Klatu verata niktu: Science

Giving up God: A crash course and rapid detox from the 'God' delusion

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 02:27:48 GMT

In response to my all-too-frequent encounters with modern humans whose notions of reality, the world, and our place within it herald from and are steeped in Bronze-Age mythology handed down to us from 2000 to 4000 years ago, I decided it’s time to put together a little refresher course for anyone who’s been away from the science class for a spell too long. I've tried to select content from readily available, and accessible, Internet resources that expound scientifically credible and widely accepted modern explanations of our existence, origin, and evolution.

I compile this material in hopes of helping those with a God addiction get free of religion's distorting influence and get back on the road to rational recovery. Like many twelve-step programs, designed to “help” wean you off of undesirable substances and behaviours and onto Jesus instead, this program is designed to wean you off of Jesus (or other imaginary spiritual saviour) and away from the accompanying intellectually stifling and planetary-endangering beliefs in unfounded, unsupported, supernatural creation myths and their associated irrational adherence to blind faith -- incidentally, a redundant term which stands for a fervent belief in things for which there is, and can be, no evidence. My hopes are to turn you on to the amazing and wonderful world of fact, reality, honesty, and the scientific (ie. undeluded) search for truth.

In a way, I’m evangelizing a different and rational world view to compete with the one that you may have accidentally been born into and which was the result of a sheer accident of birth, for a Christian could just as easily have been born into a Muslim family, thus growing up a Muslim, as could have a would-be Muslim grown up a Jew. For almost the unanimous majority of religious people, they belong to the same “faith” as their parents do. Sociologists tell us, in fact, that there are exceedingly few exceptions to this general rule worldwide. Thus, an innocent and impressionable child may never come to “know” Jesus, Mohammad, Moses, Santa, Easter Bunny or Tooth Fairy without someone first teaching them about these figures, and thus may never grow to “believe” in these figures unless taught so from a very early age. Most of us would agree that a grown adult of 18 or 20 who still fervently believes in Santa or the Easter Bunny arguably has some developmental problems. But why is this not the case also for belief in any of the so-called prophets or saviours? While a child's indoctrination into all sorts of these beliefs often starts with the child’s parents, it is also the parents’ religious institutions, and immersion in a surrounding religious social and cultural milieu that delivers the ultimate coup de grâce to a child's developing sense of natural wonder and budding rationality. Of course, a particularly intelligent and willful child may always try and exercise his free will to reject these early teachings, but such an individual must contend with the repercussions of parental and communal backlash against such rebelliousness as can be seen in the following shining example of the Christian “tolerance” and “love” that we've come to hear about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8Aq00yJSxo&feature=related

For many reasons, all strongly unscientific and dogmatic ideologies and or other radicalizing systems of belief, particularly those of supernatural and spiritual origin (which are often bounded up in strong emotional attachment and a requirement for suspension of reason and rationality), carry with them an ever-present and menacing potential for oppression, violence, and abuse as history has amply shown. A good resource for exploration of this argument is given in the eloquent book “End of Faith”, by Sam Harris. Book summary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_Faith. Read excerpts online here.

The absurdity, non-necessity, fallacy, and dangerous potential of the “God" delusion are exquisitely addressed in many of the works of Richard Dawkins, including but not limited to these of his books:

- “The Selfish Gene” (emphasis on the word ‘gene’, not ‘selfish’; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Selfish_Gene for overview, or read excerpts of the book for free online here.

- “The Blind Watchmaker” See overview here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blind_Watchmaker. Read excerpts here.

- Or most recently, “The God Delusion” (http://richarddawkins.net/godDelusion,
Watch Richard read excerpts from “The God Delusion” and answer questions to a university audience here.

- For a compelling account of the impressive and vast interrelatedness of all species of organisms, past and present on this blue planet, have a look at the summary for the book “The Ancestor’s Tale” here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ancestor%27s_Tale, or read parts of the book online here.

