Todd's Blog

Before and after (most of) the floor installation. Things are coming along here at the new worldwide headquarters of Core Academy.  I hope that long-time readers who have followed our journey over the past five years rejoice with us as we start a new chapter in our ministry.  The building is nearing completion, and we've scheduled our Grand Opening for Friday October 20 at 7 pm .  You are definitely invited to attend.  We'll have a brief ribbon cutting, then let you tour the new facility.  We'll even have some special guests, including professors from Bryan College helping with some local science demonstrations and Jacob Ellis, the Rhea county archivist, showing off some of the historical treasures from the Core Academy archives. As we prepare for the big opening, we still need help with moving.  We've scheduled two big moving days: October 7 and 14.  On the 7th, we will move the bulk of the library from Dayton Self Storage just behind O'Reilly a...

Homo naledi composite cranium In case you don't keep up with such things, the underground astronauts have resumed excavating fossils from the Rising Star cave .  They're recovering bones of Homo naledi at both the Dinaledi (101) and Lesedi (102) chambers.  This morning Lee Berger tweeted about a third site in the same cave system: Assessing this morning the possibility of preparing a possible #hominin tibia in situ at site 103 in #Risingstar #Homonaledi - 2 dangerous pic.twitter.com/WTDeaVjVGD — Lee Berger (@LeeRberger) September 18, 2017 As I've noted before , a second fossil site (Lesedi) suggests that the entire cave system was being used for deliberate burial of Homo naledi .  Using Dembski's design filter, we can rule out chance as a cause by using specification, characteristics of an event that suggest deliberate or intentional action.  In Rising Star, we might argue for chance if we found one chamber of hominin bones, even though the characteris...

The week of the big eclipse, our longsuffering intern came back to town for her final semester at Bryan College.  She had spent the summer interning elsewhere and learning the latest techniques in DNA sequencing.  Her project with us is our ongoing studies of mutant trillium flowers.  We hoped last year to sequence at least one floral gene from our mutant flowers, but our approach didn't work.  Thanks to your support for our building project, we are currently buying the equipment needed to continue this work at the new Core Academy facility.  We are very thankful that we'll be able to streamline our work on this project. One thing was still lacking though: We don't have a DNA sequencer on site, but our intern shared with me about a new gadget that allows you to sequence DNA using a USB device that plugs into your laptop.  No, I'm not kidding.  For those in the know, it uses nanopore technology, and it's designed for portability.  It's called ...

I suppose I should say something about the Trachilos tracks. I've received a couple messages about this on Twitter and Facebook. Scientists from a mostly European collaboration announced today that they have discovered early hominin trackways from northwest Crete. They date the tracks to around 5.7 million years ago (late Miocene). Unsurprisingly, headlines claim that this is a "huge" "game-changer" and "challenges theories of human evolution." Let's see what the hype is about. First of all, these are some smudgy footprints. Here are some clear ones that the authors included in their paper to support their anatomical inferences. Select Trachilos prints from Gierliński et al. Figure 9. Note the 5 cm scale bars. Prints A and B are about 10 cm long, and C is about 12-15 cm. That's four to six inches for us Americans. By contrast, my foot is about a foot long. The smudginess of individual prints does nothing to detract from the b...

I'm sure you've seen more eclipse reactions than you can shake a stick at.  And here's my little video from our eclipse party with the students and families of Rhea County Academy .  I don't have any grand words of wisdom.  It's just an amazing experience.  Truly one of the greatest shows in all of God's creation.  See it if you can.  It's more than worth it.  The next total solar eclipses will be in South America, but the US will get another eclipse in 2024.  Totality will last about twice as long, and the path of totality will run from Texas to Maine.  See it if you can.  It's astonishing. (And for the record, before I get corrected: I got so excited when totality hit that I conflated "chromosphere" and "corona."  What you see during totality is the corona.) Feedback? Email me at toddcharleswood [at] gmail [dot] com. If you enjoyed this article, please consider a contribution to Core Academy of Science. Thank you. ...

Pixabay OK, I'm going to try to be nice, but I've been reading some unbelievably stupid things on social media lately, so I'll do my best.  Apologies ahead of time if you've fallen for some of these absurdities.  If you actually believe some of these whoppers, please don't.  Stop twisting reasonable cautions into irrational fearmongering. 1.  You do not need to stockpile groceries, gas, prescriptions, etc.   It's not the end of the world.  The total eclipse lasts two measly minutes.  This is no time to panic, riot, or loot your neighborhood store.  Get over it.  Stop scaring people. 2.  Unless you get a large portion of power from the sun (California), you are unlikely to experience a power outage.  I saw a hysterical facebook post that said the power stations are unprepared for the sudden demand for power during the eclipse.  The total eclipse lasts two measly minutes.  There's no way that's going to cause such ...

Photo: Pixabay Thirty years ago, I was a teenager, and I didn't know half as much as I thought I did. Or at the very least, I hadn't yet figured out how much I didn't know (which as it turns out is nearly the sum total of all possible knowledge).  The year was 1987, and a little booklet was circulating at my Christian school: "88 Reasons Why the Rapture will be in 1988."  I am very glad to say that most of my teachers and pastors were not fooled. I remember this incident quite well, because it was the first time that I can recall thinking critically about something that was presented as a "Bible teaching."  Looking back at how dumb I was, I find it remarkable that I had such cogent thoughts at that age.  What bothered me about "88 Reasons" was the clear statements of Jesus.  No one knows the day or the hour of Jesus' coming, not even Jesus Himself!  Only God the Father knows the day of judgment.  When Jesus left this earth, He told u...