Stars, Cells, and God

Neanderthal Flower Burial Nixed and Source of Heavy Elements

Join Fazale “Fuz” Rana and Hugh Ross as they discuss new discoveries taking place at the frontiers of science that have theological and philosophical implications, including the reality of God’s existence.
Neanderthal Flower Burial Nixed
Were Neanderthals like us? The answer to this question has profound implications for our understanding of human origins, and for the RTB creation model.
Some anthropologists argue that Neanderthals engaged in ritualistic burials reflecting the capacities for symbolism and religion—features that define modern humans. One of the most important pieces of evidence for ritualistic burials among Neanderthals comes from the Shanidar Cave in northern Iraq. One of the layers harboring Neanderthal remains and artifacts includes a partial adult skeleton that was unearthed in what appears to be a grave. The skeleton had a clump of pollen grains from flowering plants on top of it. Some anthropologists believe that this find indicates Neanderthals buried their dead with flowers—possible evidence for ritualistic burial practices.
However, researchers from Liverpool John Moores University have reexamined the pollen recovered from Shanidar and reach a very different conclusion.
In this episode, biochemist Fuz Rana discusses this latest insight into Neanderthal burials and its impact on the RTB human origins model.
Source of Heavy Metals
A team of 13 astronomers used the James Webb Space Telescope to measure the chemical abundances of galaxies that formed just 600 million years after the big bang creation event. They found that these galaxies are much poorer in heavy elements than what astronomers had previously thought. This underabundance makes Earth’s endowment of the heavy elements essential for advanced life and civilization all the more remarkable, and it provides yet more evidence for the super-intelligent, supernatural design of the solar system—and Earth in particular—that makes the existence of humans and human civilization possible. 
Links and Resources:
Shanidar et ses fleurs? Reflections on the Palynology of the Neanderthal “Flower Burial” Hypothesis
Who Was Adam? A Creation Model Approach to the Origin of Humanity
Did Neanderthals Bury Their Dead with Flowers?
https://reasons.org/explore/publications/articles/did-neanderthals-bury-their-dead-with-flowers
Dilution of Chemical Enrichment in Galaxies 600 Myr after the Big Bang

Sixth Great Mass Extinction and M-Dwarf Habitability?

Join Fazale “Fuz” Rana and Hugh Ross as they discuss new discoveries taking place at the frontiers of science that have theological and philosophical implications, including the reality of God’s existence.
Sixth Mass Extinction
Where have all the animals gone?
Collaborators from Mexico and the US provide added evidence that we are entering a sixth mass extinction—triggered by human damage to the environment. The impact of the loss of species and the collapse of ecosystems could be much more devastating to humanity than climate change.
How should Christians respond to the sixth mass extinction? 
In this episode, biochemist Fuz Rana discusses the latest insights into large-scale species loss, explores the biblical basis for Christian environmentalism, and makes the case that the Christian story provides explanatory power for the extent of the damage that humans are causing to ecosystems around the world.
M-Dwarf Habitability?
NASA asserts that the most promising candidates for habitability are planets orbiting M-dwarf stars. M-dwarfs are less than half the Sun’s mass, less than 1/15 the Sun’s luminosity, and comprise 70% of all stars. The only remaining hope for finding a habitable exoplanet is to discover one identical to Earth. So far, the most Earth-like known planet beyond Earth is Venus.
Links and Resources:
Mutilation of the Tree of Life Via Mass Extinction of Animal Genera
A Christian Perspective on the Sixth Mass Extinction
Did Humans Cause the Global Extinctions of Mammals?
Terminator Habitability: The Case for Limited Water Availability on M-Dwarf Planets
Planetary Population Synthesis and the Emergence of Four Classes of Planetary System Architectures
High-Contrast Imaging around a 2 Myr-Old Cl Tau with a Close-In Gas Giant
Carbon Dioxide Outgassing Constrains the Habitability of Rocky Planets After Their Host M Dwarf’s Pre-Main Sequence Phase

