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Dec 4, 2024 | 
christiancourier.ca | Rudy Eikelboom
As we enter the season when we remember the birth of the Christ Child, I feel called to live into the mystery of the Incarnation. Though I am a scientist, this is no contradiction. The reality science elucidates appears increasingly mysterious. A century ago, science gave us greater certainty. Einstein revised our understanding of gravity and moved physics forward. Biologists Crick and Watson described the DNA that was thought to be the basis of life.
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Nov 29, 2024 | 
christiancourier.ca | Rudy Eikelboom
It is an exciting time to be a physicist. There are a lot of puzzles that need investigating about the cosmos God has put us in. We don’t know, for example, what dark matter and energy are, yet they make up the most significant portion of our world. Likewise, the two overarching theoretical frameworks in physics – Einstein’s relativity and quantum theory – are strongly supported but appear to be in conflict.
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Nov 1, 2024 | 
christiancourier.ca | Rudy Eikelboom
I have dyslexia. Spelling and pronunciation are, for me, nonexistent abilities. While spell-check is a blessing, I recently gave a “mediation” rather than a “meditation” at church – spell-checking programs do not correct a wrong real word. And I must be careful when speaking not to confuse people with my pronunciation of more complicated words. My problems are offset by my ability to understand mathematics and remember obscure information.
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Sep 23, 2024 | 
christiancourier.ca | Rudy Eikelboom
In 1939, Paul Müller discovered that DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) was a very effective insecticide. It became widely used to kill mosquitoes and reduce the incidence of malaria and other insect-spread diseases. In 1948, Müller received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work on the effects of DDT and how it aided the fight against disease.
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Aug 19, 2024 | 
christiancourier.ca | Rudy Eikelboom
Daniel Dennett died on April 19 at age 82. There were obituaries in both Nature and Science for this prolific neuroscientist. His insights on consciousness, cognition and philosophy fill books that have been read by many. I have a few in my bookcase, and they are well worth reading. The fact that he received an obituary in both top science journals suggests he has had a major impact on neuroscience broadly defined.
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Jul 29, 2024 | 
christiancourier.ca | Rudy Eikelboom
At the end of May, temperatures in Delhi, India, reached above 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit). Last summer was apparently the warmest in about 2,000 years, with temperatures averaging two degrees warmer than all our climate models predicted. As everyone is aware, fossil fuels continue to increase the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, heating our planet. But last summer was warmer than expected, even accounting for the effects of all known climate influencers.
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Jun 5, 2024 | 
christiancourier.ca | Rudy Eikelboom
In mid-April I attended two conferences. The first was the Faith & Science Conference offered by BioLogos and held in Raleigh, North Carolina. The second was more local, “Beyond Culture Wars”, sponsored by the Institute for Christian Studies and Martin Luther University College in Waterloo, my hometown. Unfortunately, the conferences overlapped; one started on Wednesday evening and ended on Friday, and the second started on Thursday evening and ended on Saturday.
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May 31, 2024 | 
christiancourier.ca | Rudy Eikelboom
Our God-given brains use chemicals and electricity to communicate among cells and neurons. Chemicals (neurotransmitters and hormones) primarily communicate between neurons, while electricity is often the means of communication along the sometimes-considerable length of neurons. We have long influenced the brain’s chemical communication with medicines and drugs but until recently, we have been unable to do much with its electrical signals except observe.
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Apr 3, 2024 | 
christiancourier.ca | Rudy Eikelboom
“I think the significance of the leap year,” scientist Alexander Boxer, speaking on the U.S.’s National Public Radio, said, “is that it’s a great reminder that the universe is really good at defying our attempts to devise nice and pretty and aesthetically pleasing systems to fit it in.” When I heard this, I immediately substituted the word “God” for “the universe” and realized that God has a sense of humour we would do well to acknowledge.
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Mar 6, 2024 | 
christiancourier.ca | Rudy Eikelboom
Two years ago, I wrote a column about scientific studies of sleep and dreaming (“Why Do We Sleep?”, January 10, 2022), and I don’t want to repeat myself, except to say, that while sleep is complex and does many things, its overarching reality is still not well understood.
