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Last week a couple friends and I had the magnificent opportunity of hiking over the jagged peaks you see above--the Tetons in northwest Wyoming. Rising up from the Jackson Hole valley like teeth from a bear's mouth, the Teton Range looks stark from a distance but is in fact rich with life, almost to the peak (there were honeybees browsing flowers at 10,000 ft). Our 1 and 1/2 day hike through Paintbrush and Cascade Canyons brought us to 10,700 feet--and 10,900 feet if you include the ridge we scrambled to at the top. Since the parking lot we started from was about 6,900 feet, we climbed a total of around 4,000. The hike was about 20 miles.

I was very close to taking my digital SLR (a Canon Rebel XT) up the trails with me, but decided against the extra weight at the last minute. This was the first overnight backpacking trip any of us had done, and since us Hoosiers don't exactly go mountain climbing a lot, we weren't sure what to expect. We already had weight in our backpacks from sleeping bags, a tent, food, sternos, etc. At first, while the elevation was still moderate, I wanted to kick myself for not bringing it. But by about 9,000 feet (where I was huffing and puffing), I decided I had made a wise decision. Later in this post I'll have a lineup of Yellowstone photos for you.

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Ununoctium, or "Element 118" has been discovered, according to Russian and U.S. scientists, and was detected for 1/1000th of a second.  The heaviest element known to occur naturally, uranium, has 92 protons.  The new element has 118.  Apparently the discovery of this element was faked once before; the creation of element 118 will need to be duplicated by another lab before its discovery is made really official.

 While some scientists investigate bacteria that could potentially survive on Mars, others explain the technical reasons why we haven't found any on Mars yet.  Next they'll probably suggest we take some bacteria there, just to see if we can find it later.

That Antarctic hole in the ozone layer looks to be getting pretty big.  10.6 million square miles. 

This just in:  It appears evidence has been found that parasites roamed the intestines of dinosaurs.  Now if we could only link them to dinosaur extinction. . .

It's one of those rare days when I can't decide which story to report to you, in spite of plenty to choose from.  I'm settling for a random assortment, so settle down yourself and get the buzz from today and yesterday:

W. Scott McGraw from Ohio State University has been gathering leftover bones from beneath the nests of African crowned eagles, and has found that more than half belonged to primates, leading his evolutionary mind to believe that raptors (the birds, not the dinosaurs, in this case) regularly preyed on ancient humans.  He says that the "Tuang Child," the name given to the owner of a small skull specimen found in a South African cave, was killed by an "ancient crowned hawk eagle."  That particular bit is old news: The Tuang-eagle connection seems to have been first proposed back in January by paleontologist Lee Berger.

Where I live in northwest Indiana, the Lake Michigan beaches are occasionally condemned because of high levels of Escherichia coli , a bacterium ever present in our digestive system, which, according to Wikipedia, is considered in the world of sewage treatment to be an accurate indicator of human fecal amounts (Pleasant Thought). Scientists researching how E. coli bacteria attach themselves to mucous membranes discovered tiny hair-like protrusions on the species that stick to surfaces and strengthen under stress.  Now the same researchers have found that these protrusions, called "fimbriae," are built of proteins arranged "in a tightly coiled helix shape, like a seven-nanometer-wide Slinky toy."  This spring-like system acts like a shock absorber for the bacterium, allowing it to withstand the turbulent flow of your digestive juices.

"Too Many Men Could Destabilize Society" is the title of an article released yesterday by University College London, which states the obvious in pointing out how sex-selective abortions in Asia have led to an enormous deficit of females--up to 80 million in India and China.  The article worries of an increase in male "antisocial behaviour and violence," because of their lack of an "outlet for sexual energy."  However, it claims that women should benefit from their increased value, experiencing a rise in social status.
Are they suggesting that the selective abortion of 80 million females has been beneficial to women in general?  The title of the article certainly implies that the authors thought a surplus of men--not a lack of women--was the real problem in Asian society.  Are they suggesting that the Chinese should abort their males as well?

The New York Times has an article about the 70-year history of the search for the human papillomavirus vaccine, and you'll learn, among other things, how the legend of the jackrabbit probably got started.  An interesting story, and I'm glad to hear of the vaccine, though I must point out that the best defense against STD's is still abstinence and fidelity.  Cheaper, too.

