Friday, August 30, 2013

Oxygen, Ice, and Our Changing Earth

Learning more about this universe is part of being human. This week I read about a newly-confirmed element; more evidence that Earth froze over, several times; and the three-billion-year legacy of our genes.
  1. Ununpentium: It's Real
  2. When Earth Froze Over
  3. Genes: A Three-Billion-Year Legacy

Astrobiology, Exobiology

The currently-hypothetical study of extraterrestrial organisms is called exobiology; astrobiology; and, by some, a total waste of time. I generally call it exobiology, even though the Pontifical Academy of Sciences used the term "astrobiology" a few years back:
  • "Study Week on Astrobiology"
    The Pontifical Academy of Sciences (November 6-10, 2009)
    (from The Pontifical Academy of Sciences, archived ca. October 2, 2011)
The second of my picks this week is about Earth's climate, more than a half-billion years back: which first appeared in Astrobiology Magazine. That makes sense, since the only planet we know has supported life is Earth. Studying what was 'normal' here before we came along helps scientists figure out what environments could support life.

'New' Element

The 'big deal' news is that scientists in Sweden confirmed that element 115 exists. Ununpentium doesn't occur naturally on Earth, as far as we know. It was first spotted by folks in 2003 at Dubna and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Near-simultaneous discoveries don't surprise me. Scientists are notorious — or remarkable — for sharing information, so who finishes their research first is a sort of race.

It's Greek to Me

Ununpentium doesn't have anything to do with not having Intel microprocessors. The element was called eka-bismuth. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, IUPAC for short, called it ununpentium because eka-bismuth's atomic number is 115.

That makes sense, since unum is Latin for one, pent is Greek for five. They used Greek because the Latin word for five is quin, which starts with q: and might get folks confused because flerovium used to be called ununquadium. For folks who don't understand Latin and Greek, and know that flerovium was called ununquadium, ununpentium is just a five-syllable label, and that's another topic. (Wikipedia)

Now that I've got that out of my system, here's more about Ununpentium:

1. Ununpentium: It's Real

"New element confirmed for periodic table"
FoxNews.com (August 27, 2013)

"...Swedish scientists report fresh evidence confirming the existence of a new element for the periodic table, the 'telephone book' of matter that makes up the universe. First discovered a decade ago, this particular substance proved hard to confirm -- after all, atomic number 115 doesn't occur naturally anywhere on earth.

"By bombarding calcium ions at a thin film of americium -- that's atomic number 95, for the forgetful -- an international team of researchers led by physicists from Lund University measured the element's alpha decay, a 'fingerprint' of a given element.

"The element has been tentatively named 'ununpentium' since its discovery in 2003, but an official name has not yet been given, and the element's very existence remained unconfirmed until now...."
Researchers started looking for and discovering new elements about a thousand years back, with the pace picking up around 1700. By 1800 researchers were called scientists instead of alchemists, and that's yet another topic. They found 51 new elements from 1800 to 1899, but only 29 from 1900 to 1999.

Iron Man and Real Synthetic Elements

The hero in science fiction stories occasionally saved the day by discovering, or creating, a new element. Marvel's Iron Man may be the best-known example today. Many, probably most, of the stories were more imaginative than plausible: but 'artificial elements' are quite real.

They're called synthetic elements:
"In chemistry, a synthetic element is a chemical element that does not occur naturally on Earth, and can only be created artificially. So far, 20 synthetic elements have been created (those with atomic numbers 99–118). All are unstable, decaying with half-lives ranging from a year to a few milliseconds.

"Nine other elements were first created artificially and thus considered synthetic, but later discovered to exist naturally (in trace quantities) as well; among them plutonium - first synthesized in 1940 - the one best known to laypeople, because of its use in atomic bombs and nuclear reactors...."
("Synthetic elements," Wikipedia)

'Meddling With Nature,' Being Human

Individual Catholics may dislike science, or feel that 'meddling with nature' is wrong. Catholics don't have to keep up with what we're learning about the cosmos: but it's okay.

The Church says that learning about nature and finding new ways to work with it is what we're designed for. We can decide to use what we learn for good or evil, and that's built into us too. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 159, 282-284, 1730-1738, 2292-2295, 2375)

Scientists have been learning a very great deal about the origins of humankind, Earth, and the universe in recent centuries:
"...These discoveries invite us to even greater admiration for the greatness of the Creator, prompting us to give him thanks for all his works and for the understanding and wisdom he gives to scholars and researchers...."
(Catechism, 283)
That's not a new idea. More than two thousand years ago, someone wrote this:
"Now God grant I speak suitably and value these endowments at their worth: For he is the guide of Wisdom and the director of the wise.

"For both we and our words are in his hand, as well as all prudence and knowledge of crafts.

"For he gave me sound knowledge of existing things, that I might know the organization of the universe and the force of its elements,

"The beginning and the end and the midpoint of times, the changes in the sun's course and the variations of the seasons."
(Wisdom 7:15-18)


2. When Earth Froze Over

"What Was Frigid 'Snowball Earth' Really Like?"
Nola Taylor Redd, Astrobiology Magazine, via Space.com (August 23, 2013)

" During vast ice ages millions of years ago, sheets of glaciers stretched from the poles almost to the equator, covering the Earth in a frozen skin. Conditions on the "snowball Earth," as scientists refer to it, made the planet a completely different place.

" 'We're essentially talking about another world,' said Linda Sohl of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.

"In May, Sohl spoke with a small group at a lunchtime seminar, later posted online, about the evolution of the understanding of the snowball Earth and how it has changed as technology has improved...."
The last I heard, some scientists still aren't convinced that Earth froze over. A big problem, apparently, is that they don't know how it could have thawed again: and so don't think the global ice sheet could have existed. Maybe I'm being unfair: or, not.

My guess is that researchers who found evidence of near-global glaciers are right, and that we're still learning about exactly when these industrial strength ice ages happened.

Glacial Deposits Near the Equator

"...By the early 1990s, scientists had found several unusual features that indicated something chilling had happened in the past. Glacial deposits of similar ages appeared on almost every continent. Evidence revealed that capped carbonates - limestone overlays formed by the ocean - lying on top of the glacial deposits had formed where they were found, rather than having migrated south from higher latitudes.

" 'There had been this growing consensus that we'd had some terrible ice ages back in the past,' Sohl said.

"These features appeared at three different times in Earth's history, at 750 million, 635 million, and 580 million years ago...."
(Nola Taylor Redd, Astrobiology Magazine, via Space.com)
Earth's recent ice ages, like the one that probably ended 10,000 years ago, only sent glaciers down to about 45 degrees from the poles. Sand and gravel, left when the ice melted, formed moraines, kettle lakes, and other features in the landscape near my home in Minnesota.

