written by Taylor Byrum

Have you ever exchanged your money for a different currency?  You give a person your money, only to receive less in a different currency.  Seems inefficient, right?  To me, it seems that what you give, you ought to receive with no loss.  A similar scenario happens to you every day.  It happens every time you plug in your power cord for your hair dryer or electric razor.  You pay for the energy supplied to the wire, but not all of that energy goes to your machine.  Some of it goes to heating up the conducting wires that carry the energy, but you aren’t using that heat.  It’s just energy lost.  But, there is hope.  One hundred years ago, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes discovered that at extremely low temperatures, some materials don’t lose energy to this heating.  In fact, every bit of the energy you put in is converted into current.  This new state of matter is called superconductivity.  There is a catch, though.  These temperatures are extremely cold.  The highest temperature to date that a material becomes superconducting at normal pressure is -216 degree Fahrenheit.  Yes, you read that correctly.  It’s negative and crazy cold.

Let me take you through an experiment to describe what really happens with this type of material.   Take a certain metal you know that is superconducting.  In your lab, you have a fancy refrigerator that can get to these cold temperatures and a device that measures this heat that is simply lost.  You turn on the refrigerator and you tell it to start cooling down to its lowest temperature.  Meanwhile, you constantly measure this heat.  The heat is continuously dropping as the temperature is dropping, but it is still not zero.  All of a sudden, at a certain critical temperature, the heat discontinuously dropped from a number, say 25, to 0.  It didn’t hit 24 or 13 or 9.  It went from 25 to 0.  Now, we say it’s a superconductor.

You can imagine the potential applications for superconductors.  If we could find materials that become superconducting at normal temperatures, things would radically change.  The energy crisis we currently face may cease to exist.  Transformers along the road that solely boost the energy in the cables would be unnecessary.  Your electricity bills would be less.

This is what I study in the Physics Department at the University of Illinois.  I am trying to understand why some materials become superconducting at these “higher” temperatures.  If we can understand why, then our hope is that the answer would lead us to discover or make materials that are superconducting at normal temperatures.

However, my ultimate motivation for studying this phenomenon is not so that we can get more bang for our buck.  At the risk of sounding cheesy, I study this phenomenon because I believe it’s my calling at this stage of life.  In fact, I realized my calling as a scientist when I was working on a paper for a religion class.  For that paper, I spent many hours of research gathering evidence to support my belief that science and theology are not in contradiction regarding creation.  My calling didn’t come from an audible voice or a billboard sign.  No, it was from hours of intense and honest reading of God’s word.

In Matthew 22, Jesus says that one of the two greatest commandments is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”  In order to love God, we must know God.  I believe we come to know God when He reveals Himself through His Word, the Holy Spirit, visions, dreams, fellow Christians, prayer, and even His creation.  By studying God’s creation, which includes materials that become superconducting, I can learn of God’s attributes.  I know you may think this is a bit of a stretch, but let me explain this a little more.  The way these materials behave is governed by laws, laws that God has set in place.  When I look under a microscope or study light scattered from these materials, I may not see God, but what I do see is God’s hand at work.  He controls every electron.  I believe He cares and is involved in these small events that happen on the microscopic scale. How much more, then, does He care about what happens on the macroscopic scale, the things that we experience and see?

This provides a Godly calling for my work as a scientist.  The more I learn about the universe and its workings, the more I realize how majestic and awesome He has made it.  Paul says in Romans 1:20 that humans cannot help but see “God’s invisible qualities” in his creation.  Science, then, enables me to understand more about God and love Him with all of my heart, soul, and mind.

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Taylor Byrum is a 2nd year graduate student in the UIUC Physics PhD program. Taylor describes his parents as wonderful, Godly people, who raised Taylor and is brother in a Christian home in Bentonville, AR.  He studied Physics and Mathematics at Oklahoma Baptist University, where he met his wife, Jamie Byrum.  They are happily married, attend Windsor Road Christian Church, love the Arkansas Razorbacks, and dread the cold winter.

written by Dr. Barbara A. Kammer

When asked to contribute to the Urbana Theological Seminary blog, I readily agreed.  Then reality struck! Whatever would I be able to contribute since the request was very open ended? What did I know that would be of interest to anyone else? Many ideas were considered and then rejected. As I was doing homework for my class at UTS, a sudden thought came.  Why not discuss what UTS can offer those of us who do not plan a career in church ministry, but rather feel a need to grow in our relationship with God. (And “no,” this is not an advertisement for UTS, but an acknowledgement of a resource in our community which is available to all, if one knows about it.)

