Why DNA Points to a Mind Behind the Universe

Why were so many intellectuals enthralled by Darwin's theory of evolution as put forth in The Origin of Species?

Could it partially be driven by a desire to  not be held accountable to a higher power other than themselves? Or to ethical values they don't want to be restrained by? Why has the State gone to such great lengths to purge not only Christianity from the schools but even a view of science that might suggest that there is a God that created the spectacular beauty and design that is revealed in nature, including the miraculous origins life itself?

I get it, that the Founding Fathers had good reasons for the separation of Church and State. But for decades we have been dictated to "trust the science" while simultaneously not permitting many scientists speak out about what they are seeing as evidence of a mind behind the creation. And why are these legitimate findings are absolutely abolished in the schools.

This naturally dovetails with one of my repeated themes: He who controls the narrative controls the people. Why are people so afraid of open discussion about the implications of contemporary findings unveiled by earnest scientific inquiry?  

One of the things I have been reminded of recently is that the attitude of a scientist is very different from that of a mathematician. For mathematicians, 2 + 2 = 4. Always. 

True scientists propose theories. They say, "This is what we know, for now." It takes great humility to say, "I am not certain, but this is what appears to be what the facts are saying." Darwin was a scientit. He did not state that what he believed about the origin of species, or life itself, was a certainty. It was a theory that he was proposing. He assumed, incorrectly, that as science advanced and archeology advanced, and the fossil records were unearthed, that his theory would be proven.

Instead, archeology and science have failed to find the evidence for life form transitions of new species on a scale required to demonsrate that our ancestors were monkeys, or snails or protozoa. 

The purpose of this blog post is to introduce you to Stephen C. Meyer, a leading voice in the repudiation of the New Atheism movement. Today I briefly wrote on my substack a few thoughts on Meyer's talk Why DNA Points to a Mind Behind the Universe. 

About Stephen C. Meyer
He earned an M.Phil. (1987) and Ph.D. (1991) in the philosophy of science from the University of Cambridge. His doctoral thesis focused on the methodology of origin-of-life research. Meyer is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Science and Culture (CSC) at the Discovery Institute in Seattle, a think tank he helped found. The CSC is the primary organization promoting the intelligent design movement. 

His major books include:

• Signature in the Cell (2009): Argues for intelligent design based on the information in DNA; named a Book of the Year by the Times Literary Supplement.
• Darwin’s Doubt (2013): A New York Times bestseller examining the Cambrian explosion and the case for ID.
• Return of the God Hypothesis (2021): Integrates evidence from physics, cosmology, and biology to argue for a theistic explanation of the universe.

Are you committed to to Lifelong Learning? 
Here are some wonderful things to explore.

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made Indeed!

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
--Psalm 139:13, 14

When I read this statement above from the Psalms, the first thing that jumped out at me was the word knit. It producing a fascinating image,  the nine month process of being "assembled" by invisible hands, stitched together little by little, a miniature human being.

The second notion had to do with our astounding complexity as a human species. Think abut this. When fully unwound, the DNA strand in a single human cell is roughly 2 meters long, or 6.6 feet. However, the nucleus of a human cell is only about 6 micrometers in diameter, so DNA is tightly packaged within the cell to fit. This is similar to packing 24 miles of thread into a tennis ball. 

Now consider this: The human body contains roughly 37.2 trillion cells, with the exact number varying depending on a person's size. For example, a 2023 analysis of more than 1,500 papers estimates that the average adult male has 36 trillion cells, while the average adult female has 28 trillion. 

If you stretch the DNA strands from those 36 trillion cells and lay them end to end, the DNA from one adult male would stretch 36 trillion x 6.6 feet, which is 237.6 trillion feet or 45 billion miles. When Saturn is closest to the earth it is only 746 million miles away. 45 billion miles of DNA would stretch from Earth to Saturn and back 30 times. (Can someone check my math?)

I don't know about you, but this strikes me as pretty remarkable.

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1 mile = 5280 feet

A Brief History of the War on Cancer

I have recently been wondering why there is so much cancer today and we don't hear much about it much as we read books about history. Yesterday I was reading a batch of letters from one of my distant relatives circa 200 years ago. The letters spanned many years and made frequent references to people who had died. Many died of "the fever" or something similar. 