'Normal' ice ages send glaciers outward from the poles. Then the glaciers melt and the cycle starts again. In my youth, it looked like another glacial advance was starting: and that's yet again another topic.

In the 'snowball' events, the glaciers kept going until they either reached the equator: or came very close.

Runaway Freeze

"...Temperatures on a snowball Earth are estimated to have reached minus 58 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 50 degrees Celsius). As the ice spread, more heat was reflected back into space rather than absorbed by the planet, dropping temperatures down in a runaway effect that sped the formation of ice...."
(Nola Taylor Redd, Astrobiology Magazine, via Space.com)
Someone visiting Earth during one of those big freezes might have decided that the planet was too cold for any widespread life: and was likely to stay that way.

Earth didn't stay frozen, probably because the glaciers covered rocks that absorb carbon dioxide.

A 10-Million-Year Winter, and Greenhouse Gasses

"...The world remained almost completely frozen over during each of the three periods for around 10 million years before warming again. Scientists still aren't certain what caused temperatures to rise again, but volcanic activity is a strong suspect. Many rocks absorb carbon dioxide, but in a snowball scenario such formations would be covered, allowing the atmosphere-heating molecule to build up to a point where global warming could melt the ice...."
Here's where Earth's continents were, around the time of one of those 'snowball' events. The cartographer, Christopher R. Scotese, shows glaciation limited to higher latitudes.


(From Christopher R. Scotese's www.scotese.com, used w/o permission)

About 136,000,000 year later, the big freezes were over and our home probably looked like this:


(From Christopher R. Scotese's www.scotese.com, used w/o permission)

Here's the left part of that map, full size, so we can see words like "Ancient Landmass" in the lower left corner.


(From Christopher R. Scotese's www.scotese.com, used w/o permission)

Change Happens

Those first two maps don't look alike. That's understandable, since Earth's crust moves. On average, the speed is 'inches per year,' but over 136,000,000 million years that adds up.

Here's another pair of maps, showing Earth's changing face over the last 150,000,000 years.


(From Christopher R. Scotese's www.scotese.com, used w/o permission)


(From Christopher R. Scotese's www.scotese.com, used w/o permission)

It doesn't look like quite as much change happened in that last set. That's my impression, anyway. I think that perception comes from the map's projection: the way a sphere's surface gets projected onto a flat surface.

All four maps use a projection that shows most of Earth's current continents without much distortion, except for Antarctica. Or, rather, shows most continents where they are today: 650,000,000 years ago most continents were clustered near the lower left side, and quite distorted.

3. Genes: A Three-Billion-Year Legacy


(From Lawrence David, via Science Daily, used w/o permission)
"Three Billion-Year-Old Genomic Fossils Deciphered"
Science Daily (December 10, 2010)

"About 580 million years ago, life on Earth began a rapid period of change called the Cambrian Explosion, a period defined by the birth of new life forms over many millions of years that ultimately helped bring about the modern diversity of animals. Fossils help palaeontologists chronicle the evolution of life since then, but drawing a picture of life during the 3 billion years that preceded the Cambrian Period is challenging, because the soft-bodied Precambrian cells rarely left fossil imprints. However, those early life forms did leave behind one abundant microscopic fossil: DNA.

"Because all living organisms inherit their genomes from ancestral genomes, computational biologists at MIT reasoned that they could use modern-day genomes to reconstruct the evolution of ancient microbes...."
Maybe the Cambrian Explosion happening right after the last 'snowball Earth' global freeze-over is a coincidence. Or maybe it's what happens when Earth defrosts and stuff can start growing again.

Either way, the Cambrian Explosion may not be the first time life on Earth became much more complicated.

The Great Oxidation Event

"...The work suggests that the collective genome of all life underwent an expansion between 3.3 and 2.8 billion years ago, during which time 27 percent of all presently existing gene families came into being.

"Eric Alm, a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Biological Engineering, and Lawrence David, who recently received his Ph.D. from MIT and is now a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows, have named this period the Archean Expansion.

"Because so many of the new genes they identified are related to oxygen, Alm and David first thought that the emergence of oxygen might be responsible for the Archean Expansion. Oxygen did not exist in the Earth's atmosphere until about 2.5 billion years ago when it began to accumulate, likely killing off vast numbers of anerobic [!] life forms in the Great Oxidation Event.

" 'The Great Oxidation Event was probably the most catastrophic event in the history of cellular life, but we don't have any biological record of it,' says Alm.

"Closer inspection, however, showed that oxygen-utilizing genes didn't appear until the tail end of the Archean Expansion 2.8 billion years ago, which is more consistent with the date geochemists assign to the Great Oxidation Event...."
"Catastrophic" isn't necessarily "bad." If microcritters on Earth hadn't started dumping that incredibly toxic (to anaerobic organisms) element, oxygen, into the environment: we wouldn't be here.

It looks like oxygen in the atmosphere, even a little, gave life an opportunity to grow and change.

Anaerobic critters are still with us. Some live in our digestive system, helping us process food. Deep sea worms like Riftia pachyptila get along without oxygen; and closer to home, pork worms encourage us to cook meat thoroughly.

Oxygen reacts with a great many materials, sometimes violently. That was bad for anaerobic organisms. Other creatures use oxygen as an energy source. We couldn't live without oxygen reacting with carbohydrates, fats, and proteins in our bodies.

More than a million years ago, we learned to use heat released when oxygen reacts with stuff like wood, and that's — still more topics. (January 27, 2013; Apathetic Lemming of the North, April 9, 2012; July 9, 2011)

Background:
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Sunday, August 25, 2013

Looking Forward to Heaven

When I think of Heaven as a particular place, my mind's eye often sees a vast cosmopolitan city: interior concourses so huge that the Statue of Liberty would make a nice focal point; and skyscrapers designed in a blend of art deco and high Gothic styles.

My imagination takes me in those directions because I'm familiar with both styles. Both represent what architects can achieve when they decide that stone or steel can be beautiful, as well as practical.


(Carol M Highsmith, Luis Argerich, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.)
The Chrysler and Kavanagh buildings.


(© Professor Jeffery Howe, Boston College, used w/o permission.)
Saint Étienne, Bourges.

Heaven probably doesn't look like that. Then again, some parts might.

Permanent Address: Heaven, I hope

Heaven is an eternal life with God. I don't 'deserve' to be there, but what my Lord did on Golgotha opened Heaven for me, and everyone else. Opting for Heaven is an option. I could decide that loving God is less important than 'me time,' which seems like a daft decision. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 598-618, 766, 1023-1029, 1033-1037)

Considering what my Lord did for me, I think I can put up with a little inconvenience and frustration now and then: and that's not quite another topic.

