"Finding the remains of microbes or any other trace of life on another world would be the greatest discovery in history and would have profound implications for the human race. As physicist Philip Morrison (a founder of the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence radio-telescope project) said, it would change life from being a miracle to being a statistic."

—William Burrows, This New Ocean, The Story of the First Space Age, 1998, pg. 463 Illustration by Jim L. Wilson

There is more than a quest for traces of life on Mars or Europa (Jupiter's moon with water and ice), there is a search for humanity by those who reject the Creator. Finding the smallest bacteria on a far flung moon will, in the mind of a secular scientist, reduces the astronomical odds of life appearing by chance and drives another nail in God's coffin.

According to a new Gallup poll, more Americans believe in creationism than evolution. Only 28% believe in evolution while 48% believe in creationism.

—ON MISSION, May-June 2003, p. 9 Illustration by Jim L. Wilson

Genesis 1:1 NASB “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

In his book, The Jewish Theory of Everything, Max Anteby writes, “On April 12, 1961, a young Russian cosmonaut stepped in front of the cameras, as he was about to board his spacecraft, Vostok l, for what was going to be man’s first voyage into outer space. Yuri Gagarin announced, ‘Now I go to meet nature face to face in an unprecedented encounter.’

For the next several hours, Gagarin encountered nature in a way that no man had done before, far beyond the reaches of the clouds, to a place bordering on the infinite. He had an awesome responsibility to chronicle for mankind what existed outside the Earth’s realm and man’s control.

Upon his return to earth he remarked, ‘Now I know that God does not exist, because I was there and I didn’t see him.’

Less than one year later, John H. Glenn entered his spacecraft, Freedom 7, in America’s attempt to beat the Russians in the race to space. He brought a Bible along with him. As he peered through the small window of his capsule, he looked out on the enormity of the universe and on the delicate fragility of our own Earth. He felt the presence of the ‘Hand of Almighty God’ as he recited from the first chapter of Genesis.” (http://www.artscroll.com/Chapters/jthh_001.html) Illustration by Jim L. Wilson

Why was Glenn’s reaction different than Gagarin’s? When you know the Creator, you notice his signature throughout His creation. When you don’t know Him, all you see is nature.

For more information on The Jewish Theory of Everything, go to: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1578195780/fm082-20

Men first stepped onto the surface of the moon over thirty-five years ago, but one piece of equipment they left behind is providing useful information. July 21, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin placed the lunar laser ranging retroreflector array on the surface of the moon, and it is the only Apollo science experiment still running. Physicists routinely target the reflectors on the lunar surface with laser beams to measure the orbit of the moon, and to test theories about gravity.

The round trip travel time of the beam, pinpoints the moon's distance with precision. The distance only varies a few centimeters over the 470,000 miles to the moon and back. Studying the moon's orbit has revealed some interesting things over the last 35 years. Researchers have learned that the moon is slowly spiraling away from the Earth at a rate of about 4 centimeters a year. They have also found that Newton's gravitational constant G has changed less than 1 part in 100-billion since the experiments began. Laser results have also been used to check Einstein's theory of gravity, and have found that to the limits of the laser techniques, Einstein's equations predict the shape of the moon's orbit. If there is a flaw, in the theory, researchers say lunar laser ranging might still find it.

Early planners feared the mirrors might be smashed by meteorites or quickly covered with dust, but so far neither has happened. Since the mirrors require no energy to operate they will likely be used for decades to come. New techniques are being developed to measure the moon's distance with even more precision. University of Maryland physics professor Carroll Alley, who still monitors the experiments he planned years ago says, “Who knows what they'll discover?"

—www.detroittimes.com, What Neil Armstrong Left On the Moon, July 21, 2004. Illustration by Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

Psalm 8:3-4 (NASB) “When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, The moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; [4] What is man, that Thou dost take thought of him? And the son of man, that Thou dost care for him?”

The Earth was right on schedule in 2003, for the fifth straight year. In 1972 experts began adding an extra "leap second" on the last day of the year to make the world's official time agree with where the Earth actually was in space. For 28 years scientist repeated the procedure. In 1999, they discovered the earth was no longer lagging behind.

The need for a "leap second" was revealed by the invention of the extremely reliable atomic clock which measures time using the electromagnetic radiation released by Cesium atoms. Leap seconds affect communication, navigation, and air traffic control systems, as well as the computers linking global financial markets.

Scientists assumed the rate at which the planet traveled through space had slowed ever so slightly for millennia, and would continue to slow. They have no explanation for why the earth has not lost any time in the past five years. Fred McGehan, spokesman at the National Institute for Science and Technology in Boulder Colorado, says possible explanations include the tides, weather, or changes in the earth's core. He admits most experts are baffled by the change.

—www.cnn.com, Earth Orbit slows no more, baffling scientists, January 2, 2004.

Illustration by Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.

Scientists can spend a lifetime trying to understand and explain God’s creation, but in the end, they are left standing beside the theologians with a sense of awe and wonder. The majesty and mystery of the creator are revealed in His creation, even when—no make that especially when—we can’t explain it.

Job 26:7 NIV "He spreads out the northern skies over empty space: he suspends the earth over nothing."

A Japanese research team has succeeded in accomplishing something no one has ever done before, taking pictures of a sea monster in its natural environment. The crew captured photos of a 26-foot giant squid attacking a baited line at a depth of 3,000 feet. After capture, the squid struggled for more than four hours to get free. The creature pulled so hard that it severed one of its tentacles, which floated to the surface.

Giant squids have long been the stuff of legends. Ancient Greek myths speak of large sea creatures, and Jules Verne described a large creature attacking a submarine in "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea." Giant Squids are the world's largest invertebrates and have been know to exceed fifty feet. Until now, such creatures had only been caught in fishing nets or found washed up on shore dead or dying. This is the first time anyone has seen a giant squid in its natural environment.

Randy Kochevar, a deep sea biologist with the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California said, "Nobody has been able to observe a large squid where it lives There are people who said it would never be done. It's really an incredible accomplishment." He added, "That's getting footage of a real sea monster."

—http://www.usatoday.com/news, Scientists get first photos of rare giant squid in wild, September 28, 2005. Illustration by Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.

Genesis 1:21 (NASB77) "And God created the great sea monsters, and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good."

An experiment conducted in the Sahara desert suggests that though they may not count out loud, ants may have a God given ability to find their nests by counting steps. Researchers have discovered that in forest settings, ants use scent glands to guide others and themselves back to their nests, but researchers have been puzzled by desert environments because winds often scatter loose grains and any scents left behind.

Researchers Harald Wolf of the University of Ulm and his assistant Matthias Whittinger proposed ants possessed “pedometer –like” cells in their brains that count their steps. To test the theory, Wolf and Whittinger trained a bunch of ants to walk across a patch of desert to some food. After eating, the ants were captured and divided into three groups. The lengths of the legs of two groups of ants were altered while the third group was unchanged. When released to return to their nest, ants whose legs had been lengthened walked right past the nest and then stopped and looked around for their home. The group of ants whose legs had been shortened did not travel far enough and also seemed confused when they couldn’t find the nest. The group of ants which were not changed walked right to the nest and went inside.

Commenting on the study professor James Gould from Princeton says the ants do not have maps in their heads and don’t recognize markers along the route. He said the experiment suggests ants do have an internal way of counting their steps to find their nest. Gould said, “These animals are fooled exactly the way you’d expect if they were counting steps.”

--Ants That Count!, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120587095 ; November 25, 2009, Illustration by Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.

Proverbs 6:6-8 (CEV) “You lazy people can learn by watching an anthill. (7) Ants don't have leaders, (8) but they store up food during harvest season.”

John Hopkins University physicist William Edelstein explains why it is impossible for space travel to occur between the stars. “Even if it were possible to travel at warp speed, it would kill everyone on board.” In a new study, he determined that the crew would receive 10,000 sieverts of radiation per second while a fatal dose for humans is six. “Getting between stars is kind of impossible, based on what we know right now,” he says.

It may be too far for travel, but not so far that the Lord couldn’t spread them out with His hand.

Isaiah 48:13 (NASB77) (13) "Surely My hand founded the earth, And My right hand spread out the heavens; When I call to them, they stand together.”

The fact that scientists have never been able to recreate life has always been an argument in favor of creationism to me. If we cannot even create life in a test tube how can we expect it to have happened accidently in a primordial pool of some sort. Now science is getting closer and closer. A team of scientists led by Craig Venter have announced the “creation” of life in a test tube.

--The Week, June 4, 2010 p. 18. Illustration by Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell

While their creation falls short of creating life from non-life, they substituted their homemade DNA for the DNA of a cell—it is an incredible accomplishment. There will be many debates about its morality, dangers, and possible uses.

Where the Creation/Evolution debate is concerned, it is without merit. This new life, if you dare call it that, did not come about by chance, but by the intelligence of a designer. That is how creation happened. It is a greater accomplishment because the designer is one of greater intelligence.

In his latest book, physicist Stephen Hawking says he is out to disprove Sir Isaac Newton’s belief that the universe must have been created and designed by God. Hawking say physical laws themselves shaped the universe. At one time, Hawking’s writing suggested he thought belief in a creator was not inconsistent with science. In the book titled, The Grand Design, Hawking says he thinks the Big Bang was an inevitable consequence of the laws of physics and says, “Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something.

The physicist cites the 1992 discovery of a planet orbiting a nearby star and says that makes the combination of the mass of the earth and Sun along with the distance between the bodies look far less remarkable, and less like the Earth was carefully designed to accommodate human beings. Hawking says the law of gravity could cause the universe to create itself from nothing. He now believes spontaneous creation is the reason everything exists. He concludes, “It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue torch paper and set the universe going.”

--Stephen Hawking: God did not create Universe, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11161493 , September 2, 2010. Illustration by Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

I think Dr. Hawking missed something here. Where did the laws of physics come from? Did they
come from nothing too?

Psalm 8:3-5 (CEV) “ I often think of the heavens your hands have made, and of the moon and stars you put in place. (4) Then I ask, "Why do you care about us humans? Why are you concerned for us weaklings?" (5) You made us a little lower than you yourself, and you have crowned us with glory and honor.”

Thousands of scientists have just completed a comprehensive census of Marine life. They discovered some strange creatures, some strange behaviors, and identified 6,000 species never before seen. “The most surprising thing was beauty,” Rockefeller University environmental scientist Jesse Ausubel tells the New York Times. “Our eyes pumped out of our heads in front of this beauty.”

--The Week, October 22, 2010, p. 26 Illustration by Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell

Creation is declaring the glory of God. We see His glory and the beauty of His gift to us over and over. Let us pause and give thanks to the God of creation!

Psalm 104:24 (NASB77) “O LORD, how many are Thy works! In wisdom Thou hast made them all; The earth is full of Thy possessions.”

How did the Universe come to exist? The question of beginning has always been one of faith. Those with faith in God give credit to the Creator. Those without faith in God say it just happened. Now Stephen Hawking in his new book, The Grand Design, argues that there is no design. “Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing.”

--The Week, September 17, 2010 p. 22, Illustration by Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell

Well, excuse us Mr. Hawking if we do not just take your word for it. You do not persuade those of us with faith in God.

We may differ in how it happened, or maybe even when it happened, but we will agree on the source of the beginning.

Watson, the IBM computer, defeated Jeopardy’s two most successful past champions. Reactions to the results of the three-day challenge have been varied and abundant.

--http://www.huffingtonpost.com/danny-groner/watsons-ijeopardyi-win-wh_b_825633.html Illustration by Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell

What really happened? IBM programmers, using the computing power of 2,500 parallel processors, filling an entire room with a database containing several libraries worth of information, programmed the computer to understand the questions, and research it’s database, and find the answers faster than it’s two competitors.

The debate rages all the way from proving that computers will take over the world to computers have become as human as humans. It does not really matter how sophisticated computers become, they will remain as creations of the creation.

Genesis 2:7 (ESV) then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
Life, and especially eternal life, is something that not even IBM can bestow up on machine.

“The moment loggerhead sea turtles hatch, they embark on a complex ocean voyage that covers thousands of miles; those in Puerto Rico head northeast, while those in the Cape Verde Islands swim northwest. How do they know which way to go?” Scientists and animal experts have spent decades researching the ability of these turtles to know where to go. Nathan Putman from the University of North Carolina explains their latest explanation as an ability to detect the magnetic fields of the Earth “serves them like a GPS.”

--The Week, March 18, 2011 p. 27 Illustration by Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell

As our scientists and experts study the animals for insights into understanding life, they are simply following the directions of Job to study the birds of the air and the fish of the sea. You never know, they may teach us something yet about navigating the globe.

Job 12:7-8 (CEV) (7) If you want to learn, then go and ask the wild animals and the birds, (8) the flowers and the fish.

Scientists were shocked to find a worm living deeper inside the earth than they previously believed possible. The discovery of the small worm 2.2 miles beneath the surface was a surprise because researchers believed only single celled bacteria could survive at that depth. The worm feeds on bacteria and is .5mm long. Scientists have found it at various depths between .6 miles and 2.2 miles underground, this time they found it in South African Gold mines in 118-degree water that seeps between cracks far below the surface.

Lead researcher Dr. Tullis Onstott, of Princeton University said the lack of oxygen, high temperatures, and lack of food are big hurdles for the worms to get over. They are capable of surviving in an environment that has less than one percent of the oxygen found in the world’s oceans. The team believes the worms originated at the surface but ancient rainwater washed it into cracks. The worm is similar to worms that live in rotting fruit on the surface. Onstott said his team is preparing to make other trips deep underground and hope to find more multi-cellular creatures. He added, ”It’s like finding Moby Dick in Lake Ontario.”

--Worm discovered in South African gold mine is deepest-living land animal ever known,
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1393614/Worm-discovered-South-African-gold-deepest-living-land-animal-found.html ; June 2, 2011, Illustration by Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.

