Science & You

Stem cells are unspecialized cells which divide to become many different types of specialized cells during embryonic development.  Some stem cells remain active in the adult human and continuously produce cells called "transient amplifying cells" which are the source for new blood, skin and bone cells.  It would be less complex and cost less energy if existing skin or fat or bone cells made their replacements by normal cell division. So why are many cells replaced by this less efficient method?  The answer may surprise you.  Uplook Magazine August-September 2008, p4.  References:  J. Panno, Stem Cell Research: Medical applications and ethical controversy (New York, NY: Facts on File, Inc, 2005).  J.W. Pepper, et al. Animal Cell Differentiation Patterns Suppress Somatic Evolution, Plos Computational Biology.  Vol3(12) e250, 2532-22545, 2007.

Water is not life but life, as we know it, is impossible without water.  Everyone needs clean, fresh water to survive.  So it was surprising to me when a person, offered both physical and spiritual water, rejected both.  These are the true "living dead".  People who are physically alive but spiritually dead, even when life-giving spiritual water is always available, free for the asking, and unlimited in abundance. Uplook Magazine May 2012, p. 7.

The biological facts of human reproduction are well known.  At the moment of fusion of an egg and sperm cell, a genetically unique diploid, human cell is formed and a new human genetic profile is established.  But this new person within the mother, can cause the mother's immune system to see this new person as "foreign" and attack it.  Instead, the mother's immune system is suppressed during pregnancy, something called immunological "tolerance".  Some see this condition as an immunologic paradox.  but is it....? Uplook Magazine January-February 2006, p. 26.

I once purchased a set of shelves for my office and liked them so much I wanted to make an additional set by "reverse engineering".  After carefully measuring the existing shelves, I was surprised to realize they were designed to be cut from a single sheet of 4 foot by 8 foot plywood.  I was, in a sense, thinking the shelves designers' thoughts after them.  Biological scientists have always used reverse engineering, except that the objects analyzed are living things.  The scientific method is really one of reverse engineering of a completed product - Life.  Uplook Magazine August - September 2006, p. 8.

Is it possible to apply forensic reasoning to the universe as a whole?  If there is a "Someone" responsible for the way the universe is, could we develop a partial profile of this Someone from our basic understanding of the universe?  David Penny suggests that the agent responsible for creation must have had at least four characteristics.  That is, the Creator would be personal, powerful, intelligent, and non-material (i.e. spiritual).  Uplook Magazine January-February 2008, p. 4. References:  David Penny.  Scientific Implications About Origins, http://www.gravitationalrelativity.com.

Examples of unseen reality abound. Yet, if we believe so often in things that are unseen because we can see their effects, isn't it also reasonable to believe in a God who, though He cannot be seen, has shown us His reality by the effects He has in the universe, in history, and in the lives of real people?  Uplook Magazine January-February 2007, p 9. References: A. Nikiforuk. The Fourth Horseman: A short history of epidemics, plagues, famines and other scourges (New York, NY: Evans & Co., 1991).

Counter-current heat exchanger appear to be designed, or engineered solutions to the specific physiological challenges faced by some animals but not others.  They seem to be used selectively and intelligently on an "as needed" basis.   Uplook Magazine November 2006, page 11.  References: P.F. Scholander, "The Wonderful Net" in Vertebrate Structures and Functions:  Readings from Scientific American (San Francisco, CA:  W.H. Freeman and Company, 1969), pp.125-131.

As impressive as Olympic marathon athlete's performances are, there are examples of even greater endurance seen in birds.  The physical stamina and aerobic efficiency of some birds allows them to migrate up to seven thousand miles one way while their navigational abilities enable them to find specific areas that many have never been to before.  The origin of this seemingly pre-programmed behavior is a mystery.  Or is it?  Uplook Magazine May-June 2005, p.18.  References:  Martin J.  Incredible Creatures that Defy Evolution II.  ExplorationFilms.com;  Tyne J, A.J. Berger.  Fundamentals of Ornithology.  John Wiley & Sons, 1976, pp. 362-363.

Xenophora (Greek for "bearing strangers") mollusks are called "carrier-shell" mollusks because they deliberately pick up empty shells, fragments of shells, or small rocks and cement them to its own shell as a form of camouflage.  Yet the animal is essentially blind.  How would this small animal know that other animals hunt for it using their vision and respond by camouflaging its' shell?  Could this behavior reveal the presence and power of a Divine Designer who understands what Xenophora does not?  Uplook Magazine May-June 2008, p.8.  References:  J.L. Douglass, John Douglass (illustrated by), Roger Tory Peterson (series editor), Peterson First Guide to Shells of North America (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co. 1998).

Many scientists now accept that the universe had a beginning and is therefore not eternal.  Because something cannot exist without a sufficient cause, whatever begins to exist has a cause that brings it into being, and since the universe began to exist, it is therefore not eternal but had a cause outside of itself.  Those who accepted the testimony of the Biblical book of Genesis had known for a thousand years before Aristotle that the universe had both a beginning and a beginner.  Uplook Magazine October 2007, p.4.  References:  F.A. Schaeffer, How Shall We Then Live? (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1969).  W.L. Craig,  God, Are You There? (Norcross, GA: Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, 1999).