Revelation and Responsibility

Reading Revelation as a none-too-reflective 21st-century man, I could assume that once I get to Heaven someone's going to write on my forehead, and I'll get to boss folks around. Imagery about writing on foreheads and reigning forever looks like a sort of combination wild party and power trip.

Like I've said before, Revelation wasn't written by an American.

On the other hand, I think this is true:
"They will look upon his face, 3 and his name will be on their foreheads."

"Night will be no more, nor will they need light from lamp or sun, for the Lord God shall give them light, and they shall reign forever and ever."
(Revelation 22:4-5)

"This perfect life with the Most Holy Trinity - this communion of life and love with the Trinity, with the Virgin Mary, the angels and all the blessed - is called 'heaven.' Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness."
(Catechism, 1024)

"In the glory of heaven the blessed continue joyfully to fulfill God's will in relation to other men and to all creation. Already they reign with Christ; with him 'they shall reign for ever and ever.'605"
(Catechism, 1029)
Reigning with Christ is a good thing: but let's remember that Jesus died for each of us. I think it's reasonable to expect that fulfilling "God's will in relation to other men and to all creation" involves work: and responsibility.

It's probably like the "good and faithful servant," whose reward for being responsible was - bigger responsibilities.
"His master said to him, 'Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master's joy.' "
(Matthew 25:23)
Think of it as job security?

Finding God's Kingdom

Today's readings talk about "nations of every language," "the discipline of the Lord," and this creation's endgame: Isaiah 66:18-21; Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13; and Luke 13:22-30.

Don't expect to see an 'End Time Bible prophecy' here, by the way. I take Matthew 24:35 seriously, and do not think trying to second-guess God makes sense. (November 14, 2010)

I'm looking forward to Heaven. This isn't 'pie in the sky by and by' stuff, where the payoff for being good now is self-gratification later. If I don't like working for God now, why would I expect to enjoy a Heaven where I'll still be working for God?
"...This earthly life would make no sense if it were merely the staging ground for the life to come. God puts us on this earth to learn how to live here so we will be prepared to live here after. If we find nothing of God's kingdom here on earth we are not likely to find a home in heaven...."
(Reflection by Deacon L. N. Kaas (August 25, 2013))
There is a sort of 'payoff,' for me anyway. I like knowledge, and look forward to getting a clear look at - everything.
"At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known."
(1 Corinthians 13:12)

"Beloved, we are God's children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed 2 we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is."
(1 John 3:2)
Knowledge isn't useful - unless it's put to use. Thinking beautiful thoughts is okay, but following my Lord also means feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and generally making myself useful.

Not that I've done everything listed in Matthew 25:34-40. I hope Jesus won't mind that I focus on what I'm fairly good at doing. Writing seems pretty close to "...the expression of wisdom..." and "...the expression of knowledge..." I read about in 1 Corinthians 12:8: and that's sort of another topic.

I don't think we'll build 'a heaven on Earth.' Not on our own, at least.

But making our world a better place is part of our job. (Catechism 1928-1942)

My guess is that we've got a lot of time to work with: and will need every millennia of it.



Related posts:

Transformation, Radical Change, and Ending Selfishness

Readings for the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time:

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Deacon Lawrence N. Kaas
August 25, 2013

I would like to share with you a simple statement and then spend the rest of my homily defending it.

This earthly life would make no sense if it were merely the staging ground for the life to come. God puts us on this earth to learn how to live here so we will be prepared to live here after. If we find nothing of God's kingdom here on earth we are not likely to find a home in heaven. And as I often say to my seventh graders, there is no culture shock when you die!

Someone asked Jesus, "Lord, will those who are saved be few?" Jesus doesn't answer the question directly, which seemed to create a dark and troubling scene. But He does use it to make a very important point for the questioner needs to hear what really matters in the kingdom of God.

Jesus' responds is that we are to strive to enter by the narrow gate, "for many will seek to enter and not be able." Similar words were spoken in the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus says, "enter-by the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction." Jesus cannot be accused of preaching a pie in the sky type of gospel. He is candid about the difficulties of following him and the costly nature of discipleship.

And when you stop to think about it how could it be otherwise, all worthwhile efforts and meaningful achievements involve passing through a narrow gate they require self-discipline and diligent effort. Jesus came to save us from ourselves and from our sins. He came to heal the evil in our hearts and make us different. He did not come merely to get us into heaven, he came to make of us a new creation. Such transformations cannot happen without radical change, without the pain of sacrifice and a commitment to a radical change. God's grace had been revealed to us primarily through the cross of Christ. Receiving that gift is a very serious matter. Our selfishness will not die easily. This is why Jesus said that many would try to enter the narrow gate and be unable.

"Will those who are saved be few?" Let us suppose that we are asking Jesus that question, are we looking for eternal security? If Jesus were to tell us that we assuredly would go to heaven, what would our response in life be, what would that mean to live that kind of faith? Wouldn't that kind of assurance make us self-centered and selfish? Jesus answers with the wisdom that places us in the center of the greater human family and should cause us to be less selfish, that should lead us to a concern for the welfare of our brothers and sisters even at the cost of our own self.

When so many of God's children throughout the world are hungry, lonely, and cold, how can we be so preoccupied with our own circumstances that we ignore them, or forget them? "Me-first" is no way to follow Jesus Christ. Self-centeredness is the fundamental sin whether we are Christian or atheist. It is supremely un-Christ-like for us to be more concerned about ourselves then we are about anyone else.

The primary purpose of salvation in Christ is not to save us from death and taxes, and labor, pestilence and people we don't like. Neither is it about rewarding us with a heaven where all our earthly desires and unfulfilled fantasies are finally being realized. Biblically and theologically speaking, salvation is about redemption of the earth, of time, of nations, and of all of us who are created in the image of God. This goal of salvation is compelling. Jesus said, "people will come from the East and the West, North and the South, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God." Ultimately, salvation includes the whole cosmos. All will be transformed and give glory to God the Creator and Redeemer. But how can we anticipate such a hope and a promise as this for ourselves when millions of people live and die in an endless night of darkness?

However, there are those who consume themselves in providing healthcare, hope, and means to those who live in darkness. Mother Teresa is well known, but there are countless unknown individual who live her vision and give themselves to needy people the world over. Some of them can only make phone calls, write notes, or pray. How often I tell the old people in nursing home and assisted living, their duty before man and God is now to spend their time in prayer: and usually remind them to look around and they will have to decided that you can pray all day long and when night comes there is more to pray for. You will find some who weep with those who are weeping. Providing meals for those who can no longer cook for themselves. Some provide transportation or simply engage in conversation. Of course by the world standards such people are not major players -- they are not world leaders, renowned scientists, brilliant doctors, business tycoons. They are neighbors, friends, church members, individuals with nothing to give, but care and compassion. They are the last and least. In the kingdom of God, according to Jesus, the tables are turned and some who are last will be first, and some who are first will be last.

