On May 29, 1919, Einstein’s four-year-old Theory of General Relativity was put to its first test during a total solar eclipse. By measuring how the images of stars shift when the sun is close-by, and with a lot of care, you might be able to repeat this famous test from nearly 100 years ago.
Physicists battle over whether the theory of inflation is untestable, and hence not really scientific.
We in ISCAST mourn the loss of a good friend and colleague who passed away last Friday (25th August) and extend the condolences of the ISCAST community to his wife Solway and to Geoff’s family.
Adam Ford considers science and religion.
The Luminous Web by Barbara Brown Taylor & The Great Mystery by Alister McGrath
Following early reports last week that scientists had edited the DNA of human embryos, American researchers have now published their much anticipated paper in the journal Nature.
Our colleagues at Sheridan College in Perth are advertising for two full-time senior academic positions, and they have asked if we might circulate the details below.
If you know of others who might suit the criteria, please share this information with them.
Libby Osgood, an aerospace engineer who has worked for NASA, is taking a sabbatical from her job as a professor at the University of Prince Edward Island to pursue a new vocation — becoming a nun.
Nature is your church? Not so fast, says an Indian reservation priest. If there’s a spirituality of the land, it’s tougher than any religion you might be escaping. The article starts:
ISCASTian Ian Barns suggests we post a link to this interview with Katherine Hayhoe. It's worth a read for two reasons, says Ian: "One, Katherine Hayhoe is the world’s most prominent evangelical climate scientist; two, it's also a good story about climate change communication (see near the end of the interview)." Thanks Ian!
Tom McLeish (ISCAST Fellow and conference speaker) talks about the book of Job and the joys of doing science.
Is it possible to be ethical about the production of weapons? ISCAST Fellow James Garth writes ...
Physicist, mathematician and blogger Peter Woit whacks strings, multiverses, simulated universes and “fake physics.” Quote: "... physics ... surpasses even psychology in its capacity for bullshit."
When the physicist Russell Cowburn reached the end of his PhD studies, he had a choice to make. Having become a Christian at the age of eighteen, he thought deciding between a job in science or the church was choosing between the spiritual and the material.
There’s a reason why our cells store all of their genetic information as DNA. This remarkable molecule is unsurpassed for storing lots of data in an exceedingly small space.
The research takes us a step closer to making replacement brain tissue derived from a patient's own skin or blood cells to help treat conditions such as brain injury, Parkinson's disease, epilepsy and schizophrenia.
ISCAST Fellow Peter Harrison will visit Melbourne in August to give three talks. Peter is an eminent thinker on matters of science and religion and most recently wrote The Territories of Science and Religion, based on his 2011 Gifford Lectures. (More details about Peter are below.) Details of the talks are:
The latest issue of the ISCAST Digest, full of fascinating stories and resources, is now available for download.
Justin Brierley's popular UK radio program, "Unbelievable", regularly features atheists arguing their case.
Dr Jane Goodall, renowned humanitarian and conservationist, ‘the chimp lady’, and founder of the Jane Goodall Institute, visited Australia to share her dream of a world where people, animals and the environment all coexist in a sustainable future.
This year’s Wellcome Image Awards are truly awe-inspiring, and a reminder for me to look for moments of wonder and worship in my everyday routine.
A reflection, written by Claire Dawson for National Science Week (August 12-20), picks up where Mick Pope's recent piece on climate change denialism left off: our concern for future generations.
ISCAST president Alan Gijsbers and fellow Andrew Wood have written colaboratively on the mind-brain problem.
ISCAST fellow Mick Pope has written about climate change denialism at www.ethos.org.au. According to Mick, not all opinions are equal. We republish his article here with permission.
Here's an authoritative source indicating that the Apple iPhone evolved naturally over billions of years. And, in other science and faith news, apparently the oldest computer can be traced back to Adam and Eve. It was an Apple but with extremely limited memory of just one byte. Then everything crashed.