ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 235

Here’s How Much Starlight Has Been Created Since the Beginning of the Universe

By Yasemin Saplakoglu Hidden in the darkness among the stars is all the light that the universe has created since the Big Bang. Now, scientists think they know approximately how much light that is. Since their birth a couple million years after the Big Bang, stars have produced around 4 x 10^84 photons, or particles of …

First CRISPR babies: 6 questions that remain

By David Cyranoski The meeting where He Jiankui explained his extraordinary claim to have helped produce the first babies — twin girls — born with edited genomes came to a close with a statement that came down hard on the scientist. “We heard an unexpected and deeply disturbing claim that human embryos had been edited and implanted, resulting …

The War on Christmas is Over. Christmas Lost.

By Hemant Mehta This won’t surprise you: Only Republicans care about the fictional “War on Christmas.” This might surprise you: Even Republicans don’t really care about the “War on Christmas.” How do you even measure that? A new poll from Morning Consult finds that, while 56% of Republicans say they would be more likely to shop at stores that explicitly say “Merry Christmas,” …

Trump Administration Quietly Meets With Anti-Choice Groups Ahead of Lame Duck Session

By Katelyn Burns Anti-choice groups met with White House officials on Wednesday to pressure the Trump administration to further restrict reproductive rights during the lame duck session and the next session of the U.S. Congress. Representatives from the Susan B. Anthony List, Students for Life, National Right to Life, March for Life, and Live Action …

Meet Christus, the US Catholic Health Chain Restricting Access to Reproductive Care in Mexico

By Amy Littlefield & Laura Gottesdiener It costs about a month’s salary for the average Mexican to deliver a baby at the the hospital that looms, with a cross on top, over a busy street in the commercial hub of Monterrey. For an extra 10 percent per night, the equivalent of $133, patients can stay in …

Astronomers Just Detected an Enormous Ancient Galaxy Orbiting The Milky Way

By Michelle Starr Just as moons orbit planets, planets orbit stars, and stars orbit galactic cores, galaxies can be orbited by other, much smaller galaxies. The Milky Way has several of these hangers-on, most notably the Large and Small Magellanic clouds, the only two of our galaxy’s satellites visible to the naked eye. Now, thanks to Gaia data – …

Bethel (CT) Officials Debate Presence of Atheist Sign Next to Nativity Scene

By Hemant Mehta A couple of weeks ago, I posted about the situation in Bethel, Connecticut, where city officials have allowed a Nativity scene to go up on public property while sticking to a policy that rejects other displays due to the “limited space.” American Atheists sent a letter to the city urging them to rescind the policy, …

Investigators Raid Offices of President of U.S. Catholic Bishops

By Laurie Goodstein Dozens of local and federal law enforcement officers conducted a surprise search of the offices of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston on Wednesday, looking for evidence in a clergy sexual abuse case that has ensnared the local archbishop, Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo, who also serves as president of the United States Catholic …

Atlantis Found (Again)! And Exasperated Scientists (Again) Raise Their Eyebrows

By Laura Geggel Nearly 2,400 years ago, the philosopher Plato described Atlantis as a mighty state that possessed 10,000 chariots, advanced technologies, vast numbers of elephants and bulls, and a series of complex canals. And now, in a new documentary, a U.K.-based group claims to have discovered the ruins of this once-flourishing society on what …

FOX News Guest Uses Bible to Justify Tear-Gassing Asylum Seekers at the Border

By Hemant Mehta Christopher Harris, director of the conservative group Unhyphenated America, said on FOX News earlier today that we shouldn’t worry about the Trump administration lobbing tear gas at immigrants seeking asylum because they’re mostly men. And the Bible tells us to protect the poor… which apparently only includes women and children. … look, America …