And once again to remind you to be Good, Be Holy, and Preach the Gospel always, and if necessary use words!

'Thank you' to Deacon Kaas, for letting me post his reflection here.

More reflections:
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Friday, August 23, 2013

Beads from an Asteroid's Heart, and Badgers

It's been 91 years since Howard Carter saw "wonderful things."

Movie studios produced "The Mummy," (1923, 1959, and 1999) - and "Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy." (1955)

More recently, archeologists learned that someone made beads from meteoric iron: more than five thousand years ago.
  1. Knowledge from Jewelry
  2. Barrow-Burrowing Badgers

Archeologists, Treasure Hunters, Tomb Robbers

It's sometimes hard to tell archeologists from treasure hunters, and tomb robbers: in the movies, anyway. Dramas like "Raiders of the Lost Arc," "Charlie Chan in Egypt," or "The Mummy's Curse" can be entertaining: and that's another topic.

Up to the 19th century, excavating a tomb was an occupation for folks with wealth and social position who enjoyed finding buried treasure: or folks who simply wanted wealth. I'm oversimplifying the situation, of course.

Homeric Epics and a German Grocer

Folks like Heinrich Schliemann, a grocer, changed that. Schliemann was convinced that Troy was real, not just the fictional setting of Homer's "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey." The last I heard, archeologists have found nine major layers of Troy.

Trade routes, technology, and global economics change. These days, the major city in that region is west of Kadıköy. Byzantium took off as a major trade center, has been called Constatinople and Istanbul: and that's yet another topic.
  • Troy
    UNESCO World Heritage Centre
Where was I? Archeology, tomb robbers, and Troy. Right.

Scholars and Garbage Dumps

Before Schliemann uncovered physical evidence of a long-lost city on the Dardanelles, folks in Europe assumed that Homer's Troy was no more real than places in George Lucas' Star Wars movies.

Although his methods were crude by 21st century standards, Schliemann helped convince folks that systematic study of an earlier era's debris made sense. We call it archeology today. Ironically, he may or may not have obliterated evidence of Homer's Troy while digging into the mound.

Today's archaeologists have tools like ground penetrating radar that allow study of a site without digging, but getting a good look at artifacts still involves - actually looking at them.

Eye-catching objects from ancient tombs tend to get more news coverage than what archeologists find in garbage dumps. That's understandable, since most folks like seeing shiny things.

For an archeologist, though, broken crockery and kitchen leavings can be treasures. Stuff we throw away tells what we ate, who we traded with, and other details of everyday life.

Beads? Big Deal

Diamonds may be "a girl's best friend," but archeologists are more likely to get excited over finding a simple bead.

That's because folks around the world and throughout history have made and worn beads. Materials and tools folks use when making beads change with place and time.

Finding a particular sort of bead alongside some broken pots could be evidence that whoever used the pots either made that bead - or traded something in exchange for it.

More than you may want to know about some old beads:

1. Knowledge from Jewelry


(From UCL Petrie Museum/Rob Eagle, via LiveScience, used w/o permission.)
"Meteoric iron beads (center) are pictured between ancient Egyptian necklaces that are strung with tube-shaped lapis lazuli (blue), carnelian (brownish/red), agate, and gold beads."
"Far Out: Ancient Egyptian Jewelry Came from Outer Space"
Denise Chow, LiveScience (August 19, 2013)

"Ancient Egyptian beads found in a 5,000-year-old tomb were made from iron meteorites that fell to Earth from space, according to a new study. The beads, which are the oldest known iron artifacts in the world, were crafted roughly 2,000 years before Egypt's Iron Age.

"In 1911, nine tube-shaped beads were excavated from an ancient cemetery near the village of el-Gerzeh, which is located south of Cairo, said study lead author Thilo Rehren, a professor at UCL Qatar, a Western Asian outpost of the University College London's Institute of Archaeology. The tomb dates back to approximately 3200 B.C., the researchers said.

"Inside the tomb, which belonged to a teenage boy, the iron beads were strung together into a necklace alongside other exotic materials, including gold and gemstones. Early tests of the beads' composition revealed curiously high concentrations of nickel, a telltale signature of iron meteorites...."
I'll get back to meteoric iron, jewelry, and badgers, in a bit.

The LiveScience article focuses on what researchers are learning from ancient jewelry. That's important, but I think remembering that someone was buried with those objects is important, too.

Respect

We're supposed to show respect for folks who are living, and treat bodies of the dead with respect.

Autopsies are okay if required for judicial reasons, or for scientific research: and donating organs after death is considered an act of charity. I'd even be allowed to have my remains cremated, as long as it wasn't intended as a denial of the Resurrection. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2299-2301)

I don't know how the family and friends of Egyptian teenager would feel, or what they would think, about archeologists disturbing his tomb five millennia later.

Maybe someone will dig up my grave in the year 7226, pull out whatever implants survived, and study my remains. I probably wouldn't mind the idea of my grave being disturbed nearly as much as not being able to ask about the technology they were using. But that's me.

I'll admit that I'm a little more uneasy about the idea of my daughter Elizabeth's grave getting that treatment, or my parents' cremated remains. But it's the sort of uneasiness I sometimes experience when thinking about an upcoming medical exam.

I hope that folks will treat my remains, and those of my family, with some measure of respect. But I also realize that researchers get valuable knowledge from the objects - and bodies - we leave behind. Sometimes the knowledge is important for 'practical' reasons:

Neutrons, Gamma Rays, Exclamation Mark

"...'Even 100 years ago, [the beads] attracted attention as being something strange,' Rehren told LiveScience.

"But without definitive proof of the beads' cosmic origins, questions persisted over whether similar amounts of nickel could be present in human-made iron. By scanning the iron beads with beams of neutrons and gamma rays, the researchers found high concentrations of cobalt, phosphorous and germanium; these elements were present at levels that only occur in iron meteorites.

" 'It's really exciting, because we were able to detect sufficient cobalt and germanium in these beads to confirm they're meteoritic,' Rehren said. 'We had assumed this was the case for 100 years, but it's nice to be able to put an exclamation mark on the label, rather than a question mark.'..."
(Denise Chow, LiveScience)
I share professor Rehren's excitement. There's a huge difference between thinking something might be; and knowing something is.