Colossians 1:16 (CEV) Everything was created by him, everything in heaven and on earth, everything seen and unseen, including all forces and powers, and all rulers and authorities. All things were created by God's Son, and everything was made for him.

The power unleashed by a thunderstorm inspires awe and wonder. A storm on the planet Saturn has astronomers marveling at the power being unleashed in the heavens. The storm, known as a Great White Spot, first appeared as a tiny white dot in the planet’s atmosphere in December 2010. A few weeks later, it had grown to over 6,000 miles across, and eight months later, the clouds nearly circled the planet. Astronomers say the storm is still growing and discharges lightning bolts 10,000 times more powerful than those found on earth. The storm is so big, anyone with a good backyard telescope can see it.

Analysis of data collected suggest the “spot” is a cluster of super-storms produced by upwelling heat, moisture, and ammonia from water clouds deeper in Saturn’s atmosphere. Because of the way the planet’s rings scatter sunlight, the lightning bolts are not visible at night. The orbiting Cassini spacecraft has been observing the storm, and radio signals the craft has detected via a plasma-wave detector, reveal the strength of the lightning. Scientists say they’ve seen five such storms on Saturn in the last 130 years, the most recent in 1990. They believe the storms are linked to the times when the planet is a little closer to the sun, and make an exciting spectacle.

--Tempest-from-hell seen on Saturn, http://news.yahoo.com/tempest-hell-seen-saturn-190517740.html ; July 6, 2011, Illustration by Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

Psalm 135:5-7 CEV The LORD is much greater than any other god. He does as he chooses in heaven and on earth and deep in the sea. The LORD makes the clouds rise from far across the earth, and he makes lightning to go with the rain. Then from his secret place he sends out the wind.

New evidence suggests planet Earth still has a lot more for man to discover. The research estimates the planet has almost 8.8 million species of living creatures. To date, man has only discovered about a quarter of them. Science only knows of 1.9 million types of animals, and even those contain a vast diversity including a psychedelic frogfish, a lizard the size of a dime, and a blind hairy mini-lobster at the bottom of the ocean. Biologists have long believed the earth contains between 3 and 100 million species of animal life, leaving a lot more for them to find.

Some researcher s wonder if continuing the discovery process is important. They say we don’t need to know exactly how many species there are. Others believe the process must continue because there are many potential benefits from undiscovered species.. Realizing these benefits means we need to know what is in the environment. Co-author of the study, Boris Worm from Canada’s Dalhousie University said, “We are really fairly ignorant of the complexity and colorfulness of this amazing planet. We need to expose more people to those wonders. It really makes you feel differently about this place we inhabit.”

--Wild World: Millions of unseen species fill Earth,http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/terms/Article_2011-08-23-US-SCI-Millions-of-Species/id-d4f5eb26cecd472ca3187b7610005a19; August 24, 2011, Illustration by Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.

Psalm 8:3-8 (GW) (3) When I look at your heavens, the creation of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have set in place— (4) what is a mortal that you remember him or the Son of Man that you take care of him? (5) You have made him a little lower than yourself. You have crowned him with glory and honor. (6) You have made him rule what your hands created. You have put everything under his control: (7) all the sheep and cattle, the wild animals, (8) the birds, the fish, whatever swims in the currents of the seas.

Astronomers say they have a huge cloud of water vapor deep in space. The cloud, which holds more than 140 trillion times the mass of all the water on Earth, is the largest discovery of water anywhere in history. Researchers say the vapor is contained within a distant quasar, surrounding a massive black hole. The quasar is 10 million light years away, and is constantly consuming a surrounding disk of gas and dust, and spewing out huge amounts of energy.

The find is part of a greater study of quasars, and scientists estimate the black hole at the center is 20 billion times larger than the sun. They say the discovery itself was not a big surprise because scientists thought water vapor was present even in the early days of the universe. NASA researcher Matt Bradford said, “The environment around this quasar is very unique in that it’s producing this huge mass of water. It’s another demonstration that water is pervasive throughout the universe, even at the very earliest times.”

--Enormous Water Reservoir Identified in Space, http://www.christianpost.com/news/largest-ever-water-reservoir-in-history-discovered-in-space-52776 ; July 24, 2011, Illustration by Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.

Genesis 1:6-7 (CEV) (6) God said, "I command a dome to separate the water above it from the water below it." (7) And that's what happened. God made the dome

From the beginning, humankind has sought ways to control the environment in which they live, including the weather. One of the miracles of Jesus reported by the gospel writers is his control over the wind and the storms.

God, not humans, is in control of the winds, and our education and technology is no match for the awesome power of an awesome God. “So far this year, tornadoes have killed 504 Americans, the highest number of deaths since 1953.”

--The Week, June 10, 2011, p. 20 Illustration by Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell

As we see the tremendous increase in our technological understanding, let us never forget the power of the creation.

Ezekiel 13:13 (ESV) Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: I will make a stormy wind break out in my wrath, and there shall be a deluge of rain in my anger, and great hailstones in wrath to make a full end.

After a team of 42 international scientists completed a six-year survey of 100 million stars in the Milky Way galaxy, they have determined that there are probably more than 160 billion planets accompanying earth in our galaxy. The study’s co-author, Daniel Kubas says, “We used to think that the Earth might be unique in our galaxy but now it seems that there are literally billions of planets with masses similar to Earth.” The study suggests that life is very likely to exist elsewhere in the universe.

--The Week, January 27, 2012, p. 19 Illustration by Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell

Colossians 1:16 (ESV) For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

Astronomers examining the color of the Milky Way Galaxy have found that it has a very appropriate name. Researchers have wondered what our home galaxy looks like from the outside, but have found the task a challenge because earth is inside it. Speaking at the 219th American Astronomical Society meeting, researchers lead by Jeffrey Newman from the University of Pittsburgh, announced that our galaxy is not only white, and a very specific shade of white. Using a comparison of star types in other visible galaxies, astronomers say our home is as white as spring snow around an hour after sunrise or before sunset.

Newman said the finding is significant because the color of the galaxy provides clues to the age of the stars it contains. He said it would reveal how old the stars in the galaxy are and how recently stars have been forming. Newman said the challenge was looking at the galaxy form the inside, and that y dust in about one or two thousand lights years in any direction blocks our view. He estimated the galaxy is in a very interesting state right now with a color temperature somewhere between that of an old-fashioned incandescent light bulb and noon-time sunlight. Speaking to BBC reporters, Newman said, “The best description I can give would be that if you looked at new spring snow, which has a fine grain size, about an hour after dawn or an hour before sunset, you’d see the same spectrum of light that an alien astronomer in another galaxy would see looking at the Milky Way.” He added, “It appears our Milky Way is on the road between two stages – based on the color we find, the rate of formation of stars has been declining over time.”

--Astronomers weigh in on the Milky Way’s true colours, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16523528, January 12, 2012, Illustration by Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.

Isaiah 40:26 (HCSB) Look up and see: who created these? He brings out the starry host by number; He calls all of them by name. Because of His great power and strength, not one of them is missing.

Climate researchers, looking over ten years of data from a NASA spacecraft, say they have evidence the sky is falling. The tops of clouds decreased by an average of one percent between March 2000 and February 2010. The global average decreased by a distance of 100 to 130 feet. The most surprising factor was a decrease in the number of clouds forming at very high altitudes. Researchers say they are not sure what, if anything the numbers mean, but think it potentially offset some of the predicted warming forecast by global warming researchers.

The researchers say the period is short, and they plan to continue to study clouds to see if the trend continues or changes. They also admit they do not fully understand how global climate variations would affect the clouds. Researchers Roger Davies form the University in Auckland, New Zealand said, “We don’t know exactly what causes the cloud heights to lower. But it must be due to change in the circulation patterns that give rise to cloud formation at high altitude.”

--Sky actually falling, report scientists, http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2012/0223/Sky-actually-falling-report-scientists; February 23, 2012, Illustration by Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.

Job 36:27-29 (HCSB) For He makes waterdrops evaporate; they distill the rain into its mist, (28) which the clouds pour out and shower abundantly on mankind. (29) Can anyone understand how the clouds spread out or how the thunder roars from God’s pavilion?

Mention robots, and most people envision humanoid looking machines walking around on two legs. Actually, researchers say they have found that the more legs a robot have, the easier it is for the machine to move around on tough terrain. They say they have gained many ideas using the original designs found in insects, reptiles, and other animals. They have discovered claws are easier to build and operate than fingers, and tails help stabilize the machines. Even the backend of snakes, ants, and grasshoppers have served as an inspiration to robot designers.

Biologist Robert Full and his team say they are studying how the redheaded African Agama lizard uses its tail while leaping between slippery surfaces. Video they have studied shows how the Agama raises its tail to counteract a lack of footing when jumping from a flat surface to a vertical one. If the surface gave the lizard more traction, it left its tail down.

When researchers applied the principles from the lizard’s tail to a small, robotic vehicle called Tailbot, they found tail position changed the robot’s stability when jumping. Various positions gave the robot extra control and helped it land in a more controlled manner. Designers say they can improve robotic design piece by piece by examining specific problems and the ways animals are equipped to solve them.

--Robot Uses Lizard Tail to Leap, http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=its-all-in-the-tail ;February 18, 2012, Illustration by Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.

Psalm 104:24 (HCSB) How countless are Your works, LORD! In wisdom You have made them all; the earth is full of Your creatures.

Scientists say the fruit of the Pollia Condesata plant may be the shiniest living thing on earth. The iridescent blue of the African fruit becomes a metallic blue brighter than any other biological material. Oddly, they say the fruit is neither tasty nor nourishing, and it does not contain any special color pigments that are useful elsewhere. Researchers say the unique color comes from the reflection of light off the fruit’s skin. The skin contains layers of small rod-shaped cellulose fibers, and depending on the distribution, produces a rainbow effect. They speculate the reason for the special color may be to attract birds without the requirement of producing a juicy berry. The unique plant uses light in a special way by layering cellulose in a sophisticated manner to blend beauty and functionality. --Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.

Pollia Condensata Fruit Produces Rainbow Colors, Is Shiniest Living Thing On Earth, by Emily Underwood, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/10/pollia-condensata-fruit-shiny_n_1872012.html?
icid=maing-grid7%7Cmaing6%7Cdl5%7Csec3_lnk1%26pLid%3D203794, Accessed September 11, 2012.

Matthew 5:16 (WEY) Just so let your light shine before all men, in order that they may see your holy lives and may give glory to your Father who is in Heaven.

A new NASA spacecraft has recorded and sent back a song sung by our planet. The Radiation Belt Storm Probes are spacecraft designed to study the Van Allen Belts around the Earth, and are currently orbiting in the area where the song is produced. The song is known as chorus and is an electromagnetic phenomenon caused by plasma in the belts orbiting the planet. Craig Kletzing, from the University of Iowa, says the song is not made of acoustic waves that the human ear can hear, but are what the radiation belts would sound like if people had radio antennas for ears.
The research on the radiation belts is designed to study the chorus effect to examine possible harmful impacts on spacecraft or astronauts. Kletzing says the data collected is sampled at the same rate as a Compact Disc, so he may release a stereo recording of the Earth’s chorus. He said, “ We have two spacecraft with two receivers, so a stereo recording is possible.”
Spacecraft captures earth’s song — Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

NASA Spacecraft Records 'Earthsong', http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/28sep_earthsong, Accessed October 1, 2012

Isaiah 55:12 (HCSB) You will indeed go out with joy and be peacefully guided; the mountains and the hills will break into singing before you, and all the trees of the field will clap ?their? hands.

The cover story for the October 22, 2012 issue of Time is “Aliens Among Us.” The gist of the story is the possibility that life on earth began when a meteorite carrying primitive life struck the earth.

Now that’s reasonable explanation, right? It certainly doesn’t negate the need for creation to have a creator. What we know for certain is, “In the beginning, God.”--Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell

Genesis 1:1 (HCSB) “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

A Canadian oceanographer says though he has been studying the sea for a long time, it still holds many surprises. Canada, which has more coastland than any other nation on Earth and millions of square kilometers of territorial waters, is a leader in marine research. Gerhard Pohle, acting executive director of the Huntsman Marine Science Center in St. Andrews, N.B. took part in a ten year survey of marine life that ended in 2012. He says there is an amazing amount of biodiversity in the ocean. Authorities estimate one million different species make their home in the planet’s oceans, but almost two-thirds of them are still relatively unknown. Pohle said, “It’s staggering to think that as recently as 2011, we did not know how many species there are in the word by order of magnitude.” He added, ”I’m somebody who works on this and when I saw it, I couldn’t believe it.”—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

Two-thirds of the million species in the Ocean depths unknown to humankind: study, by Dene Moore, http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/11/16/two-thirds-of-the-million-species-in-the-ocean-depths-unknown-to-humankind-study November 16, 2012.

Psalm 69:34 (HCSB) “Let heaven and earth praise Him, the seas and everything that moves in them,”

Speaking at a conference in Southern California, author and apologist Lee Strobel said there are scientists who think scientific evidence disproves the existence of a creator, but that is not true. He says three areas of science point to the existence of God and new discoveries continue to point in that direction. Strobel says the evidence suggests that the universe must have had a beginning, and whatever begins must have a cause. The third step is that something as big as the universe must have been caused by something without a cause, because the alternative is an endless regression of possibilities that lead nowhere. Strobel says the precision and power present in the universe, along with a decision to create such a universe, led him to change his thinking and believe in a loving heavenly Father. He said, “We have an uncaused, immaterial or spirit, eternal, smart, powerful, personal, one-of-a-kind Creator…That’s a pretty good beginning for a description of God.” —Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

Lee Strobel: Science Points Toward Existence of a Creator, http://www.christianpost.com/news/lee-strobel-science-points-toward-existence-of-a-creator-85539; Accessed on November 24, 2012.

