Re-wind of Total Solar Eclipse

  In August 2017 I was privileged to fulfill a life-long bucket list goal of observing a total solar eclipse. The rare event took place a full day’s drive from our home in far Northwest Illinois. The exact date and time of the rare astronomical event in Carbondale, IL had been publicized for several years. We had faith that the weather would cooperate to provide us with ideal conditions on the day of the eclipse. Plans were made to overnight in Springfield IL, halfway between our home and the eclipse venue. Weather in Carbondale was ideal on August 21, 2017.

A total solar eclipse is an event few Earth residents ever witness. Successful observation depends on one’s location in the moon’s umbra. Since the Sun is much larger than the moon, straight line sun rays pass the edge of the lunar body and converge on a very small area on our planet. Observers in a high-altitude airplane would observe a small circular shadow moving across the surface of the earth. Its movement across Earth’s surface is linked to movements of a rotating and revolving  Earth and a revolving moon. Depending on the exact configuration of the Sun, Moon, and Earth on the day of a total solar eclipse, the shadow races across Earth’s surface at 1100 mph or more. Residents outside the umbra see a partial solar eclipse.

On 4/8/2024 North America will be treated to another outstanding total solar eclipse. The narrow path of totality will travel southwest to northeast across the Eastern US from Mexico to Canada. The 2017 event traced a generally west to east swath across the lower 48 US states. The path of totality was 71 miles wide in 2017 but projected to be 122 miles wide in 2024. The two paths of totality cross in the vicinity of Carbondale IL. Residents in this small area will be able to view totality twice in less than seven years. One writer calculated there is less than one chance in 40,000 that any one location could view totality twice in such a short time interval. The timeline for viewing a total solar eclipse is considerably less. On average, the figure is about 375 years. A partial solar eclipse is not particularly rare. Partial solar eclipses can be viewed thousands of miles away from the path of totality. These solar eclipses are more common but far less spectacular than a total solar eclipse.    

Solar and lunar eclipses occur only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are in line. Solar eclipses occur only at new moon phase; lunar eclipses occur only at full moon. Total lunar eclipses are not especially rare because half of earth residents can view a lunar eclipse when the moon passes into the relatively huge shadow of the earth. The moon is totally eclipsed for up to two hours.

In contrast, a total solar eclipse is visible to observers on Earth for only a few seconds to seven minutes. The 2017 total solar eclipse observed by your blog author lasted two minutes and 37 seconds. The total solar eclipse of 2024 will supply four minutes and eight seconds of totality in Carbondale IL. Thousands of people will converge on that city on April 8 as will many millions of people in cities to the northeast where totality occurs. The 122-mile-wide shadow does not linger over one location very long as it races over earth’s surface at 1100 mph.

Following is a link to our blog post of 8/23/2017 where we recounted our total eclipse experience in Carbondale, IL. The post describes many details of our experience of awe and worship:

https://jasscience.blogspot.com/2017/08/eclipse-everest-experience.html

Many Scripture verses call attention to signs in the Moon, Earth, and Sun—generally, a physical darkening. There have been many solar and lunar eclipses since these words of Scripture were penned. Numerically, there have been well over 2000 of each. Most eclipses are unusual and spectacular. But a quotation from GotQuestions is appropriate: “Trying to calculate the timing of end-times events based on astronomical phenomena is not something the Bible calls us to do.” See Matthew 24, especially culminating with verse 36: “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.” 

We prefer to highlight the “wonderful repeating clockwork of the God-authored Solar System,” a statement we infer from many articles on astronomy. As we research many statistics on dates, times, and locations of past and future eclipse events, we are overwhelmed by the mathematical expertise of many contemporary astronomers and their ability to communicate knowledge to ordinary laypeople.    

     

 

  

  

 

  

 

Planet Earth: Governed by Cycles

 Cycles are a defining characteristic of all living things. We introduce this post by reminding readers that there is no persuasive evidence that any type of life exists anywhere else in this enormous universe. Given the truth of this statement, we devote this post to one of the defining characteristics of life on Earth—the existence of ubiquitous cycles. 