Meteoric Iron, Blacksmithing, and What's 'Hot'

"...The X-ray technology also revealed that the beads had been hammered into thin sheets before being meticulously rolled into tubes.

" 'This meteoritic iron, it's very hard material that you find in lumps, and yet here we see it in thin beads,' Rehren said. 'The real question is, how were they made?'

"Unlike softer and more pliable metals like gold and copper, working with solid iron required the invention of blacksmithing, which involves repeatedly heating metals to red-hot temperatures and hammering them into shape.

" 'It's a much more elaborate operation and one that we assumed was only invented and developed in the Iron Age, which started maybe 3,000 years ago - not 5,000 years ago,' Rehren said.

"The researchers suggest the iron meteorites were heated and hammered into thin sheets, and then woven around wooden sticks to create 0.8-inch-long (2 centimeters), tube-shaped beads. Other stones found in the same tomb displayed more traditional stone-working techniques, such as carving and drilling...."
(Denise Chow, LiveScience)
I'm not sure why professor Rehren said what he did about blacksmithing, Egypt, and those beads. Other researchers found that the beads had been cold-worked into their current shape.

Apparently, cold working means: "the shaping of metal at temperatures much lower than the metal's molten state. Steel is often cold worked at room temperature." (Tooling U)

The Historical Metallurgical Society defines "cold working" iron as smithing iron at temperatures below 600 degrees Centigrade:
600 degrees Centigrade is 'hot,' but well under iron's melting point, 1538 degrees Centigrade: and distinctly cooler than your usual wood fire or candle flame. We've had access to that sort of heat for at least a million years, so it'd be astonishing if folks in Egypt didn't use fire five millennia back.

Same Beads, Different Researchers


(From Open University, via LiveScience, used w/o permission.)
"An analysis of this Gerzeh bead showed it was crafted from a space rock."
"Ancient Egyptians Crafted Jewelry From Meteorites"
Megan Gannon, LiveScience (May 30, 2013)

" An ancient Egyptian iron bead found inside a 5,000-year-old tomb was crafted from a meteorite, new research shows.

"The tube-shaped piece of jewelry was first discovered in 1911 at the Gerzeh cemetery, roughly 40 miles (70 kilometers) south of Cairo. Dating between 3350 B.C. and 3600 B.C., beads found at the burial site represent the first known examples of iron use in ancient Egypt, thousands of years before Egypt's Iron Age. And their cosmic origins were suspected from the start.

"Soon after the beads were discovered, researchers showed that the metal jewelry was rich in nickel, a signature of iron meteorites. But in the 1980s, academics cast doubt on the beads' celestial source, arguing that the high nickel content could have been the result of smelting...."
If the beads had been fabricated with smelting tech, then either they were a lot newer than the tomb was supposed to be: or folks in that part of the world had smelters earlier than we thought. Maybe both.

As it turns out, a really close look at the beads shows that they're from space.

Long before Earth's continents began moving into familiar patterns, metal slowly cooled in an asteroid's heart. As our world continued its state of journeying, some of this metal fell to Earth.

Only moments ago, on a cosmic scale, someone formed it into beads: which lay in a tomb while empires rose and fell. Pharaohs, prophets, emperors, philosophers, and 'ordinary' folks added to the sum of humanity's accumulating experience: and that's yet again another topic.

'Magic' is in the Eye of the Beholder

"...Scientists from the Open University and the University of Manchester recently analyzed one of the beads with an electron microscope and an X-ray CT scanner. They say the nickel-rich chemical composition of the bead's original metal confirms its meteorite origins.

"What's more, the researchers say the bead had a Widmanstätten pattern, a distinctive crystal structure found only in meteorites that cooled at an extremely slow rate inside asteroids when the solar system was forming, according to Nature. Further investigation also showed that the bead was not molded under heat, but rather hammered into shape by cold-working.

"The first record of iron smelting in ancient Egypt comes from the sixth century B.C., and iron artifacts from before that time are quite rare, Nature reported.

" 'Today, we see iron first and foremost as a practical, rather dull metal,' study researcher Joyce Tyldesley, an Egyptologist at the University of Manchester, said in a statement. 'To the ancient Egyptians, however, it was a rare and beautiful material which, as it fell from the sky, surely had some magical/religious properties.'..."
(LiveScience)
I don't doubt that folks in ancient Egypt thought meteoric iron was special stuff. We still do. Stories about David Bowie's famous knife, claiming a celestial origin, have power in today's world: whether or not it was made from meteoric iron. ("Thunderbolt Iron," tvtropes.org)

That does not mean that I think the original Bowie knife was "magic" in the supernatural sense. My point is that folks have an emotional reaction to objects whose origins are unusual or unique. In that limited sense, they're "magic."

I've posted about magic, technology, and getting a grip, before. Basically, stage magic is harmless entertainment: a skill involving applied psychology, manual dexterity, and the occasional obliging rabbit.

Unfamiliar technology may seem like "magic," but it's no more supernatural than a cooking fire. On the other hand, the simplest campfire is supernatural, since the only critters with cooking fires are those made "in the image of God," and that's even more topics.

Then there's 'real' magic: making deals with non-physical entities who are not following God's law. That sort of magic is real: and an exquisitely bad idea. It's also one of the few things the Church really does forbid. (Catechism, 2115-2117)

2. Barrow-Burrowing Badgers


(From BBC News, used w/o permission.)
"All the burials at the mound, which was under attack from burrowing badgers, were excavated by soldiers from The Rifles"
"Soldiers uncover 27 ancient bodies on Salisbury Plain"
BBC News (August 6, 2013)

"Soldiers have unearthed 27 bodies during an archaeological dig on Salisbury Plain.

"Troops from The Rifles, injured in Afghanistan, were excavating the 6th Century burial site at Barrow Clump, as part of a programme of rehabilitation.

"The bodies, including Anglo-Saxon warriors, had been buried with a range of personal possessions.

"Rifleman Mike Kelly said: 'As a modern day warrior, unearthing the remains... fills me with overwhelming respect.'..."
The 'rehabilitation' involved injuries suffered in Afghanistan. I've discussed respect and the dead before.

Attack on Barrow Clump

"...Barrow Clump, a 40m (131ft) barrow, is sited on the Defence Training Estate on Salisbury Plain near the village of Figheldean.

"According to county archaeologist, Melanie Pomeroy-Kellinger, it is the only remaining 'upstanding Bronze Age mound' of a group of 20 mounds.

" 'All the others were ploughed flat but this one managed to survive,' she said.

" 'But there are at least 70 badger sets - and badgers have been attacking the barrow and chucking things out.