Is it because the name cancer is a relatively new term that we had so few references to it from that time. The question on my mind was, "Has there been a marked increase in cancer as a byproduct of technological progress?"

As it turns out the answer is yes, there has indeed been a marked increase of people having to deal with cancer, though not entirely linked to technology. Smoking as a way of life may be relatively new, and tobacco is a known carcinogen. On the flip side, mortality rates have dropped.

Here are a few things I learned while looking into this a bit more.

Ancient and Medieval Perspectives

The earliest recorded references to cancer date back to ancient civilizations such as Egypt, where papyrus writings detailed cases of tumors and growths. I didn't expect that. I assumed it would be someone like Hippocrates who would be among the first to address cancer. It turns out that I was correct, though, that Greek physicians like Hippocrates and Galen did address this issue. They wrote that it was caused by an imbalance of bodily fluids. They coined the term "carcinos" (Greek for crab) to describe the invasive nature of certain tumors, resembling the crab's pincers.

Emergence of Scientific Inquiry

It was not until the Renaissance that scientific inquiry began to reshape how cancer was understood. When I was at the Gallileo Museum in Florence this past April, I found it quite fascinating how many directions his inquiring mind took him. One outgrowth of these explorations was the invention of an early version of the microscope, using lenses to amplify tiny things the way telescopes enlarge craters on the moon. 

The development of microsopes enabled researchers to observe cells and tissues, paving the way for more precise observations of cancerous growths. Rudolf Virchow, a 19th-century German pathologist, introduced the concept that cancer originates from abnormal cells within tissues.

19th and 20th Centuries Discoveries

The 19th and 20th centuries marked a turning point in cancer research. The advent of anesthesia and aseptic surgical techniques enabled more effective tumor removal. Marie Curie's groundbreaking research on radiation furthered understanding of cancer's response to different treatments. In the mid-20th century, the discovery of DNA's structure and the identification of oncogenes transformed how scientists perceived the genetic basis of cancer.

War on Cancer and Modern Advances

The "War on Cancer" was officially declared by U.S. President Richard Nixon in the 1970s, leading to increased funding for research and a focus on prevention and treatment. Since then we've seen the development of chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and targeted therapies, revolutionizing cancer treatment approaches. Breakthroughs in understanding the role of the immune system have resulted in the emergence of immunotherapy as a promising avenue for treatment.

Precision Medicine and Genomic Insights

In recent decades, advancements in genomics and molecular biology have bee reshaping cancer research and treatment. The identification of specific genetic mutations driving certain cancers has enabled the development of targeted therapies tailored to individual patients. This approach, known as precision medicine, holds the potential to maximize treatment effectiveness while minimizing side effects.

Holistic Approaches and Supportive Care

The history of cancer also includes a growing recognition of the importance of holistic care. Palliative care and supportive interventions have become integral to cancer treatment, focusing on improving patients' quality of life and managing symptoms. While researching ethical issues in terminal health care 30 years ago, I learned of the challenges oncologists have to deal with with regard to pain management. Too often, their hands were tied by red tape (regulations) restricting the use of pain meds out of fear that patients would become addicted. 

The Reason I Wanted to Write about This

When I was growing up there had been a lot of cancer in my grandmother's family. She was one of six siblings. Four of them died of cancer. Her sister Isabel got it twice, having survived cancer in her thirties with surgery and a colonoscopy. Later in life she was not so fortunate. With this history in mind I always wondered if there had been something in the water where they grew up or if the cancer were in the DNA somehow. 

Future Outlook

Despite significant progress, cancer remains a complex challenge. A half century of pouring money into cancer research has produced many new insights, though solutions remain elusive. The need for effective early detection continues to drive research efforts. Some are hoping that the advent of artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and advances in personalized medicine will provide new avenues for tackling cancer.

 

Our Amazing DNA: We Are Indeed Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge."
--Psalm 19:1-2

This past Sunday our church had a guest speaker who gave message on the above passage from Psalm 19. It began with an imaginative "what if" story about the moon landing of 1969. What if as Neil Armstrong stepped down from the Eagle landing craft he noticed a Swingline stapler by his foot there on the surface of the moon. What would people think? 

Obviously, it didn't appear out of thin air. The stapler, as simple as it is, demonstrates features of an intelligent design behind its creation.