Researchers have concluded that you only have a 50/50 chance of correctly discerning the tone--serious or sarcastic--of an email message.  This applies even if you are confident you know the tone of message in question.  Does this apply to valentines?  Or at least e-valentines?  Maybe you lovers out there should double-check that message you received from your sweetheart today. . . You know, the one you've already responded to.

MIT researchers have taken imaging to a new level, capturing amazing images of a virus.  The images "show for the first time a virus poised to inject its genetic material into a host cell."

The Spirit Rover on Mars has found--and photographed--some rock patterns not yet seen on the planet.  There seems to be some excited disagreement about what caused the patterns.

An expedition sponsored by the University of Memphis has discovered a 18th-dynasty tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, contained five mummies and some pottery.  The discovery results from the Amenmesse Tomb Project, a work that has been ongoing since 1995.  You can view a diagram of the KV-10 tomb or learn more about the tomb and the Amenmesse Tomb Project at its official website.

Last, Yahoo News has a fun story about Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite that inhabits the guts--and brains--of rats.  These parasites have been observed to alter the rats' behavior, similar to other instances in nature where an organism changes the behavior of its host by affecting the brain, often to a specific purpose for the parasite.  But what's really weird about Toxoplasma gondii is that it doesn't just live in rats:  Approximately three billion humans host the parasite as well.

I bet I just ruined someone's appetite. 

The NASA Stardust mission has been considered a huge success, since the returned tennis racket-sized collector seems to have obtained hundreds of specks of space dust--some visible to the naked eye.  "This exceeded all of our grandest expectations," said Dr. Donald Brownlee, the chief investigator for the Stardust project.  The mission has cost $212 million over 10 years, but was a "bargain considering the amount of knowledge it should provide about the origins of the solar system and Earth," according to the New York Times story that interviewed Dr. Brownlee.  "The way I like to look at it," says Brownlee, "it's the same cost as a well-paid baseball player over a 10-year period."  Except that baseball players bring in ticket sales, while NASA missions bring in taxes, for the purpose of proving cosmic evolution.

An intriguing Chinese map purportedly drawn in 1418 shows Australia and North and South America, and would seem to indicated that a Chinese explorer--such as Admiral Zheng He--discovered the Americas over 70 years before Columbus did.  Most historians are scoffing at this idea so far, but who knows?   Only a comparison of evidence is the fair way to debate.

9,000 to 13,000 man-made objects larger than four inches wide are currently orbiting the earth, but not all are for your cell phone.  Besides satellites, a lot of space debris is swirling around up there--leftover rocket bodies and other spacecraft parts that have been jettisoned in the course of numerous missions since 1957.  While these pieces seem few and far between in the expanse of space, even the smallest debris poses a threat, since they travel 22,000 miles per hour.  At that speed even a fleck of paint will leave a mark on a spacecraft.  A chuck of metal, then, could cause destruction.  While most space debris orbits at a further distance out than, say, the International Space Station, the amount of space junk is expected to triple in the next 200 years, substantially increasing the hazards of future missions.  Scientists are now wondering how to cheaply dispose of the debris, which must be done by shoving the objects into an earth-bound trajectory, where they will enter the atmosphere and burn up.  Since 1991, there have been three known collisions between space debris.

Tough Little Guys:  You'd be surprised how resilient a handful of dirt can be.  That is, if the dirt contains a nice assortment of bacteria.  Scientists gathered soil from several locations, identified strains of bacteria, and threw several natural and man-made antibiotics at them.  All were immune to one-third of the antibiotics, and a couple were resistant to over half.  This could be bad news for larger species, and for humans (especially drugmakers), who are constantly plagued by mutating bacteria that cause infections and resist the most powerful drugs on the market.  Yet if doctors knew about these soil bacteria before they had a chance to infect humans, they'd have an edge on the little suckers from the start. 

California caves have revealed 27 new species of spiders, centipedes, and pseudoscorpians.   When it comes to creepy critters, pictures are worth a thousand words, and these four pdf reports contain plenty:   First Progress Report  ~  Second Progress Report  ~  Third Progress Report  ~  Fourth Progress Report

 More creepy critters:  Giant jellyfish inundate Japan.

Finally, the Vatican Newspaper has denounced Intelligent Design, and committed a common offense by lumping the movement with creationism, the Biblical view of origins which GlobeLens upholds.  The newspaper also demonstrated the ignorance that normally accompanies ID critics, dismissing ID arguments (and in this case, creationist arguments) of irreducible complexity as "ideology."  The newpaper's position is apparently in contrast with the remark by Pope Benedict XVI that the origin of the universe was an "intelligent project."