" 'So a decision was taken to completely excavate what's left of it.'..."
(BBC News)
Not everyone was buried in a barrow, those old mounds dotting Europe. It was an honor, sort of like the mausoleums and memorials we make for outstanding individuals today.

I think that digging out what was left of Barrow Clump made sense: since the alternative was to let badgers do the same thing.

Related posts:

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Mary, a Message, and a Mural in Minnesota

One of my favorite descriptions of Jesus is "a nice Jewish boy who obeyed his mother and went into his father's business."

It's not quite accurate, though. Mary didn't tell Jesus to do anything at Cana. She'd noticed that their hosts were out of wine, informed Jesus: and then told the servants: "do whatever he tells you." (John 2:1-5)

Two Millennia, One Message


Marian garden, Our Lady of Angels church in Sauk Centre, Minnesota. July 29, 2013.

Two millennia later, "do whatever he tells you" is still the gist of what she has been saying. Not "said;" "has been saying," present perfect progressive tense: "...ongoing action in the past which continues right up to the present...."

Mary has been showing up at irregular intervals: in places like Guadalupe, Akita, and apparently Champion, Wisconsin. Each time, she's pointing toward Jesus. Metaphorically speaking, that is.


Procession of the missionary image of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Sauk Centre, Minnesota. June 14, 2003.

Mary, Elvis, and Mayonnaise

My native culture's 'background noise' includes ersatz 'Mary sightings' and 'face of Jesus in a jar of mayonnaise' events. I think many are like Elvis sightings a few decades back.

Folks who see things that aren't there may be sincere: but that doesn't make them visionaries in the supernatural sense; and that's another topic.

Veneration, Not Worship

Veneration is a sort of devotion and respect for an individual. Some folks apparently venerate outstanding athletes like Mark Spitz or Larisa Latynina. I venerate Mary and other Saints. "Veneration" isn't "worship," and I've been over that before. (April 16, 2011)

I had a soft spot in my heart for Mary long before I became a Catholic. I'd seen one or two statues and paintings of events in Mary's life that impressed me: and many more that may have been well-intentioned, but insulted my aesthetic values and did Catholicism no favors. (August 17, 2013)

Marian Mural in Minnesota


Our Lady of Angels church, Sauk Centre, Minnesota. July 29, 2013

Happily, a talented artist painted our parish church's most recent Marian mural. Tom Kane used Tiepolo's Immaculate Conception as a model, adapting it to the curved half-dome over our altar area.

That crown of 12 stars doesn't show up in Luke 1, where Gabriel tells Mary that she's got a special assignment. That imagery comes from Revelation. We got a glimpse of what Mary would do back in Genesis, and that's yet another topic. (Geneses 3:15; Luke 1:28; Revelation 12:1)

The Immaculate Conception doesn't mean that Mary was immaculately conceived, by the way. Joachim and Anne conceived Mary in the usual way. Mary's unique qualification was that she was shielded from original sin. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 388, 490-494, 966)

More about the Immaculate Conception:
  • "Hymn of the 'Akathistos' "
    Introduction, Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception
    Vatican News Services(December 8, 2000)

Our Lady of Angels

The parish church down the street isn't called "Church of the Immaculate Conception" or "Church of the Assumption," which is the feast day we celebrated this week. I'm in the Our Lady of Angels parish: That's a title that shows up in some litanies.

I haven't run into 'Mary queen of angels' very often in my native language. However, as a Norwegian-Irish American whose mother was as ekte norsk as you're likely to find, I had no trouble thinking of a woman as a sort of 12-star general: and that's yet again another topic.

Getting back to the "woman clothed with the sun:"
"She gave birth to a son, a male child, destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod. 5 Her child was caught up to God and his throne. "

"The woman herself fled into the desert where she had a place prepared by God, that there she might be taken care of for twelve hundred and sixty days. 6"
(Revelation 12:6)
About those verses, I think it's prudent to remember that Revelation was not written by an American: and that's still more topics.

Related posts:

Saturday, August 17, 2013

'Religious Art:' Kitsch, Schlock, and Masterpieces


Guido Reni's Assumption of Mary, oil on silk, 642, currently in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich.

On my way to becoming a Catholic, I ran into treasures like Michelangelo's Pietà and Caravaggio's Crucifixion of St. Peter.

I also ran into some truly dreadful mass-produced kitsch and schlock.

'Our Lady of the Cosh?'

One particularly egregious example showed Mary with her arms stretched out, head back, eyes pointing in different directions: apparently just after she'd been coshed: or possibly after one too many margaritas.

Decades later, I recognized Guido Reni's Assumption of the Virgin as the original of that appalling image. My guess is that someone with mediocre skill made a line drawing based on the painting, distributing printed copies: which in turn served as samples for even lower quality printings.

Eventually, I learned to distinguish between unattractive devotional aids and the devotions themselves. As a young man, I had trouble distinguishing between the medium and the message: and I still won't buy some of the junk that passes for 'religious art.'

Art and Faith

Like science and technology, creating art is part of being human. It isn't, or shouldn't be, an end in itself: but creating art can be a good thing. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2293, 2501)

As for 'religious art,' I don't think that folks who can afford original paintings framed in gold with pearl inlay are more 'spiritual' than folks at my end of the socioeconomic scale. My household decorations are more along the lines of Currier and Ives: mass-produced pictures; plus a few hand-crafted items.


By the front door: a sort of crucifix.

I've been over this sort of thing before. Fairly often:
More about Guido Reni's work:

Friday, August 16, 2013

Tracing the Y Chromosome, Studying Fossil Proteins, Seeking Truth

I could have written about a newly-identified critter called an olinguito. Instead, I picked news about four-billion-year-old fossilized protein, and Y chromosomes.

That sort of thing, and olinguitos, fascinate me. Your experience may vary:
  1. About Life's Origins: New Evidence
  2. X, Y, and DNA


(image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Seeking Truth

I like living in the real world: which is why I like science, and being Catholic.

Catholics aren't required to keep up with what scientists are learning about this wonder-filled universe. But it's an option.

Honestly seeking truth by studying the world can't disturb faith, "because the things of the world and the things of faith derive from the same God...." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 159)

Growing up in America, I understand why some folks assume that thinking and being Christian don't mix. Some loudly-religious Americans seem dedicated to perpetuating the idea that 'ignorance is next to Godliness.'

My take on God and the universe is that God seems to think big: which is fine by me. Not that my opinion matters in this case.

Thinking: a Duty and a Responsibility

"...Continue your search without tiring and without ever despairing of the truth. Recall the words of one of your great friends, St. Augustine: 'Let us seek with the desire to find, and find with the desire to seek still more.' Happy are those who, while possessing the truth, search more earnestly for it in order to renew it, deepen it and transmit it to others. Happy also are those who, not having found it, are working toward it with a sincere heart. May they seek the light of tomorrow with the light of today until they reach the fullness of light.

