| Is God scraping the barrel for miracles? | Martin Robbins The Vatican's latest 'miracle' is further evidence of a worrying long-term decline in God's powersIf you read the BBC's coverage of Deacon Jack Sullivan this morning, you might be tempted to believe that something amazing had happened to him. Certainly the carefully crafted words of reporter Michael Hirst tell a compelling story, a story so convincing that after eight years of investigation the Vatican's experts have declared it a miracle, no less."Jack Sullivan was in agony. Bedridden after complicated surgery on his spine, the pain was so intense he was unable to sleep and had trouble breathing."Back in 2000, Sullivan, then in his early sixties, began suffering from a pain in his back. Told by doctors that he might have to quit his religious studies in order to receive an operation, he was dejected and unsure what to do when a documentary about Cardinal John Newman appeared on the telly. Sullivan prayed to him, and the next morning felt well enough to continue his studies, making it to the end of the academic year before he relapsed, and was sent for "complicated" surgery on his spine. Immediately afterwards he was apparently in all sorts of agony, as you'd expect, but just two days later, in defiance of doctors who told him he would take months to recover, he was able to walk again. Nine years later and the 71-year-old is able to stroll around pain-free like a young man (but with more wrinkles and whiter hair). Incredible stuff I'm sure you'll agree, but could there possibly be a reasonable explanation for this miracle? Well yes, but incredibly you won't find it until the 24th paragraph of the BBC's credulous article:"Michael Powell, a consultant neurosurgeon at London's University College Hospital, said a typical laminectomy took 'about 40 minutes, and most patients ... walk out happy at two days'".And so the story becomes thus: Deacon Jack Sullivan had a pain in his back. After a year it got bad enough that he consented to a fairly routine surgery from which most patients are able to return home in a couple of days. He had the surgery, he got better, and 10 years later he can still walk. Miraculous? Not really.The problem with these stories is that really it comes down to your word against a lot of wishful thinking. I suspect Deacon Sullivan is an honest man. My guess would be that he got the back pain, desperately wanted to get through his studies, and so pushed himself along until the summer break when surgery would be less disruptive. He might say God enabled him to achieve that; I'd say the old man had a lot of heart. No doubt he recovered well after surgery, but then so do lots of people.Even if this were a miracle, it would only reinforce a disturbing long-term trend. God used to be able to part seas and flood planets. By the end of the Old Testament he was turning people into pillars of salt and Aaron's rod into a snake. At the time of Jesus, God our omnipotent deity was basically down to party tricks, and now, what, easing an old man's backache for a few months? It's hardly the swaggering, all-conquering God of the glory days.So what's happened? Are we not devout enough? Is God getting old? Has he lost interest? Are his powers subject to some form of spiritual entropy, leaving him hot and spent in heaven? Perhaps this worrying decline in God's powers is what the Vatican's crack team of miracle investigators should really be researching.Martin Robbinsguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Mystery Bird: Mystery bird: Nuttall's Woodpecker, Picoides nuttalliiDowny Woodpecker, Picoides pubescens A mysterious North American bird demystifiedMystery bird: Nuttall's woodpecker, Picoides nuttallii, photographed in southern California, USA. Image: Steve Duncan, 2010 [larger view]If you have bird images, video or mp3 files that you'd like to share with a large and appreciative audience, feel free to email them to me for consideration.This post was amended on 27 September. The original mistakenly identified the mystery bird as a Downy woodpecker, Picoides pubescens. This has been corrected.GrrlScientistguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Intellectual Poverty | Lily Asquith Lily Asquith makes an impassioned plea for science. Time to watch Alom Shaha's film again, perhapsScientific research is not a luxury, without it we wouldn't have anything, not even hope. Those who think the world is moving too fast for them, it's not going to slow down if UK science is blown out of the water, it's going to keep on going while we sit there and descend.Particle physics does an unfathomable amount of good for everybody. Without particle physics research everyone would have died from the cancers that are treated by proton therapy, we wouldn't have the World Wide Web, iPods, satellites, or chocolate*. How can that even be quantified?There's a lot of kerfuffle at the moment about the "brain drain" - UK scientists leaving for America or Europe because they can't get a job in the UK any more. This is undoubtedly a real effect, but perhaps doesn't seem that relevant to the average UK tax payer. Or MP.I've left the UK already, because the 6 pounds an hour I was earning as a barmaid just wasn't enough to pay off the debt I got into learning my subject. I'm well aware that particle physics seems abstract and unnecessary to most people, so I'm doing something about that. Projects that cost a lot, like the LHC and the royal family and so on, should be appreciated by everyone who pays for them. We weren't really making that possible and that was wrong.It's a common line that those in favor of LHC funding push: we wouldn't have the www if it weren't for UK particle physics. Nobody really cares about that now, because everyone knows that the web is free and belongs to everyone, and nobody really cares how it got there. But the web is really just the tip of the iceberg. When I look at some of the people I know and they are working 70-80 hours a week and are eyewateringly smart and dedicated, I want them to have some sleep because I care about them, but I feel excited. It excites me that these amazing people are working on new ideas and thinking and developing them all the time.Even the ones who aren't brilliant at physics are vital. Software engineers cost a bloody fortune compared to physics PhD students/postdocs. That's why we are forced to spend half our lives (almost exactly, including the time most people spend sleeping) coding (writing computer programs using c++), which is an activity that at least 50% of physicists find abhorrently difficult, at first anyway. I am one of those, I didn't know how to do email until I started my PhD and spent the entire first year of it wishing I was dead.The UK is fucked financially. We all feel it. People are going to suffer because there isn't enough left on the credit card to keep us living to the standard we are used to. It'll last for ages, then it will improve and then it will get worse again. But there is hope where there are people who are dedicated and highly trained in providing solutions to seemingly intractable problems such as these and such as the much worse ones that will face us in the future.The Peoples' concern is quite rightly with ensuring that as many people as possible have access to healthcare, education and a job, therefore the people in charge of allocating money in this country will wonder how they can justify spending money on cutting-edge scientific research when there are people dying of cold because they can't pay their gas bill. I completely understand the problem of being a bit too preoccupied with just getting by to start doing something crazy like thinking about further than two weeks into the future. I've been about as deep in poverty as a person can get in the UK for a large part of my life. It's quite hard to think about hardcore research when you are shattered and disillusioned and wondering if you can afford to make dinner for two or just eat your kid's leftovers. And yes it is that bad.What UK science means to me is hope, and I for one don't mind tightening my belt a bit now if it means there is a brighter and better future for my daughter and her friends, and her children if she has them, and their friends, if they have them…So when those deciding where to spend the last dregs of the overdraft look at everyone with their hands out they will probably try and put a sticker on particle physics that says "not necessary". If they do that then we are all going to die.*I made that up about the chocolate.Jon ButterworthLily Asquithguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Israel to share Dead Sea Scrolls online Israel has signed an agreement with Google to put the Dead Sea Scrolls online. abc.net.au |
Volcanic vent could hold clues to life SCIENTISTS using a remote-controlled submarine have discovered the world's deepest known volcanic vent and say the super-heated waters inside could contain undiscovered marine species and perhaps even clues to the origin of life on earth. news.com.au |