In his book, “The Devil’s Chaplain” and in reference to Bertand Russell’s proposition of a hypothetical, non-disprovable, invisible celestial teapot orbiting our Sun (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell%27s_teapot) as an analogy for the belief in God, Dawkins had this to say:

The reason organized religion merits outright hostility is that, unlike belief in Russell's teapot, religion is powerful, influential, tax-exempt and systematically passed on to children too young to defend themselves. Children are not compelled to spend their formative years memorizing loony books about teapots. Government-subsidized schools don't exclude children whose parents prefer the wrong shape of teapot. Teapot-believers don't stone teapot-unbelievers, teapot-apostates, teapot-heretics and teapot-blasphemers to death. Mothers don't warn their sons off marrying teapot-shiksas whose parents believe in three teapots rather than one. People who put the milk in first don't kneecap those who put the tea in first.

For a view into the origins and evolutionary basis of our most complex and innate drives and emotions such as love, compassion, sacrifice, altruism, justice, and many more, take a look at “The Moral Animal” by Robert Wright (http://www.scifidimensions.com/Mar04/moralanimal.htm). For some very recent scientific findings on the Evolutionary Psychology basis of “the Golden Rule” take a look here. This is a NY Times Online article, so you might have sign up for a free account to view it.

For lies, bologne and inane metaphysical speculations about how we got to be here, you can read pretty much any of the unintelligent drivel produced by the Intelligent Design or Creationist movements that seem to be unquellable in today's America, promoted by any of the following (woefully incomplete) list of examples from the lying, deceitful cabal of Evangelists and pseudo-intellectuals on the vanguard of the truth-abolition movement:

- The devout gay-hating, atheist-loathing, evolution-denying, (not to mention very creepy) Christian Evangelical minister/hypocrite Ted Haggard, George W Bush’s former best religious buddy.

o And here where Haggard professes to be a wonderful (Christian) person, transformed by his communion with Jesus: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dz6A7_gsq-w

o You can watch Haggard's prophetic rant against gays to young attendees at a bible camp in the excellent but scary documentary “Jesus Camp” (see clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6rSjrBhUIA)

o And witness Ted's fall from grace into the lap of a gay sex scandal amidst charges last year of an ongoing 3-year long relationship with a male prostitute from whom it is alleged that he bought Crystal Meth. Articles here and here and here. Video here.

o And his artful denial/downplay of his moral slip: video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbCRUucI1zk. Pay close attention to the body language of his eyes; they seem to close at the climax of each lie, perhaps to hide his shame. Notice, these are not simple blinks; they are full-on eye closures. Notice the meek, hapless, silent, supportive Christian wife.

o And here where he confesses to being “an evil, deceptive, liar” following his organization's failure to bury the scandal: article http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15536263/

o If that isn’t enough to give you the creeps about this guy, watch him here go after Richard Dawkins like a rabid dog in this clip from the documentary “Root of All Evil?” (video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGrltT54OsA). Haggard claims he has unshakeable evidence for God’s existence from the authority of “a book, written over 1500 hundred years ago, by 40 different authors on 1 subject and which doesn’t contradict itself”).
- For revealing insights on the claims of consistency and the non-contradictory nature of the bible, check out the documentary “The God Who Wasn’t There” (film trailer here; a good clip from the movie here) whose only critics seem to be Christians or Christian Apologists with a bone to pick.
- Also, by comparison, have a look at this compelling alternative hypothesis on the origins of Christian belief, rites, and rituals: “Zeitgeist [Religion]: The Greatest Story Ever Told” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNf-P_5u_Hw). There are 3 parts to this. A transcript w/ source references is available here: http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/transcript.htm

- The devout, evolution-denying, atheist-loathing, tax-evading-turned-federal-prisoner (and likely gay-hating closet-homosexual) Christian Evangelical hypocrite/minister Kent Hovind. He and his “Creation Science Evangelism” movement have produced some astoundingly messed up explanations of life's origins and the fossil record. People rode Dinosaurs in the Garden of Eve don't you know! The man: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_Hovind and his shame: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=51236.