Psalm 102:25 (ESV) Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.

A scientific paper published by the National Academy of Sciences says scientists have discovered that porcupine needles contain “microscopic backward-facing deployable barbs.” This feature help the needle penetrate skin and help it stay in place. The discovery could help patients who require long term IVs and could be used in application that require staples to keep a wound from splitting. The researchers have successfully recreated the porcupine quills in plastic, and have used the information gained to create a quill with retracting barbs as well, to create a needle that inserts quickly, and can be removed easily. Following the design of porcupine quills has worked well. Study co-author James Ankrum of MIT said, “If you can still create the stress concentrations, but without having a barb that catches tissue on removal, potentially you could create something with just easy insertion, without the adhesion.” —Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.

Porcupine quills inspire new type of hypodermic needle, by Mike Krunboltz, http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/porcupine-quills-inspire-type-hypodermic-needle-221815744.html ; Accessed December 12, 2012

Psalm 104:24 (ESV) O LORD, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.

The Mars rover, Curiosity, has found another striking example of God’s creative power on the red planet. The rover took a picture of a shiny object that bears a resemblance to a door handle or hood ornament. Scientists say the unique find is not evidence of an ancient civilization on mars that took the family car out to Olympus Mons for a picnic. Rather they say the object is a likely a rock that has been shaped by centuries of wind erosion. The rover has found other interesting objects on Mars. Earlier it took a picture of a bright sliver in the dirt. While many think that object may be a piece of plastic left over from the rover’s landing, the vehicle did photograph bright flecks in one of the holes it dug which could be a shiny mineral native to the planet. Scientists say wind eroded rocks can be found on Earth in dry, gusty places like Antarctica. They said, “The shiny surface suggests that this rock has a fine grain and is relatively hard. Hard, fine grained rocks can be polished by the wind to form very smooth surfaces.”—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

NASA's Curiosity Rover Finds Weird 'Hood Ornament' on Mars, by Mike Wall\Space.com, http://news.yahoo.com/nasas-curiosity-rover-finds-weird-hood-ornament-mars-191351150.html, Accessed February 13, 2013.

Psalm 92:4 (ESV) For you, O LORD, have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands I sing for joy.

Researchers have discovered another interesting item about the way God designed human beings. Studies indicate that color may have an influence on the taste buds. In a specific study, scientists found that orange-colored cups make hot chocolate taste better. The researchers allowed participants to sample hot chocolate from cups of the same size, but different colors. They found subjects thought the chocolate tasted better when it came from orange or cream colored mugs. The findings add to a growing collection of research that suggests a person’s perception of taste can be influenced by factors that are not related to the actual food. Many fast food restaurants have begun using yellow because that color seems to stimulate the appetite. Food from a white plate seems to taste better that food served on a blue one. A researcher wrote, “These results are relevant to sensory scientists interested in how the brain integrates visual input (such as color), not only from the food itself, but also from the container, packaging, or plateware from which it is being consumed.”—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.

Hot Chocolate tastes better in an Orange Cup: Study, by An Phung, http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/weird/Hot-Chocolate-Tastes-Better-in-an-Orange-Cup-Report-185882722.html, Accessed January 7, 2013.

Psalm 139:14 (ESV) I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

The Japanese earthquake that took place in March 2011 was so big that it was “heard” by a research satellite. Scientists thought major quakes generated very low frequency acoustic waves, but had no proof because the sound would be too low for human ears to detect and no spacecraft in orbit had the capacity to record such a sound. The Goce satellite was designed to map subtle differences in the pull of gravity across the earth’s surface caused by the distribution of mass within the planet. Since the differences are often very small, the spacecraft’s orbit actually drags through the highest portions of the atmosphere. This unique position allowed the satellite to detect and record the disturbance created by the quake in March 2011.

The acoustic waves produced by the earthquake were detected by spacecraft as it passed over the ocean about 30 minutes after the quake first registered. It encountered the acoustic wave again 25 minutes later while passing over Europe. Dr. Rune Floberghagen, from the European Space Agency, said the change in density was exactly as computer models predicted. He added, “Goce’s accelerometers are about a hundred times more sensitive than any previous instrumentation and we detected the acoustic waves not once, but twice passing through it over the Pacific and over Europe.”—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

Japan quake 'heard at edge of space', By Jonathan Amos, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21730887, Accessed March 10, 2013

Psalm 111:2 (ESV) Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them.

New linguistic research indicates that the ancestors of people across Europe and Asia may have spoken a common language about 15,000 years ago. Researchers reconstructed a few words which may have been spoken by ancient people in hopes of retracing the history of human migrations and contacts between prehistoric cultures. They say the idea clearly lines up with the Biblical account of the Tower of Babel, in which humans spoke a common language, which was later confused. Biologist Mark Pagel from the University of Reading said they have been able to trace many Euroasian languages back 8,000 to 9,500 years. Pagel said it is like if modern humans encountered someone form the Stone Age, they could say one or two simple statements and make themselves understood. Pagel noted, “It’s going to be very difficult to go much beyond that, even these slowly evolving words are starting to run out of steam.”—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

Before Babel? Ancient mother tongue reconstructed, By Tia Ghose, http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/05/07/before-babel-ancient-mother-tongue-reconstructed/?intcmp=related, Accessed May 7, 2013

Genesis 11:6-7 (ESV) (6) And the LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. (7) Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.”

After years of research on the impact of earthquakes, scientists generally agree that although quakes may cause a lot of damage on the earth’s surface, generally the blocks of crust spring back to their original position after a few years. Geologists studying the effects of quakes in the dry climate of northern Chile have been able to examine the results of quakes over a longer period of time. In the Atacama Desert, they found cracks ranging from millimeters to meters in width indicating that those quakes caused significant damage to the crust over many years. The researchers say the new work questions previous assumptions about how much the earth recovers after a quake. Structural Geologist Richard Allmendinger says, “If some of the deformation is permanent, then the models will have to be rethought and more complicated material behaviors used.”—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

How Earthquakes in Chile Have Permanently Deformed Earth, By Charles Q. Choi, http://news.yahoo.com/earthquakes-chile-permanently-deformed-earth-170116659.html, Accessed April 29, 2013.

Psalm 46:2 (ESV) Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,

In an interview with National Public Radio author Stephen King said, “Everything is sort of built in a way that to me suggests intelligent design. Evidence for God is in the stars, sunrises and sunsets, and the fact that bees pollinate all these crops and keep us alive and the way that everything seems to work together.”

Evidence for God is everywhere around us. All we need do is look with an unbiased eye. --Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell

NASA launched The Voyager 1 spacecraft in 1977 to take photos of Jupiter and Saturn. Traveling through space at 38,000 mph it has taken until 2013 to reach interstellar space, some 11.66 billion miles from the Sun. Every new discovery reminds me of the greatness of our God and when I consider that Voyager 1 must travel for 40,000 more years before it will reach another star, I can only marvel at the His grandeur. --Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell

Isaiah 40:12 (NIV) Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?

The extremely cold weather across much of North America in early January 2014, created an odd comparison between two planets. On the first day of 2014, the temperature in Winnipeg, Manitoba was 31 below zero Celsius. In the meantime, on Mars, which is over 100 million miles further away from the sun, the Curiosity rover recorded a warmer 29 below zero Celsius. On that day, it was actually slightly warmer on Mars than in Canada. The Martian rover has an environmental monitoring station, and had been reporting daily high temperatures ranging from -25 to -31 degrees Celsius for about a month. The coldest daily high the rover had recorded since it landed on Mars was -31 degrees Celsius. Like Earth, Mars has differing climates, and the area where the rover has been working would be the rough equivalent of Venezula on Earth. Regardless of how you look at it, Winnipeg started the year very cold, so cold that they had something in common with another planet for at least one day.—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

Right now, it's as cold in Canada as where our rover is on Mars, http://news.msn.com/offbeat/right-now-its-as-cold-in-canada-as-where-our-rover-is-on-mars, Accessed January 2, 2014.

Genesis 8:22 (ESV) While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”

They may be in the minority but a poll conducted the Pew Research group has found that nearly a third of Americans think that humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time. Among the two-thirds of adults who said they believed that humans have evolved over time, 24 percent say they think “a supreme being guided the evolution of living things.” The survey found disagreement along political and religious lines. Among evangelicals, 64 percent said they did not subscribe to evolution, while 78 percent of non-evangelicals believed that humans and other living things have evolved over time. Politically, Republicans were less likely to say humans evolved compared to Democrats and Independents. Those who labeled themselves “conservative” were also less likely to agree with the tenants of evolution than were liberal or independents.—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.

One-third of Americans reject human evolution, By Jessica Durando
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2013/12/30/pew-research-human-evolution-survey/4258083/, Accessed December 30, 2013.

Genesis 1:27 (ESV) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Astronomers using a powerful telescope have discovered “ripples” in the cosmos they believe began following the so-called “Big Bang.” Some scientists think that the universe exploded from a tiny speck and hurled itself out in all directions in the fraction of a second that followed the universe's birth. According to this theory, this explosion caused the formation of the planets, stars, and humanity over the next hundreds of millions of years. These ripples are like those created when someone kicks a ball into a pond. It seems, however, that scientists still do not know who kicked the ball.

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/First_Direct_Evidence_of_Inflation_and_Primordial_Gravitational_Waves_999.html

The brightest scientific minds in the world are unable to explain what is clear to believers everywhere— that God is the Creator of all things. –Jim L. Wilson and Larry Blair

Romans 1:20 (ESV) For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

Scientists studying the sense of smell have concluded that the nose can discern far more than the 10,000 different odors long thought to be the limit. Researchers with the laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior at Rockefeller University in New York say their work has led them to conclude that differentiate an almost infinite number of smells, perhaps more than a trillion. They said the prevailing idea has been that the nose was somewhat limited, but in trying to determine what those limits were, they made the interesting discovery. Since smells are made up of a mixture of various odor molecules, the researchers recorded how often volunteers could discern certain smells if given all possible mixes of the 128 known odor molecules. One of the researchers, Andreas Keller said he hopes the findings will make people appreciate their sense of smell more. He added, ”I think that we evolved to discriminate very similar odors: Food – and the same food with the slightest hint of being spoiled – can be the difference between a nutritious meal and food poisoning.”—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

Sweet smell of success: human nose discerns giant array of odors, by Will Dunham, http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/20/us-science-nose-idUSBREA2J1VO20140320 Accessed March 20, 2014.

Genesis 27:27 (HCSB) So he came closer and kissed him. When Isaac smelled his clothes, he blessed him and said: Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the LORD has blessed.

Astronomers first spotted an odd looking asteroid in September of 2013. At the time, it looked appeared to be an unusual fuzzy object in space. Two weeks later, closer observations reveal what appeared to be three bodies moving together in a cloud of dust roughly the diameter of the Earth. To get a better look they turned the Hubble Space telescope at the object to view the object and discovered that was 10 objects each with tails like a comet. The four largest fragments were about 400 yards in diameter. Then, the scientists realized this was an asteroid that was breaking into smaller pieces as it traveled. They had seen similar events when objects approached the sun, but never in an object located in the asteroid belt. They speculate uneven heating causes asteroids to start rotating faster which eventually breaks them apart. The researchers say evidence suggests the pieces will eventually crash into the sun, but a few might produce a meteor shower in earth’s sky’s one day.—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

Asteroid Mysteriously Disintegrates and Nasa’s Hubble Telescope captures it on Camera,http://www.cbsnews.com/news/asteroid-mysteriously-disintegrates-and-nasas-hubble-telescope-captures-it-on-camera, Accessed March 7, 2014.

Psalm 33:6 (HCSB) The heavens were made by the word of the LORD, and all the stars, by the breath of His mouth.

Rolling Stone magazine interviewed Microsoft founder and billionaire Bill Gates. When asked if he believed in God Gates replied, “The mystery and the beauty of the world is overwhelmingly amazing, and there’s no scientific explanation of how it came about. I think it makes sense to believe in God.”

Indeed the heavens declare the glory of God, and it is refreshing when a public figure recognizes it. --Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell.

Genesis 1:1-2 (HCSB) (1) In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (2) Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

Scientists in England have developed a system which can automatically classify the songs of birds to identify them. Researcher Dan Stowell from Queen Mary University of London said classifying the sounds are useful when trying to understand how many, and what type of birds there are in a certain location. He said the songs of birds share some similarities with human language and like people, young songbirds engage in vocal learning. Stowell says researchers are working to develop ways to transcribe all bird sounds from a recording. He adds they want to know, ”Not just who is talking, but when, in response to whom, and what relationships are reflected in the sound, for example who is dominating the conversation.”—Submitted by Jim Sandell

Scientists develop new bird chirp decoding system, By Tanya Lewis,
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/scientists-develop-new-bird-chirp-decoding-system, Accessed July 18, 2014.

Matthew 10:29–31 (HCSB) Aren’t two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s consent. 30 But even the hairs of your head have all been counted. 31 So don’t be afraid therefore; you are worth more than many sparrows.

Stephen Meyer, director of the Center for Science and Culture at the Seattle-based discovery Institute is one of the founders of the intelligent design movement. He is author of two books, Darwin’s Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design and Signature in the Cell. Meyer explains why DNA and Cambrian Fossils make macro evolutionary theory increasingly untenable.