Our last post highlighted solstices and equinoxes, cyclical astronomical phenomena which allow for changing seasons and create ideal agricultural conditions. These unique conditions are life-friendly. For instance, recurring cyclical seasonal changes together with the well-known water cycle and numerous chemical cycles support the lives of billions of individual humans and millions of animal and plant species. Sustaining miracles described in Genesis Chapter 1 supply hundreds of environmental conditions designed by The Creator of All Things. Cycles are vitally important for our planetary operating system. 

Cycles are sequences of repeating events recurring multiple times in the same order. Cyclical events rule our daily lives even when we are not aware of them. We cite a few examples of cycles by categories:

Physical  Science: energy cycles, chemical cycles

Biological Science: life cycles, agricultural cycles, carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle, oxygen cycle, water cycle

Earth Science: astronomy cycles, climate cycles, geological cycles, rock cycles

Without numerous interrelated and interlocking cyclical events the planet as we know it could not function. Knowledge of cyclical events in the natural world is an invaluable apologetic for the existence of the omniscient Creator of All Things, the Divine Designer of our intricately designed planetary home. An interesting phrase is “biogeochemical cycle” which describes interrelationships of many different types of cycles operating on our planetary home. Brittanica defines the term as “any of the natural pathways by which the essential elements of living matter are circulated.” The term is “a contraction of the biological, geological, and chemical aspects of each cycle. Elements within the biogeochemical cycles flow in various forms from the nonliving (abiotic) components of the biosphere to the living (biotic) components and back. 

Human life and the lives of at least 8.7 million animal and plant species known on Earth depend on the operation of multiple cycles. Modern agriculture depends on a number of chemical cycles—the carbon cycle, the nitrogen cycle, the oxygen cycle, and the water cycle, to name only a few. Below, we recycle several posts from our 2012 archive. The cycle concept is highlighted in each post:

https://jasscience.blogspot.com/2012/01/jobs-water-cycle-tutorial.html

https://jasscience.blogspot.com/2012/03/oxygen-for-ages.html

https://jasscience.blogspot.com/2012/03/nitrogen-renewal.html

https://jasscience.blogspot.com/2012/03/carbon-sequence.html

https://jasscience.blogspot.com/2012/03/cycles-by-design.html

 

    

 

Solstices and Equinoxes

 At the Christmas and New Year holiday season Earth residents celebrate significant astronomical milestones.

Annual calendars reference seasons and lesser known events such as solstices and equinoxes. We become aware of environmental phenomena such as seasonal changes resulting in changing temperatures. Each year about December 22, Northern Hemisphere residents experience the winter solstice. Events such as solstices and equinoxes, important topics in the study of astronomy, occur twice per year.  

The winter solstice locates the season of the longest daily period of darkness and the shortest daily period of daylight during the calendar year. At about 40º N latitude, longest darkness translates to approximately fifteen hours of darkness and nine hours of daylight. The solstice also roughly locates the dates on which earliest sunset times pair with latest sunrise times.

We are aware of long and short daylight as well as early sunsets and late sunrises depending on our latitude. On a summer visit to Anchorage, Alaska, we visited stores open for business at 10:30 PM. Farther north we could have experienced “the land of the midnight sun.” Variations in day/night lengths and sunrise/sunset times depend on latitude and the time of year. In the northern hemisphere we experience the winter solstice in December. Our southern hemisphere friends experience their summer solstice in December, because their seasons are reversed.          

Some may not be familiar with the effect of changing angles of sunlight striking the earth’s surface from season to season. Summer’s direct rays provide more heat than winter’s indirect rays. In winter, the same amount of heat energy is spread over a larger area. Diluted heat energy results in lower temperatures. All of these effects contribute to seasonal temperature variation. These temperature phenomena provide topics of conversation for friends and neighbors.

Meteorology and astronomy are innately related. Those sciences provide plentiful opportunities for studying and understanding cause and effect relationships. Astronomy is considered an earth science because what occurs in space affects events on earth. There are fascinating interconnections between the different sciences. For example, the solstices mentioned above are astronomical phenomena, but they significantly relate to weather and climate.  