"But do not forget that if thinking is something great, it is first a duty. Woe to him who voluntarily closes his eyes to the light. Thinking is also a responsibility, so woe to those who darken the spirit by the thousand tricks which degrade it, make it proud, deceive and deform it. What other basic principle is there for men of science except to think rightly?..."
("Address to men of thought and science," John Paul VI (December 8, 1965))
Science and the Catholic Church got along back when it was called natural philosophy, although individual Catholics didn't necessarily like the idea of studying creation. That didn't change as the centuries rolled by. I've posted about Copernicus, Galileo, and getting a grip before. (October 26, 2009)

About a thousand years back, trade between Europe and the rest of the world started heating up. Manuscripts traveled along with consumer goods, giving European scholars access to knowledge from around the world.

Getting reasonably accurate Latin translations of documents from India, China, and the 'golden age' of ancient Greece must have been a heady experience. Small wonder that some European academics thought highly of ancient philosophers like Aristotle.

Aristotle and New Ideas

I like the old Aristotelian cosmology. Those nesting spheres made a nice, tidy, easily-visualized universe. It's a pretty good match with what folks can see without telescopes, but observations didn't quite match what Aristotle thought should be there.

In the 1200s some folks said that Earth might not be the only world. Others didn't like the newfangled idea, and insisted that God couldn't have made more than one world: apparently because Aristotle said so.

That's when the Catholic Church stepped in. Ever since 1277 Catholics haven't been allowed to say that there can't be other worlds.

"...That I Might Know the Organization of the Universe...."

Quite a few applecarts got upset in the 1500s.

The Catholic Church's reforms came too late to stop a protest movement from becoming a tool for northern European princes. England's Henry VIII and other rulers set up independent state-sponsored churches, helping them take political and economic control from Italian city-states.

Natural philosophy was recognizably 'science.' Folks like Tycho Brahe added fuel to the Aristotle/evidence debate.

Some scientists followed the evidence and decided that Earth goes around the Sun. Others didn't like new ideas: which is nothing new.

I don't know if there's a connection, but around 1550, Wisdom was edited out of the Bible. The book includes these verses:
"Now God grant I speak suitably and value these endowments at their worth: For he is the guide of Wisdom and the director of the wise.

"For both we and our words are in his hand, as well as all prudence and knowledge of crafts.

"For he gave me sound knowledge of existing things, that I might know the organization of the universe and the force of its elements,

"The beginning and the end and the midpoint of times, the changes in the sun's course and the variations of the seasons."
(Wisdom 7:15-18)
Looks like it's okay to "know the organization of the universe and the force of its elements."

We've learned quite a lot about "the organization of the universe" in the two millennia since Wisdom was written.

Faced with new knowledge, we have quite a few options. My preference is accepting reality, even if it's not what I learned in my youth.
"...These discoveries invite us to even greater admiration for the greatness of the Creator, prompting us to give him thanks for all his works and for the understanding and wisdom he gives to scholars and researchers...."
(Catechism, 283)

1. About Life's Origins: New Evidence


(Rob Bayer, Shutterstock.com, via LiveScience, used w/o permission)
"Stromatolites, shown here in Shark Bay, Western Australia, may be among Earth's first living microorganisms that produced oxygen, around 3 billion years ago."
"4-Billion-Year-Old Fossil Proteins Resurrected"
Tia Ghose, LiveScience (August 8, 2013)

"Researchers have reconstructed the structure of 4-billion-year-old proteins.

"The primeval proteins, described today (Aug. 8) in the journal Structure, could reveal new insights about the origin of life, said study co-author José Manuel Sanchez Ruíz, a physical chemist at the University of Granada in Spain.

"Exactly how life emerged on Earth more than 3 billion years ago is a mystery. Some scientists believe that lightning struck the primordial soup in ammonia-rich oceans, producing the complex molecules that formed the precursors to life. Others believe that chemical reactions at deep-sea hydrothermal vents gave rise to cell membranes and simple cellular pumps. And still others believe that space rocks brought the raw ingredients for life - or perhaps even life itself - to Earth. [7 Theories on the Origin of Life]...."
Whatever organic stuff was around when the first living things appeared on Earth is mostly gone now. One of life's characteristics is that we eat organic stuff, changing it into something new: which in turn gets processed through other organisms.

After a few billion years, the only organic stuff left from life's beginnings is are fossils that not even Earth's microbes have found edible.

Maybe someday we'll find a planet where life is getting started, and compare what we learn to what's we've pieced together about life back home. Until or unless that happens, all paleobiologists have to work with is what's here on Earth.

Origins

What we know for sure about how life got started, is that we don't know. Not with much certainty. Not yet, anyway.

When scientists realized that other planets were like Earth, some said that life began by being carried to Earth from another planet. I've seen that idea, panspermia, offered as an explanation for how life began. That seems rather silly.

It's not that I think it's unlikely or impossible that a major impact blasted rock containing Martian organisms into space, where they eventually fell to Earth. Material gets transferred between planets like that routinely, and we've learned that some microorganisms could survive the trip.

Panspermia may explain how life got a foothold here on Earth. As an explanation for how life began, it simply moves the origin point: without offering an explanation for how the process happened.

How and Why

How life began, when critters started producing oxygen, and how human beings changed into the sort of critters we are today: science is a useful tool for learning what happened.

Why things happen is another matter. (Catechism, 284)

Both questions fascinate me: how things work, and why. I don't see a problem with seeking both sorts of truth.

A Universe Filled With Life - - -

I'm intrigued by the organic compounds we've been finding between stars. Carbon compounds, like potassium chloride, ammonia, and vinyl alcohol, are the chemical building blocks life uses; and they're spread throughout what we can see of this galaxy.

We're also discovering new planets weekly. It looks like there's no cosmic shortage of material for making life. Whether or not there's anything, or anyone, out there is another matter. (March 22, 2013; December 7, 2012; January 29, 2012)

Maybe there are billions of planets where life has found a home. If that's so, we can learn what's unique about the terrestrial variety, and what's common for all living creatures. We may even find a way to define exactly what life is.

- - - Or Not

On the other hand, maybe we're standing on the only world supporting life: for now. If that's so, there's no shortage of raw materials we can use for terraforming. Although reforming a planet into a place that can support life is beyond today's technology, equipment developed for asteroid mining might be scaled up: and that's another topic.

