News to Note, June 19, 2010

1. Oldest Known Three-Dimensional Remnant of Mammal Hair

Scientists have discovered the oldest known three-dimensional remnant of mammal hair.

2. Purported Evidence of Water on Ancient Mars

For the third time in as many weeks, we’re reporting on purported evidence of water on ancient Mars.

3. Artifacts Thought to be from Ancient Pagan Temple

Archaeologists in Israel have excavated artifacts thought to be from an ancient pagan temple.

4. BBC News: “US Experiment Hints at ‘Multiple God Particles’”

If the Higgs boson is some physicists’ “God,” then it turns out some physicists are polytheists.

The Higgs boson is a hypothetical subatomic particle: hypothetical because, despite its prediction from the “Standard Model” of physics, no one has been able to detect it in years of trying. Its nickname, the “God particle,” comes because physicists believe it will explain why all other particles have mass. We reported on the hunt for the Higgs boson in In Search of God, shortly before Europe’s Large Hadron Collider began operating to search for it. (To learn more about the LHC, see A Miniature Big Bang or More Hot Air? and Beams Collide Today in Expensive Hadron Collider.)

Now, a U.S. team suggests there may be more than one version of the Higgs boson. Researchers have reported on anomalous results from Fermilab’s Tevatron particle accelerator that resulted in a physics event known as “CP violation,” in which matter and anti-matter behave in unexpected, asymmetric fashion. According to the team, the event can be explained if there are multiple Higgs bosons—five, to be specific.

While the argument—and interpretation—is of course highly technical, the search for and the debate over the Higgs boson can still be understood in light of the biblical worldview. Physicists are trying to search for the most fundamental particles that make up everything we observe in the universe. That, in and of itself, is compatible with the scientific quest to understand God’s created cosmos. The appellation of the “God particle” to the Higgs boson is partially representative of the particle’s theoretical importance in the Standard Model. But for some physicists (see again In Search of God), the search is not about understanding God, but about replacing Him.

5. Astronomical Objects Formed "Recently"

Two stories this week report on astronomical objects—moons and a planet—that may have formed relatively “recently,” at least in terms of billions-of-years belief.

6. And Don’t Miss . . .

• Is Answers in Genesis president Ken Ham a “faith fibber,” as Karl Giberson alleges? (We most recently responded to Giberson a few weeks back when he accused us of being a cult.) Linking to an entry in Ham’s blog that discusses a Richard Dawkins lecture, Giberson writes, “Dawkins’ ideas were sarcastically dismissed as communications from ‘an extraterrestrial.’” It was not Ham who referred to Dawkins as an extraterrestrial, but rather Answers in Genesis supporters who told Ham, tongue-in-cheek, that they “guess an extraterrestrial came down and imparted [some of Dawkins’ ideas] to him.” So apparently, according to Giberson, any sarcastic or witty words on the part of religious persons are tantamount to lying for God.
• The discovery of the largest dinosaur graveyard ever is explained by massive watery catastrophe: there’s “pretty clear evidence that these and other dinosaurs were routinely wiped out by catastrophic tropical storms that flooded what was once a coastal lowland,” one scientist said. Could the destruction have been part a single global Flood?
• In April we covered the plight of NASA employee David Coppedge, who was demoted after speaking to his coworkers about intelligent design. OneNewsNow has an update on the legal proceedings Coppedge has initiated in response. (OneNewsNow also offered a recent update on our Creation Museum.)
• Why are Stone Age objects turning up in Iron Age graves? One answer is that the objects were passed down because of a “conscious relationship to objects from earlier times that connected [individuals] to their past.” Or could the three-age system of archaeology be less cut-and-dried than some scientists think?
• We previously reported on Antarctica’s towering Gamburtsev mountains, and now LiveScience carries coverage of new radar images of the range.
• The sophisticated decision-making skills of crayfish: is it evidence of evolution or of creative design? The same question applies to shark’s ability to smell in stereo.
• A minor breakthrough adds another scenario to account for the accidental origin of life on earth. But the discovery adds only a pebble to what remains a mountainous project.

Remember, if you see a news story that might merit some attention, let us know about it! (Note: if the story originates from the Associated Press, Fox News, MSNBC, the New York Times, or another major national media outlet, we will most likely have already heard about it.) And thanks to all of our readers who have submitted great news tips to us. If you didn’t catch last week’s News to Note, why not take a look at it now? See you next week!

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