Science & You
51 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 2 years ago - ★★★★★ - 1 ratingVisible creation showing the invisible God. A scientist discuses evidence that God exists and its implications for the Christian faith.
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Episodes
Episode #50 Preview of Science & You Season 2
October 13, 2021 02:32 - 3 minutes - 8.17 MBThis is a quick review of Season 1 and how to locate the actual published articles. Then I outline my plan for Season 2 and describe how Season 2 differs from Season 1. So, if you found Season 1 interesting, I do hope that you will continue to listen and think with me about ideas in both faith and science in Season 2 of Science & You. See you soon!.
Episode #49 Conspiracy of Reason - Why Should It Be So?
October 09, 2021 19:21 - 5 minutes - 13.6 MBSome of the most difficult questions to answer are often the simplest to pose. For example, "Why?" is often impossible to answer. Many have made the observation that the universe and all physical, chemical and biological processes can be understood mathematically, and their mathematical descriptions have a surprising level of consistency to the real world they are intended to represent. There exists, then, this conspiracy of reason in the understanding of the universe. But why should it ...
Episode #48 Problem & Solution: Circulation - Insert Miracle Here
October 09, 2021 19:08 - 5 minutes - 13.5 MBAnimals and people that use a closed circulatory system under positive pressure from the heart face a problem. How to supply every single cell of the body with oxygen and remove metabolic waste? The reason this is problematic is that as the size of a blood vessel decreases, its resistance to the flow of fluid within it increases. If blood were simply water, the heart could not generate the pressure needed to push it through vessels the size of capillaries. This is just a physical fact. ...
Episode #47 Pre-Biological Fitness - The Water Cycle
October 09, 2021 18:46 - 5 minutes - 13 MBWater makes our planet habitable and life possible. It does so through many unique properties, one of which is the ability to both absorb and dispense heat energy. The water cycle is one key way that heat is moved from warm climates to cooler ones, helping to maintain world-wide temperatures within the range suitable for life. Water is the perfect substance to absorb, store, circulate, and dispense heat on a worldwide basis. These physical properties are what Wiker and Witt call "pre-bio...
Episode #46 Problem/Solution - Navigation by Magnetoreception
October 09, 2021 18:31 - 6 minutes - 14.9 MBA number of animals have the ability to sense the earth's magnetic field and to orient and move in relation to it. It seems that navigating using this magnetoreception sense is an elegant solution to the problem of finding one's way through an otherwise featureless environment like the ocean, but one that not all sea or land creatures share. Could this same sense have evolved separately in different animal species in response to similar problems? Or is it an example of selective and intel...
Episode #45 Scientific Secrets
October 07, 2021 21:08 - 5 minutes - 13.1 MBScience has many secrets. Not deep, dark, conspiratorial secrets, but practical secretes that are well-known to trained scientists yet not often revealed to the public. Scientists like to project an aura of authority and calm, unbiased rationality, which might be in jeopardy if these "secrets" were widely appreciated. This is especially true in a world where scientific proof is expected and where scientific arguments influence everyday life. Uplook Magazine, January-February 2010, p.20....
Episode #44 Fish Food
October 07, 2021 21:00 - 5 minutes - 12.8 MBUsing both plants and animals for food by humans is supported by both the Bible and Biology. The biological truth is that animals themselves live off the death of other living things, be they plants or other animals. In this sense, death is essential for life because death provides the building blocks and fuel for life. In many of its films, Disney promotes a fictitious view of nature. Case in point is Bruce, the great white shark in Finding Nemo, goes to a recovery group where he is tau...
Episode #43 The New Straw Man
October 06, 2021 18:06 - 5 minutes - 12.4 MBKnocking down the "straw man" is a common debating technique. An opposing view is first described as challenging what everyone knows is true, then showing it is in fact true, and then highlighting how silly it is to believe what the opponent is said to believe. Some people, including a few Christians, seem to think the world is flat. It isn't. But believing this concept opens Christians as a whole to needless ridicule. In a discussion on the origins of life, what is needed is thoughtful...