I think the real challenge will be deciding which planet to start with. (June 28, 2013); Apathetic Lemming of North (January 5, 2010))

Vinyl alcohol is toxic for humans, by the way, but some critters 'eat' it. ("Biochemistry of microbial polyvinyl alcohol degradation;" Kawai F, Hu X; Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology (2009))

2. X, Y, and DNA


(Sebastian Kaulitzki, Shutterstock, via LiveScience, used w/o permission)
"A pair of sex chromosomes."
"Genetic 'Adam' and 'Eve' Uncovered"
Tia Ghose, LiveScience (August 1, 2013)

"Almost every man alive can trace his origins to one man who lived about 135,000 years ago, new research suggests. And that ancient man likely shared the planet with the mother of all women.

"The findings, detailed today (Aug. 1) in the journal Science, come from the most complete analysis of the male sex chromosome, or the Y chromosome, to date. The results overturn earlier research, which suggested that men's most recent common ancestor lived just 50,000 to 60,000 years ago.

"Despite their overlap in time, ancient 'Adam' and ancient 'Eve' probably didn't even live near each other...."
If they "probably didn't even live near each other," how could these two people both be ancestors to so many of us?

It's pretty straightforward. What these researchers did was trace what European royalty generally used to decide who gets to be king: the male line, father to son. I sketched out the sort of 'family tree' this article describes: the blue squares show the father-son line, pink ones the mother-daughter heritage.



That's just 'for example,' of course. I'd be very surprised if geneticists manage to trace that sort of individual detail for humanity's last 135,000 years any time soon: if ever.

My diagram might be misleading, by the way: men have mitochondrial DNA, too. I just thought it would be symmetrical to show a mother-daughter lineage alongside the other one. The 'mitochondrial Eve' comes up next. Moving on.

DNA and Picture Puzzles

"...Researchers believe that modern humans left Africa between 60,000 and 200,000 years ago, and that the mother of all women likely emerged from East Africa. But beyond that, the details get fuzzy.

"The Y chromosome is passed down identically from father to son, so mutations, or point changes, in the male sex chromosome can trace the male line back to the father of all humans. By contrast, DNA from the mitochondria, the energy powerhouse of the cell, is carried inside the egg, so only women pass it on to their children. The DNA hidden inside mitochondria, therefore, can reveal the maternal lineage to an ancient Eve.

"But over time, the male chromosome gets bloated with duplicated, jumbled-up stretches of DNA, said study co-author Carlos Bustamante, a geneticist at Stanford University in California. As a result, piecing together fragments of DNA from gene sequencing was like trying to assemble a puzzle without the image on the box top, making thorough analysis difficult...."
(Tia Ghose, LiveScience)
I've noticed that the more we learn about humanity's story, the earlier things happened. In the last few years we've learned that folks have used kitchens for upwards of 800,000 years. Cooking fires go back a million years: at least:

Y Chromosome

"...Bustamante and his colleagues assembled a much bigger piece of the puzzle by sequencing the entire genome of the Y chromosome for 69 men from seven global populations, from African San Bushmen to the Yakut of Siberia.

"By assuming a mutation rate anchored to archaeological events (such as the migration of people across the Bering Strait), the team concluded that all males in their global sample shared a single male ancestor in Africa roughly 125,000 to 156,000 years ago.

"In addition, mitochondrial DNA from the men, as well as similar samples from 24 women, revealed that all women on the planet trace back to a mitochondrial Eve, who lived in Africa between 99,000 and 148,000 years ago - almost the same time period during which the Y-chromosome Adam lived...."
(Tia Ghose, LiveScience)
Adam? Eve?? 150,000 years back???

Journalists use catchy, memorable words and phrases. Making accounts interesting and fun to read is part of their job. I did the same sort of thing during my brief stint in journalism, which had nothing to do with semipalmated sandpipers, and that's yet another topic.

Using the names "Adam" and "Eve" is metaphorically appropriate for the earliest known man and woman in some lineage. But in this case it doesn't have much to do with what's in Genesis. I'll get back to that.

Deep Roots

"...A separate study in the same issue of the journal Science found that men shared a common ancestor between 180,000 and 200,000 years ago.

"And in a study detailed in March in the American Journal of Human Genetics, Hammer's group showed that several men in Africa have unique, divergent Y chromosomes that trace back to an even more ancient man who lived between 237,000 and 581,000 years ago...."
(Tia Ghose, LiveScience)
No, this does not show that Africans aren't quite human, or that the pale mutants in my recent ancestry are a 'race apart.'

It does show that have more to learn about humanity's early millennia. It's also more evidence that our family tree's roots are in Africa.

What caught my eye was the age of this particular branch: once again, 'stuff happened earlier.'

Living in the Real World

"...These primeval people aren't parallel to the biblical Adam and Eve. They weren't the first modern humans on the planet, but instead just the two out of thousands of people alive at the time with unbroken male or female lineages that continue on today...."
(Tia Ghose, LiveScience)
In this context, "modern human" doesn't mean someone who buys the latest in personal tech, or lives in a 'civilized' country. A "modern human" is someone who could, with a haircut, appropriate clothes, and maybe some language lessons, go unnoticed in a cosmopolitan city like New York or Rome.

Folks haven't looked like this until quite recently, and we're still changing. No surprises there: not for me, anyway.

Change happens. It's part of this creation, which doesn't make it any easier to deal with: at least for some folks. That "biblical Adam and Eve" link is to an article about the Creation Museum in Kentucky, where folks who desperately want Earth to be 6,000 years old can get their assumptions validated.

I wouldn't go to the Creation Museum myself. I had my fill of Bible-thumping zealots in my youth. Their malignant virtue helped me become a Catholic, and helps me sympathize with folks discussed in this "new analysis:"
"...a new analysis argues that for people already alienated by religious fundamentalism, the museum can be a painful reminder of discrimination and isolation...."
(Stephanie Pappas)
Folks who believe that the universe is 6,000 years old and that everyone who likes the 'wrong' sort of music goes to Hell may be sincere: but I am convinced that they are wrong. Someone with that sort of belief might assume that as a Catholic, I have been brainwashed into believing that God isn't limited to Ussher's chronology.

As I've said before, I prefer living in realty.

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Marian Apparition: Champion, Wisconsin

Background:Posts in this blog: In the news:

What's That Doing in a Nice Catholic Blog?

From time to time, a service that I use will display links to - odd - services and retailers.

I block a few of the more obvious dubious advertisers.

For example: psychic anything, numerology, mediums, and related practices are on the no-no list for Catholics. It has to do with the Church's stand on divination. I try to block those ads.

Sometime regrettable advertisements get through, anyway.

Bottom line? What that service displays reflects the local culture's norms, - not Catholic teaching.