Stars, Cells, and God

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

God and Information Theory

Join Jeff Zweerink and Eric Hedin 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.
God and Information Theory
In this episode, we discuss how living things exhibit a high degree of information­—far beyond what can be explained by natural causes. The physics underlying information theory shows us that natural forces will degrade the information content of a closed system over time. Since the origin and progressive complexity of life manifests a dramatic increase in information, we conclude that the existence of living things is consistent only with intelligent design—as ascribed in the Bible to the creative work of God.
Links and Resources:
Is Life an Information Ratchet?
Information and Life’s Origin—A Retrospective View
Physics, Information Loss, and Intelligent Design

Design Proteins and Cosmic Time Dilation

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.
Designer Proteins
Recently, a research team from the University of Washington achieved a milestone in nanotechnology when they used computational methods to design proteins from the ground up shaped into structures that resemble axles and rotors. In turn, they assembled these components into rudimentary protein machines. This proof-of-principle work sets the stage for scientists and technologists to design other machine parts that can be used to fabricate even more sophisticated protein machines.
In this episode, biochemist Fuz Rana discusses this exciting work and explores how it can be marshalled as evidence for a Creator’s role in the origin and design of life.
Cosmic Time Dilation
Time dilation provides direct evidence for the biblically implied big bang creation model. A cornerstone of big bang cosmology is that the universe expands from an infinitesimally small spacetime volume. In such a universe distant galaxies and quasars will be moving away from Earth at high velocities. According to special relativity, clocks moving at high velocities relative to Earth will show time extended by a factor of 1 divided by the square root of (1 – v2/c2), where “v” is the velocity at which the clock is moving and “c” is the velocity of light. Astronomers have observed the cosmic time dilation predicted by the big bang in the light curves of type Ia supernova in galaxies 4–9 billion years away. However, until now, they have not seen it in the very distant universe where the time dilation effect would be 10–60 times greater. Now, a two-decade study of the variability of quasars more distant than 12.8 billion light-years has spectacularly affirmed the expected cosmic time dilation. Thus, it affirms the Bible’s accuracy in anticipating future scientific discoveries and helps establish the doctrine of biblical inerrancy.
Links and Resources:
Computational Design of Mechanically Coupled Axle-Rotor Protein Assemblies
The Cell’s Design: How Chemistry Reveals the Creator’s Artistry
Molecular Scale Robotics Build Case for Design
On Time Dilation in Quasar Light Curves
What Does the Bible Say about the Big Bang?
A Matter of Days: Resolving a Creation Controversy, 2nd edition, 166–169

Neanderthal Engravings and Capturing CO2

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.
Neanderthal Engravings
An international team of collaborators recently discovered “engravings” on the walls of the La Roche-Cotard cave system (in the Loire Valley of central France) that date to be older than 57,000 years. These engravings appear to reflect the intentional activities of Neanderthals, suggesting that these hominins displayed the capacity for symbolic expression—just like modern humans. This discovery raises several questions:
Can we no longer consider modern humans as truly exceptional?
Were Neanderthals just like us?
How do we make sense of this discovery from a Christian perspective?
Is there any scientific evidence for the image of God?
Capturing CO2
With the growing concern over global climate change, scientists are thinking deeply about how to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. Many of these ideas focus on reducing the amount of CO2 produced, but they also address ways to remove CO2 and store it.
In this episode, we discuss some of the removal techniques while considering the technical and philosophical hurdles researchers face.
Links and Resources: 
The Earliest Unambiguous Neanderthal Engravings on Cave Walls: La Roche-Cotard, Loire Valley, France
Further Review Overturns Neanderthal Art Claim
Did Neanderthals Have the Brains to Make Art?
Timing of Neanderthals’ Disappearance Makes Art Claims Unlikely
Do Neanderthal Cave Structures Challenge Human Exceptionalism?
Carbon Dioxide Removal Is Suddenly Obtaining Credibility and Support

Synthetic Embryos and Alien Spacecraft?

