Geoscience Newsletter 1

GEOSCIENCE NEWSLETTERNumber 46 July 2016

Geoscience Newsletter is an e-publi cation of the Geo science Research Institute 11060 Campus Street Loma Linda CA 92350 USA Please subscribe at wwwgrisdaorg

GRI NEWS

Teaching in the PhilippinesIn April Tim Standish taught a course

on science and faith at the Adventist International Institute for Advanced Studies (AIIAS) The course is designed to help graduate students explore issues in science and creation and be better prepared to understand and share the biblical worldview in their professional interactions

Standish also addressed the students and staff at Mountain View College in the southern Philippines

Exploring the AlpsGRI scientists met in Milan Italy

to study the route of the conference planned for church leaders in 2017 The group included Dr Noemi Duran newly appointed Director of the GRI Branch Office in Europe (far left in photo)

The group examined evidence re lating to plate tectonics and glaciation and learned about the famous fossils of

Monte San Giorgio a UNESCO World Heritage Site

One of the more interesting features observed was the contact between the basement rocks of the European plate and sedimentary rocks that have been transported over them for many kilometers as the European and African plates collided in the past

Rocks in the foreground are basement rocks while those in the background have been transported over the basement rocks

With Professionals in IsraelJim Gibson met with a group of

graduate students and professionals in Jerusalem in May Lectures and discussion periods focused on how to address the concerns of university students in dealing with contemporary issues in faith and science

NEW BOOKWeikart R 2016 The Death of Humanity and the Case for Life New York Regnery Faith ISBN 978-1-62157-489-7 List $2799 (Ama zon $1901)

This book describes the denigrating influence of Darwinism on the value of human life as is seen in such practices as abortion euthanasia the movement to equate humans with animals and increasing contempt for morality Ironically those denying the special status of humans nevertheless appear to believe that their ideas deserve special status by others Written by the same author as From Darwin to Hitler the baleful results of rejecting the Creator God can be seen in the ldquoculture of deathrdquo now threatening the fundamental human rights of all people

GRI BLOGLearn more about the amazing

qualities of water fossils of the Galapagos Islands and an outline of Cenozoic fossil patterns at our blog site httpsgrisdawordpresscom

GRI ON FACEBOOKF r i e n d u s o n F a c e b o o k

a t h t tps www facebook comGeoscienceresearchinstitute and find short comments on topics of interest

Dr Tim Standish with AIIAS students

GRI scientists in the Alps

Dr Jim Gibson with Israeli group

2 Geoscience Newsletter

SCIENCE NEWS

Shared Bioluminescence Does Not Indicate Common Ancestry

Davis MP Sparks JS Smith WL 2016 Repeated and widespread evolution of bioluminescence in marine fishes PLOS One June 8 2016 Doi 101371journalpone0155154

Summary Bioluminescence (BL) is the release of light by living organisms such as fireflies The chemical reaction is mediated by luciferase enzyme reacting with a luciferin substrate BL is known from more than 700 genera most of which live in the sea Bony fish include many BL genera and are the subject of this study

This study asked assuming the evolutionary tree of bony fishes how many different times would BL have to have evolved The answer has two parts Some fish produce BL themselves which requires that it developed specifically in these fish There are at least eight groups (clades) of fish that could not have inherited the ability to produce light from an ancestor In seventeen fish groups the BL is provided by bacterial symbionts rather than by the fish In these cases the fish have specialized structures to carry the bacteria and control the production of light for the fishesrsquo purposes Two groups of bioluminescent fishes have not yet been studied to determine the source of the light

Comment This study raises two questions about the common ancestry of bony fish The first question is how plausible is it to propose that bio-lumi nescence could develop through Darwinian processes even once let alone multiple times The other question is whether or not similarities in organisms are truly evidence of common ancestry If

something as complex as BL originated multiple times what about other features that are usually interpreted as indicating common ancestry Origin by intelligent design provides a more parsimonious explanation for the distribution of bioluminescence throughout living organisms

Human Genes with Multiple Effects

one under selection Pleiotropy can prevent selection from favoring genetic mutations that negatively affect other traits

Limits to Evolution of a Protein

Sarkisyan KS Bolotin DA Meer MV plus 17 authors and Kondrashov FA 2016 Local fitness landscape of the green fluorescent protein Nature 533397-401 Doi 101038nature17995 See addition-al commentary at wwwevolutionnewsorg201605local_fitness_l102860html

Summary P ro te in func t ion depends on the sequence of amino acids composing the protein Mutations may result in changes to the amino acid sequence and hence changes in the functionality of the protein This study compared the effects of 51715 different variants of a protein known as the green fluorescent protein (GFP) This protein was taken from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria

Mutations were created by random mutagenesis and produced an average of 37 mutations per gene sequence Mutational effects were evaluated on the basis of the strength of fluorescence At least 75 of the mutations reduced or stopped fluorescence About 23 of mutations in GFP are expected to be neutral The authors conclude that the GFP protein functions in a narrow range of sequence space around which are nonfunctional (non-fluorescent) sequences that are readily eliminated by natural selection

Comment The green fluorescent protein produces green light when it is illuminated with ultraviolet light The benefit to the jellyfish is unknown but could involve attraction of food or mates This study shows that it is very unlikely that green fluorescent protein evolved its function by natural selection The number of sequences that fluoresce is small and variants with two or more differences are non-functional Although some changes in the proteinrsquos 238 amino acids may still produce a protein that fluoresces the origin of the protein is better explained by intelligent design

Bluntsnout lanternf ish Myctophum obtusirostre Photo courtesy of NOAA

Unibrow hair between the eyebrows is one of the traits studied Photo z11i22 CCSA30

Pickrell JK Berisa T Liu JZ Segurel L Tung JY Hinds DA 2016 Detection and interpretation of shared genetic influenc-es on 42 human traits Nature Genetics 48709-717 doi101038ng3570 (Ad-ditional commentary is found at httpwwwthe-scientistcom)

Summary This study looked for gene variants (SNPs single-nucleotide polymorphisms) that are linked to two or more human traits by analyzing the results of 16 genome-wide studies and data from the company 23andMe Pairwise associations were analyzed for 42 traits and 341 genetic loci were discovered to be linked to two or more traits An example of their findings is that a nonsynonymous polymorphism in SH2B3 is associated with a number of autoimmune diseases and traits in lipids red blood cells and heart disease This method may prove useful in epidemiological screening for genetic diseases

Comment Many genes have multiple effects a condition known as pleiotropy A slight change in a gene may affect many traits at once This has important implications for theories of evolution based on natural selection Selection for a particular mutation may be limited by the fact that the mutation has effects on traits other than the