CRSQ Abstracts, 2014, Volume 50, Number 4 (Spring)

Comparison of the Transcribed Intergenic Regions of the Human Genome to Chimpanzee

Jeffrey P. Tomkins

The human genome is pervasively transcribed and produces a wide array of long noncoding RNAs that have been implicated in gene regulation, chromatin modification, nuclear organization, and scaffolding for functionally active protein complexes. Of particular interest in human origins is the long and very long intergenic noncoding RNAs transcribed from genomic regions outside protein coding genes. These are known as lincRNA and vlincRNA, respectively. LincRNA regions of the genome are more taxonomically restricted than protein coding segments and make logical candidates for research in genomic discontinuity. This report describes the comparative use of three different human lincRNA datasets and one vlincRNA dataset to the chimpanzee genome using the BLASTN algorithm. Short human lincRNA genomic regions (less than 600 bases) were about 75–79% similar to chimpanzee, while the larger lincRNA regions (greater than 600 bases) were about 71 to 74% similar. The human vlincRNA genomic regions were only 67% similar to chimpanzee. In contrast, all known human protein coding exons 300 to 599 bases in length, are 86% similar to chimpanzee.

Analysis of Walt Brown's Model of a Pre-Flood 360-Day Year

Danny R. Faulkner

Walt Brown (Brown, 2008) has proposed that the year originally was 360 days long and had twelve 30-day months. He further proposed that within his hydroplate model significant changes in the earth and moon at the time of the Flood altered the lengths of the day and month to the current configuration. Here I evaluate this claim. From the standpoint of basic physics, his mechanism of shortening the day by 1.46% is plausible, though I don’t address the question of the geophysics involved. However, the mechanism for decreasing the size of the moon’s orbit to shorten the month has problems. Brown’s proposal of selective impacts on the leading edge of the moon as it orbited the earth is based upon a misunderstanding of orbital mechanics. There is no suitable site on the moon for the required number of impacts. Furthermore, the energy released by the many required impacts would have produced far too much heat on the moon.

Giordano Bruno: The First Martyr of Science or the Last of the Magicians?

Jerry Bergman

The martyrdom of the sixteenth-century philosopher and professor Giordano Bruno is widely regarded by scholars as the beginning of the war between science and religion. A review of the case documents that Bruno’s difficulties were not due to his science, but rather to the clear, open theological conflicts he had with Christianity and his attitude toward authority. Bruno also experienced numerous major conflicts with professors and philosophers of his day, which did not help his case.

Beyond "Origin & Operation" Science Part I: Critique of OS2

John K. Reed and Peter Klevberg

The terms “origin science” and “operation science” are used to explain the nature of science, especially as it relates to history. But they are an inadequate response to positivism. The proposal for multiple kinds of science was an attempt to answer claims from the 1980s creation trials that evolution was science and creation was religion. Proponents of “origin” and “operation” science sought an alternative inside science, rather than in the broader context of the Christian worldview. In addition to problems in their view of the history of science, “origin science” fails its own criteria and “operation science” is redundant. The past and singularities, key factors in this scheme, are not proper topics of science. Finally, the proposal includes a deficient understanding of uniformity and mistakenly accepts the “god-of-the-gaps” fallacy and methodological naturalism.

The Little Ice Age in the North Atlantic Region Part VI: The Little Ice Age and Climatology

Peter Klevberg, Michael J. Oard

Earlier papers in this series introduced methods of studying past climate change, the historicity of the Little Ice Age as well as the Medieval Warm Period, the importance of the Little Ice Age in understanding climate change and constraining climatic models, and the importance of the North Atlantic region in understanding and applying constraints on climatic and glacial models. Earlier papers included summaries of the effects of the Little Ice Age in Iceland, Norway, and Greenland. This paper presents an analysis of how the Little Ice Age climate-change record should constrain paleoclimatology and speculations on potential climatic-forcing mechanisms.