Assignments at a Glance (see videos below):
1. Learn:
Watch: Video 1 (5 min) and Video 2 (3 min)
Read: Article 1 (about 5 min) and Article 2 (about 2 min)
Watch: Video 3 (12 min)
Total: 27 minutes
2. Research: Further Study (suggestions below)
3. Teach: Comment with question, thought or insight below
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Assignments - Soft Tissue and Carbon 14 in Dinosaur Bones
Thank-you for your comments and questions last week. I enjoyed thinking about the things you brought up. An analogy hit me as I was hiking (after a comment about how the age of rocks is measured.) Correct me if I'm wrong, but I learned that some rocks are "born" after they cool to a certain temperature that closes up the changing atoms and isotopes within them. This is when the rock starts to "decay" (or the unstable atoms start loosing matter and energy from their nuclei).
The atoms can turn into different elements or isotopes as they loose this energy and matter. Scientist measure the rate of decay, and that is how they come up with the age of the rock. We learned last week that they need to make several assumptions in this measurement, such as the assumption that the enclosed rock had 100% parent atoms (atoms that have only the original radioactive element in them) and 0 daughter atoms (atoms that have lost some of the matter and energy from the nuclei). Yet, this has never been the case in any "newborn" rocks they measure.
Anyway, it occurred to me that when we have the spirit of God in our hearts - our hearts are open to change and ready to love. It is when our hearts grow cold that they start to "decay" and we loose that energy, or life force, that helps us feel and love. So it is important that we keep our hearts warm by doing things that invite that Spirit into our hearts. Gospel principles are found all over nature. It's like God's book for us to study.
Ready for more interesting discoveries? Here are the videos and articles for the week:
1. Watch and Read:
Video 1:
And:
Video 2:
Following are some findings that conclude that chemical bonds in the DNA structure have an average half life of only 521 years at 13.1C. They then summarized that it is impossible to find DNA from creatures living tens or hundreds of millions of years ago. One calculation claimed that DNA, even several million years old, would be undetectable:
Read: https://news.ncsu.edu/2012/10/tpschweitzer-bone/
and http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/32799/title/Half-Life-of-DNA-Revealed/
In particular, pay attention to the assumptions in these videos and readings and the conclusions drawn from the assumptions.
Also watch:
2. Further study:
- Anything of interest to you in these topics (including things that refute the evidence presented here.) I was going to add a video that refutes the evidence for you to study - they all blame it on contamination - but I couldn't find any without swear words, so be cautious as you search.
- Webpage of the group that did the testing: http://www.dinosaurc14ages.com/carbondating.htm
- Video of their presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbdH3l1UjPQ
3. Comment below with assumptions and conclusions you noticed, and/or with questions or principles you learned from your study.
I think it was interesting that even though scientists have evidence of something, they don't even examine it just because of their preconceived ideas! It's important as we gather more and more truth to ponder and examine what we have seen, even if it doesn't quite line-up to our "truth." For all we know, we could be wrong!
ReplyDeleteI don't know a ton about science, but this was pretty interesting to me. I have an assumption that might not be accurate, but I wonder, even if the Carbon14 Dating is correct that perhaps Heavenly Father took longer to create the earth then we even know. Seven days to Him as far as we know could be seven billion years for us! I think we just need to exercise faith, as well, and know that we don't know everything, we just need to keep collecting everything that we learn in order to one day, when we understand better, piece it all together! :) Faith is a huge part of the gospel, isn't it?
I thought like what Gracious thought. I'm actually gonna write an oratory about being more open minded in science instead of just trying to bend things to fit one theory.
ReplyDeleteLike Grace said I think that scientists don't examine more than they should to estimated how long ago they came.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to think how God works and what he does to create the world.
I'm wondering how this applies, but I was thinking about our testimonies of the gospel. Sometimes people, when one little thing that they don't know contradicts everything that they do know, they disregard everything they have gained a testimony of, and they go inactive in the church, etc. In this situation its the opposite, these scientists have "evidence" of a lot of things that they've always believed to be true, and when a small piece of evidence comes up of something that contradicts that, then they totally disregard it. And I don't think that's a good thing.
ReplyDeleteI just think sometimes in the church, when something comes up that we don't understand, strong members of the church will totally disregard it for fear of losing their testimonies. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but its not at all a bad thing to have questions and seek out answers, because the Lord has promised us that He will reveal His mysteries through revelation as we diligently seek out answers.
But it's also important to realize that not everything has to be explained logically. The Spirit can't be explained by the logic of men, for example. I'm sure there is a logical explanation to all spiritual truths, but our minds may not be fully capable of understanding those explanations in this life. That's why it's kind of difficult to relate science to the gospel--science is of men and all logic, but eternal truths are of God and of the Spirit.
Why is it that every Scientist thinks that their always right? They have the facts and they think that "Well even though we have said that if the Dinosaurs have been dead for more then 521 years and the DNA is gone before then, we can still find it there and there still might be enough to get information about it". But the DNA in the bone is gone and I don't think that there were any Dinosaurs within the past 1,000 years so... They need to go off of what they have already before they can make a prediction.
ReplyDeleteI think it's weird how prideful we can become when it comes to challenging ideas. When you've though in some way for so long, and then something comes along and totally challenges that idea, often it's hard to accept it because that means you've been doing it wrong for so long. I think it's important to alway keep an open mind and be willing to accept contradicting ideas. At the same time though, we do not want to become "wishy-washy"
ReplyDeleteAnd just believe everything everyone says. We need to be strong in our beliefs and what we know to be true. So my question is, how do we find that balance? How can we distinguish between when we should be open to new ideas, or stick white what we already believe?
It's interesting how even though theirs evidence challenging what they think they been thinking it for so long that they just try to fit it in to what they want even if it doesn't fit.
ReplyDeleteI think that's how it is with everyone though. We all sometimes try to twist things to fit what we want
If you ask me, I think dinosaurs are much younger than everyone thinks. Who knows maybe it was Noah's flood who killed them all off. You just never can REALLY KNOW!
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