- The Discovery Institute (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_Institute). The conservative Christian think-tank that brought you Intelligent Design. These are the original Intelligent Design advocates; ID-iots for short.

o The “Center for [attacking] Science and [dumbing down] Culture” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Science_and_Culture)

o The original *ahem* “scientific” voice of the ID-iot movement, Michael Behe, author responsible for the factually-lame and childishly simplistic book “Darwin’s Black Box” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Behe)

o William Dembski (I'll a void an obvious disparaging play on the last name) is another God-loving irrational who thinks we need "more Bible” in math class. He loves cooking, jabbering, walks on the beach, and oh yes, pushing his IDiot anti-science political agenda onto hapless school children. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dembski)

o Phillip E. Johnson, founder of the Discovery Institute and leader of the IDiot village (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillip_E._Johnson)

- Any one or combination of these weasels: Bill O’Reilly, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Pat Robertson, and the late Jerry Falwell, to name just a few.

- Or the hopelessly deluded, the likes of Kirk Cameron, Roy Comfort et. al., and their raves about God and bananas. See the idiotic “God’s Banana: An evolutionist’s nightmare” video here. FYI, the earliest edible banana is believed to have been domesticated about 7000-8000 years ago by early tribal cultures in Papua, New Guinea; the banana variety we are most familiar with today is the Cavendish – the type used by Roy Comfort in his God's Banana video. This banana variety is probably no more a 1500 years old, which means God didn’t make it, people did, through selective pollination/breeding (a deliberate and useful form of artificial evolution long exploited by mankind)
Today, there are hundreds of distinct banana varieties in the world, each in a family serving vastly different uses: cooking, beer-making, sweet, roasting, etc.
There are currently 95 distinct varieties of Banana grown in Uganda alone (84 endemic to the region). Now that’s a lot of banana shapes that God has to account for!

Of course, you could always choose to relax and enjoy a read about how Intelligent Design was recently spanked in court in the judicial decision of “Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District” or watch the video documentary of these events at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/id/program.html.

I could go on and on, but the pickings are just too easy and it doesn’t actually get us anywhere. So, without any further ado, let your immersive crash course in science begin:

1. History of the Universe, Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg1fs6vp9Ok

2. History of the Universe, Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMQk6MveZOE

3. The Story of the Earth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN8XXaDrK4A

4. Molecular Biology: The Chemistry of Life:
Origin of life: Self-replicating molecules: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozbFerzjkz4
The amazing power of simple chemistry and electrical atomic interactions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2kIatxYrws&feature=related and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8lhPt6V-yM&feature=related
Visualization of DNA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UoKYGKxxMI
Visualization of RNA translation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl8pSlonmA0
Visualization of DNA replication, DNA->mRNA Transcription RNA->Protein Translation (protein manufacture and assembly from amino acid chains): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkdRdik73kU&feature=related
Visualization of Kinesin (a motor protein) used in intracellular vesicle transport: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TGDPotbJV4

5. DNA Structure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy8dk5iS1f0&feature=related

6. Genetic Mutation (as occasionally expected and anticipated by the theory of Evolution): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp0esidDr-c&feature=related

7. Computer Simulations of genetic Evolution showing speciation by the means of the evolutionary mechanisms of replicator recombination (parental gene mixing), random mutation, and a process of deterministic selection, just like in the wild:
a) A virtual organism (image) that is bred over several generations and which evolves to meet a defined “fitness” criteria for the prescribed environment. The environment favours resemblance to a given South Park character: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2SVMKZhV2g
b) A virtual population of breeding prey organisms adapting to match the changing colour of their environment (ie. camouflage): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeTssvexa9s
c) Evolving a precise, time-keeping virtual clock/watch (complete with gears, hands, and pendulum) using nothing more than elements of Evolution: replication, recombination, mutation, and selection. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcAq9bmCeR0.

