Signs in the Stars

BBC News - Case made for 'ninth planet'
BBC News reports: "American astronomers say they have strong evidence that there is a ninth planet in our Solar System orbiting far beyond even the dwarf world Pluto. The team, from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), has no direct observations to confirm its presence just yet. Rather, the scientists make the claim based on the way other far-flung objects are seen to move. But if proven, the putative planet would have 10 times the mass of Earth. The Caltech astronomers have a vague idea where it ought to be on the sky, and their work is sure to fire a campaign to try to track it down."

Comment: I was once asked the difference between "signs in the stars" (Luke 21:25) and "signs and wonders in the heavens" (Joel 2:30; Luke 21:11; Acts 2:19).  I tend to think the difference is simply where you are looking. If you can see if in the sky (like a shooting star or eclipse) then it's a "sign in the heavens" and if we are talking about stellar phenomena that can be observed by telescopes (or inferred by observations of planets using telescopes, as in this news report), then it's a "sign in the stars." Remember, Paul accepted that there are three heavens (2 Corinthians 12:2–4) , the first is the sky and atmosphere, the second is space, and the third is heaven, the abode of God.

Knowledge Increases

My Way News - Gene editing: Research spurs debate over promise vs. ethics
My Way News reports: "The hottest tool in biology has scientists using words like revolutionary as they describe the long-term potential: wiping out certain mosquitoes that carry malaria, treating genetic diseases like sickle-cell, preventing babies from inheriting a life-threatening disorder. It may sound like science fiction, but research into genome editing is booming. [...] Does the promise warrant experimenting with human embryos? Researchers in China already have, and they're poised to in Britain."

Knowledge Increases

My Way News - CERN: Test results show more detail about 'God particle'
My Way News reports: "After three years of scrutinizing the elusive Higgs boson closely, scientists say they've determined that the 'God particle' behaves just as predicted. [...] The results largely match with the predictions of the Standard Model, which explains how much of the universe works at the subatomic level. CERN and other physicists are trying to establish the accuracy of that model. [...] The collider was recently given a $150 million upgrade that allows atoms to be smashed together with even greater force, allowing it to recreate conditions similar to those during the earliest moments of the universe."

Signs in the Stars

My Way News - Searching for ET: Hawking to look for extraterrestrial life
My Way News reports: "The search for extraterrestrial life received a major boost Monday with the launch of an ambitious $100 million program, backed by famed physicist Stephen Hawking and tech billionaire Yuri Milner. [...] The project will be 50 times more sensitive than earlier searches, and will cover 10 times more of the sky, organizers say."

Signs in the Stars - Knowledge Increases

My Way News - 'Beautiful eye candy': Frozen plains in Pluto's heart
My Way News reports: "Vast frozen plains exist next door to Pluto's big, rugged mountains sculpted of ice, scientists said Friday, three days after humanity's first-ever flyby of the dwarf planet."

My Way News - CERN scientists refine antimatter 'trap'
My Way News reports: "Nuclear scientists announced Sunday they have found a way to 'trap' for more than 15 minutes elusive antimatter atoms that used to disappear after a fraction of a second. That will give scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research time to study the atoms properly, in the hope of understanding what happened during the first moments of the universe."

My Way News - For computer chip builders, only one way to go: Up
My Way News reports: "In the race to build a faster computer chip, there is literally nowhere to go but up. Today's chip surfaces are packed with the tiniest electronic switches the laws of physics allow, but Intel Corp. says it is blowing past those limits with a breakthrough, three-dimensional transistor design it revealed Wednesday."

Comment: Just when you think chips can't get any smaller or faster. Intel: Saving Moore's Law one breakthrough at a time.

My Way News - Artificial retina helps some blind people
My Way News reports: "For two decades, Eric Selby had been completely blind and dependent on a guide dog to get around. But after having an artificial retina put into his right eye, he can detect ordinary things like the curb and pavement when he's walking outside."

FoxNews reports - Italian Scientists Claim (Dubious) Cold Fusion Breakthrough
[...]two Italian scientists claim to have successfully developed a cold fusion reactor that produces 12,400 watts of heat power per 400 watts of input. Not only that, but they’ll be commercially available in just three months.

Comment: We've heard this song and dance before - have these guys actually figured it out? I rather doubt it, but I also would not be surprised one bit to see the energy juggernaut come in the waning days of this world...

My Way News - Evidence for ET is mounting daily, but not proven
My Way News reports: "In the past several days, scientists have reported there are three times as many stars as they previously thought. Another group of researchers discovered a microbe can live on arsenic, expanding our understanding of how life can thrive under the harshest environments. And earlier this year, astronomers for the first time said they'd found a potentially habitable planet."

My Way News - Microbe found that can use arsenic as nutrient
My Way News reports: "The discovery of a strange bacteria that can use arsenic as one of its nutrients widens the scope for finding new forms of life on Earth and possibly beyond. While researchers discovered the unusual bacteria here on Earth, they say it shows that life has possibilities beyond the major elements that have been considered essential."

My Way News - Starry starry starry night: Star count may triple
My Way News reports: "The universe may glitter with far more stars than even Carl Sagan imagined when he rhapsodized about billions upon billions. A new study suggests there are a mind-blowing 300 sextillion of them, or three times as many as scientists previously calculated. That is a 3 followed by 23 zeros. Or 3 trillion times 100 billion."

Comment: Looks like the Creator has been busy.

My Way News - Scientists trick cells into switching identities
My Way News reports: "Scientists are reporting early success at transforming one kind of specialized cell into another, a feat of biological alchemy that doctors may someday perform inside a patient's body to restore health."

BBC News - Antimatter atom trapped for first time, say scientists
BBC News reports: "Antimatter atoms have been trapped for the first time, scientists say. Researchers at Cern, home of the Large Hadron Collider, have held 38 antihydrogen atoms in place, each for a fraction of a second."

Comment: Great! When can we expect warp drives?

My Way News - Obama bestows science, technology medals
My Way News reports: "From super glue to microchips to digital cameras, President Barack Obama on Wednesday celebrated the brains behind these inventions and other breakthroughs as examples of 'the promise of science.' [...] The medals represent the government's highest honor for scientists, engineers and inventors."

My Way News - Nobel Prize honors super-strong, super-thin carbon
My Way News reports: "Two Russian-born researchers shared the physics Nobel for their groundbreaking experiments with graphene, which is a sheet of carbon atoms joined together in a pattern that resembles chicken wire."

CNN - Kepler space telescope finds pair of distant planets, NASA says
CNN reports: "Two planets slightly smaller than Saturn have been discovered orbiting a distant star, a first for NASA's Kepler space telescope, whose mission is to look for signs of planets passing in front of stars, the space agency said Thursday."

My Way News - Restoring sight with new type of artificial cornea
My Way News reports: "Scientists have created a new kind of artificial cornea, inserting a sliver of collagen into the eye that coaxes its own natural corneal cells to regrow and restore vision."

My Way News - Experts: Exoplanet could be smallest ever found
My Way News reports: "Scientists say they've identified a sun-like star with as many as seven different planets - including one that might be the smallest ever found outside the solar system."

MSNBC - Cat-size monkey species discovered
MSNBC reports: "A scientific expedition to the Colombian Amazon has revealed a new species of monkey. The species of titi monkey (Callicebus caquetensis) is a cat-size creature that is critically endangered because of rapid habitat loss and its small population. The discovery was announced Thursday [...] This newly discovered species is struggling to survive [...] the degradation of the forests in the area, which have been felled for agricultural land."