The Musings on AI

Join astrophysicist Jeff Zweerink and special guest Christian apologist and lawyer Abdu Murray (president and founder of Embrace the Truth Ministry) as they discuss new discoveries taking place at the frontiers of science that have theological and philosophical implications, including the reality of God’s existence.
Musings on AI
Artificial intelligence (AI) has already penetrated many areas of our daily life. While AI can bring some benefits, we often don’t understand the long-term effects of AI use. In this episode, Jeff Zweerink and Abdu Murray explore some of the consequences that might ensue as we utilize AI in the legal profession. Of particular interest is the way AI will impact our relationships, not just in legal matters, but in everyday life as well.
Links and Resources:
Can the AI Driving ChatGPT Help to Detect Early Signs of Alzheimer's Disease?
Did Life Exist on Mars? Other Planets? With AI’s Help, We May Know Soon

Life on K2-18b? and Galaxy Formation Models

Join Hugh Ross and Jeff Zweerink as they discuss new discoveries taking place at the frontiers of science that have theological and philosophical implications, including the reality of God’s existence.
Life on K2-18b?
Two months ago the Internet blew up with articles and blogs announcing that astronomers had discovered molecules in the atmosphere of exoplanet K2-18b that only living organisms can produce. Those biosignature molecules were dimethyl sulfide and chloromethane. While there is no doubt that methane was detected in K2-18b’s atmosphere and carbon dioxide likely detected, the detections of dimethyl sulfide and chloromethane were marginal at best. Furthermore, astronomers have detected chloromethane in a comet and an interstellar cloud where it is well established that life and life chemistry is impossible, and they found abiotic pathways for the production of dimethyl sulfide. The Internet articles overlooked the physical characteristics of K2-18b and its host star that categorically rule out any possibility of physical life on the planet.
Galaxy Formation Models
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has provided numerous images and results that challenge our current models of galaxy formation. Some astronomers have even used this discrepancy to argue against big bang cosmology. A recent paper provides strong evidence for the formation of spiral-type galaxies forming within the first billion years of the universe (where most models predict much longer formation times). We discuss the importance of this data and the implications for how galaxy formation models will change—particularly becoming more complex. Additionally, we expect that this complexity will reveal even more evidence for design in the universe than is now known.
Links and Resources:
Carbon-Bearing Molecules in a Possible Hycean Atmosphere
Structure and Dynamics of Cold Water Super-Earths: The Case of Occluded CH4 and Its Outgassing
The JWST Hubble Sequence: The Rest-Frame Optical Evolution of Galaxy Structure at 1.5 <z <6.5
 

Christianity, Islam, and Science

Join biochemist Fazale “Fuz” Rana and special guest, Christian apologist Abdu Murray, president and founder of Embrace the Truth Ministry, as they address how Christianity and Islam—two of the world’s three great monotheistic religions—engage with science.
Christianity, Islam, and Science
In this special episode, Fuz Rana and Abdu Murray address these questions, and more.
Which religion has a worldview that provides the justification for science?
Which religion can legitimately lay claim to the scientific evidence for God’s existence?
Which religious text displays scientific accuracy?
How can science be used to build a bridge between Christianity and Islam?