Episode #42 Living in the Light Part 2
October 05, 2021 18:14 - 5 minutes - 13.1 MBPart 2 of Living in the Light answers the question about whether the first people, continuously exposed to sunlight during daylight hours, would have faced and increase risk of skin cancer and which type of light is badly needed in our lives today. Uplook Magazine September 2012, p.30.
Episode #41 Living in the Light Part 1
October 04, 2021 17:44 - 5 minutes - 12.7 MBAfter camping in the outdoors it sometimes feels strange to return to living in a box with artificial light. The Bible tells us people were meant to live outside, wearing only our skin. Humans need a certain amount of sunlight because our skin makes vitamin D in response to sun exposure. Because of the way we live now, most people are vitamin D and calcium deficient. So likely the first two humans had plenty of vitamin D, but did they also have a lot of skin cancer? Uplook Magazine July...
Episode #40 Darwin, You Have Failed Us!
October 04, 2021 17:22 - 5 minutes - 13.6 MBSince the rise of Darwinism in the mid 1800's, and almost universal acceptance of evolutionary theory today, not all intelligent people are persuaded to place their faith in the theory. The sad truth is that the theory has failed to provide a sufficient basis for human morality and justice, for the purpose and value of individual people, and an enduring basis for just government, economics, politics and human freedom. Professor Short was unable to change the beliefs of any of his 150 medic...
Episode #39 The Power of Prediction
October 04, 2021 17:09 - 6 minutes - 13.8 MBPredictions of future dire catastrophes abound in our world today. For example, human population growth will ruin the natural world, a meteor may hit earth and wipe out all life, giant volcanic eruptions could put so much ash into the air that we would experience another ice age, and so on. But the problem with predictions is they cannot be validated until they come to pass. Unless.... Uplook Magazine October 2006, p.4. References: R. Carson, Silent Spring, (New York, NY: Houghton Mi...
Episode #38 Landscape War
October 03, 2021 03:46 - 5 minutes - 12 MBOne spring I inadvertently entered a war zone, my backyard. It was a war of my will and landscaping plans against the God-given drive of living things to survive and spread wherever they can. God has designed life to multiply and aggressively fill the Earth even if I have other plans for the same space. But perhaps this is not just a physical battle. Uplook Magazine January-February 2012, p.9.
Episode #37 The Grand Illusion
October 03, 2021 03:36 - 5 minutes - 12.5 MBGravity can be annoying. Gravity does not take vacations. It is relentless. Most adults courageously fight the good fight against gravity every day. Teenagers, on the other hand, have not yet taken up the struggle. Perhaps teenagers intuitively sense something that some theoretical physicists are now considering: could gravity be just a grand illusion??? Uplook Magazine December 2006, p.4. References: J. Maldacena, "The Illusion of Gravity," Scientific American, November 2005, 56-63.
Episode #36 Abundant Toughness
October 03, 2021 03:29 - 5 minutes - 13.5 MBMany people believe that life on earth is fragile and that wild animals and plants need our help if we and they are to survive. As a biologist who is also a Christian, I have a somewhat different view of life and it is clear that without a Biblical perspective, nature is reduced to landscape decorations and a tool for political indoctrination instead of a vibrant reflection of the power and creativity of a loving God. Uplook Magazine November-December 2010, p.4.
Episode #35 E.T., Please Call Home
September 26, 2021 19:47 - 5 minutes - 12.7 MBNASA recently sent two probes to Mars to look for water. They must either find existing life, evidence of past life, or conditions that allow life to evolve outside of earth if they hope to convince people that life on earth also evolved from non-living chemicals by chance. Thinking people may ask, if this story is true then where is all the life? Everywhere we look and as far as we can sense with our best instruments, there is no life. There are elements, energy, even water - but no lif...
Episode #34 Which Came First?
September 24, 2021 02:49 - 5 minutes - 12.7 MBWhich came first, DNA or protein??? Some think it was proteins forming in warm ocean tidepools. Others think it was actually RNA first, then DNA, then protein. But in order to have DNA some proteins are required and to have functioning proteins the information in DNA is required. So what does it mean if one must have both DNA and protein simultaneously in order to have either one......? Uplook Magazine, March 2005, p. 18. References: A.E. Wilder-Smith. The Natural Sciences Know Nothi...