But first some background. I had the privilege to practice medicine for thirty five years plus eight years of post college training as a diagnostic radiologist with a special interest in interventional radiology.  It was in this radiology subspecialty that one had patient contact, not just the managing and interpretation of human images.  The direct patient interaction, to me, was the best part of the practice of medicine, and this particular area of practice was just developing.  I had found my niche, and I loved it! How else to feel that one could make a difference in someone’s life in such a positive way and improve that patient’s health by the techniques and   technology that replaced more invasive procedures? Little did I realize, as a young professional, what my patients would teach me while I was trying to treat them.

The patient’s primary physician would decide that a particular procedure might benefit their patient.  A consultation would be requested for discussion with the patient of the benefits and risks of that procedure so that the patient could decide what he/she would prefer to do. Most of the time the interventional radiologist saw that particular patient only two or three times, the procedure was completed and the patient returned to his/her prior activities. However, there was a group of patients with more chronic diseases, usually vascular/blood vessel disease or cancer, who returned for repeated interventions.  It was the cancer patients and their families who taught me one of, if not, the most important lesson of my life. It was not what was said, but what could be readily discerned if one only were observant.  Each time the patient came in for this particular cancer treatment, a catheter was placed into an artery for purposes of delivery of high dose chemotherapy to a specific organ. Each treatment lasted five days, and each day the catheter position needed to be verified for stability. Some of these patients underwent multiple such procedures, providing the opportunity to know them better.

It was during these interactions that it became apparent that there were distinct differences in a subset of these patients. All were dealing with extremely serious disease, but one small group was different. They were “special” and seemed more at peace with themselves and the ability to cope with whatever came.  It became abundantly clear that this peace and contentment was a manifestation of their faith. Their trust in God was supporting them through this valley in life. These patients and their families had something special! I wondered if I were the patient and not the caregiver if I would have that faith and ability to cope.

Fast forward thirty years to the summer of 2010. On a warm and humid Sunday morning, my family and I attended a church service in which the guest minister was Dr. Cuffey. It was evident that he possessed extensive knowledge of the Bible and its interpretation.  While we had lived in the CU area for more than thirty five years, we had no knowledge of Urbana Theological Seminary (UTS). In fact, we had never even heard of it. Thus began the journey to learn more about UTS and what might be available under its auspices. Would this be one way to learn more about what we, as Christians, believe and the background for it? Could this institution and its classes augment what might be available through one’s own church and independent study? Could this be a vehicle to grow and enrich one’s faith? Survey of the available classes one might consider brought a resounding “yes.” One did not need to become an enrolled student with plans for full time ministry as a vocation, but could just take classes for a fee, simply for the fun of gaining knowledge and enhancing one’s own Bible reading and understanding.

Since I had retired from my demanding profession and our children were now adults, it was time to become more serious about answering the question I had wondered about so many years previously.  Could I handle life’s very deep valleys with the grace of some of my patients? So began my venture at UTS as one way to grow my personal faith. Dr. Thomas’s class on the History of Christianity was the place I decided to begin. Back in the classroom was a trip back in time. Sure, I had studied all of my life to remain current in my profession, but the structure of formal classes, papers and tests sent my memory bank back about fifty years.  Could I still do that and compete with those younger than I? Having lived in a professional “man’s” world for so many years was a lot different than this. I did not have the computer skills of those younger than I.  Would I be able to finish the exams in the allotted time? Well, along came Dr. Thomas, who was very forgiving of my challenges and was SO accommodating.

I learned quickly that I was on a much lower plain theologically than some of my classmates, but I was there to learn and grow. Ultimately, I realized that was OK. I was a student, similar to when I had been a medical student.  I did not yet have all the knowledge needed, and that was part of the journey. After all, I had to remember why I was personally doing this, and my needs would never be those of others. Each of us in the class was there for a different purpose, but with an overarching common desire for knowledge.

The story continues, and this year’s class is the wonderful Survey of the Old and New Testament with Dr. Cuffey. Whatever he is discussing in the Bible is an enhancement of my prior knowledge. I will never read the Bible again in the same way I read it before this class. For those who are students of the Bible, this class is a treasure chest for your future.

It is exciting to learn.  Each of us will find something unique that will aid in growing one’s faith. That is an individual path, but so important. The people and classes at Urbana Theological Seminary have been such a resource for me personally. Perhaps they might be for others as well. Only time will tell whether I will have some of the grace I saw in my patients, but the pathway to growing one’s faith has been stimulating and rewarding.