ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 192

OPEN DISCUSSION MAY 2019

This thread has been created for discussion on themes relevant to Reason and Science for which there are not currently any dedicated threads. Please note it is NOT for general chat, and that our Comment Policy applies as usual. There is a link to this at the foot of the page. If you would like …

Saturn’s Moon Titan Has a Weird Ice Formation Thousands of Miles Long

By Meghan Bartels Saturn’s strange moon Titan hides many of its secrets behind layers and layers of thick haze, but scientists have now peered through the haze in a new way — and spotted a massive stretch of water ice to boot. That ice block stretches across nearly half of Titan’s girth. The feature was a surprise …

Mystery Sea Opened Up During the Antarctic Winter. Now, Scientists Know Why.

By Stephanie Pappas A swath of ice-free sea that regularly opens up during the frigid Antarctic winters is created by cyclones. Sea ice in Antarctica is thickest in the winter, so the appearance of open water is perplexing. These open seas are called polynyas. In 2017, scientists spotted one in the Lazarev Sea, which they called the …

IL GOP Lawmaker Spreads Misleading Anti-Vaxxer Propaganda on Facebook

By Hemant Mehta Illinois State Rep. Darren Bailey has a long list of horrible legislative accomplishments. He’s opposed a plan to allow the state’s Medicaid program to cover sex reassignment surgeries for transgender citizens. He agreed that if the contributions of LGBTQ people were included in history classes, then we should also teach heterosexual history. And when he sponsored …

Protesting Methodist LGBTQ policy, confirmation class takes a pass

By Yonat Shimron United Methodists across the U.S. have protested the global denomination’s crackdown on LGBTQ members in all kinds of ways. But now a group of teens in a confirmation class at a historic United Methodist church in the Midwest has taken the unprecedented step of refusing to join the church. Eight teenagers, aged …

Life May Have Evolved Before Earth Finished Forming

By Mike Wall Life may have arisen in our solar system before Earth even finished forming. Planetesimals, the rocky building blocks of planets, likely had all the ingredients necessary for life as we know it way back at the dawn of the solar system, said Lindy Elkins-Tanton, a planetary scientist at Arizona State University (ASU). And …

Gravitational waves hint at detection of black hole eating star

By Davide Castelvecchi Gravitational waves may have just delivered the first sighting of a black hole devouring a neutron star. If confirmed, it would be the first evidence of the existence of such binary systems. The news comes just a day after astronomers had detected gravitational waves from a merger of two neutron stars for only the …

FOX News Rabbi Blames Synagogue Shooting on Nation’s “Decline in Religiosity”

By Hemant Mehta During an appearance on FOX News yesterday, Rabbi Benjamin Sendrow of the Shaarey Tefilla Congregation was discussing the recent shooting in California when he effectively blamed a lack of religion for the rise of violence at churches, mosques, and synagogues. But don’t worry. He didn’t say all atheists were potential mass murderers. He definitely said the …

LGBTQ Mormons Are Still Waiting for Their Apology

By Nico Lang There were two notable words the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints haven’t yet said: “We’re sorry.” Earlier this month, leaders with the Salt Lake City-based denomination said the Mormon church would be reversing a three-and-a-half-year-old policy that branded individuals in same-sex marriages as “apostates” and banned their children from being …

The Universe Is Moving Too Fast and Nobody Knows Why

By Rafi Letzter The universe is moving too fast and nobody knows why. Back in the early years of the universe, right after the Big Bang, everything blasted away from everything else. We can still see the light from that blast, by observing very faraway parts of the universe where light takes billions of years to reach …