Teachers of astronomy use a number of devices to clarify astronomical concepts. One device was a celestial sphere consisting of a transparent plastic globe. Inside was a small earth globe students could manually rotate. On the plastic sphere prominent stars and constellations of the sky were imprinted. Students were able to visualize that they were located on the small earth globe inside the large sphere. In real life, earth residents gaze at the night sky and imagine individual stars and groupings of stars called constellations located on an imaginary sphere surrounding our planet. In reality, all celestial objects are located at various distances from our planet—some close, some light years away.

The celestial sphere model helps us understand some of the most important astronomical concepts. On our classroom celestial sphere model there were two great circles. One great circle was the “celestial equator” formed by extending the plane of the earth’s equator out to the plastic sphere. Another great circle was formed by extending the plane of the earth’s orbit out to the celestial sphere. (We cannot visualize the plane of the earth’s orbit from our plastic celestial globe model. But we can see where the plane of earth’s orbit crosses the model’s celestial equator.) The two great circles cross each other twice at an angle of 23.5º because earth’s axis of rotation is tilted 23.5º from the plane of the earth’s equator.

On our celestial sphere model, astronomers have plotted celestial coordinates of two great circles—the celestial equator and the ecliptic. The ecliptic is the great circle formed by the path traced by the position of the sun throughout the year. We link a post from 10/18/2011 which explains the concept of the great circle in our skies called the ecliptic: https://jasscience.blogspot.com/2011/10/bible-zodiac.html  The term “zodiac” helps us understand the concept of the ecliptic.

The ecliptic locates an infinite number of sun positions. It also locates several solar positions EXACTLY ON, at the HIGHEST POINT, and at the LOWEST POINT in relation to the celestial equator. When the sun is located exactly ON the celestial equator we experience an equinox—equal night and day. When the winter solstice occurs, the sun apparently stands still for a few days at its lowest point above the horizon, neither rising nor falling. The sun is close to the horizon and at many latitudes the temperature is COLD. Six months later when the summer solstice occurs, the sun again stands still for a few days at it highest location above the horizon. The sun is highest in the sky and the temperature is WARM.

If the axis of the earth were not tilted there would be no equinoxes, no solstices, and no seasons. We close our discussion of solstices and equinoxes with a link to our 2017 post—Earth Without Seasons. There is much to learn about God’s master plan to provide for the physical welfare of teeming billions of Earth residents. God provides for not only man’s spiritual welfare but also man’s physical welfare.

http://jasscience.blogspot.com/2017/10/earth-without-seasons.html

 

  

  

 

   

Ubiquitous Bioelectricity

 We close our discussions of bioelectricity by referencing several recent blog posts. In http://jasscience.blogspot.com/2023/09/chemical-elements-coherently-created.html we mentioned the positive and negative charges present in all chemical elements which comprise ordinary matter. These electrical charges are present in all matter and in all of our physical body systems.

Our body systems communicate with each other by the neural binary code which could not function apart from electrical charges. Even before our body systems communicate with each other, their architecture must be in place so the various systems are integrated. 

In our sports-immersed culture we draw several analogies, especially in the realm of professional leagues. Team owners compete with other owners to employ the most skilled players. The players comprise the team’s architecture. Strategies sometimes involve electronic radio signaling in addition to visual and auditory signaling. Football coaches have electronic radio communication systems in place with their quarterbacks; baseball managers have radio communication systems in place with their catchers who contact the pitcher by radio on miniature receivers. It is not enough to have a good team roster—players must also communicate effectively. We link a commentary from a blog posted in 2017: https://jasscience.blogspot.com/2017/02/system-integration.html 

Bioelectricity is a product of the genius of the Divine Creator. If we believe the physical features in our environment were designed by God In the Beginning, we do not attribute characteristics of matter such as the electrical nature of atoms and molecules to a naturalistic accident.

