso laboratory in central Italy, said the breakthrough was a major boost for its own LHC particle collider programme to unveil key secrets of the cosmos.

According to physicists at Gran Sasso, after three years of monitoring multiple billions of muon neutrinos beamed to them through the earth from CERN 730 kms (456 miles) away, they had spotted one that had turned into a tau neutrino.

Behind that scientific terminology lies the long-sought proof that the three varieties of neutrinos -- sub-atomic particles that with others form the universe’s basic elements -- can switch appearance, like the chameleon lizard.

The discovery is important, scientists say, because it helps explain why neutrinos arrive at earth from the sun in apparently far smaller numbers than they should under the Standard Model of physics that has held sway for some 80 years.

The fact that neutrinos are now proven to switch identities -- as posited by two Moscow scientists in the late 1960s based on earlier work by a U.S. physicist -- suggests that other types of neutrinos could exist but slip detection.

Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner: The Green Gadflys

National Post (Link) - Stephen J. Dubner & Steven D. Levitt (January 7, 2010)

[My comment: I do not believe the whole million-year-old Earth theory both because of the Biblical record, but also the other scientific explanations that match with the Biblical record of the flood and the pre-flood Earth conditions. I recommend watching the Hovind seminars here. I recommend watching all of them, but in particular watch Part 6: The Hovind Theory for what I feel is the best explanation. I also recommend reading The fatal flaw with radioactive dating methods and the related article The way it really is: little-known facts about radiometric dating.]

Not so many years ago, schoolchildren were taught that carbon dioxide is the naturally occurring lifeblood of plants, just as oxygen is ours. Today, children are more likely to think of carbon dioxide as a poison. That’s because the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased substantially over the past 100 years, from about 280 parts per million to 380.

But what people don’t know, say the scientists at Intellectual Ventures labs in Bellevue, Wash., is that the carbon dioxide level some 80 million years ago — back when our mammalian ancestors were evolving — was at least 1,000 parts per million. In fact, that is the concentration of carbon dioxide you regularly breathe if you work in a new energy-efficient office building, for that is the level established by the engineering group that sets standards for heating and ventilation systems.

So not only is carbon dioxide plainly not poisonous, but changes in carbon dioxide levels don’t necessarily mirror human activity. Nor does atmospheric carbon dioxide necessarily warm the earth: Ice-cap evidence shows that over the past several hundred thousand years, carbon dioxide levels have risen after a rise in temperature, not the other way around.

No Rise of Airborne Fraction of Carbon Dioxide in Past 150 Years, New Research Finds

Science Daily (Link) (December 31, 2009)

Most of the carbon dioxide emitted by human activity does not remain in the atmosphere, but is instead absorbed by the oceans and terrestrial ecosystems. In fact, only about 45 percent of emitted carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere.

However, some studies have suggested that the ability of oceans and plants to absorb carbon dioxide recently may have begun to decline and that the airborne fraction of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions is therefore beginning to increase.

Many climate models also assume that the airborne fraction will increase. Because understanding of the airborne fraction of carbon dioxide is important for predicting future climate change, it is essential to have accurate knowledge of whether that fraction is changing or will change as emissions increase.

To assess whether the airborne fraction is indeed increasing, Wolfgang Knorr of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol reanalyzed available atmospheric carbon dioxide and emissions data since 1850 and considers the uncertainties in the data.

In contradiction to some recent studies, he finds that the airborne fraction of carbon dioxide has not increased either during the past 150 years or during the most recent five decades.

The research is published in Geophysical Research Letters.

Tiny nano-electromagnets turn a cloak of invisibility into a possibility

Physorg (Link) (December 22, 2009)

A team of researchers at the FOM institute AMOLF (The Netherlands) has succeeded for the first time in powering an energy transfer between nano-electromagnets with the magnetic field of light.

This breakthrough is of major importance in the quest for magnetic ‘meta-materials’ with which light rays can be deflected in every possible direction. This could make it possible to produce perfect lenses and, in the fullness of time, even ‘invisibility cloaks.’ 

