According to Genesis 1, on the first day of creation God called the light into being, he separated light from darkness, he called the light “day†and the darkness “nightâ€, and he called it good. Most of us would agree that light is, indeed, good. Both literally and metaphorically light drives out the darkness and allows us to see so that we can find our way. And it is not only humans that value light—all of the natural world benefits from it.
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Science and Faith
Join Us at the ASA Faith & Science Conference, July 29-Aug 1 (Scholarships Available)
Grow. Connect. Renew.
Are you looking for a place to grow connections for your faith and your scientific work? Find community with other Christians in science, grow your ideas on science and faith, and renew your sense of why your work matters. Hear from engaging keynote speakers who are modelling different ways to connect faith and scientific work. If you’re a student or early career professional, explore your own ideas and professional growth in our student/early career programming. Wherever you are in your scientific career, connect with a community of Christians in science. Keynote Speakers: Francis Su, S. Joshua Swamidass, Erica Carlson, Jessica Moerman, Harry Lee (Hal) Poe
Registration opens soon–in the meantime please submit scholarship requests and poster abstracts below.
Student/Early Career Programming:Â
InterVarsity’s Emerging Scholars Network will sponsor a student/early career session, a gathering over a meal to connect with other grad and undergrad students and early career professionals, and a reception. It’s a great opportunity to connect with other Christians in a similar career stage.
Scholarships—Available whether presenting or not:Â
Science Corner: When Is a Bed Not a Bed?
Over the past two years, you’ve probably heard more about hospital bed availability than you may have expected to hear in your entire life. Tracking total hospital beds and ICU beds occupied has helped communities know when to increase mitigation to preserve those limited resources. With expanding SARS-CoV-2 immunity through vaccination and prior infection, we can hope to hear less about strained healthcare facilities; already we saw that the combination of immunity and a less severe strain in Omicron BA.1 meant less demand for ICU beds. It’s worth remembering though that when we talk about hospital beds, we’re talking about more than furniture and equipment. A hospital may have a physical bed, but without physicians and nurses to care for the patient in the bed, it doesn’t count. And with fewer clinicians now than two years ago, the US healthcare system may experience lingering effects of the pandemic even when there are few COVID-19 patients to treat.
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Science Corner: Christian Women in Science
Every year since 1987, March has been considered Women’s History Month. What started as International Women’s Day in 1911 became National Women’s History Week in 1980 and then a month designated to learning about and celebrating what women have contributed to history. Since we are approaching the end of Women’s History Month, I thought was appropriate to write a few women in science who were, or are, Christians. Officially they are a small group — according to an article published in Christianity Today, only ~7% of biologists and physicists in the US identify as Christian women. Nevertheless, there are a many remarkable women who belong to this group.
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Science Corner: When Normal Isn’t Normative
Although my public health training focused on infectious diseases, I care about a wide range of public health issues. My job cuts across domains, and also personally I want people to be comprehensively healthy and not merely free from contagions. So when I saw that health-improving and potentially life-saving interventions were being labeled as child abuse and used as the sole grounds for investigating parents, I was baffled and dismayed. I don’t understand how providing treatments which have demonstrated health benefits can be considered abuse. And now some states want to make providing those treatments a felony.
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