Evolution itself is the true ideology.  ID proponents are now understanding what creationists have known and experienced all along:  That the battle of origins is a battle of worldview, upon which hang crucial questions like the existence of God, the existence of spirituality, the foundation of morality and law, and the prospect of life after death.  People get touchy about these things, whether or not the evidence before them is real.

It's hard to tell how fact-based or evolution-based this story is about the divergence of cat species.  Apparently scientists have used DNA studies to back up their claim that all felines descended from a common ancestor, but of course biological evolution already predicts that, with or without DNA.  From a creationist standpoint, the evolutionists could be right in this case--all felines could have descended from a single created cat "kind," or, several cat kinds might have been present at original creation.

A new theory proposes that ancient apes, or "early man" as evolutionists call them, were hunted by birds, who swooped down on them and punctured their heads with sharp talons.  Five stars for creativity, two for believability.

H5N1 (aka bird flu virus) has undergone a mutation, samples from Turkey show.  Any bird flu mutation is a concern, but pathologists don't believe this mutation poses any heightened threat.

As you've probably heard, Augustine Volcano in Alaska is erupting, though not with the same thick ash that plagued nearby communities during previous eruptions (1976, 1986). 

An article from the NYT tells how genetics are being used to trace the origins of the Jewish Ashkenazi population.  If their calculations are correct, 40% of Ashkenazis descended from four females 2,000 to 3,000 years ago.  Not much of a surprise here (we all came from somewhere), but perhaps continued genetics studies will shed clearer light on biological origins.  Researchers are still arguing over where these four females emigrated from.

40 million infected globally. 15 million orphaned. 3 million will die this year.

Dirty needles contribute to HIV spread.What may be the most poignant story in September's issue of National Geographic is a short collection of AIDS testimonies. Author and photographer Gideon Mendel has documented African AIDS victims for 12 years, and has seen firsthand children and adults fighting the incurable disease, some successfully, if that word can be used, and some not so successfully. [There is some unnecessary nudity in the AIDS story, as well as elsewhere in the September issue. The new method by which pages are glued to the magazine's binding makes it very convenient in discarding them.]

Here are the facts about AIDS. Aquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome is caused by a virus called HIV (which stands for human immunodeficiency virus. HIV attacks a person's T-cells (a white blood cell type) which are responsible for fighting and killing viruses and bacteria in the body. When you catch a cold or flu virus, your T-cells will work against it until it is defeated. When you get HIV, it is your T-cells that are killed. And when your T-cell count falls to below 200, you officially have AIDS. Your body will become more and more susceptible to catching other illnesses, such as tuberculosis and hepatitis, and without the T-cells to fight back, you will eventually die. Your only hope is to take ARVs (antiretroviral drugs), which inhibit the replication of HIV and provide some relief from symptoms. Regular ARV treatment has been observed to extend the life of HIV-positive persons--and ward off the development of AIDS--for up to several years. ARVs do not destroy the virus--there is no known cure for HIV.

The reason Africa and AIDS are so often mentioned in the same sentence is because of the astronomically high proportion of AIDS-diseased persons in sub-Sahara Africa (remember that "sub-Sahara" just means the area of Africa below the Sahara desert). While the sub-Sahara is home to 10% of the world's total population, over 60% of all cases of HIV/AIDS are found there. The second highest rate of occurrence is in Asia (22%, including Indonesia), where in places like Mumbai, India the virus is infecting an estimated 1000 people nightly. (See the UNAIDS report for more information on the global statistics.)

Why such a high concentration of HIV in Africa? Is promiscuity there more prevalent than in other places? That's hard to say, and certainly not sufficient to explain the disparity of infection prevalence in Africa and the U.S. which hosts less than 2% of the world's HIV cases. Many believe the virus originated out of Africa, and many cite the poverty, disease, and insanitation that are widespread there, making the continent an easy target for the HIV virus. Everyone, including myself, would like to be able to immediately point to a cause--and thus find a solution--but first let's make sure we've got the facts straight. And let's make sure National Geographic has them straight too.

When many of us Western people hear about HIV we tend to get a little nervous, as if AIDS were a plague from the ghettos that one would catch if he started associating too closely with druggie-eyed outcasts. Urban myths have circulated about innocent citizens being intentionally jabbed with dirty needles, the nihilistic victims of some dying AIDS sadist. To many minds, AIDS is mystical disease sent only to the wicked, with whom it should remain.