Episode #33 Wise Man?
September 24, 2021 02:38 - 5 minutes - 13.3 MBThe two-word scientific classification for humans is Homo sapiens, which literally means wise or knowing man. But have we named ourselves wisely? Surely we know a lot of information and we are intelligent, but is intelligence the same as wisdom? Uplook Magazine, May-June 2007, p.4. References: B. Sterling, "Homo sapiens declared extinct," Nature, vol. 402, 1999, 125.
Episode #32 Being a Noticer
September 23, 2021 01:49 - 5 minutes - 12.4 MBAnother word for noticing is observing. Observing is the step where doing science actually begins. But observing is more than just seeing, it is seeing on steroids. To observe is to look with keen interest and an inquiring mind. Seeing only regards what is. But observing (a.k.a. noticing) wonders "Why?" or "How?" and quickly expands into hypothetical reasons and answers. Since what God created does not come with instruction books, the only way to find the answer is by controlled experi...
Episode #31 Beyond the Obvious
September 23, 2021 01:40 - 5 minutes - 13.2 MBThings are sometimes more than they appear, and can tell us more than the obvious. Seeds are not yet what they will be. An acorn is genetically an oak tree but only a fraction of the size and mass of the mature tree. Like all seeds, the job of the acorn is simply to survive until conditions are right for it to reactivate and begin to grow. There is truly a sense in which the seed form may die by germination but, in doing so, brings forth an abundance of fruit Seeds provide many unique w...
Episode #30 New and Improved?
September 20, 2021 23:35 - 5 minutes - 13.4 MBFor evolution to have occurred requires the ability to create massive amounts of information to drive an increase in complexity. Natural Selection cannot be the mechanism which accomplished this because selection acts to reduce genetic variation in a population. Kenneth Miller disagrees, claiming that evolution starts with existing genes, duplicates them and then introduces variation which is filtered by selection. Simple! Unfortunately, Miller; the scenario he presents of the evolution o...
Episode #29 The Web of Life
September 20, 2021 23:21 - 5 minutes - 13 MBEvery year the incredible biological machine called a green plant produces millions of tons of wheat, corn, beans, grass, shrubs and trees. Since the late 1700's it has been known that the actual organic substance of the plant comes, not from the soil, but from the air! But plants don't just absorb sunlight energy which they use to remove carbon dioxide from the air, but they also release molecular oxygen. Humans, animals and many bacteria use this oxygen and, in turn, release carbon diox...
Episode #28 Too Hot, Too Cold....Ah, Just Right!
September 20, 2021 17:42 - 5 minutes - 12.9 MBA thermostat is an example of a mechanical feedback loop. It monitors and maintains the temperature in, say, your house. Living things use similar mechanisms to maintain body temperature, blood pressure, blood sugar levels and many other factors. But where did these biological feedback loops come from and who or what determined their setpoints? Uplook Magazine, August 2005, p.18.
Episode #27 SETI In Their Ways
September 19, 2021 18:55 - 5 minutes - 12.6 MB"SETI" is the acronym for the organization called "Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence". The goal of SETI is to find signs of intelligent life beyond earth by monitoring light and radio waves hitting earth from space and searching them for patterns. However, in 2004 their director admitted that they really don't know what type of pattern to look for. Is it possible that in their zeal to validate their belief of life beyond earth that many, like those in SETI have missed the many no...
Episode #26 The World as We Know It
September 19, 2021 03:18 - 6 minutes - 13.9 MBUntil recently it was a common practice by many in Hawaii to pick up white coral skeletons on the beach and arrange them into words or hearts etc. against the black lava flows along the coastal highway. One formation simply read "WE GO BEACH". Is it possible that wave action threw these bits of coral up onto the island where they randomly fell into letters and words? Yet this is the type of magic which standard evolutionary theory asserts since there must be a mechanism by which new gene...