Most non-scientists may not investigate the characteristics of matter in much detail. For example, they may be satisfied that matter is composed of atoms consisting of protons, neutrons, and electrons: Protons have a positive electrical charge; electrons possess a negative electrical charge. But there is more to the story. Exotic particles make up atomic particles. Some exotic particles are “force carriers.” Scientists discover many characteristics of matter at the quantum level—the scale of the VERY small.

We began our discussions of bioelectricity with two posts on forces. The Creator has permitted humanity to understand physical forces caused by bioelectricity. God created these phenomena as they relate to the miracle of human life and human consciousness.

Before we dismiss the topic of bioelectricity, we reprint two quotes of special interest to particle physicists—scientists who discover the many elementary particles which compose matter. The following quotes originate from an article in Simple Science:

“The Standard Model has a defined number of key particles: elementary and composite. Elementary particles are quarks, leptons, and bosons. These particles then join together to produce the more well-known particles, such as the neutron and the proton. Such particles are known as composite particles, as they are composed of two or more of these elementary particles.” (The same article describes an electron): “A lepton is an elementary particle and a fundamental constituent of matter. The best known of all leptons is the electron.”

Without ubiquitous electrical charges in our bodies life would not exist. In the field of developmental biology Quanta Magazine states, “Researchers are building a case that long before the nervous system works, the brain sends crucial bioelectric signals to guide the growth of embryonic tissues.” Other researchers are intent on discovering a bioelectrical component of human consciousness. So far, this quest has not been successful. We believe human consciousness is a transcendent gift of the Creator of All Things. 

  

Bodily Bioelectricity

 Most bioscientists would acknowledge, perhaps humorously, that our bodies are “electrical machines.” A study of the the digital information transmitted by the billions of neurons inhabiting our central and peripheral nervous systems may inspire young people to choose bioscience as a career. 

Young people have been raised in the so-called “digital age.” Previous generations may not have been aware that a “digital age” for our society was on their horizon. Let’s investigate the origin of our modern “digital age.” Then we may be able to relate some of our findings to the remarkable “electrical machines”—our bodies.  

Claude Shannon (1916-2001) is a scientist less well known than Albert Einstein or James Clerk Maxwell. He was a brilliant electrical engineer, mathematician,  computer scientist, and cryptographer. He is responsible for an astonishing societal revolution, the digital revolution, which launched the information age, generally acknowledged to have begun in about 1970. The digital revolution transformed our lives in multiple ways. In the 21st century it is almost impossible to exist without being aware of the ongoing digital revolution, aka the digital age. Shannon’s seminal paper was titled, “A Mathematical Theory of Communications.” Computers evolved from digital technology. A sequence of simple binary digits, called bytes—either 0’s or 1’s—is the fundamental informational code. Computing steps involve input, processing, storage, output, and communication. 

Without the body’s electricity our lives would be profoundly different. In reality, we would not exist without a digital code consisting of digital pulses of electrical current within our bodies.

For your review, our last post is linked below:

http://jasscience.blogspot.com/2023/10/neuroscience-and-bioelectricity.html

The Creator of the human body conceived of billions of neurons communicating by a storm of electrical impulses. The digital electrical impulses enable human audition, vision, as well as pressure, balance, olfaction (smell), and gustation (taste) awareness. Our body’s nervous system discriminates among countless smells, tastes, sounds, visual images, and forces. Various brain regions interpret the meaning of multiple digital codes. We are not only able to perceive many different sounds, but also identify the type of musical instrument producing the sound—its pitch, timbre, and loudness. The human visual apparatus is capable of sensing color, shape, and brightness. Explanations for human sensory capability is woefully inadequate. Bioscientists are far more able to offer accurate descriptions than meaningful explanations. Thousands of volumes describe human senses in intricate detail. The foregoing paragraph describes the input stage of information as merely a sequence of binary digits! Our bodies’ sensory system decodes the meaning of a sequence of simple binary digits in order to achieve a meaningful, conscious visual or auditory experience.

