The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has spawned concerns regarding the long-term negative impact on the area's ecology, and especially on local fisheries. These worries are based on the assumption that the oil would persist and, like an infamous pesticide from the 1950s, carry deadly effects up the food chain for many years.

Hopes of finding life on Mars have been consistently dashed by data clearly showing that the planet's surface would be extraordinarily hostile to anything resembling a living cell. Scientific studies have demonstrated that conditions there would quickly put an end to any incipient life form.

For decades, the media and Hollywood have promoted the idea of life on Mars, yet scientific observations have shown that the red planet is utterly inhospitable.¹ The surface of Mars is sterile, yet many still hope to find evidence that life could have existed there.

Evolutionary belief holds as a central tenet that life emerged and developed “naturally,” even though mere natural laws of chemistry and physics are insufficient causes. If life occurred spontaneously on earth, then the emergence and development of life should be taking place elsewhere, perhaps in many places in the universe.

How fast can a disaster zone bounce back? Apparently, faster than previously thought. Yale University ecologists conducted a meta-analysis of 240 studies of devastated ecosystems. They found that ecosystems damaged by pollution can be restored in as few as 10 years. Why then was it believed they would take so much longer to recover?