frogger

Tarantulas giving researchers key insights into human muscles

24/08/2005 9:56:00 PM

(HealthDay News) - Tarantulas make most humans tense up, but research using the spiders is shedding light on how muscles relax.

"We have solved the structure of the array of miniature motors that form our muscles and found out how they are switched off," said Raul Padron, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute international research scholar at the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research in Caracas, Venezuela.

Using a new electron microscopy technique, researchers were able to study in great detail the striated muscle taken from tarantulas. Striated muscle controls skeletal movement and contractions of the heart.

Padron said he hopes to apply the research to muscle diseases that arise from malfunctioning of the muscles' on/off switches. One such disease is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, in which the wall of the left ventricle of the heart becomes enlarged, often leading to sudden death.

The findings appear in the Aug. 25 issue of Nature.

Copyright 2005 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

meaning

But Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary theorist at Oxford, said that even scientists who were believers did not claim evidence for that belief. "The most they will claim is that there is no evidence against," Dr. Dawkins said, "which is pathetically weak. There is no evidence against all sorts of things, but we don't waste our time believing in them."

Dr. Collins said he believed that some scientists were unwilling to profess faith in public "because the assumption is if you are a scientist you don't have any need of action of the supernatural sort," or because of pride in the idea that science is the ultimate source of intellectual meaning.

But he said he believed that some scientists were simply unwilling to confront the big questions religion tried to answer. "You will never understand what it means to be a human being through naturalistic observation," he said. "You won't understand why you are here and what the meaning is. Science has no power to address these questions - and are they not the most important questions we ask ourselves?"

reference: Scientists Speak Up on Mix of God and Science

beliefs

Dr. Miller, whose book, "Finding Darwin's God," explains his reconciliation of the theory of evolution with his religious faith, said he was usually challenged in his biology classes by one or two students whose religions did not accept evolution, who asked how important the theory would be in the course.

"What they are really asking me is "do I have to believe in this stuff to get an A?,' " he said. He says he tells them that "belief is never an issue in science."

Fear

Itching in my tummy,
uncertainty clouding-cannot see.
What is the outcome?
Where will I go?
My arms tremble,
my breath is deep
each gasp is thick.

I reach out for Someone that
I'd forgotten to know.

What makes an ideal pet?

What could be amicable about a pet that will kick off urticating hairs if disturbed which are among the most irritating hairs i have experienced, causing at least severe itching
And these hairs also have the potiential to puncture your eye ball?? Or how about the fact that their bite hurts like a bee sting? Not to mention the look of them is enough to send shivers up the spine.

An ideal pet: low cost, low maintenance, clean, and noise free

but that's not enough, and that's kinda boring.
How about eating, and lots of it?
What if the pet is a voracious hunter and you get a look up close and personal? Who would admit to be interested in witnessing the aggression of taking a live trapped life?
If that defines your ideal pet then the Brazilian White Knee (Acanthoscurria geniculata)
is for you.
Reference Phong's tarantulas

A Pastoral Excerpt

There was a woman in my church years ago who was experiencing a living nightmare. Everything she attepted to achieve would suddenly collapse. She said to me, "I think I'm jinxed. Would you come to my house and see what the Lord would tell you?"

I visited the woman at home one day and saw that the enture inside of the home was filled with statues of dragons. The Bible says that Satan is "that old dragon, the devil." I told her, "Lady, it is my belief that if you recognize Satan in any way, with statues, with the occult, with any witchcraft, with mind control, with Eastern philosophies, then Satan has the legal right for his demon powers to live in your house. He has a legal right to claim your life, your soul and your children. And I recommend that you throw them out, and do it now."

She did, and I can tell you that her life turned around immediately and permanently, because she obeyed the Word of God. It is not good enough to recognize God as the first and greatest God. You must recognize Him as the only God. Isaiah 45:21 says, "There is no other God besides Me." Jesus cannot be placed on your mantel amoung your idols. Jesus is either Lord of all or He's not Lord at all." p.102

References:
Revelation 12:9 - And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

John Hagee (1997) Day of Deception

Waiting

Tarantula Nebula

"Called 'Tarantula' by early astronomers
who saw a tangle of long looping ropes and had
no explanation for it. Recent new powerful telescope images
(circ. 1998/99/2000) have finally cast light on the shape
and feel of this famous object but still not a clear
understanding of how or why."

www.cosmicastronomy.com/3d-taran.htm

Imagery

French Catholic Church--Basilique Notre Dame

Jesus m'a aime et s'est livre pour moi. Gal:2:20

Amiez vous les uns les autres comme je vous ai aimes. Jean 15:12