How do we account for the operation of our nervous system and its digital processing capability? Bioscience authorities cite evolutionary mechanisms as “explanations” as if the mere mention of the term evolution is self-explanatory. An extensive review of the literature often leaves the reader with far more questions than answers. Most scientists prefer naturalistic explanations for events in our bodies. Many bodily sensory phenomena are nearly impossible to explain. For example, neurophysiologist Christof Koch, President of the Allen Institute of Brain Science, proposes: “The details of the human brain may be way beyond human capacity and capability to understand…”

The digital code is a language enabling the transmission of information via billions of neurons in the human body. All languages are devised by a mind. The human body is fearfully and wonderfully made by the God of Creation (Ps. 139:14-15.) Perry Marshal, author of books on communications technology and evolution, proposed the atheist’s riddle: “Show me a language that does not come from a mind.” The digital code is a language, as are all codes. The digital code by which our bodies’ neural networks communicate originates in the divine mind of God, the Creator.

 

Our blog deals with the interaction of science and Christianity. In our view, the facts of science strengthen and reinforce, but do not prove, belief in the Creator of All Things—the God of the Judeo-Christian scriptures. The scientific discoveries relating to the human body’s sensory system are difficult to attribute to a purely naturalistic explanation. 

 

 

 

    

Neuroscience and Bioelectricity

 We have described the reality of digital electrical signals by which our central and peripheral nervous systems communicate with each other. All human body cells possess electrical properties. If this were not true, our bodies would not function. The eleven major body systems would be unable to communicate with each other and regulate conditions in the body. Billions of neurons possess action potentials by which electrical charges are sent to other neurons.

What are action potentials? They are small “spike-like” events—nerve impulses consisting of electrical signals which transmit digital information. These electric impulses are either ‘on’ or ‘off.’ That is why the information is considered digital.

“Action potentials are of great importance to the functioning of the brain since they propagate information in the nervous system to the central nervous system and propagate commands initiated in the central nervous system to the periphery.” (Neuroscience Online, McGovern Medical School.)

Bio-electricity is a flow of electrically charged ions, not a flow of electrons. Ions are formed when an atom gains or loses one or more electrons. A familiar example is the formation of common table salt. An atom of sodium gives an electron to an atom of chlorine. The sodium atom becomes a positive ion and chlorine becomes a negative ion. Proteins provide ion channels through which charged ions move across the cell membrane, carrying their charges with them. This movement may accurately be termed an electric current.

We link several posts from Aug./Sept. 2014 in which we referred to electrical signals flowing through neurons. These posts may be easier to understand than the information presented in the above paragraphs:

http://jasscience.blogspot.com/2014/09/electric-intellect.html

http://jasscience.blogspot.com/2014/09/brain-causes-effects-and-design.html

http://jasscience.blogspot.com/2014/08/an-ear-for-truth.html

http://jasscience.blogspot.com/2014/08/digital-human-hearing.html

How could a storm of digital electrical pulses be converted to a coherent visible image by the human brain and impart conscious awareness of thousands of different shapes and colors in our field of vision? Our field of vision is usually not an experience in still photography. Mostly, our eyes process a plethora of movement moment by moment. Our normal vision consists of uncounted thousands of data points—all in living color!

Charles Darwin confessed that it was “absurd” to propose that the human eye evolved through spontaneous mutation and natural selection. But he never abandoned his  firm belief in evolution. Neither do the majority of 21st century professional biologists reject the evolutionary paradigm. According to Wikipedia, between 770 thousand and 1.7 million neuron fibers from retinal ganglion cell axons send digital electronic signals from the retina to the brain through the optic nerve. The human brain imparts meaning to the digital data. The foregoing sentence  is an example of description, but the statement is short on explanation.

We long for meaningful explanations of human eye/brain function. Scientists are more adept at offering descriptions; less adept at offering explanations. This does not indicate there are no explanations for certain phenomena in the world of our experience. In the world of the scientist, however, many are fascinated by the process of discovery. 

The miracle of human vision does not yield to easy explanations. In personal research dealing with human vision, we frequently encounter statements such as “…scientists don’t fully understand how our brains do it” or “…(retinal) neurons that encode objects respond in complicated ways.” 

Our blog posts credit the power of the Ultimate Designer/Creator. He is the Author of the laws of nature. But He is also the God of Creation.