Meyer comments on what we know to be true because of our faith. There is an intelligent designer behind our magnificent universe. -- Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell

In the ongoing debate between creation and evolution, it seems that personal desires are influential in determining one’s stance. Aldous Huxley admitted in his book, Ends and Means: “I wanted to believe the Darwinian idea. I chose to believe it not because I think there was enormous evidence for it, nor because I believe it had the full authority to give interpretation to my origins, but I chose to believe it because it delivered me from trying to find meaning and freed me to my own erotic passions.” -- Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell

2 Peter 1:4 (HCSB) By these He has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desires.

Marvin Olasky, in his editorial in World Magazine reminds us that if we are required to believe that science demands faith in evolution there is a problem for our children. “But science does not. Science is not the only source of knowledge about the world: God created science, and the Bible teaches us about God.” --Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell

Genesis 1:1-2 (HCSB) In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (2) Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

Meteorologists were stumped by a strange cloud that appeared on the Doppler radar screens. The cloud was directly over the city of St. Louis and was moving slowly to the south, changing shape as it traveled. After a couple of hours of research and consternation, they figured out that though the cloud appeared abnormal, it was something very real and normal. On a social media site, the national Weather Service said the shape-shifting cloud was actually a group of Monarch butterflies migrating to Mexico for the winter. They said, “A Monarch in flight would look oblate to the radar, and flapping wings would account for the changing shape.” With the mystery solved, the weather service wished the butterflies, “good luck and a safe journey.”—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.

What Mysterious Cloud Over St. Louis Turned Out to Be, By Alyssa Newcomb,
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2014/09/what-mysterious-cloud-over-st-louis-turned-out-to-be, Accessed September 23, 2014.

Genesis 1:21-22 (HCSB) So God created the large sea-creatures and every living creature that moves and swarms in the water, according to their kinds. ?He also created? every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. (22) So God blessed them, “Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the waters of the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.”

When most people think of the Super Bowl, they think of football. In 2015, NASA added a bit of football-themed rivalry that focused attention on God’s handiwork. On February 1st, the day of the big game, NASA tweeted photos of supernovas all day, asking lovers of space and football to retweet the nebula that has the colors of the team they supported in the game—red and blue for the Patriots, or blue and green for the Seahawks. Though they didn’t win the game, the Seattle Seahawk fans sent out more pictures of the blue and green supernova. NASA said they were happy to use the occasion to spread knowledge about supernovas, the explosion of an aging star. They say the bonus was that it’s great science and really pretty too.—Jim L. Wilson & Jim Sandell

#SupernovaSunday out of this world, literally, http://www.9news.com/story/news/local/science/2015/02/02/nasa-supernova-sunday/22732995, Accessed February 2, 2015.

Psalm 19:1 (NKJV) To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.

Jerry Coyne, author of Why Evolution Is True, made a startling admission in a 2006 review of several evolution-promoting books. He acknowledged that belief in evolution “hasn’t yielded many practical or commercial benefits.”

Janie B. Cheaney cites that admission and then states, “Nobody ever explains precisely how a belief in evolution benefits humanity.” Yet for 100 years “science-based solutions are touted as the way to solve the problems of education, healthcare, crime, and war.”
There is something more to humanity and society than scientific method can discover. Human consciousness and spirituality evade scientific explanation. Only understanding human as made in the image of God makes any sense of those mysteries. —Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell.

Genesis 1:27 (NASB) “And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

The NASA owned Kepler space observatory has focused on one small patch of star-studded sky for the past six years. NASA claims it has identified 4,696 rocky planets of roughly similar size of the earth that orbit sun-like stars, and have surfaces suitable for sustaining water and life. NASA believes the Milky Way galaxy, may contain over a billion of these earth-like planets. They have no idea if any of them contain life.
All one billion of these planets are covered in the first sentence in the Bible. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” If there is intelligent life on one of these rocky orbs, be sure of one thing. It is not a surprise to God. —Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell

Genesis 1:1 (NASB) “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

As technology has grown, scientists have found that many objects in space create unique noises or songs. In August 2014, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta probe heard a ticking sound coming from a comet labeled 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimneko. As the comet approached the sun, it emitted what sounded like a long string of slowed-down, low-pitched dolphin clicks. The sound was unique compared with sounds from other comets, so they wanted to know what was creating the sound. Finally, they solved the mystery concluding the vibrations are set off by a stream of charged particles coming off of the surface of the rock. As they passed through the comet’s magnetic field, they create the ticking sound that can be picked up by nearby receivers.—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

Why Does Comet 67P Sing? Scientists Think They Know, By Calla Cofield, http://www.space.com/30323-mystery-of-comet67p-singing-solved.html, Accessed August 21, 2015.

Psalm 19:1-2 (HCSB) The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky proclaims the work of His hands. (2) Day after day they pour out speech; night after night they communicate knowledge.

Intelligent design (ID) is the teaching that the world is created and obviously designed by a superior intelligence. Casey Luskin, a program officer with the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture talks about the progress ID is making in our culture. “At least five states now require, or at least permit, schools to teach the weaknesses of Darwinian evolutionary theory, not just its strengths . . . . And in the realm of science, reputable, peer-reviewed journals now publish ID studies.”—Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell.

Psalm 19:1 (HCSB) The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky proclaims the work of His hands.

Through the years there have been many ideas to explain why starts twinkle. Aristotle said twinkling was caused by wavering vision of people stretching the limits of their eyesight. Later, scientists thought stars rotated and displayed facets like diamonds as they turned. Today, the accepted explanation for what is called “stellar scintillation” is that tiny pockets of air acts like lenses to refract rays of starlight as they pass through them. More modern theories propose that since light acts as a wave, the atmosphere puts wrinkles in the wavefront that creates patterns of interference which creates the twinkle. Physicist Lorne Whitehead from the University of British Columbia is a proponent of the theory supporting tiny lenses refracting light rays. He says the answer is not certain, but the modern theories really aren’t that different. He adds, “The ray model for light is a perfectly reasonable model for stellar scintillation. It gives the same answer.”—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

Why Do Stars Really Twinkle?, By Daniel Engber, http://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/atoz/why-do-stars-really-twinkle/ar-CC8NHd, Accessed November 15, 2015.

Psalm 147:4 (HCSB) He counts the number of the stars; He gives names to all of them.

Creation

Astronomers have seen what they believe could be the most powerful supernova explosion ever. They say the star, which is 3.8 billion light years away, was first seen in June 2015. Though it may have begun to fade, at its peak the event was 200 times more powerful than a typical exploding star. That means it is shining about 570 billion times brighter than our sun. Scientists say they have been studied supernovas to get a better idea of the different types of star explosions and where they are occurring. They say supernovas are important because they create some of the larger chemical elements in nature and their shockwaves stir up gas and dust that may form the basis for new stars. The international team studying the newest supernova says the object that created the explosion is probably no bigger that a major city on earth and may be spinning very rapidly.—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.

Psalm 19:1–2 (HCSB)The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky proclaims the work of His hands. ² Day after day they pour out speech; night after night they communicate knowledge.

Creation

Scientists have added four new elements to the periodic table, and now the researchers that discovered them will come up with names. Research on the elements had been going on since 2004, but research had been challenging because these elements decay quickly, with some remaining intact for only nanoseconds. Researchers say these very heavy elements are not naturally occurring on earth, and have to be created synthetically in a laboratory. The heaviest element found in nature is Uranium, but scientists can artificially create heavier elements by adding protons into an atomic nucleus. They say the goal in creating heavier elements is to discover just how large atoms can become.—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

Creation

An international team of scientists is arguing in a new study that the world has entered the Anthropocene, or human epoch, marking the end of the Holocene which began some 12,000 years ago as the planet thawed from the ice age. The argument is that humans have made an impact on the world significant enough to move it into the new epoch.

Some of the impacts they list include rapid technological advancements and massive population growth, human infrastructure covering half of Earth’s surface, agricultural fertilizers doubling the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus in the soil. Radioactive fallout from nuclear weapon tests has settled into ice and sediments and will remain detectable for 100,000 years. The burning of fossil fuels has doubled the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and warmed the globe. Meanwhile, dams constructed around the world are interrupting the flow of sediments to the ocean and the formation of rock layers.

The significance of all of that could be debated, but none of those changes is as significant as the simple truth, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” — Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell.

Creation

In study published in nature magazine suggests that individual preferences for waking up early in the morning or staying up late could be due to their genetic makeup. The study was commissioned by a company that analyzes individual’s DNA to examine their ancestry or inherited medical conditions. Along with the analysis, they questioned participants about their habits to qualify them as morning or evening people. The information gathered identified several locations on the genome that might be useful for studying biological differences in sleep and waking habits. Researchers say the current findings do not mean there is a direct link between genes and sleep habits, but suggest more study is needed.—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.

Not a Morning Person? Blame it on your genes, By Alexandra Ossola, http://www.popsci.com/not-an-early-bird-blame-it-on-your-genes, Accessed February 3, 2016.

Psalm 139:14 (HCSB) I will praise You because I have been remarkably and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, and I know this very well.

Creation

Over 100 years ago, Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravity waves as part of his general theory of relativity. Now scientists working with the laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO say they have actually detected such waves for the first time. Scientists say the waves are so small that it takes a special detector like LIGO. They believe the sound they heard as a small chirp was the sound of black holes colliding deep in space, a long time ago. Szaboics Marka, a Columbia University physicist said gravity waves are not sound waves, but the increase in frequency as the collision occurred created something that could be heard with the detector. Marka has worked on the project for over ten years. He said, so far, Einstein’s predictions have been correct. Ironically, Marka said Einstein did not think gravitational waves could be discovered. He added, “He thought gravitational waves are a beautiful construct, but they are so small nobody would ever be able to actually measure it.”—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.

Gravitational waves detected -- and that's creating waves in science, By Todd Leopold,

http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/11/us/gravitational-waves-feat/index.html, Accessed February 11, 2016.

Psalm 19:1–3 (HCSB) The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky proclaims the work of His hands. ² Day after day they pour out speech; night after night they communicate knowledge. ³ There is no speech; there are no words; their voice is not heard.

Alaska Airlines changed the flight path and flight time of one of the flight from Anchorage to Honolulu to allow passengers to view a total solar eclipse that was visible over the Pacific Ocean. Joe Rao, an associate astronomer at the American Museum of natural History’s Hayden Planetarium in New York called Alaska Airlines and told them that the plane’s flight path would be in the right position if they adjusted it slightly. The airline rescheduled the flight to depart 25 minutes earlier so that the 181 passengers would get a near-perfect view of the eclipse. Rao was one of the passengers on board that flight. He said, “It is an experience. Every fiber of you gets involved in those few minutes when the sun is totally eclipsed.”—Jim L. Wilson & Jim Sandell.

Psalm 19:1 (HCSB “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky proclaims the work of His hands.”

CREATION

A Texas family is trying to sell an 8-year-old bison because the animal has outgrown its Texas home. Karen Schoeve said the bison, named Bullet, is tame and housebroken, and occasionally comes inside the house. The family is selling the animal because they say it needs more space and grassland. They listed Bullet on Craigslist for $6,000. Schoeve said they want the new owner to allow Bullet to continue interacting with people. She added that such a big animal should not be left alone inside a house or with children.—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

Tame, housebroken half-ton bison for sale by Texas owner, https://www.yahoo.com/news/tame-housebroken-half-ton-bison-sale-texas-owner-154629373.html?nhp=1, Accessed May 13, 2016.

Psalm 104:14 (HCSB) “He causes grass to grow for the livestock and provides crops for man to cultivate, producing food from the earth,”

Twenty-thousand bees pursued and swarmed a car belonging to a sixty-five-year-old grandmother. The owner of the car said she had never seen anything like it before, when thousands of insects flew at the back of her silver Mitsubishi. When bee experts came to the rescue, they captured the queen and were ready to remove the bees in a box when a gust of wind blew the top off the container holding the queen and she return to the trunk of the car. Roger Burns from the Pembrookshire Beekeepers Association said he believes the queen was attracted to something in the car. He said he had never seen a swarm behave like that in thirty years he had kept bees. Burns added, “It is natural for them to follow the queen but it is a strange thing to see and quite surprising to have a car followed for two days. It was quite amusing.” –Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.

20,000 bees chase car for two days because they didn't want to leave their queen, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/car-chased-by-20000-bees-over-two-days-when-queen-bee-becomes-stuck-in-boot-a7047036.html, Accessed May 24, 2016.

Psalm 118:12 (HCSB) “They surrounded me like bees; they were extinguished like a fire among thorns; in the name of Yahweh I destroyed them.”

CREATION

One of the most complex machines in the world was completed disabled by a small animal. A spokesperson for the large Hadron Collider outside of Geneva, said they had to suspend operations because a weasel got inside a transformer that powers the machine and caused an electrical outage that disabled it until they could replace the part. Authorities said the incident was one of several small glitches that delayed plans to restart the four billion dollar device for several days. They said though the animal was killed, there were no other injuries.—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.

Pop went the weasel and down went the Large Hadron Collider, By Jamey Keaten, https://www.yahoo.com/news/pop-went-weasel-down-went-large-hadron-collider-162842566.html?nhp=1il, Accessed April 29, 2016

Proverbs 30:28 (HCSB)“a lizard can be caught in your hands, yet it lives in kings’ palaces.”

The United Arab Emirates has accomplished some amazing feats of engineering, including having the world’s tallest building. Now, the country is considering something even more ambitious. The country is now considering building a mountain, which they hope, will increase rainfall in the country. The average rainfall in the UAE is less than five inches and the government is seeking ways to add water. They have been seeding clouds, and have considered building a pipeline to bring water from Pakistan, or floating icebergs from the Arctic. UAE officials say they estimate they could build a mountain 1.2 miles high if it were hollow. They estimate the project would cost over $200 billion dollars to complete. The officials say the cost may be prohibitive, and added, “Building a mountain is not a simple thing.” —Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/05/02/the-uae-may-build-a-mountain-to-make-it-rain/?wpisrc=nl_az_most, Accessed May 2, 2016.

Psalm 147:8 (HCSB)“who covers the sky with clouds, prepares rain for the earth, and causes grass to grow on the hills.”

