Topic: Science

Caleb Wherry begins NASA internship

June 16, 2008 |

An Austin Peay State University computer science student will spend the summer and Fall 2008 semester as an intern in a highly competitive National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) program. Caleb Wherry recently accepted a position in NASA’s Undergraduate Student Research Program. He will receive a total stipend of $15,000 as an intern.

Wherry began June 3 at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif. On Sept. 2, he will begin the fall semester at NASA’s Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., and remain there until Dec. 12. During the Langley internship, Wherry will work with atmospheric scientist Mike Pitts, whose research focuses on the formation and evolution of polar stratospheric clouds using data known as CALIPSO.

Langley Research Center has a new atmospheric trajectory model that staff would like to use to study how the clouds form and evolve with time. Wherry will help the center run the computer models for a number of different scenarios and possibly interface the model with the CALIPSO measurements. Wherry will return to APSU for the Spring 2009 semester.

Sections: Education, News, Technology | No Comments

Creationism has no place in public school science classes

By David W. Shelton | January 14, 2008 |

A growing movement among evangelical and fundamentalist Christian groups is working to bring the teaching of Intelligent Design and Creationism into public schools. This is disturbing on so many levels.

Should matters of faith be taught in schools? Of course not. Proponents of Creationism and Intelligent Design have frequently claimed that “evolution” is little more than a belief as well. Some even assert that “evolution is a religion” because of that.

But what is evolution? Put simply, it is “change.” Now, there’s still plenty of discussion on how that change occurs since we learn more information every day. But the reality is that the world changes. Species change. The nature of the earth has changed.

My Christian faith has long been rooted in the grace of God and His love for all of us. However, I do not believe that there is a literal six-day creation period. While some people insist that the earth can not be more than 6,000 years old because “the Bible says so,” I maintain that the Bible is not now, nor has ever been a science book. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Issues, Opinion, Spirituality | 6 Comments

Video: The Powers of Ten

By Bill Larson | April 22, 2007 |

In 1977, Charles and Ray Eames made a nine-minute film called Powers of Ten that still has the capacity today to expand the way we think and view our world. Over ten million people have since seen the film and it continues to be shown in classrooms, business meetings, festivals and retreats everywhere. Starting with a sleeping man at a picnic, the film takes the viewer on a journey out to the edge of space and then back into a carbon atom in the hand of the man picnic, all in a single shot. It is an unforgettable experience.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6945724039283018435

«Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Arts and Leisure | No Comments

Video: The Root of All Evil? by Richard Dawkins

By Bill Larson | February 6, 2007 |

The Root of All Evil? is a two-part documentary written and presented by Dr. Richard Dawkins, Professor of the Public Understanding of Science, Oxford University, and author of The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, Climbing Mount Improbable, Unweaving the Rainbow, The Ancestor’s Tale, and The God Delusion.

The Root of All Evil?, by the Oxford University evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, is his controversial documentary that complements his bestselling book The God Delusion. Dawkins presents his view of religion as a cultural virus that, like a computer virus, once downloaded into the software of society corrupts many of the programs it encounters. It isn’t hard to find examples to fit this view; one has only to read the dailies coming out of the Middle East to see its nefarious effects.

This documentary is available on DVD for $29.95 [ Click here to order] or click read more to find out more and watch a preview of this video for free online «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Spirituality | No Comments