The Wheaton Record

By Micah McIntyre

04.25.19

For the second time this semester, prospective Wheaton students from across the country converged on campus on April 14-15 as a part of the new #mywheaton Days program.

By Melissa Schill

04.25.19

New textbook connects scientific theories with scriptural knowledge

Five Wheaton professors have co-authored a groundbreaking textbook that integrates a variety of academic disciplines to connect scientific theories of origin with scripture. The book, “Understanding Scientific Theories of Origin: Cosmology, Geology, and Biology in Christian Perspective,” is the first college-level resource to approach the topic in a comprehensive way, including mainstream scientific theories in fields such as astronomy, cosmology, chemistry, geology, biology, physical anthropology and genetics, as well as biblical and theological studies. It has been assigned as reading in several classes on campus this semester.

“The book to me has been a theologically saturated science textbook — something that, in my experience, has escaped my classroom until college,” senior Jacqui Felcan said in an email exchange with the Record. “The book thoroughly and robustly reintegrates theology and scientific inquiry, which a lot of us have learned to separate.” Felcan is reading the textbook for her Physics Senior Seminar.  

By Micah McIntyre

04.18.19

Morse H. Tan, who received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Wheaton, nominated for State Department post.

On April 5, the White House announced that President Trump nominated Wheaton College alumnus Morse H. Tan to be the next ambassador at large for global criminal justice.

The role of the Office of Global Criminal Justice is to advise the Secretary of State “on issues related to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. According to the State Department’s website, the office also crafts policy solutions to mass atrocities around the world.

Before practicing law, Tan received his undergraduate degree from Wheaton in 1997 and his master’s degree the following year. While here at Wheaton, he played tennis and wrote for the Record. Following his graduation, he attended the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law and specialized in international law.

In addition to being an expert in international law, Tan is considered an expert on North Korea and consistently gives lectures about the subject. In the past he has advised ambassadors and state department officials and his work has been used by the US Assistant Secretary of State and the United Nations Commission of Inquiry. Tan’s faculty page, on Northern Illinois University (NIU) College of Law’s website, says that he is fluent in Korean and Spanish, and speaks some Chinese. Tan is currently a professor of law at NIU.

The Record contacted Tan for a quote. He refrained, saying that until his confirmation hearing, he has been advised by the White House to refrain from talking to the media.

By Benjamin Hess

04.11.19

On April 10, the first ever image of a black hole was released by Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration (ETH), a group of over 200 scientists from across the globe who worked together to create a virtual Earth-sized telescope.  It might seem strange that scientists have only just now managed to achieve this feat, but it is surprisingly difficult to photograph something that is 500 million trillion kilometers away. Not to mention the black hole in question is three million times larger than Earth.

This monumental achievement resulted from eight telescopes positioned around the globe working in tandem. Scientists essentially created an Earth-sized telescope powerful enough to resolve a clear image of the black hole, a feat which could revolutionize our knowledge of astrophysics as it enables us to gather more precise images and data than ever before.

A black hole is an object in space that is so large and dense that nothing can escape its gravitational pull — not even light. The point at which light can no longer escape is called the event horizon, from which ETH takes its name.  

Far more than causing entertainment, the image confirms what theoretical models predicted  black holes would look like, including the strange, bright penumbra surrounding them. In addition, the electromagnetic waves that were captured to produce the image provides important information for future research as scientists try to answer questions about these powerful giants, such as how the bright rings form and what happens when something enters a black hole.