New York’s John F. Kennedy airport experienced delays during July 2016, but officials said weather was not the problem. The delays were caused by nearly 400 diamondback terrapin turtles, which laid eggs and built nests in the area around the airport. Authorities say the turtle’s normal habitat is the nearby salt marshes, but they feel at home in the sand along the airport perimeter. Travelers often had to wait while the visiting turtles were rounded up and returned to a safer areas.—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

http://www.klove.com/news/2016/07/15/turtles-disrupting-travel-at-jfk-international-airport.aspx, Accessed July 15, 2016.

Psalm 104:24 (HCSB) “How countless are Your works, Lord! In wisdom You have made them all; the earth is full of Your creatures.”

Scientists in California have produced a computer image showing sections of the state rising and sinking because of activity along the San Andreas Fault. In a study published in the journal Nature, scientists found that that much of the Los Angeles basin, San Diego County, and the Bakersfield area are sinking 2 to 3 millimeters a year, while Santa Barbara, San Bernardino County, and San Luis Obispo County are rising at the same rate. Lead author of the report, Sam Howell said the research has given them a better idea of how the state is being warped because of building seismic pressures. He said the study probably would not help predict the precise timing and location of the next big quake. He added, “It’s pretty much impossible to say when the next one will happen.”—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

'Seismic strain': Land around the San Andreas fault is rising and sinking, new earthquake research shows, By Rong-Gong Lin II, http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-san-andreas-fault-20160622-snap-story.html, Accessed June 22, 2016.

Psalm 46:1–3 (HCSB)“God is our refuge and strength, a helper who is always found in times of trouble. ² Therefore we will not be afraid, though the earth trembles and the mountains topple into the depths of the seas, ³ though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with its turmoil. Selah”

The moons orbiting the planet Jupiter intrigue scientists. They have discovered another interesting characteristic of the moon Io. Researchers have observed volcanic eruptions on Io for a long time, and presumed they were the result of the gravity Jupiter exerts in the small world. These eruptions create a low-pressure atmosphere around the moon that collapses every day. The atmosphere contains sulfur dioxide and when Io enters Jupiter’s shadow, the temperature of the moon drops so low that the atmosphere cools and actually drops onto the surface. As Io reenters the sunlight, the solid sulfur dioxide turns back into a gas and the atmosphere reappears. Researcher John Spencer of the Southwest Research Institute said, “Though Io’s hyperactive volcanoes are the ultimate source of the (sulfur dioxide), sunlight controls the atmospheric pressure on a daily basis by controlling the temperature of the ice on the surface. We’ve long suspected this, but can finally watch it happen.”—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

Something crazy happens to Jupiter’s moon Io for 2 hours every day, By Rachel Feltman, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/08/03/something-crazy-happens-to-jupiters-moon-io-for-2-hours-every-day/?wpisrc=nl_az_most, Accessed August 3, 2016.

Psalm 92:5 (HCSB)“How magnificent are Your works, Lord, how profound Your thoughts!”

The European Space Agency’s Rosetta orbiter, which has been circling comet 67P?Churyumov-Gerasimenko for nearly two years, has identified glycine, an amino acid used by living organisms to make proteins. The orbiter also found the molecules hydrogen cyanide and hydrogen sulfide, as well as phosphorus—a mineral required for the construction of cells and DNA.

Here’s how the theory works. In space, there is no energy to create life, but when the comet drops into a warm ocean, then the molecules get free, they get mobile, they can react, and maybe that’s how life starts.

If you are going to take a creator out of the equation, those are the only types of theories you can come up with. How about, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.?” . –--Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell.

Scientists have recently increased the estimation of the size of our universe. From the previously estimated 200 billion galaxies researchers at The University of Nottingham, believe the figure is likely 10 times that. In their research, published in the October issue of The Astrophysical Journal, the astronomers used images of deep space obtained from telescopes around the world and calculated the volume and density of galaxies in one tiny bit of space after another. The figure they got with their mathematical models is a staggering 2 trillion galaxies in our universe.

The larger and more fantastic our understanding of the universe becomes, the louder the declaration of God’s marvelous glory. What a mighty God we have whose glory the heavens declare. —Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell.

Psalm 19:1 (HCSB) “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky proclaims the work of His hands.”

The latest theory of the beginning of the universe comes from a Columbia University astrophysicist who suggests the universe may have been created and maintained by non-human life forms that morphed into the physical world and remain the driving force behind quantum physics. Professor Caleb Scharf is behind the radical theory that the universe is what remains of intelligent alien life that controls all aspects of the physical world – from gravity to the speed of light.

Some people will grasp at any theory to avoid admitting the existence of a Creator God. The simple statement of scripture, “In the beginning God” remains the best answer to our existence. —Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell.

Agnostic Chuck Klosterman, in his new book, But What if We are Wrong, explains what we understand and don’t about earth’s beginnings. He says there are 20 numbers that make the universe possible and they make the universe appear inconceivably fine-tuned. These are numbers like the mass of an electron or the strength of gravity. He says that if these numbers didn’t have the exact value that they do, nothing in the universe would exist. “They are so perfect that it almost appears as if someone set these numbers. But who could have done that?”

Klosterman’s answer is that we may be living in a simulation created by a kid in his garage centuries from now. Christians have a more likely answer: God. —Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell.

Klosterman, Chuck, But What If We’re Wrong? Reviewed in The World Magazine, November 26, 2016, p. 20.

Jeremiah 32:17 (HCSB)“Oh, Lord God! You Yourself made the heavens and earth by Your great power and with Your outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for You!”

Language may prove to be the undoing of Darwinian Evolution. Tom Wolfe in his book, The Kingdom of Speech talks about the findings in a magazine essay published back in 2014. The essay was signed by eight prominent scientists that basically admitted the failure of evolution to explain the origin of human language. The book explains how human language is fundamentally different from every other form of animal communication, how important language was in human development, and the total lack of scientific explanation for how humans acquired it.

For Christians there is no difficulty here. The same God, who gave us life, gave us language. He taught humans to not only hear one another, but to hear his voice as well. —Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell.

Tom Wolfe, The Kingdom of Speech, as reviewed in The World Magazine, November 26, 2016, p. 14.

Psalm 90:2 (HCSB)“Before the mountains were born, before You gave birth to the earth and the world, from eternity to eternity, You are God.”

CREATION

As 2016 wound down, scientists announced that the year was going to a little longer than most, one second longer to be exact. To make up for slowing in the Earth’s rotation countries using Coordinated Universal Time added the leap second during the countdown to 2017. The timing for the rest of the world was determined by the time zone they live in. The adjustment was necessary because Earth’s rotation is not regular. Sometimes it speeds up and sometimes it slows down depending on factors like the Moon’s gravity. Overall, the Earth’s rotational speed is gradually slowing and the leap second adjustments keep the length of a day synced with time, as measured by extremely accurate atomic clocks. A statement from the Paris Observatory which is responsible to keeping time synchronized said, “This extra second, or leap second, makes it possible to align astronomical time, which is irregular and determined by Earth’s rotation, with UTC which is extremely stable and has been determined by atomic clocks since 1967.”—Jim L. Wilson & Jim Sandell

Romans 8:22 (HCSB) “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now.”

According to a Gallup poll, the majority of Americans believe that God had a hand in the development of human kind. 42 percent believe in a direction creation of humans about 10,000 years ago. 31 percent believe that humans evolved but with God’s guidance. Only 19% believe that God played no role in evolution.

Americans still believe that humans are a special creation of a caring God. It is just one step to the belief of a loving God who provides an eternal salvation. The gospel loses much, if not all its power if we give up on a creator Lord. —Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell.

Genesis 1:26–27 (HCSB)“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.’ ²⁷ So God created man in His own image; He created him in the image of God; He created them male and female.”

According to Nury Vittachi, real atheists might not exist. He says that Cognitive scientists are concluding from their research that “a metaphysical outlook may be so deeply ingrained in human thought processes that it cannot be expunged.” They believe that even people who reject the God of organized religion appear to be hardwired to believe in some larger, spiritual reality. “When questioned about their beliefs, self-identified atheists often admit to believing in a higher force or a purposeful universe.” Anthropologist Pascal Boyer recently noted that “a slew of cognitive traits predispose us to faith. Whether we believe it or not, we are born believers.”

This is very similar to Blaise Pascal’s quote from the 17^th century that “there is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.”

As evangelical believers, this knowledge should embolden us to continue to present the living God of creation and salvation to those we meet. —Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell.

Common paraphrase of Pascal’s actual quote http://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/2746/where-does-the-concept-of-a-god-shaped-hole-originate

Acts 17:22–27 (HCSB)“Then Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said: ‘Men of Athens! I see that you are extremely religious in every respect. ²³ For as I was passing through and observing the objects of your worship, I even found an altar on which was inscribed: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. ²⁴ The God who made the world and everything in it —He is Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in shrines made by hands. ²⁵ Neither is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives everyone life and breath and all things. ²⁶ From one man He has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live. ²⁷ He did this so they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.’”

In the 2017 Super Bowl the New England Patriots trailed by 25 points with 17 minutes and 7 seconds left in the game. In those few minutes they tied the game, then in overtime they won. Headlines across the sports world proclaimed a “miracle comeback.” What kind of miracle would it have been had they trailed by 8,216 points and needed to score one touchdown in every one of the 1,027 seconds left in the game. That impossibility resembles the unlikeliness that our existence is purely through material causes.

There are nearly 1,500 features of the universe and the Earth that must fall within very narrow ranges to allow for the possibility of life. A few of those are the particular composition of the Earth’s core and atmosphere, a particular Earth axis tilt and rotation speed, particular capillary action and surface tension, and a thousand more. If any of those features were outside the narrow range, simple bacteria would not be able to survive, much less advanced life. The chance of advanced life is calculated at one chance in 10 followed by 1,054 zeros.

We are here because of the power of a miraculous creating God. –Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell.

Genesis 1:1–2 (CSB)“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.”

Scientists are taking time to study a new phenomenon in the sky that they call “Steve.” Eric Donovan, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Calgary, is one of the lead researchers. He said the name Stave came from a reference in a move called “Over the Hedge.” A group of animals in the movie are afraid of something unknown, but decide to name it so that is feels less scary to them. Donovan said some scientists think Steve is some sort of aurora similar to the northern lights. He said he is sure Steve is a narrow channel of ionized gas created by dynamics in the Earth’s magnetosphere. Steve appears about three times a month travels westward at over 11,000 miles per hour. Donovan plans to publish a study explaining more about Steve in the near future.–Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

Steve spotted in the sky, by Taylor Ward,

Psalm 89:11 (CSB)“The heavens are yours; the earth also is yours. The world and everything in it—you founded them.”

An unusual signal from space received 40 years ago fueled speculation that it might be evidence of extraterrestrial life. Now, an astronomer believes he has figured out where the unique signal originated. In 1977, astronomer Jerry Ehman observed what he called, “the wow signal,” and hoped it would point to life on other worlds. In 2016, another astronomer Antonio Paris, along with a fellow astronomer suggested the signal was produced by a comet in the inner solar system. Paris said comets have large hydrogen clouds surrounding them that produce the kind of signal detected in 1977. Paris spent four months in late 2017 and early 2017 studying another comet and detected very strong signal just like the one in 1977. Paris’ work showed that comets can create otherworldly signals which will mean future signals will need to be examined very carefully.—Jim L. Wilson & Jim Sandell

http://www.wyff4.com/article/wow-signal-mystery-solved/9988497, Accessed June 7, 2017.

Psalm 8:3 (CSB) “When I observe your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you set in place,”

A group of engineering researchers have examined the reasons why shoelaces become untied in an effort to understand the dynamic forces that cause microstructures to fail. Researchers used a slow motion camera to film a person running on a treadmill to figure out how the knots in shoelaces loosen over time. The study found that a running foot exerts a force seven times greater when landing on the ground than when standing. Each time the force was applied and released stretched the laces slightly and eventually loosened them. At the same time, as the knot loosened the swinging of the laces as the leg moved forward and backward applied an additional force which pulled on the already-loosened knot. The researchers say the forces they recorded act like invisible fingers loosening and tugging on the knot until it fails. Lead researcher Christopher Daily-Diamond, from the University of California at Berkley said, “This is the first step toward understanding why certain knots are better than others, which no one has really done.” —Jim L. Wilson & Jim Sandell

Riddle of why shoelaces come undone solved by scientists,

Colossians 1:17 (CSB) “He is before all things, and by him all things hold together.”

When researchers visited a tiny, uninhabited island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, they were amazed at the amount of trash that had washed up on the beach. The researchers said they found an estimated 38 million pieces of trash on Henderson Island. Almost all of the trash was plastic, consisting of items like toy soldiers, dominos, toothbrushes, and hardhats. The researchers said the density of the trash was the highest recorded anywhere in the world, and they believe the reason is that the island is at the edge of a vortex of currents which tends to capture sand hold floating trash. Lead author of the report, Jennifer Lavers from Australia’s University of Tasmania, said she was mesmerizing to see the variety and colors of plastic littering the island. She added, “The quantity of plastic there is truly alarming. It’s both beautiful and terrifying.” —Jim L. Wilson & Jim Sandell.

Romans 8:21 (CSB) “that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage to decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children.”

Sea creatures that look like large pink thimbles have been working their way north along the pacific coast of the United States have now reached the waters off the coast of Alaska. Scientists say the creatures, called pyrosomes, are filter-feeding creatures typically found along the equator. They had been concerned that the spread of the creatures was related to warming of the ocean, but they have been found in the area even in winter months and have not decreased as the water cooled over the last two years. The pyrosomes are not harmful to humans but can be confusing to those who find them. One local fisherman said, “They were all over out there, they were everywhere…I would say millions, not hundreds of thousands. This is a weird organism, man.”—Jim L. Wilson & Jim Sandell

Strange Sea Creatures' Appearance In Alaska Have Scientists Baffled, Some Concerned, http://www.klove.com/news/2017/07/04/Strange-Sea-Creatures-Appearance-In-Alaska-Have-Scientists-Baffled-Some-Concerned, Accessed June 4, 2017.