The AMOLF researchers - Ivana Sersic, Martin Frimmer, Ewold Verhagen and Vidi laureate and group leader Femius Koenderink - published their results in the authoritative journal Physical Review Letters.

The artificial ‘meta-materials’ studied by the researchers consist of very small U-shaped metal ‘nano-rings.’  The electromagnetic field of light drives charges back and forth, thereby inducing an alternating current in each U shape. The tiny opening at the top of the ring makes sure that the current zooms around at the frequencies of light. In this way, each ring becomes a small but strong electromagnet, with its north and south poles alternating 500 billion times per second.

Here Comes The Sun

Investors Business Daily (Link) (December 15, 2009)

Drip by drip, like a glacier melting in the sun, the claim that man is changing the climate is dissolving into irrelevance. The recent findings of Swiss researchers expose another hole.

Former Vice President Al Gore has for years warned that man-made global warming is melting the world’s glaciers — a tactic commonly used by alarmists who want to whip up hysteria. Swiss researchers, however, have presented evidence that weakens the argument.

Scientists at Zurich’s Federal Institute of Technology have found that solar activity caused Alpine glaciers to melt in the 1940s at rates faster than today’s pace, even though it’s warmer now.

The study found that the sun in the 1940s was 8% stronger than average and far more powerful than it is today. It also concluded that solar activity was weaker from the 1950s to the 1980s, an era in which the glaciers advanced.

The Swiss researchers are spinning their own work, saying that the evidence doesn’t mean the public can stop worrying about man-made warming. But their finding validates other researchers who have said solar activity has a far greater impact on temperatures than human CO₂ emissions.

Beneficial CO2 molecule nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize

Gore Lied (Link) (December 7, 2009)

On the same day that the EPA is set to falsely accuse the atmosphere’s CO₂ molecules of being an “endangerment”, I hereby unofficially nominate the humble CO₂ molecule for the Nobel Peace Prize. Hey, it makes more sense than calling this beneficial trace gas an “endangerment.” In his own Nobel acceptance/lecture, Al Gore has went so far as to call CO₂ “global warming pollution,” and insisted that man’s emissions of it were akin to treating our atmosphere like an “open sewer.” He couldn’t be more wrong.

When it comes to molecules that are necessary for life to exist on earth, with the possible exception of H₂O, you’d be hard-pressed to find one more beneficial than good old carbon dioxide.

Growing back a lost limb

Israel21c (Link) (November 30, 2009)

An Israeli researcher has developed a biologically active  ‘scaffolding’ of soluble fibers which could be used to regenerate lost or damaged bone and tissue.

If a lizard loses its tail, it grows right back, but for human beings a lost limb can never be replaced. Now, however, thanks to breakthrough research from Israel, we may one day be able to regenerate lost or damaged human limbs as effectively as a lizard replaces its tail.

Prof. Meital Zilberman of Tel Aviv University has developed a new biologically active  ‘scaffold’ made from soluble fibers, which could be used to help humans replace lost or missing bone or tissue.

The artificial and flexible scaffolding releases growth-stimulating drugs to the place where new bone or tissue is needed. It connects tissues together in much the same way as scaffolding is used to surround an existing building when additions to that building are made.

With more research, says Zilberman, it could also serve as the basic technology for regenerating other types of human tissue, including muscle, arteries, and skin.

“The bioactive agents that spur bone and tissue to regenerate are available to us. The problem is that no technology has been able to effectively deliver them to the tissue surrounding that missing bone,” explains Zilberman of the university’s Department of Biomedical Engineering.

TAU scientists use lightning to 'take the sun's pulse'

The Jerusalem Post (Link) - Judy Siegel-Itzkovich (November 8, 2009)

Tel Aviv University geophysicists have unintentionally struck pay dirt by discovering that ordinary lightning hitting Earth can be assessed to use sunspots for measuring the sun's rotation and preparing long-range predictions of the planet's future.

