ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 230

“Farout!” Newfound Object Is the Farthest Solar System Body Ever Spotted

By Sarah Lewin A newly discovered object is the most-distant body ever observed in the solar system—and the first object ever found orbiting at more than 100 times the distance from Earth to the sun. The discovery team nicknamed the object “Farout,” and its provisional designation from the International Astronomical Union is 2018 VG18. Preliminary …

Christian nationalists are trying to seize power — but progressives have a plan to fight back

By Paul Rosenberg In the 2016 election, Trump got 81 percent support from white evangelical Christians, and a study by Clemson sociologist Andrew Whitehead and two colleagues (Salon story here) found that “the ‘religious vote’ for Trump was primarily the result of Christian nationalism,” an Old Testament-based worldview fusing Christian and American identities that “can be unmoored from …

How George H.W. Bush enabled the rise of the religious right

By Neil J. Young Following Wednesday’s state funeral for George H.W. Bush at Washington National Cathedral, the former president’s casket will be flown to Houston where a memorial service will be held at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church the following day. Unlike his son George W. Bush, the elder Bush, a lifelong Episcopalian, was less known for his …

Caught in the Act—Astronomers Get Their Best Look Yet at a Supernova Blowing Up

By Shannon Hall Georgios Dimitriadis thought he had botched the data. It was late on a Friday night and the University of California, Santa Cruz, astronomer was the last one in the office. He had been waiting anxiously for NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler space telescope to stream a batch of data toward Earth—not because he wanted …

The Anti-Choice War on Fetal Tissue Research Got a Congressional Hearing

By Katelyn Burns The anti-choice movement’s ongoing war on fetal tissue research moved to the halls of the U.S. Congress on Thursday as lawmakers held a congressional committee hearing seeking input on potential fetal tissue alternatives for use in medical and scientific research. The hearing, held by two House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittees, was chaired by anti-choice Rep. Mark …

What’s the Weather On Mars? How NASA’s Insight Lander Will Find Out.

By Sarah Lewin NASA’s new Mars lander isn’t quite ready to probe the Red Planet’s interior yet, but it’s starting to get the lay of the land on the surface — and in the atmosphere. The InSight lander is already deploying its powerful meteorology package to monitor the Red Planet’s weather. InSight touched down on the …

Christian Group Opposes Meditation, Says Mindfulness Is Against Their Religion

By David G. McAfee A Christian advocacy group is taking a stand against meditation in public schools, saying it violates separation of church and state by pushing students into “mindfulness” practices that are “clearly antithetical to the Christian religion.” The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), run by Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and longtime church/state separation …

Half-Size, Ruffle-Headed Relative of Triceratops Discovered

By Laura Geggel If head frills were a fashion statement, a newly identified 73-million-year-old triceratops relative was certainly at the top of its game. The newfound dinosaur named Crittendenceratops krzyzanowskii sported a fancy frill on the top of its head, a new study finds. In fact, it’s the youngest-known dinosaur of its clade (the nasutoceratopsins), as well …

How Neanderthal DNA might have shaped some human brains

By Ewen Callaway No human has the brain of a Neanderthal — but some have hints of its shape. The brain shape of some people with European ancestry is influenced by Neanderthal DNA acquired through interbreeding tens of thousands of years ago, researchers report on 13 December in Current Biology1. These DNA variants seem to affect the expression …

Evangelical Christians Helped Elect Donald Trump, but Their Time as a Major Political Force Is Coming to an End

By Nina Burleigh Alex Camire left the church a few months before his pastor announced from the pulpit that the election of Donald Trump was “a miracle of the Lord.” The 29-year-old Connecticut social worker had been raised in the evangelical tradition; his parents were married in it. But Camire’s faith had started to fail …