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.
Synthetic Embryos
A research team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences recently reported on the first-ever production of synthetic embryos from monkey embryonic stem cells. This work follows on the heels of other research that demonstrates how (1) synthetic embryos can be produced from human embryonic stem cells, and (2) synthetic mice embryos made from embryonic stem cells can develop in a bioreactor beyond the earliest stage to display the beginning of organ formation.
In this episode, biochemist Fuz Rana addresses questions such as:
What is a synthetic embryo?
Why are scientists interested in creating synthetic embryos?
What are the most salient ethical issues to consider with this work?
What should the Christian response be to the production of synthetic embryos?
Alien Spacecraft?
Dozens of news stories have come out claiming that the US government has admitted to possessing physical evidence of alien spacecraft. Since we claimed in our book, Lights in the Sky & Little Green Men, that no such evidence exists, we have been asked to respond to these new claims. There are a few reasons we stand by the claims we made two decades ago. First, the US government and military security are not capable of hiding such physical evidence from the public for several decades. Second, no one has ever produced a single physical artifact from an alien craft. The third, and most definitive reason, is that physical spacecraft larger than 10 centimeters across cannot traverse interstellar space. The required travel velocities and the laws of physics guarantee that such spacecraft would be destroyed long before they reach Earth. In this episode, we’ll expound on these and give examples that support our reasoning.
Links and Resources:
Lights in the Sky & Little Green Men: A Rational Christian Look at UFOs and Extraterrestrials
Cynomolgus Monkey Embryo Model Captures Gastrulation and Early Pregnancy
A Theology for Synthetic Biology, Part 1
A Theology for Synthetic Biology, Part 2

Homo Naledi Art? and Sandgrouse Feathers

Join Fazale “Fuz” Rana and Jeff Zweerink as they discuss new discoveries taking place at the frontiers of science, discoveries that have theological and philosophical implications, including the reality of God’s existence.
Homo naledi Art?
A team of paleoanthropologists made a splash when they announced that the enigmatic hominin, Homo naledi (who lived about 330,000 to 250,000 years ago), buried its dead, made art, and mastered fire. These claims are shocking because H. naledi had a brain size comparable to a chimpanzee. Most paleoanthropologists have long held the view that a large brain size was necessary for advanced cognition. If these claims stand, they will upend the prevailing thinking about what makes us human and undermine the notion of human exceptionalism, an idea closely linked to the biblical view that human beings uniquely bear God’s image.
In this episode, biochemist Fuz Rana, author of Who Was Adam?, will discuss these claims and their impact on RTB’s creation model for humanity’s origin and the biblical view of human nature and identity.
Sandgrouse Feathers
Normally, bird feathers work to repel water so birds stay dry. However, the Namaqua sandgrouse has feathers that capture and retain water. This feature plays a vital role in allowing the sandgrouse to transport water from distant sources (up to 30km) with high efficiency to provide hydration for their chicks. Detailed microscopic studies of the feathers reveal the remarkable characteristics that enable this critical—and bizarre—function for the sandgrouse. Jeff Zweerink explains how these studies add to an impressive body of research showing how the designs of animal bodies often exceed the best human designs.
 Links and Resources:
241,000 to 335,000 Years Old Rock Engravings Made by Homo naledi in the Rising Star Cave System, South Africa
 Evidence for Deliberate Burial of the Dead by Homo naledi
Burials and Engravings in a Small-Brained Hominin, Homo naledi, from the Late Pleistocene: Contexts and Evolutionary Implications
 Who Was Adam? A Creation Model Approach to the Origin of Humanity
 Cave Art Tells the Story of Human Exceptionalism
 Further Review Overturns Neanderthal Art Claim
 Rabbit Burrowing Churns Claims about Neanderthal Burials
Structure and Mechanics of Water-Holding Feathers of Namaqua Sandgrouse (Pterocles namaqua)