Biochemical Maxwell Demons and First Australians

Join Fazale “Fuz” Rana and Hugh Ross as they discuss new discoveries taking place at the frontiers of science that have theological and philosophical implications, including the reality of God’s existence.
Biochemical Maxwell Demons
Maxwell’s demon is a thought experiment designed to illustrate the second law of thermodynamics. In this imaginary scenario, a demon operates a massless door separating two boxes filled with gas molecules. The demon opens and shuts the door to allow certain gas molecules to pass from one box to the other. Eventually one box contains high temperature molecules and the other, low temperature molecules—violating the second law of thermodynamics. Physicists have discovered why Maxwell’s demon doesn’t violate the second law by describing the demon’s activity with information theory.
Recently, a team of biophysicists from Switzerland demonstrated that a special class of transport proteins found in cell membranes behave as literal Maxwell’s demons, making these proteins sophisticated computational devices.
In this episode, biochemist Fuz Rana discusses this work and demonstrates why this discovery evinces a Creator’s role in the origin and design of life.
First Australians
Some scientists have long held that thermoluminescence dating of circular engravings in the Jinmium rock shelter proved that modern humans had colonized Australia 75,000–58,000 years ago. Carbon-14 measurements of charcoal samples found in the same layer as the engravings showed that this date was too old by a factor of 20 times. Other carbon-14 measurements on modern human remains and artifacts found in 26 other archaeological sites in Australia and New Guinea establish that anatomically modern humans first colonized Sahul (an ice age continent consisting of Australia, New Guinea, and Tasmania) 47,000–40,000 years ago and that evidence for an earlier arrival by modern humans is very weak. This newly established date for the first colonization of Sahul is consistent with the date of 44,000–40,000 years ago for the arrival of the first humans in Europe. These dates provide support for the biblical claim that there was a rapid, near simultaneous, widespread dispersal of humans from one region some time after Noah’s Flood.  
Links and Resources:
ABC Transporters Are Billion-Year-Old Maxwell Demons
The Cell’s Design
Biochemical Finite-State Machines Point to an Infinite Creator
Early Human Occupation of Northern Australia: Archaeology and Thermoluminescence Dating of Jinmium Rock-Shelter, Northern Territory
Optical and Radiocarbon Dating at Jinmium Rock Shelter in Northern Australia
The Process, Biotic Impact, and Global Implications of the Human Colonization of Sahul about 47,000 Years Ago
A Genomic History of Aboriginal Australia
The Earliest Evidence for Anatomically Modern Humans in Northwestern Europe
A 41,500 Year-Old Decorated Ivory Pendant from Stajnia Cave (Poland)
 

Hominin Burials? and Viscous Fine-Tuning

Join Fazale “Fuz” Rana and Jeff Zweerink as they discuss new discoveries taking place at the frontiers of science that have theological and philosophical implications, including the reality of God’s existence.
Hominin Burials?
Were modern humans the first to bury their dead deliberately and ritualistically? Or did hominins that preceded them in life’s history also deliberately inter their dead? These questions bear on the concept of human exceptionalism and, for Christians, the scientific case for the image of God in modern humans.
In this episode, biochemist and Christian apologist Fuz Rana discusses recent work by a research team of collaborators from the US, Spain, Italy, and South Africa that relies on the use of machine learning algorithms to analyze hominin burials.
What did they discover? How do their insights impact the case for human exceptionalism?
Viscous Fine-Tuning
For decades, physicists have recognized that the fundamental constants of our universe (speed of light, fine structure constant, proton-to-electron mass ratio, etc.) appear finely tuned to make the environment suitable for life to exist. Typically, that fine-tuning has arisen in the context of making atomic nuclei or stars or planets. A recent paper shows how the fine-tuning of the fundamental constants applies even to the life-essential processes at work inside the cell.
Links and Resources:
Hominin Skeletal Part Abundances and Claims of Deliberate Disposal of Corpses in the Middle Pleistocene
Rabbit Burrowing Churns Claims about Neanderthal Burials
Does Homo naledi Undermine the Case for Human Exceptionalism?
Constraints on Fundamental Physical Constants from Bio-Friendly Viscosity and Diffusion