Sunspots are temporary dark blotches that seem to float over the sun's surface and tell scientists much about the Earth. They are caused by intense magnetic activity, which inhibits convection, forming areas of reduced temperatures on the sun's surface.

Sunspots expand and contract as they move across the surface of the sun and can be as large as 80,000 kilometers in diameter, making the larger ones visible from Earth without the aid of a telescope (though the ordinary eye can never look at them directly).

Scientists rely on them, among other things, to measure the sun's rotation. But some years, like this one, sunspots cannot be viewed clearly from Earth. That poses a problem for scientists in a new scientific field called "space weather," which studies the interaction between the sun and the Earth's environment.

Thanks to a serendipitous discovery by TAU Prof. Colin Price, a leading climate change expert and head of the department of geophysics and planetary science, and his graduate student Yuval Reuveni, a more definitive and reliable tool for measuring the sun's rotation when sunspots aren't visible is available.

DNA Proves Intelligent Design

Bible Prophecy Today (Link) - Nathan Jones (October 9, 2009)

One of the world's leading spokesmen for Atheism, Dr. Anthony Flew of England, announced that he now believes in Intelligent Design rather than Evolution as the best explanation for the existence of the Universe. What amazing piece of evidence could move a staunch Evolutionist to conclude that there has to be an intelligent designer?

To discover just what this tremendous evidence is that would turn even the biggest skeptic's mind around, we went to Dr. Jobe Martin, former dentist, professor and Evolutionist. Having clearly seen God's eternal power and divine nature from what has been made (Romans 1:20), Dr. Martin came to faith in Jesus Christ and a trust in the biblical account of the six days of Creation. He and his wife Jenna Dee have since formed Biblical Discipleship Ministries based in Rockwall, Texas to teach on campuses, classrooms and churches that we can trust the Bible's account of the Creation and Jesus as Savior.

SATURN EQUINOX PICTURE: Mystery Object Pierces a Ring

National Geographic (Link) - Ker Than (August 11, 2009)

A mystery object that punched through one of Saturn's thin outer rings created a glittering spray of ice crystals and pulled some material along in its wake, as seen in this rare image recently released by NASA's Cassini orbiter.

The puncture, which Cassini snapped on June 11, is among the many marvels that have been revealed in the weeks leading up to Saturn's equinox, which happens today.

Equinoxes occur at the point in a planet's orbit when the sun shines directly on the planet's equator. Earth has two equinoxes each year, one in spring and another in autumn.

Because of Saturn's comparatively long orbit around the sun, the ringed planet has an equinox just once every 15 Earth years.

This celestial alignment lowers the angle at which sunlight strikes Saturn, causing objects higher or lower than the ring plane to cast long shadows—and offering scientists a completely new look at the gas giant and its rings.

Fetuses Found to Have Memories, Say Researchers

Newsmax (Link) - Jennifer Harper - The Washington Times (July 16, 2009)

They weigh less than 3 pounds, usually, and are perhaps 15 inches long. But they can remember.

The unborn have memories, according to medical researchers who used sound and vibration stimulation, combined with sonography, to reveal that the human fetus displays short-term memory from at least 30 weeks gestation - or about two months before they are born.

"In addition, results indicated that 34-week-old fetuses are able to store information and retrieve it four weeks later," said the research, which was released Wednesday.

Scientists from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Maastricht University Medical Centre and the University Medical Centre St. Radboud, both in the Netherlands, based their findings on a study of 100 healthy pregnant women and their fetuses with the help of some gentle but precise sensory stimulation.

