Wonders of Nature

Gliese 581c  NASA Image The search for extra terrestrial intelligence has been going on for fifty years and still we have not found anything concrete. The recent discovery of "earth-like" planets like Gliese 581 c is re energizing this effort. Will we ever encounter intelligent life in the cosmos? If there are other beings in the universe where are they, and why haven’t they said hello? In thinking about this blog I came to realize I have many more questions than answers. What would it mean for our human civilization to discover that we are not alone? Some UFO enthusiasts claim that governments are already aware of intelligent visitation of our planet, but for whatever reason they are keeping it secret. One of those reasons might be the social repercussions of knowing that aliens exist. How would people of faith interpret first contact? Any interstellar civilization would have to be far more advanced than us. Would the fact that far ...

NASA Image, Rift Valley It's incredible to think about all of the natural forces that came together to create a sentient species on this little blue planet of ours.  There are so many interesting ways to approach the question of our origins. The Great Rift Valley in Africa is a place that elicits such conversations. What can  geology, the study of rocks and the physical earth, tell us about human origins, for example?  The crust is constantly on the move due to the internal heat of the earth’s interior. Along the Pacific rim, the sea floor is forced back into the depths of the earth forming a vast ring of volcanic fire;  In India, the Himalayas rise as the plates crush into each other.  How can any of this relate to human evolution? In East Africa the land is being literally ripped apart by the same great forces.  A new ocean will soon sever the continent apart and the horn of Africa will become its own separate land. The African Rift Vall...

NASA photo, Apollo 11 mission. Who cannot help being humbled by the vastness of the cosmos as compared to the smallness of our earthly home. We are indeed a tiny dot in the universe, but I do not believe significance is a matter of size. I've always been fascinated by the dynamics of pattern -- how pattern reproduces itself in vastly different scales, and how the blueprint of the universe is intimately bound through self-replicating forms. Sunwapta I revel in how the arrangements of nature are ensconced in space and time; the way patterns are displayed in our planet's landmasses, in the atmosphere and in the oceans. There is an artistry to the earth's physical landscapes that is more richly textured than any human work. AAAS Image Walking along a beach I watch the swells run up the sand, weave and merge, and return to the ocean as braided rivulets, and it reminds me of the great river systems of our world.  It brings back memories of...

from Dan Chure's Land of the Dead What an incredible thing is life.  There are so many ways natural patterns come together in a seemingly miraculous way and create the wonders of life present and past. The griffenfly you see in the image to the right had a two and a half foot wingspan, and for that hefty size we can thank oxygen.  The level has varied over geologic time, and was once so high it allowed insects, which breathe less efficiently through tubules rather than lungs, to grow much larger. That was 300 million years ago.  There's less oxygen now, hence no more griffenfly; see  Dan Chure's, Land of the Dead  for more on these fantastic prehistoric insects. Masahiro Arai  Photo Oxygen itself arises from life, and what is is truly amazing is how self-regulating it is. Virtually all of this essential gas in our atmosphere was created through living systems like the stromatolites you see here.   For billions of y...