8. Means of Artificial, Natural and Sexual Selection:
a) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4FqAUEEv_U (R.I.P. Carl Sagan)
b) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zV7v2H7io8

9. One miracle (of many) of 4.5 billion years of evolution: The human Leukocyte (white blood cell) see brilliant computer-animated video here.

10. The Human Genome Project: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuUpnAz5y1g

11. God and DNA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXfIop5ZOsY

12. Making peace with the grand truth (this is the only world and only life we have, we must preserve it and use it well):
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShJwq3aPLMk
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxQR6gdd1P0&feature=related

You’ve now completed the 12-step program, and by this point, you should have cast out your childish spiritual beliefs and stopped clinging to your religious delusions and supernatural crutches, and hopefully have begun to accept the healing power of science and reason into your heart and have embraced them as your guiding light and compass going forward in life from here on in. If so, you have my congratulations and future generations’ gratitude for your courage in quashing mindless superstition and irrationality and bringing the world one step closer to true peace. Now, watch this video and begin to feel good about and proud of your new-and-improved rational self: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdVucvo-kDU&feature=related.

If you wish to learn more about Evolution and more generally about the scientific mindset, check out these resources:

- Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85diEXbJBIk&feature=related

- Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmphlbRhLu8&feature=related

- Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewtw_nZUIDQ&feature=related

- Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkwRTIKXaxg&feature=related

- Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5NG8SYQSzE&feature=related

- Part 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jBD8xfbf4Y&feature=related

- Part 7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKtamnmrNqs&feature=related

For some resources on how Intelligent Design falls flat on its face when it’s most powerful “evidence” is analyzed scientifically:

- Argument for the irreducible complexity of Bacterial Flagellum... debunked: watch this.

- Argument for the irreducible Complexity of the Eye... debunked: watch this and this.

- Argument for the irreducible Complexity of the Clotting Cascade... debunked (see Kenneth Miller argument distilled for the layman here)

- Argument for the irreducible Complexity of the a Mouse Trap... debunked (see Chapter 8 of the NOVA video "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial")

Here is a video of a great talk that Ken Miller gave to students and faculty of Case Western University on the subject of Intelligent Design.

The “Classical” Big Bang theory has now been extended and subsumed in a far greater explanatory framework called Inflationary Cosmology. If you want to learn more about what we currently believe about how it all got started, read Brian Greene’s latest book “Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality” (summary here, and a helpful review here). Focus on Chapter 10 (pp 272-303) for this explanation. Rather than an explosion IN space, Inflationary Cosmology suggests an explosion OF space -- a rapid expansion of the very fabric of spacetime driven by a massively-high-energy field called the Higgs Inflationary Field or "Inflaton Field" for short. Yes, it’s spelled with a -ton ending on purpose.

I'm thrilled to announce, that as I presently write this, Monday November 26, 2007, the largest and most powerful scientific instrument ever built is coming online and we are about to embark on a whole new and exciting journey of human discovery. The very powerful (sub)atomic particle collider, CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider), the largest atom smasher ever built -- designed to search for humankind's cosmic origins -- is coming online, with the express purpose of answering the most important physical questions that have eluded us for the past 40 years, including "where did all this come from?" One of the chief goals of the LHC is to find evidence of the Inflaton Field via detection of the theorized Higgs Boson particle. If this particle is found, it will be confirmation of the explanatory power of our scientific theories with respect to cosmic origins and proof of the mechanism which caused our universe to come into existence. In addition to this primary concern, the LHC collider is also poised to help us answer a variety of questions that have eluded us for 4 decades concerning features of the most fundamental elementary particles and forces of nature and of the conditions of the earliest moments of the universe: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fJ6PMfnz2E. The video is a little over-dramatized for my taste, but there’s not much out there about the LHC at the present time. I’d take some of the comments by the interviewees as being designed to evoke false controversy for entertainment’s sake than for what we actually know and theorize today about the Standard Model of Particle Physics. If you are curious, pick up The Fabric of the Cosmos and read all about what we know and what we think we know.

