CRSQ Abstracts, 2016, Volume 53, Number 1 (Summer)

Comets, the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud

John G. Hartnett

With the development of modern space-based telescopes and the past decade or more of collection of data on both comets and celestial bodies found to orbit the sun at distance greater than that of the planet Neptune, a review of the current data suggests that there can be no longer any doubt that the Kuiper belt does exist. However, the objects contained therein probably more properly should be called trans-Neptunian objects because there is no reason that the solar system ends at Neptune and a new region of space begins. On the other hand, there is no evidence that the putative Oort cloud exists. The Kuiper belt was originally believed to be the primary source from which the Oort cloud was populated over the alleged 4.6-billion-year history since our solar system formed. The latter still has not been found, yet it is critically needed as the only source of long-period comets for the uniformitarian theory. However, I suggest that the existence of short-period comets as a young solar system argument may no longer be tenable.

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Neutron Stars in Globular Clusters: Evidence of Young Age?

Paul Nethercott

The age of globular clusters and the stars they contain is thought to be on the order of 10 billion years. Neutron stars are believed to form via supernova explosions of massive stars, and their progenitor stars have very short evolutionary lifetimes, so neutron star production in globular clusters ought to have ceased billions of years ago. Neutron stars move at high velocities, which are probably the result of large kicks they receive during their formation. Their speeds are more than sufficient for neutron stars to escape from globular clusters within thousands of years. Hence, globular clusters should contain few, if any, neutron stars. Yet, globular clusters typically contain many neutron stars. This suggests that globular clusters may be much younger than generally thought.

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Cells as Information Processors Part 2: Hardware Implementation

Dr. Royal Truman

Cells use many codes, which operate through abstract symbolism and formal rules. To instantiate the logic, dedicated decoding processors—hardware molecular machines—must interpret each kind of variable and the associated values. Decoders include ribosomes, DNA polymerases, RNA polymerases, spliceosomes, Hsp70 and Hsp60 chaperones, proteasomes, RNA degradasomes, protein translocases, reverse transcriptases, aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases, and error-correcting machines. Many codes are mutually dependent in order to function, and cells could not have evolved each decoder sequentially. Ribosomes require the mRNAs from DNA-dependent RNA polymerases, but these polymerases are composed of protein products from ribosomes. Both decoders require the energetic ATP molecules from ATP synthases, which themselves cannot exist until ribosomes and RNA polymerases already work. Being coded information systems, additional guidance is provided in cells through engineered components such as the cytoskeleton, lipid rafts, membranes, pores, chemical gradients, correct placements of synapses, correct binding strengths, and nuclear subcompartments. Computer architectures structure long-term storage capacity hierarchically to process data at different levels of granularity: data centers and distributed file systems; hard discs; disk partitions; files and extents; tracks; sectors and data blocks; and bits. In cells the same kinds of hardware principles are observed: ecologies of cooperating bacteria and multiple cells in eukaryote organisms; genomes; chromosomes, plasmids, mitochondria, and chloroplasts; euchromatin/heterochromatin and DNA looping; DNA regions defining primary RNA transcripts; exons/introns; and nucleotides. Cells must be interpreted as holistic systems whose origin cannot be explained by neo-Darwinian theory.

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The Apparent Age of the Time-Dilated Universe II: Gyrochronology, Magnetic Orbital Decay of Close Solar-Type Binaries and Errata

Ronald G. Samec

In creation time-dilation cosmologies, one major question is this: What maximum apparent age should be used to characterize the universe? In this paper, one particular age indicator is used. My larger plan is to determine estimates of the answer to this question for many age-bearing processes and then to give a reasonable answer to this question. In this case, I am pursuing astrochronology, the precise derivation of stellar ages from the orbital periods of single stars and interacting binaries. Here, I correct the earlier study (Samec and Figg, 2012) and expand the results using a simpler algorithm that applies to many more binaries. I increase the number of binaries in the earlier study from 18 to 124. The only basis for the selection of these systems is that they appear to be undergoing a clear and preferably long, decaying orbit indicative of magnetic braking. This is shown by a negative quadratic term in dP/dt (days/year), where P (days) is the orbital period of the binary. As before, I attempt an age estimate of these solar-type binaries apart from evolutionary time constraints assuming an initial period at the creation (or formation) of the binary (here, 5–20 days). This time a simpler kinematic approach is taken to extend the number of systems surveyed.

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