New discovery sheds light on dark matter

The recent discovery of a galaxy about 65 million light years away that appears to harbor no dark matter has flabbergasted astronomers who believe galaxies need dark matter to hold them together.

“Finding a galaxy without any [dark matter] is completely unexpected; it challenges standard ideas of how galaxies work,” Allison Merritt, one of the researchers, said in a statement. A paper describing the discovery appears in the journal Nature.

Controversy surrounds the theory of dark matter in both the field of science and the Christian community. Astronomers developed the concept more than 30 years ago to explain why galaxies move and behave as though influenced by far more gravitational pull than their visible mass would exert. Cosmologists hypothesized that galaxies must contain a huge amount of unobservable mass that doesn’t emit or reflect light. In fact, they estimated dark matter accounts for 90 percent of the total matter in the universe.

But some physicists didn’t agree and developed their own theory, modified Newtonian dynamics. These physicists suggested that by tweaking Newton’s law of gravity just a bit they can account for the strange behavior of galaxies—no dark matter required.

Christians who believe in an old universe accept the theory of dark matter more readily than those who believe in a more recent creation. Many young earth creationists reject the idea of dark matter that scientists can neither observe nor prove but assign it an integral role in the Big Bang theory, which requires an old universe. But Danny Faulkner, an astronomer and editor with Answers in Genesis who believes in a recent creation, told me dark matter can exist despite the inaccuracy of the Big Bang theory.

One would expect that the discovery of a galaxy without dark matter would sound a death knell for the theory of dark matter and score a win for modified Newtonian dynamics, but Faulkner insists quite the opposite is true. The fact that this galaxy’s movement conforms to what one would expect based solely on its visible mass, with no tweaking of the theory of gravity required, disproves modified Newtonian dynamics because it must hold true in every case or it isn’t true at all. And that leaves only the theory of dark matter to explain the peculiar movement of most galaxies.

If dark matter exists, Faulkner said, it tells us that a whole form of matter that we know nothing about not only exists but accounts for most of the mass of the universe: “As a creationist I find that fascinating and exciting and humbling all at the same time because God apparently has made the universe out of about 90 percent of something we haven’t even contemplated yet.”

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Scientists discover new human organ

Just when it seems we have found everything that exists within our bodies, scientists discover a previously unknown organ hiding in plain sight. The organ, or interstitium, is a network of interconnected, fluid-filled sacs supported by a meshwork of strong collagen and flexible proteins that lies just beneath the skin’s surface, throughout the entire body. It appears to affect the function of all other organs, most tissues, and the mechanisms of most major diseases.

The fluid-filled spaces may act like shock absorbers that prevent tissues and vessels from tearing as they perform their various functions. The network of sacs creates a river of moving fluid that may contribute to the spread of cancer. The cells within these spaces change with age and may partially account for wrinkling of skin, stiffening of limbs, and progression of inflammatory diseases.

Until now this extensive organ eluded researchers because in the lab the interstitium’s sacs lose their fluid and collapse during the process that fixes them to a slide, causing them to appear like solid tissue under a microscope. But in the current study, published in Scientific Reports, the researchers used newer endoscopic technology that allowed them to gain a microscopic view of living tissue inside a patient.

The new discovery provides one more example that we are fearfully and wonderfully made and offers future possibilities for healthcare.

“This finding has potential to drive dramatic advances in medicine, including the possibility that the direct sampling of interstitial fluid may become a powerful diagnostic tool,” Neil Theise, one of the researchers, said in a statement. —J.B.

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Don’t try this at home

Mike Hughes, or “Mad Mike,” a self-taught rocket scientist who believes the Earth is flat, recently launched himself 1,875 feet into the air in a steam-powered rocket he built in his garage. He blasted off from a mobile home he converted into a launch ramp. A friend estimated Hughes reached a speed of about 350 mph before he deployed his parachute. He and his rocket crashed into the Mojave desert, about 22 miles east of Los Angeles. The rocket’s nose broke into two pieces as designed to do, and Hughes sustained only minor injuries, including a sore back.

The 61-year-old limousine driver next wants to build a rocket powered by a gas-filled balloon. According to his plan, the balloon will carry the rocket into the atmosphere and then separate from it just before Hughes fires the rocket. He believes such a contraption will take him about 68 miles up, which will show him whether he’s right about the Earth’s shape. A documentary crew is recording his efforts with this mission and plans to release their finished product in August.

The downside of the publicity he has received, Hughes said, is that, “it brings out all the nuts also, people questioning everything.” —J.B.

God’s design leads to development of active-camouflaging material

Once again scientists have turned to God’s design in the created world to invent their own imitations. This time, the color-changing chameleon provided the inspiration.

Three years ago, in a biological study published in Nature Communications, researchers discovered how chameleons can rapidly make complex color changes in their skin during social interactions, a process known as active camouflage. The researchers found these fascinating reptiles possess light-reflecting nanocrystals in their skin that rearrange to reflect different spectrums of light when they become excited.

And, when the nanocrystals move, the chameleon’s normally soft skin automatically stiffens to prevent rupture.

In the current study, the researchers learned for the first time how to make a synthetic material that, like chameleon skin, can change color and simultaneously stiffen when stretched.

The researchers, whose work appears in the journal Science, believe their discovery will not only assist in producing active camouflage materials but may also lead to improved biological implants that can better mimic the stretching and strengthening properties of living tissue. —J.B.

FDA moves to safeguard bulk-produced medicines

Six years ago, 793 people became sick and 76 died from fungal meningitis linked to tainted drugs produced by a Massachusetts-based compounding pharmacy. Now the Food and Drug Administration has created guidelines to improve the safety of bulk-produced medicine. Compounding pharmacies add raw substances, that do not require FDA approval, to drugs in order to bulk produce medicines they then distribute to hospitals and doctors’ offices. The meningitis outbreak led Congress to pass a law in 2013 aimed at bringing compounding pharmacies, typically regulated by states, under greater FDA oversight. The new guidelines will limit those raw materials and and help ensure their safety, Medscape reported. —J.B.