If you’re still unconvinced that science, reason, rationality, and objective truth should replace your religion, read this post again, follow the sources, examine the evidence, watch the videos; this time with your eyes, ears, and mind wide open.

Wonders of Biology: Inner Life of a Cell

Sun, 20 May 2007 21:09:01 GMT

The world of science is simply wondrous and amazing. This short video depicts a vignette of the inner life of a cell at the biomolecular level. In this case, a Leukocyte (a white blood cell), that helps our bodies fight disease.

Click here to see the full 8-minute version with technical narration explanating the fine-grained biochemical processes at work.

Talking about A Gorilla Named Koko

Wed, 23 Nov 2005 08:33:47 GMT

I was moved after seeing the blog entry quoted below to post a simple thought experiment. The quoted entry is excerpted from the wonderful blog of Daleelama who in turn had referenced Tom Harvie, a great science-related blog.

For those who don't already know the background story of Koko the gorilla (which in all honesty would really surprise the hell out of me given that this is really old news and that it's so freakin' fascinating -- come on people, get with the science program. Turn off 'The View' and watch a documentary once in a while. Feed your brain!!), Koko is a gorilla who was taught American sign language by a group of researchers. She's got a phenomenal vocabulary and is quite articulate and artistic. She loves to paint. Koko loves kittens. She regularly converses with her human companions using about 1000 signs and understand many more spoken English terms and phrases. It would seem that Koko has undertaken some serious contemplation about her future:

"Koko's greatest desire is to have a baby. She has indicated that she will teach her children sign language, which will engender the next generation of interspecies communication." So wonderful!

See the thought experiment at the end of this entry... I would love to hear your views and musings on the subject.

Quote
A Gorilla Named Koko (A blog entry by Daleelama)
A heart-warming update about a Gorilla named Koko. Sometimes other animals are just more endearing than people. http://spaces.msn.com/members/TomHarvie/

End Quote

The thought experiment...

If a large enough population of apes were taught to sign and were left on their own, undisturbed by human influence for 1000 years, do you think we could expect this community of apes, enabled by the new tool of communication and shared knowledge, to take on certain aspects of human culture?

Might this lead to establishment of a primitive ape society that would give rise to art, music or other forms of expression that are not directly related to issues of survival? Would this 'culture' even have influence over or alter the criteria for selection thus helping to drive an accelerated evolution of higher intelligence in that group over the said period?

For your intellectual stimulation, consider that it is postulated that the development of communication, language and shared culture were key milestones and enablers in early human development and ascention. Would these same triggers lead to similar ends with our hypothetical Ape Society?

Evolutionary coup, or 'Intelligent Design' cuckoo?

Sat, 03 Sep 2005 02:35:30 GMT

New archaelogical and fossil evidence shows that nearly 35,000 years ago modern humans and Neanderthals co-existed on this Earth side-by-side for 1,000 years in the region of Europe now known as France.

This co-habitation took place nearly 31,000 years before 'the scriptures' came and told us that such a thing was 'impossible' since by all accounts from the time of Genesis*, the Biblical reckoning of the age of the Earth cannot be more than 6,000 years old. Once again we are at an impasse between fact and fantasy. We must either accept with a very large grain of salt the notion of a rather young Earth is as it is implied in the scriptures, or we must look to the facts and consider some serious revision to the Biblical account of history to include at least an additional 30 thousand years of unmentioned prehistory where we walked the Earth at the same time as the Neanderthals (a second intelligent species of human who had villages, communities, communication, culture, language, walked upright, and used tools as we do). The only difference is that the Neanderthals didn't have a Home Depot and MacDonald's on every street corner, though I'd bet if they had survived long enough, they'd have a chain of retail outlets today called Hominid Depot and OggDonalds, but I digress. (more on Ogg later)

A second but equally important revision we'd have to accept to the Biblical account of Creation (now rebranded with the chique new lablel 'Intelligent Design') is that there must have been another progenitor couple besides Adam and Eve, for how else could we account for two completely separate species of Humans coming from the same two parents? There HAD to be another pair of people created by Him (let's call them Ogg and Unga) who served as the progenitors of the Neantherthal race.

