Reasons to Believe Podcast Reasons To Believe

Join Hugh Ross and Jeff Zweerink as they discuss new discoveries taking place at the frontiers of science that have theological and philosophical implications, including the reality of God’s existence.
Himalayan Snow Warming
Three physicists used data collected from 165 stations in the Himalayan-Tibetan region and a regional climate model to determine the effect of black carbon aerosols (BCAs) on the climate of South Asia. Their analysis revealed warming at high elevations due to BCAs. Such atmospheric heating reduces the global mean precipitation, which impacts the summer monsoons in South Asia. Thus, all of South Asia is facing a climate change crisis with both dire economic and health consequences. In this episode, astrophysicist Hugh Ross explains that replacing coal and biofuels with natural gas as an energy source is the quickest and most economical solution to South Asia’s climate crisis.  
Stabilizing Continents
Continents play a critical role in Earth’s capacity to support a thriving and diverse array of life. Scientific studies show that some present-day continents formed at least 3 billion years ago. Those studies have assumed that the same process responsible for how our continents look today also ensured their stability. However, a recent paper highlights some important processes needed for large pieces of continents to stick around for billions of years. In this episode, astrophysicist Jeff Zweerink discusses how those processes reveal more fine-tuning of Earth to support life.
Links & Resources:
Elevation-Dependence of Warming Due to Aerosol-Induced Snow Darkening over the Himalayan-Tibetan Region
Climate-Relevant Properties of Black Carbon Aerosols Revealed by In Situ Measurements: A Review

Subaerial Weathering Drove Stabilization of Continents

Join Fazale “Fuz” Rana and guest Casey Luskin as they discuss new discoveries taking place at the frontiers of science that have theological and philosophical implications, including the reality of God’s existence.
Nature-Inspired Designs
One of the most exciting areas of science and engineering is biomimetics and bioinspiration. Scientists and engineers working in this field develop new technology and solve engineering problems by studying and copying biological designs. In this episode biochemist Fuz Rana and special guest Casey Luskin, associate director of the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, discuss recent findings in biomimetics and bioinspiration and explore the implications of this work for the design argument.
Links & Resources:
Effect of Schooling on Flow Generated Sounds from Carangiform Swimmers
Bioinspired Multiscale Adaptive Suction on Complex Dry Surfaces Enhanced by Regulated Water Secretion
Geometric Design of Antireflective Leafhopper Brochosomes
Spider Silk Inspires New Technology and the Case for a Creator

Join Fazale “Fuz” Rana and Hugh Ross as they discuss new discoveries taking place at the frontiers of science that have theological and philosophical implications, including the reality of God’s existence.
A New Organelle?
A team of life scientists has claimed to discover a new organelle (called a nitroplast) that fixes nitrogen. It looks like this organelle evolved from an endosymbiont that assumed permanent residence in a eukaryotic cell. If so, this discovery provides support for the endosymbiont hypothesis, challenging the notion that a Creator is responsible for life’s origin and design. In this episode, biochemist Fuz Rana describes this work and its significance to life’s history, and offers a critical assessment of the study’s conclusion.
Atmospheric Oxygenation
An international team of 17 scientists has proposed that a dramatic weakening of Earth’s magnetic field caused an oxygen level jump 575 million years ago. They showed that a much weaker magnetic field would cause solar particles to split apart water molecules in Earth’s atmosphere into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen would escape to interplanetary space, leaving the oxygen to accumulate in Earth’s atmosphere. They demonstrated that that the magnetic field decline is sufficient to explain most of the rapid oxygen rise (from 2% to 8%) that occurred at the time of the Avalon explosion, which marked the first appearance of macroscopic animals. In this episode, Hugh Ross explains that the transition of Earth’s core from being 100% liquid to where a solid inner core begins to form would explain the dramatic weakening of Earth’s magnetic field—and the minimum oxygen level needed for complex life—that occurred 0.6 million years ago.     
Links & Resources: 
Nitrogen-Fixing Organelle in a Marine Alga
Mitochondrial Protein Import Advances the Case for Creation
Near-Collapse of the Geomagnetic Field May Have Contributed to Atmospheric Oxygenation and Animal Radiation in the Ediacaran Period
Designed to the Core, 183–197  

Join Fazale “Fuz” Rana in this breaking News of the Day episode of Stars, Cells, and God. Fuz reports on the work by a research team from Tianjin University in China, who, recently stole headlines when they announced that they developed a chip that used human brain tissue to control a robotics system. This remarkable breakthrough (called organoid intelligence) generates excitement and also raises some profound ethical and theological questions.
In this episode Fuz explains:
How this technology works
Why researchers are pursuing the development of biocomputing and organoid intelligence
Ethical concerns associated with this work
Christian perspective on organoid intelligence
Links & Resources:
Lab-Grown Human Brain Tissue Used to Control Robot
Organoid Intelligence (OI): The New Frontier in Biocomputing and Intelligence-in-a Dish
A Christian Perspective on Living Electrodes
Brain Organoids Cultivate the Case for Human Exceptionalism