This tale became a stepping off point for his sermon, which highlight four points. This blog post is based on his third, our amazing and mind-blowingly complex DNA.

Some of the details he shared were so over-the-top incredible that I didn't even want to share them until I'd confirmed them from multiple sources. Here are a few details about our DNA to wrap your head around. Sources include Britannica Kids (courtesy our speaker Dan Vander-Ark), Nature.com and ScienceFocus.com. 

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DNA is the material that carries all the information about how a living thing will look and function. For instance, DNA in humans determines such things as what color the eyes will be or what color your hair will be. Each piece of information is carried on a different section of the DNA. These sections are called genes.

DNA is in every cell of every living thing. It is found in structures of the cell called chromosomes.

When DNA works correctly, it helps keep the body functioning properly. DNA helps cells to make the proteins which cells need to live. DNA also allows living things to reproduce. The genes in DNA pass along physical traits from parents to children.

Those are the basics about DNA that most of us have been familiar with. We see physical traits in our kids that were in our parents, passed down over generations. But here's the part where it becomes remarkable.

DNA has an extremely complex structure. It's made of chemical substances that are linked together like a chain. Each piece of DNA has two long strands, or chains. The two strands are joined together. They form a shape like a ladder that has been

twisted into a spiral. We've come to know this as the double helix. This ladder has 3 BILLION RUNGS!

Nature.com puts it this way: "The double helix describes the appearance of double-stranded DNA, which is composed of two linear strands that run opposite to each other, or anti-parallel, and twist together. Each DNA strand within the double helix is a long, linear molecule made of smaller units called nucleotides that form a chain."

Every cell in our body has a strand of DNA in the nucleus – and that strand is 6 ft long! But it would be only 50 trillionths of an inch wide. And if you put all the DNA in all of our cells together it would stretch twice the diameter of the solar system. 

This seemed so unbelievable to me that I had to check it out, lest I be guilty of passing along "fake news." That led me to the Science Focus article, How Long Is Your DNA?

"Your DNA is arranged as a coil of coils of coils of coils of coils! This allows the 3 billion base pairs in each cell to fit into a space just 6 microns across. If you stretched the DNA of one cell all the way out, it would be about 2m long and all the DNA in all your cells put together would be about twice the diameter of the Solar System."

In other words, the DNA in your cells is packaged into 46 chromosomes in the nucleus and supercoiled using enzymes so that it takes up less space. 

Vander-Ark went on to say, "Human DNA contains more organized information than the Encyclopedia Britannica, which contains approximately 44 million words." 

In a 1999 Wall Street Journal article George Sim Johnson wrote: "If the full text of the encyclopedia were to arrive in computer code from outer space, most people would regard this as proof of the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence. But when seen in nature, it is explained as the workings of random forces."

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A suitable close here comes from Psalm 139, a Psalm of David from 3,000 years ago, and even more astonishing today.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

Illustrations courtesy Zephyris, Wikimedia Commons

License details here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DNA_orbit_animated_small.gif

Author Marie Zhuikov Talks About Her Life as a Writer

Marie Zhuikov self-describes as a novelist, science writer, poet and editor. Her lifelong fascination with science and writing has taken he across a variety of career terrains. In her day job, Marie is an award-winning science writer and communications project manager, specializing in environmental and medical topics. She has published hundreds of articles, publications, videos and radio programs, as well as coordinated production of many web sites. But like many of us with writing in our DNA there are nights and weekends where the streams of self-expression must find an outlet.

This interview was triggered by the recent panel discussion about writing for money.

EN: As a teen you took an interest in poetry. Who were you favorite poets at that time and did you have other friends who shared this passion?

Marie Zhuikov: Back then, I only knew the poets that I could find in my school library or the local library. I used to type out the poems I liked on my parent's Underwood typewriter so that I could have copies. I still have those copies, even over 35 years later. The poets include Dorothy Parker, William Stafford, Sara Teasdale, and William Carlos Williams.

I don't recall any of my friends having the same interest, so it was a solitary exercise for me.

EN: You say that you have been sitting in front of a typewriter you whole life. At what point did you realize this to be your life calling? 

