Reasons to Believe Podcast

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.

Soft Tissues in Fossils

A research team from the University College Cork (UCC), Ireland, published two separate reports in which they present evidence for melanin pigments and keratin filaments in fossilized feathers. The researchers developed models for the chemical alterations of melanin and keratin during fossilization. Using these models, they identified degradation products in fossilized feathers that age-date 120 to 130 million years old.

Young-earth creationists cite the recovery of soft tissue materials in fossils as evidence that Earth is only 6,000 years old, and the fossil record is the result of a global deluge. They argue that it’s impossible for biological materials to survive for millions of years and, therefore, the fossils must be thousands of years old.

In this episode, biochemist Fuz Rana describes the UCC researchers’ work and explains how certain biological materials can endure in fossils for tens of millions of years, negating the claims of young-earth creationists.

Resources:

Taphonomic Experiments Reveal Authentic Molecular Signals for Fossil Melanins and Verify Preservation of Phaeomelanin in Fossils

Preservation of Cornelius B-Proteins in Mesozoic Feathers

Additional Resource:

Fazale Rana, Dinosaur Blood and the Age of the Earth

Evidence for the Planet Theia

The only plausible explanation for the origin of the Moon is that a collision between two rocky planets, Theia and the proto-Earth, occurred when the solar system was about 90 million years old. However, direct evidence for the existence of Theia has been elusive. Now, simulations performed by 12 astrophysicists (combined with seismic measurements) show that two large regions, thousands of kilometers across, deep in Earth’s mantle are denser than the surrounding mantle. Therefore, these regions must be the remains of Theia’s iron-rich mantle that sank and settled above Earth’s core, where it deposited an extraordinary high density and exceptional abundance of the heaviest elements.    

Resources:

Moon-Forming Impactor as a Source of Earth’s Basal Mantle Anomalies

Join Fazale 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.

Free Will: An Illusion?

The prominent neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky has created a stir with the recent publication of his book Determined. Based on a wide range of findings from neuroscience and genetics, Sapolsky argues that free will is an illusion. All of our decisions are predetermined by influences beyond our control.

In this episode, biochemist Fazale Rana discusses the radical and far-ranging implications of Sapolsky’s dangerous idea, before presenting the scientific evidence, demonstrating that free will really exists. 

Rana concludes by offering a model for free will based on the Christian worldview.

References:

Determined: A Science of Life without Free Will

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.

Cosmic Explosion Risk

Astronomers have discovered yet another risk to advanced life in the universe—extremely luminous, fast-cooling transients. The most likely explanation for this newly discovered cosmic exploder is a tidal encounter between a star and a stellar-mass black hole or a star and an intermediate-mass black hole. It will take further observations to determine the precise risk of these events to advanced life in the universe. Initially, however, it appears that Earth resides in a galaxy, galaxy group, and galaxy cluster where such events should either be nonexistent or extremely rare.

RESOURCES:

AT 2022aedm and a New Class of Luminous, Fast-Cooling Transients in Elliptical Galaxies

Dust Drives Dinosaur Demise

Overwhelming evidence points to dramatic extinction events in Earth’s history where most of the life died out. One of the most well-known extinction events occurred 66 million years ago (the boundary between the Cretaceous and Paleogene periods) and marked the end of the non-avian dinosaurs on Earth. Although the evidence pointing to the extinction is strong, scientists still seek to understand what caused the mass death. New evidence points to a specific size of dust particle that caused photosynthesis to shut down for almost two years after the impact of a miles-wide asteroid hitting Earth. This new research provides insight into Earth’s history as well as the processes God used to prepare Earth for humanity.

RESOURCES:

The Dust That May Have Killed the Dinosaurs

Chicxulub Impact Winter Sustained by Fine Silicate Dust

Join Fazale “Fuz” Rana and Jeff Zweerink as they discuss ground-breaking scientific discoveries that have theological and philosophical implications, including for the evidence of God’s existence.

Pig Organs in Humans

Recently, research teams from NYU Langone Health, the University of Alabama, Birmingham, and the University of Maryland independently achieved milestones by transplanting kidneys and hearts from genetically engineered pigs into brain-dead patients and terminally ill patients otherwise ineligible for transplants. 

Xenotransplantation holds the promise to ease the demand for organ transplants but raises a host of ethical questions. 

In this episode, biochemist Fuz Rana discusses the technical challenges that xenotransplantation must overcome before it can move into the clinical setting. He also describes some of the ethical challenges associated with xenotransplants. 

Once these challenges are overcome, the questions remain: What should the Christian perspective be on xenotransplantation? Should we “play God”?

References:

Results of Two Cases of Pig-to-Human Kidney Xenotransplantation

First Clinical-Grade Porcine Kidney Xenotransplant Using a Human Decedent Model

Developing Pig-to-Human Organ Transplants

Additional Resources:

Pig Organs May One Day Save Human Lives by Fazale Rana (article)

Advance Holds Potential to Resolve Cloning’s Ethical Challenges by Fazale Rana (article)

A Theology for Synthetic Biology, Part 1 by Fazale Rana (article)

A Theology for Synthetic Biology, Part 2 by Fazale Rana (article)

Will AI Do Science?

Researchers currently utilize AI (artificial intelligence) to diagnose early-stage Alzheimer’s, analyze vast databases to discover protein-folding classes (and new protein folds), and determine whether a sample is biotic or abiotic in origin. The AI in the last example also differentiated between recent biotic and fossilized biotic samples. As AI development progresses, one wonders whether it will be able to do science rather than just assist scientists. Fuz and Jeff explore this question in light of recent advances.  

References:

Can the AI Driving ChatGPT Help to Detect Early Signs of Alzheimer’s Disease?

Artificial Intelligence Tools Shed Light on Millions of Proteins

Did Life Exist on Mars? Other Planets? With AI’s Help, We May Know Soon

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.

JWST Galaxies Explained

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has revealed that early galaxies have much brighter ultraviolet luminosities than many big bang creation models predicted. Do such data challenge the creation view? Further research suggests not. Using a computer simulation, astronomers have found that the standard big bang creation models can still accommodate the new data from JWST. Their conclusions remain consistent with the findings reported in the Stars, Cells, and God episode #79 on the “Source of Heavy Elements”, aired on November 29, 2023.

RESOURCES:

Bursty Star Formation Naturally Explains the Abundance of Bright Galaxies at Cosmic Dawn

Dilution of Chemical Enrichment in Galaxies 600 Myr after the Big Bang

AI Sees Differently than Us

As AIs (artificial intelligence) mimic more and more human behavior, the question continues to arise of whether AI is truly intelligent or not. One way to assess the data is to understand whether the AI does things differently than a human. In the arena of image and audio recognition, AIs have advanced tremendously, but there are some noticeable discrepancies between AI and human categorization. Research into one type of discrepancy shows that humans and AIs really do see the world differently—and those differences highlight important defining features of humanity.

RESOURCES:

Model Metamers Reveal Divergent Invariances between Biological and Artificial Neural Networks