Let's not be superstitious.

Disease and death are indeed the results of wrong behavior; in addition all of us will die as a direct result of the first man's sin. When we face life-altering illness, accidents, or violence, it is appropriate to ask God "Why?" and search our own lives for any sin that might be the issue God would like us to address. Yet in the Biblical case of Job no sin was the "cause" of his troubles and his skin disease. We'll be careful then,  in making a blanket statement that HIV is God's judgement on the individual infected. As a general rule, however: Even as God judges a nation for ungodliness by sending them defeat in war or by sending plagues among them, so God judges groups of people who engage in immoral behavior. One of the many ways in which he does this is apparently through sexually transmitted diseases.

As Christians, however, we shouldn't treat gays, prostitutes, or other promiscuous people any different than our humanist next-door neighbor. Each has separate issues that need addressed, but fundamentally all have the same problem: Sin and no Savior.  As a disclaimer, I would say that from a legal standpoint sexual sins need stricter treatment because of their serious effect on the individuals and offspring involved and society at large.  But peer-to-peer, we owe them love and the truth.Although in a moral sense the sexually deviant may be our enemies, Christians are called to love (through action, not feeling) their enemies.

So is AIDS a gay disease?  It's true that AIDS in the USA is largely associated with gays, because originally that group was the primary one affected by the virus, and because male homosexuality continues to be the most frequent method of HIV transmission in America.  HIV spreads more easily through homosexual sex than through heterosexual sex, and incidentally, AIDS is unknown among lesbians. As a virus, HIV does not survive well outside blood or a body. You won't catch HIV from someone sneezing on you or from using a dirty toilet seat. HIV won't even spread through kissing. In fact, even if you were to get jabbed by a dirty needle containing infected blood, your chances are 1 in 200 that you'll catch the virus. [See AIDS and You by Dr. Patrick Dixon, p. 55] Those odds of transmission are about the same in normal heterosexual intercourse, presuming neither participant has any sexually transmitted disease (apart from HIV, of course). It is STDs that massively multiply the odds of passing along HIV, because many like gonorrhoea and chancroid cause open sores in the skin which allows transmission of the tiny virus into the bloodstream. Where promiscuity and untreated STDs are prevalent, HIV spreads like wildfire, among heterosexuals and homosexuals alike. It is also for this reason that prostitution is a primary disseminator of the HIV virus.

However, it isn't just promiscuous adults that have been given HIV life sentences. Faithful wives are infected by their adulterous husbands. Children are born infected or become infected by drinking breast milk from an HIV-positive mother. Millions of children in Africa are orphans because one or both parents have died of AIDS. Whatever the cause of spread, Christians cannot ignore the cries of those innocently affected by the pandemic. 

It is these sorts of testimonies that the National Geographic story focuses on: Nomfumaneko, an HIV-infected teenage girl, hopes to live and become a nurse, but died last November. Another woman is infected by her unfaithful husband, a miner working away from home who doesn't tell her or his children of his infection until he has passed it on. Another is a seven-year-old boy named Zamokuhle Mdingwe who acquired HIV as a baby through breast milk, before his mother died of AIDS herself. Now his grandparents look after him. One strength Africans possess is a strong view of family responsibility: When someone in the family gets sick, relatives step in to help.

While these stories are real and legitimate, National Geographic does Africans a disservice by failing to clearly mention the main causes of HIV spread in Africa: prostitution and infidelity.  Although factors such as uncleanliness may be contributers, HIV spread clearly follows the paths of migrant workers (men who travel away from home for long periods of time for work, such as the miner above) and trucking routes.  Prostitutes spread the virus to the unfaithful of the traveling men, who carry it to their respective homes, infecting their wives and often subsequently, their children (See The Skeptic's Guide to the Global AIDS Crisis by Dale Hanson Bourke, p. 43).  If this mechanism of HIV spread were somehow disabled, AIDS in Africa would be severely crippled.  In the words of Dr. Patrick Dixon in AIDS and You, "It is a fact that if everyone kept to one partner for life, and ceased injecting drugs, HIV would be wiped off the face of this earth in less than 30 years." (From the Introduction)  Intravenous drug usage with dirty needles is a primary method of spread in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

