Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow. - Men in Black In the film, Tommy Lee Jones' Kay wants to make Will Smith's Jay consider what else he might be wrong about (beyond the existence of aliens). In doing so, Kay reinforces two related ideas: knowledge only ever accumulates, and by extension those who came … [Read more...] about Science Corner: You’ll Kill More S. aureus with Honey AND Vinegar
Science and Faith
Science Corner: Weltraumgötterdämmerung
This summer's installment of "If you don't teach your kids theology, Marvel Studios will" comes in the form of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Sure, it's not a Scorsesian theological treatise. At times it felt very much like a roller coaster ride--an impression helped along by the fact that just a month ago I was riding an actual Guardians of the Galaxy coaster with filmed story elements featuring the same cast. But every now and again, this technicolor space opera takes a breath between virtuosic cadenzas of violence … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Weltraumgötterdämmerung
Science Corner: Seeing Infrared
Telescopes have been troublemakers for centuries. They've revealed that the Earth is not the center of the universe, not even the center of the solar system. They showed us our sun was just one of many stars in our galaxy, then showed us our galaxy is just one of many in the universe. They provided the evidence that the universe is expanding, which in turn implied the beginning of the universe in the Big Bang. Now the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is adding wrinkles to our understanding of how those galaxies formed … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Seeing Infrared
Science Corner: Finding the Proteins of Theseus
Last month we mentioned the challenges of studying blue whales in a laboratory setting. If we want to know what a particular gene or protein does in an animal that large, we often have to rely on inference based on what a comparable gene or protein does in an animal we can study more readily like a mouse. And how do we know which protein is comparable--or homologous, to use the more technical term? Typically the search for homologous proteins starts with a sequence similarity scan, a check of an entire library of … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Finding the Proteins of Theseus
Science Corner: Don’t It Make My Blue Whale Big
I was fortunate to grow up within visiting distance of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. One item stands out in my memories from periodic visits: the blue whale. Not a live one, of course; it's a museum, not an aquarium. Even as an inert model, the blue whale was striking to little-boy-me--which is saying something since it shares a home with numerous dinosaur skeletons. Of course, that cohabitation only helps to underline just how much bigger blue whales are than even the biggest dinosaurs or … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Don’t It Make My Blue Whale Big