Episode #25 Spiritual Signs and Symptoms
September 18, 2021 23:12 - 5 minutes - 13.7 MBParents are the ultimate detectives when it comes to their children's health. This is especially true when they are very young and don't speak yet. To make a diagnosis, a physician relies on the patient voicing some type of symptoms like pain or aches in the muscles. This is paired with the results of specific tests, called signs, which help to confirm a diagnosis. Together, signs and symptoms are a call to action and, with a correct diagnosis, there may be an effective treatment availab...
Episode #24 Where do they go?
September 17, 2021 22:15 - 5 minutes - 12.9 MBTemple Grandin is an autistic professor of animal science at the University of Colorado whose techniques for calming cattle as they moved into the processing plant changed the beef industry in the U.S. In the 2010 movie about her life, Temple is confronted with the death of her science teacher and mentor. After viewing his lifeless body, she asks her mother with characteristic abruptness, "Where do they go?" Where do people go who were present at one moment, inside their bodies, and in th...
Episode #23 Is God Dead? Or Just Improbable?
September 17, 2021 22:04 - 5 minutes - 12.9 MBBy one estimate, there is a 67% chance that God exists. This seemed too high of an estimate for the editor of Skeptic magazine. So he used his own numbers in the calculation and came up with a, shall we say, more skeptical estimate of 2%. What he seems not to grasp is that this 1 out of 50 chance that God exists is actually billions of times more likely, or probable to be true, than his evolutionary faith that a single, small but functional protein, made of specific amino acids, could fo...
Episode #22 Perfect Choreography
September 17, 2021 17:26 - 5 minutes - 13 MBThe process of human conception, development and birth requires the perfect choreography of many factors if there is any hope of the infant arriving alive in her mother's arms. Similarly, sending a very complex vehicle to explore the surface of Mars, some 39 million miles (or more) away from earth, requires the landing sequence to be fully automated. If the launch and landing of the Curiosity and Perseverance vehicles on Mars required many years of intense engineering and careful planning ...
Episode #21 Survivor
September 16, 2021 00:39 - 5 minutes - 12.7 MBThe North American horseshoe crab is a survivor. Comparing horseshoe crab fossils to the living creature suggest It has changed little over time, even through major environmental changes which may have caused the extinction of many other creatures. A recent conservation campaign in Delaware Bay encourages people to "just Flip 'em" when they see a horseshoe crab turned upside down by the waves. But the horseshoe crab already has a perfectly good solution to this problem in its' long, rigi...
Episode #20 Do This, Not That
September 15, 2021 16:49 - 5 minutes - 13.1 MBAll biological processes are under some type of logical regulatory control. In the immune system, cells called Macrophages eat dead and worn out cells and bacteria. If this process was not controlled we would eat ourselves up from the inside. Worn out cells which need to be recycled have on their surface a protein euphemistically called the "eat me" signal. And, as you might expect, there is also a "don't eat me" signal protein. Cancer cells are able to evade detection by the immune sys...
Episode #19 Once in a Lifetime
September 15, 2021 00:11 - 5 minutes - 12.4 MBEven a broken clock is right twice a day. Some time ago a man in my church died and we discovered that he had for years wound and set the clock at the back of the meeting room. Few noticed when the clock stopped and even fewer understood what it meant. In a similar way in the past, many have looked up to the heavens but did not understand what they told us. The movements of planets and moons in our solar system seems to obey and invisible, clock-like mechanism. So how does one check the...
Episode #18 Divine Dominos
September 13, 2021 15:13 - 6 minutes - 14.3 MBCan understanding the "What?", lead us to "Whom?". If dominos are arranged standing up and are close to each other, when one is tipped over it causes the next one to fall, and the next, and the next... Something similar is found in living cells which use a domino-like cascade of sequentially activated enzymes to transmit a signal from outside the cell, into the nucleus where changes in gene expression occur. These sequences are part of the process called "signal transduction". Dominos fa...
Episode #17 Synthetic Life
September 12, 2021 01:04 - 5 minutes - 12.5 MBIs it possible to make life from scratch using just its raw materials? The elements and molecules needed for life are well know and can be made in a laboratory setting. And we are told that life "formed" long ago based on standard chemistry. Well, it turns out that making synthetic life is not so easy after all. But if it was easy for random chance and basic chemistry to produce life originally, then why is it so hard for highly intelligent and experienced researchers to produce synthetic ...