 Some would like to confront the AIDS crisis by distributing condoms, saying that many people will be unfaithful and inject drugs no matter what you tell them, so we should provide them with whatever is needed to keep the deadly HIV virus from spreading to more people.  There are some serious problems with this approach.  First, not even wealthy countries like the USA can afford to pay for millions of condoms to be distributed in Africa (or any other vulnerable country) every night, to be used once and discarded.  Second, no one wants to use condoms, since it involves a loss of fertility, pleasure and convenience.  Third, condoms are notoriously unreliable, not just in preventing pregnancy but also in preventing the transmission of viruses, which are much smaller than sperm.  Fourth, even making condoms available at subsidized prices is insufficient for the extreme poor in parts of Africa, who can barely afford to eat.  Condoms may be useful in preventing HIV transmission from one spouse to another, but beyond that their distribution is inadequate and, I believe, morally questionable.  I would never tell anyone about a condom before I first told them about a more reliable prevention scheme:  full fidelity.

In Uganda, a nation in the heart of sub-Sahara Africa, HIV infection rates dropped from 22% to 8% over several years after President Museveni began a program in 1986 to combat the spread of the virus.  At the heart of Uganda's remarkably successful anti-AIDS campaign was the strong promotion of abstinence and fidelity, condoms taking the back seat.  Given the proof of the statistics, one wonders why more African nations haven't followed Uganda's example.  Abstinence and fidelity are the keys to fighting AIDS and other STDs.  Nothing else will work.

Also at the heart of the Ugandan AIDS initiative was the involvement of Faith-Based Organizations (FBOs).  Christians must and have been taking part in the fight against AIDS, not only because of the many people and children dying from it, but also because of the many Christians with HIV.  As a Christian, my primary duty is to help those in the Church affected by the disease--either those who have lost a spouse or become orphaned or become infected themselves--and then to help those whom I can outside the Church.  All help should be accompanied with love and Biblical teaching.  I'm proud to report that Christian churches and organizations have led the fight against AIDS in many African countries.

Christians can demonstrate love to those with AIDS by meeting practical needs and by giving Biblical counsel (not to mention the Gospel).  Christians can also help provide medicine (ARVs) to inhibit the progression of AIDS.  Many Africans are too poor to afford ARV treatment, which to be effective must be taken daily and occasionally checked up on by a nurse or doctor.  ARVs not only keep death at bay, but reduce the chance of transmission through sex, birth or breast milk.  Providing ARVs is like providing food and water.

One other thing:  Government attitudes towards sex-related social problems too often place the burden of responsibility on women instead of men.  Yet it is overwhelmingly men who commit adultery, pay for prostitutes (or make money from them), and skip town when women get pregnant.  It's as if governments think men are incapable of responsible behavior, and are therefore excused.   In the words of Gary Haugen, President of International Justice Mission: "Any effective initiative to combat the spread of AIDS must mobilize effective enforcement of criminal laws by local officials in order to eliminate the market for sex trafficking and drastically reduce the instances of rape and sexual assaults."  Where the sex trade remains unaddressed, diseases and sorrows of all kinds will proliferate.

Africa needs strong, moral leaders.  Africa needs fidelity.  Africa needs Christians to take the Gospel and practical love and care to AIDS victims.

As with hurricanes, natural disasters, famines, and other diseases, Christians have an extraordinary opportunity with AIDS to show that Jesus Christ is alive.  It is in the face of disaster and sickness that people realize they need Him most.

December 1st is World AIDS day.  You can help an AIDS-devestated community by sponsoring a HopeChild through World Vision, or ask your church to partner with a ministering church in Africa.  Syringe photo copyright Anthony Smith.  Used by permission.

It's a little-known fact that tiny ocean plants called phytoplankton absorb as much CO2 from the atmosphere as all other plant life combined. This makes a huge impact on the "greenhouse effect", which is said to be caused by high levels of CO2 (carbon dioxide), a gas constantly on the move as it is exhaled by humans and animals (and mega-producers such as volcanoes) and converted back into oxygen by plants through photosynthesis.

A new study using NASA satellite technology shows how phytoplankton numbers dramatically increase and decrease during El Niño and La Niña years.  The information is important not only because of how gas levels affect the climate but also because phytoplankton are the foundation of the ocean food chain.

A new species of bacteria has been discovered that uses photosynthesis, even though it lives at ocean depths (a mile and a half down) where no sunlight is present.  It grows near 700+ degree (F) hydrothermal vents in the ocean floor, which actually emit miniscule amounts of light--enough to keep the bacteria alive.  This species is "the only photosynthetic organism in nature known to use a light source other than sunlight."