Genesis 1:21 (CSB) “So God created the large sea-creatures and every living creature that moves and swarms in the water, according to their kinds. He also created every winged creature according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.”

A beach that disappeared more than 30 years ago reappeared along the rocky coastline of an island of coast of Ireland. The 300-meter beach near the town of Dooagh on Achill Island vanished in 1984 when a storm removed all of the sand, leaving a series of rocky pools. After a series of high tides in the Spring of 2017, residents discovered that the Atlantic Ocean had returned the sand. The local tourism office said the return of the beach was good news because the beach once supported four hotels and other guesthouses along the west coast of the island. Sean Molloy of Achill’s tourism office said, “It’s enormously significant. Achill already has five blue-flag beaches, so we are hoping that in time it will awarded a sixth.”—Jim L. Wilson & Jim Sandell.

Proverbs 8:29 (CSB) “when he set a limit for the sea so that the waters would not violate his command, when he laid out the foundations of the earth.”

The Boeing aircraft corporation and NASA have found an inexpensive way to cut airline fuel bills by using the example of the world’s greatest long-distance aviators: migratory birds. They say air carriers could line aircraft up in the familiar V-shaped formation used by geese. The idea could save airlines 10 to 15 percent on fuel costs without redesigning planes and using existing technology. Boeing says, like geese, a V formation uses wake surfing, taking advantage of the cone-shaped columns of air swirling behind a plane’s wings to give trailing aircraft extra lift and a smoother ride. The company said the idea is still being developed, but has the potential to make air transport more efficient and less expensive.—Jim L. Wilson & Jim Sandell

Boeing copies flying geese to save fuel, by Julie Johnsson,

Job 12:7 (CSB) “But ask the animals, and they will instruct you; ask the birds of the sky, and they will tell you.”

Research indicates that the human brain is hard-wired to recognize facial expressions, and even see faces in the strangest places. As Hurricane Irma made landfall in northern Cuba, meteorologists say they thought they saw a face in the satellite imagery. Senior meteorologist Stu Ostro, from the Weather Channel, said this is the second year it has happened. He said he saw a sinister face as Hurricane Matthew moved away from Haiti last year. This time Ostro tweeted that he saw a face embedded in the imagery of Irma resembling a pig or an elephant. The odd thing is that at the time the face appeared, Irma was inflicting widespread damage in northern Cuba. The face in Matthew appeared after the storm had killed hundreds and triggered a humanitarian disaster in Hispanola. —Jim L. Wilson & Jim Sandell.

Strong winds from Hurricane Irma did a lot of damage across the state of Florida, but one of the biggest losses might be a small tree that sprouted from seeds that went on a mission to the moon. In 1971, hundreds of tree seeds were part of an experiment for Apollo 14. After the spacecraft returned, the seeds got mixed up and could not be used for the intended experiments. Instead, NASA sent the seeds around the country to be planted at bicentennial celebrations. One of them ended up at the visitor complex at NASA headquarters. The staff say the spirit of the tree will live on as the complex continues to tell the story of space exploration. —Jim L. Wilson & Jim Sandell.

Scientists hope to use an array of giant telescopes in the New Mexico desert to create the most detailed map ever of a large portion of space. Instead of taking pictures, the antenna will capture an image of the radio waves from throughout the Milky Way and beyond. Researchers say the Very Large Array on the plains of San Augustin can scan 80 percent of the visible sky and they plan to make three complete scans. They say the images they gather will allow them to detect fine details of gamma ray bursts, supernovas, and other cosmic events better than optical images. Project Director Clair Chandler said the results will provide valuable information for researchers. She added, “In addition to what we think (the survey) will discover, we undoubtedly will be surprised by discoveries we aren’t anticipating now.” —Jim L. Wilson & Jim Sandell.

Giant Antennas In New Mexico Search For Cosmic Discoveries,

Astronomers are intrigued by a distant massive star that exploded in 2014 and apparently exploded before in 1954. In 2014, researchers believed that star was a basic supernova that was getting fainter. Since then, they have observed the star grow brighter, then fade, and grow brighter again. In their researcher they also found evidence suggested the same star also exploded in 1954.

Astrophysicist Iair Arcavi of the University of California, Santa Barbara said most novas fade after 100 days or so, but this one is still going strong. He said the star is believed to have been up to 100 times larger than our sun. Arcavi said this star is unlike anything they have seen before. He added, “Eventually, this star will go out at some point. I mean, energy has to run out eventually.”

Astronomers around the world are trying to identify a small, fast-moving object that passed through our solar system. NASA does not know exactly what the object was or where it came from, but they said based on the trajectory and speed, it may not be from our solar system. If so, it would be the first interstellar object to be observed and confirmed by astronomers. The object was about 400 meters in diameter and passed about 15 million miles from Earth at 15.8 miles per second. Scientists project the object is headed toward the constellation Pegasus and hope they can confirm it originated outside of our local area of space. Davide Farnocchia, a scientist at the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies said, “This is the most extreme orbit I have ever seen. It is going extremely fast and on such a trajectory that we can say with confidence that the object is on its way out of the solar system and not coming back.”—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

Researchers at Penn State University are working to sonify the dynamics of major tropical storms in an effort to understand the threats these storms represent. Mark Ballora, a professor of meteorology, said he is working with a music professor to convert environmental data into music. Instead of looking at a rising and falling line on a graph, the new method creates music containing a rising and falling melody. Ballora said our eyes are good at detecting static properties like color, size or texture, but our ears are better a sensing properties that change and fluctuate. An example would the speed of swirling wind represented with increasing volume and brightness to the music. Ballora and his colleagues have sonified 11 storms so far and they believe experiencing science with more senses may lead to greater understanding of our environment. –Jim Wilson and Jim Sandell

CREATION

A video released by a wildlife park in North Carolina showed how alligators survive extremely cold weather. The video showed alligators frozen in ice with only their snout and a few teeth protruding from the ice. Wildlife experts said the animals get their snouts about water and allow themselves to be frozen into place, entering a state of brumation, which is similar to hibernation. In the state, alligators regulate their body temperature by remaining immobile until the ice melts. Experts at the park said when they are frozen; the alligators will not react if stepped on, and added, “They are trying to conserve energy to maintain body temperature.”—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2018/01/10/how-alligators-survive-in-frozen-pond-will-shock.html

Psalm 104:24 (CSB)
How countless are your works, LORD!
In wisdom you have made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.

A Romanian university wanted to know if it is safe to eat snow, so they conducted an experiment to answer the question. Scientists collected snow from a park and another location in central Romania in January and February, and then tried to grow bacteria and mold in the samples. Istvan Mathe, professor at the Sapientia Hungarian University said he got the idea from watching his children eat snow and the results surprised him. After one day there were five bacteria per millimeter, and the number quadrupled in February. Mathe said fresh snow has little bacteria but microorganisms increase over time because of impurities in the air. He added, "I am not recommending anyone eats snow. Just saying you won't get ill if you eat a bit."—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

For decades, astronomers have theorized that the center of galaxies, including our own, are filled with black holes. The gravity from these collapsed stars is so strong that even light cannot escape. Using x-ray observations, astronomers have found signs of a least a dozen black holes in the inner parts of the Milky Way. They say most black holes can’t be detected that way, so it is possible that there are as many as 10,000 back holes. Columbia University astrophysicist Chuck Hailey said the mass of these dark stars tends to pull them to the center of the galaxy and since there is a lot of dust and gas in that region of space, the center of the galaxy is a perfect place for black hole formation. It’s like a farm where the right conditions exist to produce and maintain a large number of the unusual objects. Hailey noted, “There’s lots of action going on there. The galactic center is a strange place. That’s why people like to study it.”—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

Renowned Cambridge University physicist Stephen Hawking died recently. Scientists credit him with several theories about the universe including black holes. Hawking flatly rejected the reality of a Creator God. He said, “I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers.”

I just have two questions. 1. How in the world did that computer just come into being without a creator? No other computer does. And 2. What kind of good news is that? I much prefer the good news of a creator God who loves me and has provided a place for me for all eternity. That is good news. —Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell.

Researchers have confirmed that the seventh planet from the sun literally stinks. They said they had wondered about the clouds that make up the planet Uranus for a long time. After observing the way sunlight bounced off the planet’s atmosphere, researchers confirmed that the gas in the cloud tops is hydrogen sulfide, one of the smelliest gases known to man. Scientists used a high power telescope located in Hawaii to make the unique discovery. Hydrogen sulfide gas gives rotten eggs their distinct smell and humans can detect it with as little as 3 out of billion molecules in the air. Lead researcher Patrick Irwin observed, “If an unfortunate human were ever to descend through Uranus’s clouds, they would be met with very unpleasant and odoriferous conditions.”—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

Nancy Pearcey is The Scholar in Residence at Houston Baptist University. She is a vocal proponent of Intelligent Design and attributes much of the sexual and gender confusion in our culture to the lack of a belief in a designed order to nature. In her new book, Love Thy Body: Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality, she states that “Nature has an order, a plan, a purpose, a design. And we are happier and healthier when we live in accord with that design.”

The situations we are facing today, the norming of homosexuality, the dysphoria of gender identity, are related to the acceptance of the notion that nature is a product of blind material forces which logically ends up with a low view of the body. She says, “The implication is that the body has no intrinsic purpose, and therefore the mind can use it for its own purposes.”

To fight this ethic, we must see that living things are structured for a purpose. “Eyes are for seeing, ears are for hearing, fins are for swimming, and wings are for flying.” DNA has proven that every cell in the body is governed by a genetic code, language, and information.

Our bodies are designed for a purpose, and we don’t get to choose what that purpose is. It is built into our genetic code. Men are men, women are women, boys are boys, and girls are girls. If we are designed by our creator, we are designed for His purpose. —Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell.

European astronomers said they have captured the first image of a new planet forming in the swirling dust surrounding a young star. The planet appears as a bright spot in the picture that taken using a telescope in Chile. Miriam Kepler of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany said researchers had seen hints of developing planets before, but could not be sure the observations were not just features in the dust clouds. Kepler added the planet is a gas giant bigger than Jupiter and is located about 1.8 billion miles from a star known as PDS 70. They estimate the baby planet has a cloudy atmosphere and a surface temperature over 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit.—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.

A herd of 16 cows helped Florida police capture a suspect who jumped out of crashed car and tried to escape. A sheriff’s helicopter captured the incident on video and the crew guided officers on the ground. At one point, a member of the helicopter crew told officers on the ground, “If you see a large group of cows, they’re literally following her.” The cows eventually ran the suspect, Jennifer Kaufman into a fence, where police were waiting to arrest her. Police say the case is interesting because both suspects were captured with the help of animals. A second suspect in the car was captured by a K-9 officer.—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

For the creation was subjected to futility—not willingly, but because of him who subjected it—in the hope that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage to decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children.

NASA is asking the public for help make space travel easier. Monsi Roman, program manager for NASA’s Centennial Challenges program said they are making up to one million dollars available for the team that can find a way to turn carbon dioxide into glucose. Roman said the process is basically what plants do in photosynthesis and finding a way to reproduce the process artificially would allow space travelers to turn a plentiful resource into a variety of useful products that could be used to produce food. The first phase involves submitting ideas and the second would be demonstrating the idea actually works. Roman said, “Enabling sustained human life on another planet will require a great deal of resources and we cannot possibly bring everything we will need. We have to get creative.” –Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/nasa-opens-million-public-contest-turn-carbon-dioxide/story?id=57591058

Every creature that lives and moves will be food for you; as I gave the green plants, I have given you everything.

Astronomers with the Breakthrough Listen project are using machine leaning techniques to help them understand unknown space phenomena. The project is part of an effort to look for signs of intelligent life in space, but also investigate unknown events. Researchers are using new computer techniques to investigate a series of light pulses called fast radio bursts or FRBs. The latest FBs occurred in August, 2017 and appeared to originate in a dwarf galaxy about 3 billion light years away. Using the new technology, researchers discovered that a total of 93 flashes occurred that day, far more than the 21 originally detected. Some scientists believe the FRBs are generated by fast-rotating neutron stars, but their source is not certain. This particular source has repeatedly sent light pulses, which no other source has done. Gerry Zhang from UC Berkeley said that though researchers still do not know what FRBs are, “the artificial intelligence approach employed in the new study could lead to a variety of advances down the road.”—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

Residents of a French town said their community became infested with moths. A videographer captured the insects on video which shows thousands of boxwood moths swarming a neighborhood in the town of Oyonnax. The moths are seen flying through the air, circling a tree, and perching on the window of a home. The photographer said he and his partner were shocked by the size of the insect swarm. He thought the bugs were likely attracted by lights in the city. He said, “The moths are particularly concentrated in our village – especially at night because of these street lights.”—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

Two astronomers from Columbia University are suggesting the existence of a moon around a world far out in space. Alex Teachey and David Kipping said the moon is considerably larger than Earth, and the planet it orbits is larger than Jupiter. Though researchers have found evidence of planets outside our solar system, this would the first evidence of exomoons. The evidence the researchers based their findings on was gathered by the Hubble Space Telescope while looking at a star system around 8,000 light years away.—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

A Boston-based company will auction a twelve-pound lunar meteorite found in Northwest Africa. Authorities expect it could sell for more than $500,000. The rock classified as NWA 11789, also known as “Buagaba” was found in a remote area of Mauritania in 2017, but likely fell to Earth centuries ago. It is composed of six segments that fit together like a puzzle, with the largest piece weighing about six pounds. Geoff Notkin, of television’s “Meteorite Men” said most lunar meteorites are the size of a walnut of golf ball, which makes this lunar rock a real find. He said, “This is the only way a private collector can get their hands on a piece of the moon because the moon rocks brought back by astronauts are U.S. government property,”—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.