MZ: I realized I really liked sitting in front of a typewriter when I was about 16 and I was in my room, copying poems. The time just seemed to flow, and I remember thinking, "I want to do this for the rest of my life!" Before that point, I had written a few stories and my own poems. But there was something about studying the poems and immersing myself in recreating them that appealed to me. Later, as a student journalist in college, I still sat in front of a typewriter, but that quickly changed to a computer keyboard once I got a "real" job. And I've been doing it ever since. In my 50s now, I am surprised I don't have carpal tunnel syndrome, knock on wood!

EN: Your writing blended with an interest in science journalism and you ended up becoming an environmental reporter for the Minnesota Daily as well as doing some freelance writing. What were some of the things you learned about writing at that time?

MZ: I learned the hard way about the politics behind some stories and how it can play out when someone in power (like a professor) doesn't like the published piece. That taught me to always keep my interview records (notes, recordings) for a long time afterward, in case I need to prove that my sources said what I reported. In this instance, I did keep the records, but thankfully did not need to use them to justify my story's content. However, it was sure nice to know I had them. I could have been fired if it had turned into a "he said, she said" situation.

I learned a lot about editing, too. When I first started with the paper, I was a night typist. I took the reporters' stories, which were typed on paper, glued together to form a long scroll and marked up by an editor, and typed them into the newspaper's computer system after the 5 p.m. news deadline. Even before I wrote my own newspaper stories, that experience taught me many of the common grammar mistakes reporters make, and ways I could cut extra words to make the story's meaning clearer. Some reporters habitually had way more red pencil editor's marks on their stories than black type. Perfectionist that I was/am, I vowed that when I was a reporter, I would turn in stories edited to the best of my ability so that the typists would have an easier job. I like to think they didn't wince as much when a story with my byline came their way, plus it helped me hone my writing and editing skills at an early stage in my career.

EN: Can you briefly outline your long and winding road to the Northland?

MZ: Well, I was born here, so I started out here. My family lived in the Piedmont neighborhood and I graduated from Denfeld High School. I left for college in Minneapolis, where I lived for five years, but I worked for several summers near Lake Superior. After college, I entered a graduate school program called the Audubon Expedition Institute to earn a degree in environmental education. (It's now called the Expedition Education Institute.) We travelled around the U.S. and Canada in a yellow school bus, learning about environmental issues by talking to local resource people, living outdoors, and going for hikes, swims, and canoe trips. We went from the northern tip of Newfoundland down the east coast of Canada and the U.S. to Key Largo, Florida. From there we went out west to canyon country.

The expedition abruptly stopped in Canyonlands National Park when our bus blew its engine block. By that point, I knew I didn't want to pursue a second year of study on the bus. I wanted to settle down. All the land I had seen made Minnesota look pretty good, so I decided to come back here to find a job and work on natural resource issues and writing. I've stayed here ever since, except for one brief interlude to work in Rochester, Minnesota. Locally, I've worked as a writer and public relations person for the Superior National Forest, Minnesota Sea Grant, the St. Louis River Alliance, and Wisconsin Sea Grant. I've also done a fair amount of freelancing.

EN: When did you first get bit with a desire to write novels?

MZ: That happened during one of my college summer jobs. I worked as a waitress at the resort on Isle Royale National Park. It was the mid-1908s, and the wolf population was in trouble similar to the population issues they are facing now. I lugged a duffle bag full of books with me to the island and one of them was Anne Rice's "Interview with a Vampire." I loved how she gave the vampires their own society and deeper motivations than just bloodlust. I thought it would be fun to do the same thing for werewolves - to show them actually working as members of a pack, not just as singular bloodthirsty beasts. What better place for a setting than Isle Royale? So I combined all those things into my first novel, Eye of the Wolf.

Although I got bit with the idea in the mid-1980s, it took me 17 years to write the novel and to find a publisher, so a long lag ensued between the idea stage and the publishing stage. Part of the reason was that I had a lot of learning to do about fiction writing, part was because I got stuck on certain sections, and another part was that a lot of life happened during those years.

EN: Can you briefly share what your second novel is about?  

MZ: My publisher (North Star Press) calls them eco-mystic-romance novels. They combine ecology, native myths, and kissing! My second novel is a sequel set 11 years afterward. Plover Landing follows the protagonist (Melora St. James) and her love interest, Drew, off the island and into Duluth, where Melora is working to restore habitat on Park Point for an endangered shorebird called the piping plover. After they find a lost boy on the beach, the story begins to take a mystical turn. In helping the boy, Melora and Drew learn secrets about themselves and building community, and they come to terms with their past.