Sun's Birth Cluster and More Gravitational Waves

Join Hugh Ross and Jeff Zweerink as they discuss new discoveries taking place at the frontiers of science that have theological and philosophical implications, including the reality of God’s existence.
Sun’s Birth Cluster
The quantity of aluminum-26 in primitive meteorites indicates that a nearby core-collapse supernova event occurred during the first 100,000 years of the solar system’s existence. For this to be possible, the solar system’s birth cluster must have contained 2,000–20,000 stars. Additionally, the solar system must have formed in a huge, dense molecular cloud where multiple filaments join to form hubs (the only possible sites where stars with enough mass to become core-collapse supernovae can form) and where dense single filaments stream out from the hubs. Only if the solar system forms in a dense single filament at the just-right distance from a hub will it be enriched with the measured quantity of aluminum-26 without having its system of planets being so disrupted as to rule out the possibility of life. Furthermore, for advanced life to be possible in the solar system, the solar system must be ejected from its birth cluster at the just-right time to a location just inside the Milky Way Galaxy’s co-rotation distance.
More Gravitational Waves
Recently, four different collaborations announced the potential detection of gravitational waves from monitoring the timing of pulsars. If confirmed, this would be the second type of gravitational wave detected, the first being the few-km-long wave found by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and similar instruments. These new waves have wavelengths closer to the distances between stars and most likely originate from mergers of supermassive black holes. We will discuss the detection techniques for these new waves as well as the apologetic implications.
Link and Resources:
Insights on the Sun Birth Environment in the Context of Star Cluster Formation in Hub-Filament Systems
Number of Stars in the Sun’s Birth Cluster Revisited
Giant Gravitational Waves: Why Scientists Are So Excited
Monster Gravitational Waves Spotted for First Time
 

Earliest Rope Making and Gullies on Mars

Join Fazale “Fuz” Rana and Jeff Zweerink as they discuss new discoveries taking place at the frontiers of science that have theological and philosophical implications, including the reality of God’s existence.
Earliest Rope Making
When did humans first begin deploying fiber technology?
This question is important because fiber technology makes composite technology possible, such as textiles, ropes, baskets, nets, weapons, housing, and boats. It also reflects the capacity for advanced cognition.
An international team from the Philippines, France, and Germany recently published evidence that humans in the Philippines possessed fiber technology around 40,000 years ago. In this episode, biochemist Fuz Rana discusses the scientific and theological implications of this discovery.
What does this advance mean for RTB’s creation model for human origins and the scientific case for the image of God?
Rana will also discuss the ramifications of this discovery for recent claims that Neanderthals invented fiber technology.
Gullies on Mars
Observations of Mars reveal formations that strongly point to the presence of liquid water. While astronomers know that Mars had liquid water in the distant past, these features occasionally make the news cycle as indicating the presence of liquid water more recently. A new study of Martian gullies shows that the water needed for formation indicates a highly disruptive environment for life. These results further highlight Earth’s remarkable ability to host life.
Links and Resources
The Invisible Plant Technology of Prehistoric Southeast Asia: Indirect Evidence for Basket and Rope Making at Tabon Cave, Philippines, 39–33,000 Years Ago
 Direct Evidence of Neanderthal Fibre Technology and Its Cognitive and Behavioral Implications
Did Neanderthals Invent String?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaCTCrwzr1k
Gullies on Mars Could Have Formed by Melting of Water Ice during Periods of High Obliquity

Purpose in Cosmology and Biology

Join biochemist Fazale “Fuz” Rana and astronomer David Block as they discuss new discoveries taking place at the frontiers of science that have theological and philosophical implications, including the reality of God’s existence.
Purpose in Cosmology and Biology
Is the fine-tuning of the universe limited to the constants of physics or does it manifest in other areas of science such as chemistry, biochemistry, and biology? In this episode, David and Fuz describe and discuss the anthropic principle and its theological implications. They also discuss the idea of process structuralism, an evolutionary model that maintains that physical forces—not natural selection—shaped the history of life. How does this view of the evolutionary process intersect with the anthropic principle? And how do these two ideas provide evidence for design and purpose in the universe and life?
Links and Resources:
The Creator and the Cosmos
Fit for a Purpose