But if Neantherthals were decended from Ogg and Unga, then a curious set of questions arise:

Why is there no mention of them in any of our scriptures?
Surely the All-knowing, All-seeing knew we would find this out for ourselves one day, so why try and hide this from us?
Why did the myriad prophets and messengers of the Benevolent One who have come before fail to ever make mention of our long lost cousins?
Why would He create a second race of humans and not tell us anything of their existence?
In real life, when a person fails to provide a particularly relevant detail or piece of information in an investigation and it can be proven than they knew of it at the time of inquiry, they are said to be perjuring. But people normally only do this when they have something big to lose or something to fear in telling the truth. But what would the Almighty, Most Holy have to lose or fear by telling us the truth about something He *must* have known we'd eventually find out anyway?
So, why did the Neanderthals all die out?
Did they incur the ire and wrath of the Almighty and were smote in a fit of His furious wrath and vengeance?
Did the world need yet another warning against its wicked ways, and a lesson had to be taught, and where the Neanderthals lost the coin toss and had to pay with their complete and utter extinction?
Or was it just a slow millenia and the world just needed a little shake-up; a little excitement?
How many other races have come and gone before and who have not been mentioned to us? Could we be next?

I suspect we will never be 'told' the answers to these questions, and some would rather have us not ask them in the first place. But regardless why the Neanderthals died out, let us not forget that according to scripture, it was h.sapiens that originally put the 'sin' in cousin and the fact remains that an entirely different race of human that once walked the Earth with us is no longer with us today and only through Science might we ever know the real reasons why.

For now dear Neanderthals, rest in peace, for your hominid cousins will be missing you.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming of what we ought to be teaching our children in Science class... SCIENCE!

From the September 2, 2005 issue of

A weekly newsletter on Science and Technology issues in Politics

Friday, September 2, 2005

1. THE WAR: PRESIDENTIAL WANNABES GET "THAT OLD-TIME RELIGION."

Senator John McCain made it clear last week that he too can read polls. In an interview with the Arizona Daily Star, McCain said "all points of view" should be available to students studying the origins of mankind. WN was unable to reach Senator McCain for clarification, but by "all" we think he means just evolution and intelligent design. Or maybe he hopes to corner the votes of those who worship "the giant frog from whose mouth the river of life flowed." McCain's appeal to evolution deniers came just four days after Senator Frist made a pitch to the scientifically challenged (WN 26 Aug 05).

2. THE POLL: INTELLIGENT DESIGN IS IN THE RIGHT PEW FAR RIGHT.

The respected Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that 64% of Americans favor teaching creationism along with evolution in public schools. A scary 38% want to REPLACE evolution with creationism. The tiny glimmer of hope for civilization was the number of inconsistencies in the responses, suggesting confusion over the meaning of the terms. There is room for education.

3. THE SCIENCE ADVISOR: IS THERE A WHITE HOUSE SCIENCE ADVISOR?

Actually, no. The President didn't consult his science advisor about intelligent design because he doesn't have one. George W. Bush eliminated the job when he named John Marburger Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. Previous OSTP directors held both titles, and WN always referred to Marburger as "Science Advisor." We were wrong, but not alone. We Googled "science advisor" and got 597,000 hits on a nonexistent job. As they used to say at Stony Brook when he was president, "this would never have happened if Jack Marburger was alive."

4. THE CHIMP: COMPLETE GENETIC MAP CONFIRMS DARWIN'S THEORY.

Scientists at MIT and Washington University, St. Louis, announced Wednesday that they have determined the precise order of the 3 billion bits of genetic code needed to make a chimpanzee. There is only a 1 percent difference from the human genetic code. But for that 1 percent, chimpanzees would have a seat in the UN. Robert Waterston, who led the Washington University team, was quoted in yesterday's Washington Post saying, "I can't imagine Darwin hoping for a stronger confirmation of his ideas."