Three tracks added to Biology major
Maranatha’s expanded role in professional training through the addition of three tracks to the Biology major highlight the college’s additions to the 2009-10 academic offerings.
The incorporation of a Pre-Medical track to the Biology major gives another option to students who desire to pursue medical careers after graduating from college. The existing option, a Humanities major with an Applied Science track, will also remain in place.
The Pre-Medical track, by its name alone, may help clear the misconception that aspiring professionals must look elsewhere to pursue undergraduate degrees. Maranatha has graduated future doctors, lawyers, and scientists for years, but still finds parents and students surprised to discover that a Bible college offers many courses of study outside vocational ministry.
“You don’t need to go through a ‘pre-med’ program to get into med school,” science program coordinator Dr. Paul Molitor said. “You need to get the core courses they require, pass the MCAT (Medical College Admission Test) and fill out applications. Both this new track and Humanities/Applied Science are good paths to take if you want to get into med school, dental school, or veterinary school.
“Medical schools are looking for a more holistic approach. They believe well-rounded people make better doctors.”
Environmental Science and Molecular Biology tracks have also been added. They can serve effectively as pre-professional degrees for those aspiring to enter marine biology, genetics and bioengineering.
“There are a lot of job openings in those fields right now,” Molitor said.
A Biological Science Education major has also been added to the Education Department. There are now nine majors offered within Education.
Creation Science Comes Alive
One of the criticisms of institutions of higher learning is that progress often seems to come at a “glacial” pace.
Those who attended the sixth International Conference on Creationism in Pittsburgh during early August, including Maranatha Associate Professor of Science Dr. Yingguang Liu and Assistant Professor Mr. Randy Montgomery, discovered “glacial” is not nearly as slow as its adjectival use would have you believe.
One of the presenters at the conference was 2004 Maranatha graduate Jesse Sherburn, now pursuing his PhD in mechanical engineering at Mississippi State. Sherburn produced a series of computer simulations that helped bolster the argument that the Ice Age could have taken place over a time span as short as 700 years (500 advancing, 200 retreating), rather than tens of thousands or even millions of years.
“The simulations tracked the front end of a glacier to see if it were physically possible for the advance and retreat to take place in that time frame, after the flood,” Sherburn said. “We believe it did show that. The next step is to run models that simulate the entire ancient ice sheet, with climate modeling as well.”
Sherburn’s presentation held the most personal interest for Dr. Liu and Mr. Montgomery. Both, however, were able to come away with much more valuable knowledge and research from the event, sponsored every four years by the Creation Science Fellowship and Institute for Creation Research.
“One of the most important things I was able to learn was of a grant programs that is available for creation science research,” Dr. Liu said. “I was able to submit an application for the grant while I was there. Typing those papers kept me very busy. But our biology program is only two years old. We need some research.”
Mr. Montgomery’s time was devoted primarily to workshops dealing with the geological sciences. Dr. Liu’s specialty is biology, but he found himself fascinated by radioisotope dating discussions during the first day of the conference.
“The idea of whether radioisotope change could be accelerated, rather than maintaining a constant decay rate, had always been a big question in my mind,” Dr. Liu said. “I attended several talks on this matter, and I now believe it can change, at least a little, under certain conditions.”
His attention during the second day of presentations reverted back to the biological sciences.
“I tried to identify loopholes or weak points in their arguments,” Dr. Liu said. Several organizers and guests at the conference later said they appreciated those questions.
“One of the conclusions creation biologists all agree on is that you can modify God’s design for human benefit, or partially restore it to God’s original design before the Fall, but you can never improve it,” Dr. Liu said.
A team of three scientists, including Dr. Liu, and two missionaries met at the conference to discuss plans to translate Dr. John Sanford’s book, Genetic Entropy & Mystery of the Genome, into Chinese and publish it in China. The book claims that the hereditary information of an organism could not have evolved in the way specified by Darwinists.
“The book is supported by a population genetics simulation software that even the evolutionists can’t criticize,” Dr. Liu said. “You see the degeneration of the species. The species is breaking down instead of climbing up Darwin’s tree.” Dr. Liu plans to use that software for his new course, Molecular Genetics Research, during the coming fall semester.
Mr. Montgomery and Dr. Liu plan to return to the conference in 2012.
“We liked every aspect of it,” Dr. Liu said.
--Andrew Call, posted 8-25-08
On Frozen Pond
Science students go “ice-fishing” to test water quality.
“Pull hard! Pull hard!” Science instructor Bud Downs cheered on Katie Stewart as she cranked an auger into the frozen retention pond located behind Maranatha's women's dorms and Dining Complex. In spite of frigid 15-degree air and 35-mile-per-hour winds, Katie, an elementary education major and science minor, was able to break through the snow and ice, making a hole big enough to collect a water sample for her Physical Geography and Climate course.
Two other ladies—Nicholle Bowers, a science education major in earth science, and Meredith Gibson, a biology major who wants to work in marine biology—also dug holes, collecting water samples to test for water quality. Water testing is done by fish biologists, aquatic ecologists, environmental scientists, water treatment centers, and others, according to Downs.
The students used tongs to dip jars into the icy water and carefully fill them with water free of ice. Downs took a vial of sodium thiosulphate, and added it drop by drop, into a water sample that had been fixed with reagent. The discovery: The water was supersaturated with oxygen at 13 parts per million. “That’s good but surprising in light of the heavy snow cover,” said Downs. “The normal saturation point is about 9.2 to 9.4 at this elevation.”
What caused the high oxygen saturation? “There are lots of little creatures in there photosynthesizing their phytoplankton and making oxygen,” he said. Other reasons for the high saturation: Cold water holds more oxygen, and the pond is only a year old so it’s not stocked heavily with fish needing oxygen. He may eventually stock the pond with catfish, which would mean lower oxygen levels.
The students refrigerated the water samples until the next class when they will test them for hardness, alkalinity, phosphorus (phosphates), iron, copper, ammonia, nitrogen, and nitrates. “We have close to $4,000 worth of water quality testing equipment,” said Downs.
Do they have plans to test tap water too? “We already did that in microbiology,” said one of the students, “and the toilet water was actually better than the drinking water.” (Translation: If you don’t already have a good water filter on your faucet, you may want to get one.)
--Linda Piepenbrink, 2-21-07