Episode #16 Denial to Discovery
September 10, 2021 21:25 - 6 minutes - 14.3 MBIn 2004, prominent atheist philosopher Antony Flew announced he had finally "discovered God". In his 2007 book, There is a God, Flew outlines the scientific arguments that changed his mind after 70 plus years. The points he presents are familiar to anyone who has followed the creation/evolution/intelligent design controversy over the last 30 years. He states that it was the error of the dogmatic assumption of atheism which prevented him from seeing where the scientific evidence led over s...
Episode #15 There's No Place Like Home
September 09, 2021 21:20 - 5 minutes - 12.9 MBOuter space is not a very inviting place to visit. We must take with us and entire life support system to make it even possible to visit space. But we still cannot take gravity with us into space. Spaceflight in microgravity conditions is harmful to humans because our circulatory system bones and other structures are designed to function in the gravity field of earth. In microgravity, muscles may weaken and bones become more fragile due to leaching of calcium out of bone. These conside...
Episode #14 Small May be Big, but it Isn't New
September 09, 2021 05:06 - 5 minutes - 13.2 MBSmall is big. Nanotechnology is the new marketing buzzword. Event two of the COVID-19 vaccines are produced using nanoparticles. But God was into nanotechnology from the very beginning, building life on a series of biochemical "nano-machines". A molecule of water is about three tenths of a nanometer wide. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter. The water molecule also has a slight positive and a slight negative end. Without this small separation of electrical charges, life would not ...
Episode #13 Which Forever is Coming?
September 07, 2021 21:36 - 5 minutes - 13.1 MBForever is coming, whether we like it or not. The question is: which forever? Physicists and astronomers who are also Materialist in their philosophy, proclaim they know how and when the universe began and approximately when and how it will end. But God has revealed in the Bible, a distinctly different account of the origin and future of life; one that shows there is a reason for and a purpose in, life and human existence. Uplook Magazine June-July 2006, p. 8. References: Couper H and N ...
Episode #12 The Sound of Music
September 07, 2021 01:30 - 5 minutes - 12.6 MBMany animals such as frogs, birds, coyotes and insects, produce distinct calls or sounds. These calls help males and females find each other, signal danger, or assert ownership of a particular territory. But can any animal sounds really be called music in the sense that humans understand music? No doubt you have felt the ability of music rouse the spirit, impart joy or sorrow, or trigger lost memories. Music is the language of emotion and there is no true parallel in the animal world. Bu...
Episode #7 The Miracle and Mystery of Life
September 04, 2021 23:16 - 5 minutes - 13.1 MBAn airplane is made of non-flying parts. But when integrated into a completed plane, the parts take on a new characteristic, flight. Similarly, a living cell is composed of dead chemicals which, when organized in just the right way, constitute a living thing. The property of Life is not inherent within inorganic and organic chemicals. These compounds obey but do not create, the biological laws of genetic variation, natural selection, population dynamics and biochemistry. Instead, these p...
Episode #11 Purpose By Design
September 04, 2021 23:06 - 5 minutes - 13.7 MBStem cells are unspecialized cells which divide to become many different types of specialized cells during embryonic development. Some stem cells remain active in the adult human and continuously produce cells called "transient amplifying cells" which are the source for new blood, skin and bone cells. It would be less complex and cost less energy if existing skin or fat or bone cells made their replacements by normal cell division. So why are many cells replaced by this less efficient meth...
Episode #10 Water of Life
September 02, 2021 20:27 - 5 minutes - 12.8 MBWater is not life but life, as we know it, is impossible without water. Everyone needs clean, fresh water to survive. So it was surprising to me when a person, offered both physical and spiritual water, rejected both. These are the true "living dead". People who are physically alive but spiritually dead, even when life-giving spiritual water is always available, free for the asking, and unlimited in abundance. Uplook Magazine May 2012, p. 7.
