ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 101

Smallest dinosaur found ‘trapped in amber’

By Paul Rincon Scientists have discovered what they say is the smallest known dinosaur. The new species has been described by one team member as the “weirdest fossil” she has ever worked on. The specimen, from northern Myanmar, consists of a bird-like skull trapped in 99-million-year-old amber. Writing in the prestigious journal Nature, researchers report …

DC church rector who gave Communion and shook hands with worshippers has coronavirus

By Theresa Waldrop Hundreds of worshippers at Christ Church, Georgetown are being asked to self-quarantine after the church rector became the first confirmed Covid-19 case in Washington, DC. The church’s organist also tested positive for the virus Monday evening, according to church parishioner Rob Volmer. The Rev. Timothy Cole is hospitalized, Mayor Muriel Bowser said …

Pastor convicted of sex crimes is preaching at Jacksonville church, again

By Jenese Harris A man who once served time in prison for sex crimes has become the new pastor of Mount Ararat Baptist Church in Jacksonville, and some said they’re concerned that he’s leading the congregation. The Rev. Darrell Gilyard admitted to molesting two girls and was sentenced to three years in prison in 2009 …

White Evangelicals See Trump as Fighting for Their Beliefs, Though Many Have Mixed Feelings About His Personal Conduct

By the Pew Research Center Heading into the 2020 election season, a new Pew Research Center survey delves into the relationship between religion and politics, including perceptions about President Donald Trump among white evangelical Protestants, a key part of his electoral base. It finds that white evangelicals largely see Trump as fighting for their beliefs …

Slime Mould Has Been Used to Recreate The Invisible Web Holding Our Universe Together

By Peter Dockrill Astronomers have used an algorithm based on the growth patterns of slime mould to map something that’s basically impossible to see: the cosmic web of gas and dark matter underpinning the very structure of the Universe. Slime mould (Physarum polycephalum) is one of the weirdest life forms on the planet, but we shouldn’t underestimate these …

Something strange is going on with the North Star

By Rafi Letzter Something’s up with the North Star. People have watched the North Star for centuries. The bright star, also known as Polaris, is almost directly above Earth‘s North Pole and serves as a landmark in the sky for travelers without a compass. It’s also Earth’s closest cepheid, a type of star that pulses regularly in diameter …

A disgraced televangelist promoted an alleged cure to coronavirus. Missouri is now suing him.

By Meagan Flynn After televangelist Jim Bakker suggested on his show that colloidal silver could cure the novel coronavirus, the Missouri Attorney General’s Office announced Tuesday that it is suing him as part of a larger effort among law enforcement to crack down on fake treatments for the viral illness. Bakker, a disgraced TV preacher in …

Queer Students Are Fleeing This Huge Mormon College Because of its Dating Rules

By Nico Lang Brigham Young University was the only school Ben Asplund ever wanted to go to. Each of the colleges he applied to were affiliated with the world’s largest Mormon university: the main campus in Provo, Utah, along with BYU outposts in Laie, Hawaii, and Rexburg, Idaho. Asplund was eventually accepted to the Provo …

Labs rush to study coronavirus in transgenic animals — some are in short supply

By Ewen Callaway As coronavirus marches around the globe, a sleepy town on the rugged Maine coast has become an unlikely nucleus in researchers’ efforts to combat the disease, known as COVID-19. The Jackson Laboratory, a mouse-breeding facility in Bar Harbor, is rushing to produce stocks of a transgenic mouse that scientists hope will help …

Tax woes for Harvest Bible Chapel properties

By Jake Griffin Two properties that house Harvest Bible Chapel congregations are under scrutiny after their tax exemptions were called into question. The owners of the Highland Park building that is home to the church’s Deerfield Road campus are already on the hook for more than $500,000 in property taxes after Lake County assessment officials …