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RELATED LINKS

Visit the website of Marie Zhuikov
The Going Coastal reading at Zenith Bookstore.
Purchase Going Coastal here.

If you're a writer, write on!
Meantime, life goes on all around you. Engage it.

Ooops!

Last week I read the shocking account of a Maryland mayor whose home was on the receiving end of a SWAT Team assault last summer. While his mother-in-law washed dishes in the kitchen and Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo was dressing upstairs to go out to a meeting, the SWAT Team broke into his home, shot his two dogs and left his entire family terrorized.

As I read the account I wondered how many such incidents occur that we never hear about.

We all know mistakes happen. I read a story once about 29 men who assembled in Chicago to celebrate their releases from our nations' prisons... after new DNA procedures proved they were innocent of the crimes which sentenced them to death row. Those are mistakes with serious consequences.

Dylan's song Hurricane comes readily to mind. Here are the last two verses.

Rubin Carter was falsely tried
The crime was murder 'one' guess who testified
Bello and Bradley and they both baldly lied
And the newspapers they all went along for the ride
How can the life of such a man
Be in the palm of some fool's hand?
To see him obviously framed
Couldn't help but make me feel ashamed
to live in a land where justice is a game.

Now all the criminals in their coats and their ties
Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise
While Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell
An innocent man in a living hell
That's the story of the Hurricane
But it won't be over till they clear his name
And give him back the time he's done
Put him in a prison cell but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world.

What I remember, unfortunately, is reading a William F. Buckley editorial twenty years ago mocking these kinds of rock star awareness-raising songs on behalf of criminals. As if the justice system is always just and never makes a mistake.

Ultimately, Rubin Carter gained his freedom and the truth did out, but it's not always so. And it robbed him of many of the best years of his life. (I recommend the movie.)

By fluke I stumbled on the answer to my question this story raised in the first place. In case you're interested, here is a map assembled by the Cato Institute, a libertarian, non-partisan think tank dedicated to limited government, individual freedom and peaceful international relations. Check out this map of unnecessary violent consequences of botched raids.

Another question comes to mind on the heels of this one. Who pays for the damage once it's done? When they shoot your dogs, or accidentally shoot your breadwinner husband, my guess is that you don't quite get back what you've lost. And saying, "Ooops" just doesn't carry a lot of weight in that equation.

Snickers Story Has Unexpected Twist

“Detectives used a partially eaten Snickers found at the Cato Pet Hospital in west Jonesboro to track down the suspect in its January 2007 burglary. Police sent the nougat-filled chocolate bar to the state Crime Laboratory, where medical examiners obtained DNA, Jonesboro detective Jason Simpkins said.” ~ Kenneth Heard, Arkansas Democrat Gazette

Did anyone see this news story about a guy who was implicated in a burglary because he left his DNA on a half eaten Snickers bar? Police said that DNA from the Snickers bar on the counter at the scene of the crime helped them zero in on the suspect, Brian Bass.

Here’s the rest of the story. It turns out that the Roscoe & Hermann Agency, a PR firm from New Jersey, set the guy up. Bass was apparently unaware that he’d become part of a clandestine marketing scheme. Barry Adams, a mid-level manager at the firm, told Bass that the company would get him off within sixty days. The marketing plan was nixed in the Snickers board room after legal review, but no one notified Adams or Bass.

Bass’ actions were intended to be part of a branding event designed to get the Snickers brand name into headlines across the country. According to unnamed sources, more than eighty burglaries had been slated for the same weekend, with Snickers bars to be inadvertently left at the scene of each crime. The underlying message to criminals: “Guys, this is the candy bar that bad guys eat.”

The plan appeared to include major rollouts of Snickers inventories to prison vending machines around the country. Right before the story broke, prisons in all fifty states had become buried in pallet loads of Snickers products.

When the Bass story broke, requests from inmates for Snickers candy bars became a trickle and then a flood. Because Snickers distribution pipelines were apparently in place before the news story hit the wires, several legislators have lobbied the FTC for a deeper investigation.

Kudos to Snickers for identifying this untapped market. The marketing plan is a bit nutty, but sweet.