In the continual search of the heavens, astronomers believe they may have discovered a long-hypothesized ninth large planet lurking somewhere far beyond Pluto. This planet, if it exists, would be a massive large planet. Scientists believe it is there because of the clustered orbits of three smaller dwarf planets in the outer solar system.

Our universe is an incredibly large, complex, mysterious place. Every new discovery proclaims the glory of God in ways far more extensive than the Psalmist ever imagined. Every report from the heavens deserves praise from every creature that has breath. —Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell.

Psalm 19:1 (CSB) “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the expanse proclaims the work of his hands.”

An Irish wildlife park said a pair of giant pelicans that flew out of their enclosure last summer returned home several months later. The Fota Wildlife Park said the great white pelicans flew to freedom despite having their wings clipped to prevent their escape. After 21 weeks on the loose, they returned by themselves. Great white pelicans are native to Africa, Asia, and Europe and have been known to fly 300 miles in a day.

https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2019/01/03/Pelicans-fly-home-months-after-Irish-zoo-escape/4811546530843/?sl=9

Psalm 50:11 (CSB)“I know every bird of the mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine.”

In an article published in the journal Nature Astronomy, Chinese and Australia scientists have released an updated three dimensional map of the Milky Way galaxy. They used using 1,339 pulsating stars bigger and brighter than our sun to map the shape of the galaxy. They found that further from the center of the galaxy, the more warping or twisting there is in the outer disc of hydrogen gas. Researchers think the warped spiral pattern is caused by the spinning force of the massive inner disc of stars. The lead researcher from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing said it is difficult to determine the distance from the sun to the Milky Way’s fringes without knowing what the shape of the disc is. He said at least a dozen other galaxies appear to similar warped edges, so our galaxy is not unique.—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

Psalm 33:6 (CSB)⁶ The heavens were made by the word of the Lord, and all the stars, by the breath of his mouth.

The village of Fair Haven, Vermont has elected an unusual new mayor, a 3-year-old Nubian goat named Lincoln. Town Manager Joe Gunther explained that the village does not have a human mayor, but they choose to elect an animal as a fundraiser for a new playground. Residents could nominate their pets for the office in exchange for a $5 donation to the playground fundraiser. Lincoln defeated the second place candidate, a dog, by two votes. Lincoln will serve for one year and his duties will include marching in parades. Gunther said that in addition to funding for playground equipment, the election was an educational opportunity for the students to learn about civics. He said the local children were invited to, “Come out and vote. Get involved in the town.” –Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.

Psalm 8:6–7 (CSB)“You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: ⁷ all the sheep and oxen, as well as the animals in the wild,”

NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured a picture revealing remarkable atmospheric features in the northern hemisphere of the planet Jupiter. The picture showed swirling clouds surrounding a circular feature within the planet’s jet stream region called “JetN6.” When the image was rotated 100 degrees to the right, many observers said it looked a lot like a painting by Vincent Van Gogh. The photo was taken as the spacecraft made its 18^th close flyby of Jupiter passing about 8,000 miles above the tops of the clouds.—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.

Psalm 102:25 (CSB) “Long ago you established the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.”

For the first time since forecasters began recording data in Los Angeles 132 years ago, the city failed to reach a high of 70 degrees for the month of February in 2019. The average high for the month was 61 degrees, significantly lower than the historical February average of 68 degrees. That means February 2019 was the eighth-coldest on record. Meteorologists said the reason was back-to-back storms and no offshore flows during the month. The cold weather meant that many restaurants designed to take advantage of California’s temperate climate and sunshine had to make changes. The manager of one restaurant said, “I’m trying to have the waiters and hostesses wear warmer clothing, but I have one heater set up right by the host stand so they don’t catch cold. “ –Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

Genesis 8:22 (CSB)“As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.”

The number of people believing in Islam in parts of the world is staggering. In Afghanistan it is 99.7 percent. In Iran 99.4 percent, Algeria 99 percent, Somalia 99 percent, Niger 98 percent, Azerbaijan 97 percent, Libya 97 percent, Saudi Arabia 97 percent, Djibouti 97 percent, Sudan 97 percent, Senegal 96 percent, Gambia 95 percent, Mali 95 percent. Since the number of inhabitants of those countries is so overwhelming, they are likely to be right because how could so many people be wrong?

We know that those are the percentages because in these countries there are laws against blasphemy and apostasy. Prison is the penalty for any who criticize Muhammad or abandon Islam. Because of the penalties, some poll respondents probably lie. Many have never heard an argument against Islam from sources they consider reliable.

The same situation exists among scientists and the belief in evolution. Eighty-seven percent of scientists agree with this statement: “Humans and other living things have evolved over time due to natural processes.” But very few of them have done experiments related to the evolution debate. They are basing their response on what their professors and deans have told them. Given the penalties for not towing the line, loss of career, ridicule from the establishment, it is no easy thing to disagree with the statement. Yet at the current time, over 1,000 Ph.D. scientists have signed the “Scientific Dissent from Darwinism” list. The list is available online at dissentfromdarwin.org.

Michael Behe, Darwin Devolves: The New Science About DNA That Challenges Evolution

Don’t be led astray by the mullahs of materialism. They are propagating a religion, not science. —Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell.

Canadian police said a moose they tried to lead back to the safety of the woods, helped them find a stolen vehicle. Authorities received several calls about a moose headed south in the St. John’s area. Police attempted to direct the animal back to a wooded area, but it kept slipping away from them. Authorities said in the pursuit they found a car they recognized had been reported stolen the previous day. Though authorities recovered the vehicle, they did not get the moose to comply. It was last seen running into a wooded area on the south side of town. –Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

Psalm 36:6 (CSB)“Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your judgments like the deepest sea. Lord, you preserve people and animals.”

NASA has placed a new type of atomic clock in orbit that could transform the way humans explore space. The Deep Space Atomic Clock is better than atomic clocks currently in use. The new device will provide more accurate information about a vehicle’s path through space because it can accurately measure time in billionths of a second. The Deep Space clock uses specially isolated mercury atoms that will lose less than a nanosecond after four days and be accurate to a microsecond after ten years. Testing on the reliability of the new system began as some as the clock reached orbit. Scientists expect that it will prove to be more than 50 times more accurate than the clocks currently used in GPS satellites.—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

Psalm 90:12 (CSB) “Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts.”

Jesus said the second greatest commandment, after loving God, is to love others as ourselves. Philosophy professor Costica Bradatan said that goes against human predisposition. What is natural for us is seeking to survive and reproduce. “For that purpose, we assert ourselves, relentlessly, savagely, against others. We push them aside, overstep them, overthrow them, even crush them if necessary.”

If we are simply the latest evolution of humans this may make sense. If we are the unique creation of a God who loves us and calls us to love others, it makes no sense at all. I choose to believe I can be a better person than Professor Bradatan expects. –Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell.

Matthew 22:37–39 (CSB) “He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Ethiopian officials said more than 350 million trees were planted in a single day as part of a tree planting campaign. Getahun Mekruia, the country’s minister of innovation and technology, said the seedlings were planted with a 12-hour period as part of a Green legacy initiative. He said they are working to get the event recognized by Guinness World Records. The goal of the green initiative is to plant 4 billion new trees in the country during 2019.—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.

https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2019/07/30/Ethiopia-plants-more-than-350-million-trees-in-a-single-day/2741564513722/?sl=21

The more we learn about our universe, the bigger we recognize it to be. Our Earth, once thought to be the center of the solar system, has become only a particle of dust in the great scheme of things. It’s a middling satellite of an insignificant star on an arm of a massive spiral inside a galaxy that’s merely one of countless others.

Science, steeped in materialism, is unable to find God in space or time. But if God is who He says He is, He made space and time. Bigness and smallness are works of His hands. The bigger the universe, the bigger God is. No wonder we cannot find him in our small world. –Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell.

For years, astronomers have noticed an unexplained wobble in the orbits of distant objects. Many have suggested the cause is an unknown distant planet beyond the orbit of Neptune. If it exists, this object would require a mass ten times that of Earth, and take up to 20,000 years to orbit the sun. A team of scientists from Durham University think the object might be a tiny black hole. The object could b so dense it might only be the size of a bowling ball, and all but invisible to observers on Earth. They plan to search for bursts of gamma radiation that would be a telltale sign of a black hole. They say if the object exists, it is in a region known as the Kuiper Belt and is too small to pose a threat to Earth for now.—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

The heavens, indeed the highest heavens, belong to the Lord your God, as does the earth and everything in it.

A new law taking effect in the capital of Australia requires dog owners to walk their animals or face a fine up to $2,700. The ACT Animal Welfare Legislation Amendment Bill requires pet owners to make sure their animals have adequate food, shelter, and water, It also requires them to walk their dogs at least once a day. The law states that owners must ensure dog that are confined for 24 hours be allowed to move freely for two hours. When asked about the law, ACT city Service Minister Christ Steel said, “Modern animal welfare is about considering how an animal is coping both mentally and physically with the conditions in which it lives.”—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

A new study found that series of earthquakes around Ridgecrest California in the summer of 2019 ruptured a series of interconnected faults and increased strain on a major fault that has begun to move. The quakes that began July 4 in the Mojave desert began with a 6.4 quake, that was followed a 7.1 magnitude quake the next day, and then by more than 100,000 aftershocks. It is the best documented earthquake swarm in history. Researchers discovered the Garlock Fault which has been quiet for 500 years began to creep and moved .8 inches in 4 months. Zachary Ross, assistant professor of geophysics at Cal Tech developed a computer analysis of data to track the aftershocks and then linked then with satellite maps which mapped ruptures at the surface. Ross said, “The Ridgecrest sequence adds evidence of a more complex process. It’s going to force people to think hard about how we quantify seismic hazard and whether our approach to defining faults needs to change.” –Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

Kate Marvel, a scientist writing for ScientificAmerican.com, believes that we live on a miracle. “We are improbable life on a perfect planet. A flower in a garden is an exquisite thing, rooted in soil formed from old rocks broken by weather. It breathes in sunlight and carbon dioxide and conjures its food as if by magic. For the flower to exist, a confluence of extraordinary things must happen. It needs land and air and light and water, all in the right proportion, and all at the right time. Pick it, isolate it, and watch it wither. Flowers, like people, cannot grow alone.”

The scientist falls short of saying these things exist because of the great miracle worker—God. —Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell.

Then God said, “Let the earth produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds.” And it was so. The earth produced vegetation: seed-bearing plants according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

A stray dog is being called a hero after a passing motorist found the dog protecting a litter of kitten on a cold Canadian night. Authorities said the driver spotted the dog, named Serenity, curled up on the side of the road. When he stopped to check he found the dog curled up around five newborn kittens. He called the Pet and Wildlife Rescue who came and rescued the animals. All of them were judged to be in good condition and the kittens were taken to a foster home until they were old enough to adopt. Serenity was put up for adoption and found a new home shortly after. Authorities said the temperatures were so cold that night that if Serenity had not protected the kittens, they would not have survived.—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

Dan Levine was heartbroken when he lost the wedding ring his wife had custom designed for him. He was swimming Cornwall England when the ring fell of his finger. He feared he would never see it again, but put a post on Facebook asking for people to get in touch if they happened to find it while snorkeling or spear fishing in the area. Levine’s social media message eventually reached Gary and Emma Spires who were visiting the beach one day after Levine lost the ring. Spires saw a fish splashing around and knelt enough to see the ring beneath a small ledge in shallow water. Levine’s message enabled him to return the ring to its owner. In his thank you response, Levine thanked the couple and the helpful sea creature. He wrote, “Thanks, little fish.”—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.

In Toledo, Ohio KC Ahlers’ son was born with a rare medical condition. In a desperate attempt to raise money for medical care he posted a flyer near a mall asking for donations. Someone posted a sign next to the flyer that read: “Stop asking for money. Let the baby die. It’s called Darwinism. Happy Holidays.”

This is a perfect contrast between the grace and mercy of a loving God and the harsh attitude of the evolutionist. At least the person who posted the sign is honest about where his philosophy leads. “Survival of the fittest. Let the weak die.” —Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell.

For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

Betelgeuse is one of the brightest starts in the sky. It forms the right shoulder of the constellation Orion and is 650 light years from Earth. It is a large star, about 15 times more massive than our sun. Astronomers tell us that Betelgeuse is dying. The ninth brightest star in the sky in October has dropped out of the top 20 brightest stars. That rapid change suggests Betelgeuse is entering its final life stage. At some point it will collapse on itself and explode into a super nova. When that happens, it will be brighter in our sky than the moon, and it will be visible night and day.

Orion is a constellation mentioned in the Old Testament books of Job and Amos. Humans have been aware of Betelgeuse for at least 3500 years. God was there when it began, He was the creator. He will be there when it flames out. If it should happen while we live, which is highly unlikely, it could take it another 100,000 years, we should look to Isaiah’s call to worship the creator of all the stars. —Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell.