Episode #9 The Fingerprint of God
September 02, 2021 20:20 - 5 minutes - 12.9 MBThe biological facts of human reproduction are well known. At the moment of fusion of an egg and sperm cell, a genetically unique diploid, human cell is formed and a new human genetic profile is established. But this new person within the mother, can cause the mother's immune system to see this new person as "foreign" and attack it. Instead, the mother's immune system is suppressed during pregnancy, something called immunological "tolerance". Some see this condition as an immunologic par...
Episode #8 Surprised by Design
September 01, 2021 02:26 - 5 minutes - 13.1 MBI once purchased a set of shelves for my office and liked them so much I wanted to make an additional set by "reverse engineering". After carefully measuring the existing shelves, I was surprised to realize they were designed to be cut from a single sheet of 4 foot by 8 foot plywood. I was, in a sense, thinking the shelves designers' thoughts after them. Biological scientists have always used reverse engineering, except that the objects analyzed are living things. The scientific method i...
Episode #6 Forensic Universe
August 30, 2021 17:57 - 5 minutes - 12.1 MBIs it possible to apply forensic reasoning to the universe as a whole? If there is a "Someone" responsible for the way the universe is, could we develop a partial profile of this Someone from our basic understanding of the universe? David Penny suggests that the agent responsible for creation must have had at least four characteristics. That is, the Creator would be personal, powerful, intelligent, and non-material (i.e. spiritual). Uplook Magazine January-February 2008, p. 4. References...
Episode #5 Unseen Reality - We are surrounded by the invisible
August 28, 2021 18:21 - 5 minutes - 12.4 MBExamples of unseen reality abound. Yet, if we believe so often in things that are unseen because we can see their effects, isn't it also reasonable to believe in a God who, though He cannot be seen, has shown us His reality by the effects He has in the universe, in history, and in the lives of real people? Uplook Magazine January-February 2007, p 9. References: A. Nikiforuk. The Fourth Horseman: A short history of epidemics, plagues, famines and other scourges (New York, NY: Evans & Co., 19...
Episode # 4 The Wonderful Net - Freak chance or deliberate design?
August 27, 2021 17:58 - 5 minutes - 12.8 MBCounter-current heat exchanger appear to be designed, or engineered solutions to the specific physiological challenges faced by some animals but not others. They seem to be used selectively and intelligently on an "as needed" basis. Uplook Magazine November 2006, page 11. References: P.F. Scholander, "The Wonderful Net" in Vertebrate Structures and Functions: Readings from Scientific American (San Francisco, CA: W.H. Freeman and Company, 1969), pp.125-131.
Episode #3 Avian Olympians
August 24, 2021 17:28 - 5 minutes - 12.7 MBAs impressive as Olympic marathon athlete's performances are, there are examples of even greater endurance seen in birds. The physical stamina and aerobic efficiency of some birds allows them to migrate up to seven thousand miles one way while their navigational abilities enable them to find specific areas that many have never been to before. The origin of this seemingly pre-programmed behavior is a mystery. Or is it? Uplook Magazine May-June 2005, p.18. References: Martin J. Incredib...
Episode #2 Bearing Strangers - Exceptional Evidence
August 24, 2021 17:19 - 5 minutes - 12.5 MBXenophora (Greek for "bearing strangers") mollusks are called "carrier-shell" mollusks because they deliberately pick up empty shells, fragments of shells, or small rocks and cement them to its own shell as a form of camouflage. Yet the animal is essentially blind. How would this small animal know that other animals hunt for it using their vision and respond by camouflaging its' shell? Could this behavior reveal the presence and power of a Divine Designer who understands what Xenophora do...
Episode #1 In the Beginning - Ask the One who was there
August 24, 2021 17:11 - 5 minutes - 12.2 MBMany scientists now accept that the universe had a beginning and is therefore not eternal. Because something cannot exist without a sufficient cause, whatever begins to exist has a cause that brings it into being, and since the universe began to exist, it is therefore not eternal but had a cause outside of itself. Those who accepted the testimony of the Biblical book of Genesis had known for a thousand years before Aristotle that the universe had both a beginning and a beginner. Uplook Ma...