The Science of Sex

One News Now (Link) - Marcia Segelstein (June 16, 2009)

Thanks to medical science, we now know that smoking cigarettes is unhealthy. It can lead to diseases like emphysema and lung cancer, and increase the risks of heart disease and stroke. So we have acted swiftly on that information. In one generation, our attitude about smoking has undergone a remarkable transformation. Where smoking was once commonplace, and homes everywhere had ashtrays, even if only for visiting smokers, today it's almost shocking to see someone light up. Banned from airplanes, offices and many restaurants, smoking – and smokers – are viewed with a kind of disdain at worst, pity at best. TV shows and movies rarely show people smoking, except when they're villains. The dangers of smoking are taught to young people with almost religious zeal. Most modern parents who found evidence that their teenagers were smoking would haul them down to the nearest cancer ward for a close up look at the consequences of smoking, or at least to their doctor, who would undoubtedly back up parental warnings that smoking is dangerous to their health.

Now substitute the words "casual sex" for "smoking." Thanks to medical science, we now know that casual sex is unhealthy.

Not just because of the myriad of sexually transmitted diseases it can cause, to say nothing of the unwanted pregnancies it can create, but because of what it does to the human brain.

Two doctors, Joe McIlhaney and Freda McKissic Bush, explain what we now know about sex and the human brain in their book, Hooked: New Science on How Casual Sex Is Affecting Our Children.

Cassini Equinox Titan Update

Thunderbolts.info (Link) - Stephen Smith (June 1, 2009)

On October 15, 1997 NASA launched the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft on a mission to explore Saturn and its family of moons, particularly Titan. It was the largest payload ever sent out to deep space, weighing almost six tons. It needed most of the seven year journey to Saturn for gravity boosts from Venus, Earth, and Jupiter because it could not carry enough onboard fuel to blast straight out to its target. As it was, the proposed decade-long flight, with engine burns, instrument usage, and radio transmissions to Earth, required that it carry several kilograms of plutonium as its primary power source.

On January 14, 2005 the Huygens probe separated from its mothership and successfully landed on the frigid moon. In June of 2008, the official mission timeline came to an end. It was renamed Cassini Equinox to commemorate the change of seasons on Saturn as the Sun passed through Saturn's equinox and began to illuminate the giant planet from the North. For the four year term of its original mission, Saturn was lit from the South, so NASA engineers are taking advantage of this rare opportunity.

Cassini recently flew close by Titan, and on June 6, 2009 its cameras will once again trace out a swath of radar images as it skims past the planet-sized moon at a distance of 965 kilometers from the surface. It is expected that the same low-lying regions NASA scientists refer to as "lakes," as well as the dendritic channels referred to as "river valleys," will dominate the conversation once the images are analyzed.

Sorry, But The Science Is Never 'Settled'

Investors Business Daily (Link) - David Demming  (April 8, 2009)

President Obama has said that the science of global warming is "beyond dispute," and therefore settled. This is the justification for the imposition of a carbon cap-and-trade system that will cost $2 trillion. But Obama does not understand science.

"Settled science" is an oxymoron, and anyone who characterizes science as "settled" or "indisputable" is ignorant not only of science, but also history and philosophy.

Aristotle, who lived and wrote in the fourth century B.C., was one of the greatest geniuses the world has ever known. He invented the discipline of logic, and founded the sciences of ecology and biology.

Aristotle's physics were accepted as correct for nearly two thousand years. In 1534, faculty at the University of Paris officially asserted that the works of Aristotle were "the standard and basis of all philosophic enquiry."

Obama's Embryonic Stem Cell OK Can Kill

GOP USA (Link) - Michael Reagan (March 14, 2009)

What President Obama did when he reversed President Bush's executive order banning embryonic stem cell research was based not on solid science, but his desire to cater to the anti-life, pro-abortion forces and their media allies who helped elect him. In doing this, he created the potential for an outbreak of potentially fatal cancerous tumors caused by the therapeutic use of embryonic stem cells. Moreover, he killed another Bush presidential order that funded some of the most promising research on the creation of embryonic-like stem cells from harmless but potent adult stem cells.

What President Obama did when he rescinded President Bush's federal ban on certain lines of embryonic stem cell research ultimately could cost American lives. Obama and his subservient mainstream media allies ignored science in favor of politics, and the results will prove to be disastrous.