After traveling beyond the orbit of Pluto, the New Horizon’s spacecraft continues to send back data about distant objects in space. The spacecraft encountered what scientists originally called a space snowman. They said the 22-mile long object resembles a snow man and is likely made up of methane. It would appear dark brown to the naked eye and is roughly the size of a city. The data indicates the object is not flat like originally thought, but consists of two flattened spheres which resemble M&Ms. Scientists say they did not find rings or satellites, and think that since there are only a few craters visible on the surface, the object dates to the formation of the solar system. The object is approximately 3.5 billion miles away from Earth. Scientist said they hope to send future missions to study objects like the Space Snowman in greater detail.—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.

https://ww2.klove.com/news/fun-unusual/nasa-s-space-snowman-reveals-secrets-few-craters-ultrared-frozen-methane-9395

A wildlife photographer on safari on the island of Borneo captured a unique picture that appears to show a wild orangutan offering a helping hand to a park warden. Anil Prabhakar and some friends were being guided through a sanctuary for endangered animals, when the warden leading them went ahead to clear snakes from some muddy water ahead of them. The orangutan saw the warden in the water and came to the edge, reaching out his hand as if to say “May I help you?” Since wild animals can be unpredictable, the warden circled around and climbed out by himself, but the event created a unique photo opportunity. Officials said that since venomous snakes are one of the few dangers to the orangutans, it is possible the animal knew the danger of being in that water and wanted to help. Reflecting on the picture, Prabkahar said, “I just grabbed the moment. It was really emotional.”—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/wild-orangutan-offers-hand-to-man-in-snake-infested-waters/?utm_campaign=newsletters&utm_medium=weekly_mailout&utm_source=12-02-2020

Animal rescuers in Britain said a man who brought a stray puppy home from a construction site was surprised to discover that the animal was actually a fox cub. Authorities said the worker found the baby animal at a site and took it to his home. The worker said he initially thought he found an abandoned puppy and could not find its mother. When he got home a neighbor suggested that the animal might be a fox cub, and he called rescue authorities. A spokesperson for the animal rescue organization said it is not unusual for female foxes to let their older cubs wander for a while and then get them later. They plan to keep the cub until it is older and then eventually return it to the wild. –Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

Jesus told him, “Foxes have dens, and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

Sisters Susan and Kim Churchwell were worried when they discovered that their 8-year-old emu had escaped by unlatching a gate. They asked neighbors to watch for the big flightless bird. The next day a neighbor reported seeing a large bird running through the sprinkler in their yard, so the family rushed over to pick her up. They said the bird, named Darwin, had escaped before, but was usually cooperative about going back home afterwards. Susan Churchwell said the ongoing coronavirus pandemic made the latest escape seem more than unusual. She said, “I think if anything crazy is going to happen, it will happen right now” She observed, “People think emus are not very smart, but people don’t give them enough credit.” Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

In May 2020, many residents of Washington State reported seeing a streak light on the evening sky, followed by a loud booming sound. Several people said the boom was so powerful that it shook their houses. Bob Lundsford from the American Meteor Society said he suspected the event was related to a fireball, a meteor that is larger and brighter than normal. He speculated the fireball exploded high in the atmosphere, generating the sound which took a couple of minutes to reach the ground. He noted that the sighting coincided with the annual Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower which occurs as the Earth passes through debris from Haley’s Comet. Lundsford said, “The more I read, the more inclined I am to believe this was a fireball. I’m certain now that this was a meteoric event.—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

NASA has announced that the launch of successor to the Hubble Space telescope has delayed again due to technical issues and the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Officials said the James ebb Space Telescope is now scheduled to launch at the end of October 2021. The new telescope is designed to look further into space and further back in time than any other spacecraft. It was originally scheduled to launch more than ten years ago but has seen several setbacks along the way. Officials said there are several tests they want to run to make sure all systems work properly before they send the telescope into space. The latest delay due to coronavirus will be at least three months because of work restrictions by the main contractor in California. NASA associate Administrator Steve Jurczyk said, “Mission success is critical, but team safety is our highest priority.”—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

CREATION

Between November 2019 and February 2020, scientists watching the distant star Betelgeuse (pronounced Beetle juice) believed they were observing the beginning of the final days of the red supergiant star. The star dimmed dramatically, and astronomers thought the massive sun was about to explode and become a supernova. They turned the Hubble space telescope to look at the star and discovered another reason for the dimming light. The telescope spotted a large mass of hot, bright material moving outward from the southern hemisphere of the star. The material cooled as it moved into space, forming a dust cloud that obscured the star’s light. Scientists say the star got brighter after a few months but began to dim again in the late summer of 2020. They think the star may still be nearing a destructive explosion and will turn the Hubble toward it again in hopes of learning more about the star’s fate. –Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.

https://www.cnet.com/news/nasa-telescope-uncovers-the-cause-of-betelgeuse-star-mysterious-dimming/

Isaiah 40:26 (CSB)

Look up and see!

Who created these?

He brings out the stars by number;

he calls all of them by name.

Because of his great power and strength,

not one of them is missing.

British authorities said a royal tradition of counting swans along the River Thames was cancelled in 2020 due to coronavirus fears. The so-called Swan Upping usually involves measuring, weighing, and checking swans and is considered a royal affair because Queen Elizabeth II owns all unmarked swans according to a custom dating back to 1186. Swans were an important source of food in the 12th century, but the tradition continues today because it has helps with wildlife conservation and educational purposes. A website dedicated to the annual event said, “Cygnets are extremely vulnerable at this early stage in their development and Swan Upping affords an opportunity to help both adults and cygnets that might otherwise go untreated.” –Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

During the cold Texas winter weather in 2021, volunteers came together to rescue thousands of sea turtles paralyzed by the cold. Many of those who came to help had no electricity or water in their own homes, but they came together to rescue the helpless turtles. Typically, turtles move to warmer water when the weather gets cold, but the winter weather was so cold and widespread, they had nowhere to go. Most of the animals were taken to a place where they could be kept warm on tarps inside facilities belonging to rescue organizations, with donated generators providing power to keep the buildings warm. One volunteer said, “It’s a huge, huge community effort. With this kind of event, it’s a classic display of humanity toward animals.” –Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.

A wildlife camera in California captured footage of a mother bald eagle keeping her eggs warm while covered in several inches of snow. The Nest Cam in Big Bear was set up by a wildlife group can shows a bald eagle, nicknamed Jackie covered in three or four inches of fresh snow as she tended to her eggs. The eagle and her mate had protected the eggs since they were laid nearly a month before the snowstorm and much of their journey had been documented by the camera. The group said they were hopeful the eggs would hatch and they could also capture that footage as well. –Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

Officials at Death Valley National Park said they hope to capture a goat seen wandering in the California section of the park. A tourist spotted the goat near Stovepipe Wells and shared a picture with park officials. Rangers immediately went to area to find the non-native animal and remove it from the park. Officials said they want to find the animal for two reasons. First, a domesticated animal would not likely survive the intense heat during the summer month. Secondly, domestic goats are known to be a carrier of a respiratory disease that can be fatal to the bighorn sheep that live in the park. ---Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

“What man among you, who has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open field and go after the lost one until he finds it?

Currently scientific understanding suggests four basic forces govern daily activities, gravity electromagnetism, the strong force and the weak force. Finds from research at a laboratory near Chicago has uncovered the possibility of a new sub-atomic particle or new force, known as a muon. Researchers admit there is a possibility the discovery could be a statistical fluke, but they hope there will be enough evidence to cross the threshold of statistical significance and prove the force exists. Scientists believe the muon is a fundamental particle of matter that is like an electron but about 200 times heavier. Professor Mark Lancaster from the University of Manchester said there is evidence than the behavior of muons did not fit the current theory explaining how the building blocks of matter typically behave. He added, “Clearly, this is very interesting because it potentially points to a future with new laws of physics, new particles and a new force which we have not seen to date.”—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and incomprehensible things you do not know.

The Voyager-1 spacecraft, which left our solar system in 2012 continues to send information from interstellar space. The latest data has uncovered a “hum” generated by interstellar gas, known as plasma. Instruments on Voyager recorded a drone produced by plasma, the fourth state of matter that makes up roughly 99 percent of the universe. Cornell doctoral student Stella Koch Ocker uncovered the faint emission while studying data coming in from more than 14 billion miles away. Ocker said “It’s very faint and monotone because it is in a narrow frequency bandwidth. We’re detecting the faint, persistent hum of interstellar gas.”—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.

A Chick-fil-A restaurant in Brownsville Texas welcomed a duck when it chose to nest in their parking lot. The establishment used their social media page to report that the duck, named Daisy, was living in the parking lot, and asked guests to say hello, but be respectful of her home. The restaurant posted updates showing the bird eating corn and weathering a big storm that moved through the area. The social media posts helped attract customers and also protected Daisy’s nest so well that Chick-fil-A was able to report that she had even hatched her first duckling. They were hopeful there might be more in the future. —Jim Wilson and Jim Sandell

Consider the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they?

Florida Highway Patrol officials said a very unusual lightning strike occurred along westbound Interstate 75 in Broward County. Authorities said a Nissan vehicle was traveling along the highway during a thunderstorm and a bolt of lightning struck the vehicle’s antenna and traveled through the electrical system before connecting with the road and leaving a 7-foot-long-4-inch-wide gouge in the pavement beneath. The 48-year-old driver of the car was not injured, but the highway patrol reported the vehicle had to be towed from the sight and highway crews were sent to repair the damage to the highway. —Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

A Russian nature reserve said a camera disguised as a piece of tree bark to get candid shots of animals in action, was accidentally destroyed by a woodpecker. In a social media post, Nizhne-Svirsky nature Reserve in Leningrad Oblast said the black woodpecker, nicknamed Zhelna, was hunting for insects when it unintentionally vandalized the camera. They shared video of the bird methodically pecking at the camera until it broke. The Reserve said the camera had been removed for repairs and could be out of service for a while. The post said, “Zhelna quickly discovered the camouflaged device and for several days methodically hit the camera.” –Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

Scientists studying the behavior patterns of cats call a feline’s shifting their front paws back and forth before they settle down, kneading because it looks like they are kneading dough to make biscuits. They said the behavior is a sign that the cat is relaxed and displaying affection to nearby people. The behavior begins after cats are born and is used by kittens to communicate with their mother that they are hungry and ready to suckle. The behavior often continues as cats get older, and researchers suspect it can be a form of communication between cats and people. The animals could by using sweat glands in their paws to mark a favorite sleeping spot, but researchers say it indicates something more. They believe cats are more subtle than other animals in their ways of communicating affection. Kneading could be a clue that a cat is telling a person “I like you.”—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

When witnesses recorded what appeared to be an African serval cat wandering in Pinetops, North Carolina, residents were confused about where it came from. The owner of a local petting zoo later confirmed that the cat was an escapee named King Sparta. The owner said the serval was quickly recaptured and taken back to the zoo. They said surveillance video revealed a pig had dug into the cat’s enclosure looking for food and allowed the serval to escape. —Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2021/07/14/African-serval-Its-A-Zoo-Life-escape-King-Sparta-pig/3331626280113/

While some found the emergence of billions of cicadas in the spring and summer of 2021 annoying, David Rothenberg, a professor of philosophy and music at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, used the opportunity for man and nature to work together. While the insects swarmed all around, Rothenberg and other musicians played the clarinet, percussion, and saxophone using the trill of the cicadas as a guide. He claimed he could distinguish and follow the distinct sounds produced by three species of the insects. Rothenberg has written other compositions accompanied by bird calls and the song of whales. He said, “We’re combining human musical ideas with nature’s musical ideas.” He added, “Some people, of course think I’m crazy, like it’s just this gimmick. [But} it’s serious stuff that nature has inspired humanity and all art forms more than anything else for centuries.”—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music with your heart to the Lord,

A study by University of Arizona behavioral ecologist Jennifer Verdolin has found that prairie dogs, which are found across the central and western United States, rely on social networks to outwit predators, find food, and protect one another. Verdolin has studied the rodents for nearly two decades and describes them as underdogs. She said everything eats them, but they remain tough and observant. Though they seem simple they have a unique language and several dialects. Verdolin said the key is observing what she termed “greet kisses.” Though they do not have a hierarchy in their colonies, the animals demonstrate connection through this kissing activity. Animals that greet each other with a kiss don’t fight afterwards which means they belong to the same social group and territory. She added, “All you need to do is watch. The more times they’ve kissed, the stronger the connection.” –Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

https://www.klove.com/news/tech-science/they-have-unique-language-dialects-prairie-dog-greet-kisses-reveal-complex-social-networks-26578

Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ send you greetings.

A New Zealand couple found a massive potato weighing more than 17 pounds when they cleared out the vegetable garden at the end of the season. Colin and Donna Craig-Brown said they were not sure what they had found under a few inches of dirt. The Craig-Browns think the potato might have been growing in the garden for a couple of years and they had missed it previously. After removing the large spud which they named ‘Doug,’ the couple applied to have it recognized by Guinness World Records. Their research indicted the current world record holder was an 11-pound potato grown in Great Britain in 2011. Colin admitted the garden can be a wild place. He said, “There are parts of the garden you need to pack a lunch and advise your next of kin before heading in to.”—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

More than two dozen ships that were sunk during a famous battle in World War II have been raised to the surface by an underwater volcano. Helicopter footage from a Japanese news agency shows 24 ships washed ashore on the western side of the island of Iwo Jima, which is about 750 miles south of Tokyo. U.S. forces sank the ships during the battle in 1945. The 36-day assault on Iwo Jima saw 70,000 U.S. Marines battle 20,000 Japanese soldiers hiding in bunkers on the island. Tens of thousands were killed in the fighting and the ships were deliberately destroyed by U.S. Navy to form a breakwater which shielded weapons and troops from the waves as they were unloaded onto the island. Authorities think the ships and the raised seabed will remain visible for a while but will most likely sunk beneath the waves when the volcanic activity begins to wane. —Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell

David Hole found an interesting rock near Melbourne Australia in 2015. He hoped the heavy red rock contained gold because he found it in a layer of yellow clay near one of the country’s well known gold fields. Hole tried to open the rock, but found rock saws, sledgehammers, and acid could not make a dent in the surface. He decided to take the 35 pounds red rock to the Melbourne Museum to see if they could figure out what it was. Geologist Dermot Henry identified the rock as a rare an iron meteorite. Henry said the rock was more valuable than gold because it is one of only 17 meteorites found in the state of Victoria. Henry estimated the rock had been on earth between 100 and 1,000 years. He said it was the second largest chondritic mass found, and added, “Looking at the chain of events, it’s quiet, you might say, astronomical it being discovered at all.”—Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell