THE SQUID WITHOUT A SHADOW
Psalm 18:28
"For thou wilt light my candle: the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness"
Many marine creatures reflect surrounding light. They can do so because of tiny light-reflecting platelets. Typically, these crystalline platelets are made of purine, one of the building blocks of DNA, but these particular crystals cannot change how much light they reflect.
The Hawaiian bobtail squid, however, needs to be able to reflect different levels of light because of its unique lifestyle. This squid glides through moonlit waters, but without its special reflective tissue its shadow would be seen as it passes over the bottom. The bobtail squid has light generating tissue on its underside facing the bottom and this produces just sufficient light to make its shadow disappear. In other words, it can generate variable levels of light. What's more, the squid can move its light-generating platelets around so that they might be scattered among its cells or concentrated where needed. Rather than being composed of just one amino acid, this squid's platelets are made up of six amino acids.
God is the source of all light, including spiritual light. According to evolution, the squid is closely related to some of the first animals that evolved in the sea. Yet, its technically sophisticated camouflage, which perfectly fits its environment and life-style is a testimony to God's wise design, not the early stages of mindless evolution. The spiritual light of God's truth makes that clear.
Father, we are surrounded by the darkness of the world. Let the light of Your truth shine in our hearts and minds. Amen.
Science News, 1/10: 2004, p. 20, A. Goho, "Moonlighting." Photo: Adult Hawaiian bobtail squid. Margaret McFall-Ngai. (CC BY 4.0)
Psalm 18:28
"For thou wilt light my candle: the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness"
Many marine creatures reflect surrounding light. They can do so because of tiny light-reflecting platelets. Typically, these crystalline platelets are made of purine, one of the building blocks of DNA, but these particular crystals cannot change how much light they reflect.
The Hawaiian bobtail squid, however, needs to be able to reflect different levels of light because of its unique lifestyle. This squid glides through moonlit waters, but without its special reflective tissue its shadow would be seen as it passes over the bottom. The bobtail squid has light generating tissue on its underside facing the bottom and this produces just sufficient light to make its shadow disappear. In other words, it can generate variable levels of light. What's more, the squid can move its light-generating platelets around so that they might be scattered among its cells or concentrated where needed. Rather than being composed of just one amino acid, this squid's platelets are made up of six amino acids.
God is the source of all light, including spiritual light. According to evolution, the squid is closely related to some of the first animals that evolved in the sea. Yet, its technically sophisticated camouflage, which perfectly fits its environment and life-style is a testimony to God's wise design, not the early stages of mindless evolution. The spiritual light of God's truth makes that clear.
Father, we are surrounded by the darkness of the world. Let the light of Your truth shine in our hearts and minds. Amen.
Science News, 1/10: 2004, p. 20, A. Goho, "Moonlighting." Photo: Adult Hawaiian bobtail squid. Margaret McFall-Ngai. (CC BY 4.0)
GECKOS DON’T NEED FLASHLIGHTS
Psalm 146:8
The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind: the LORD raiseth them that are bowed down: the LORD loveth the righteous....
You get up early. The illumination isn't very good, you put on your socks anyway, only to find out, in the light of day, that you have one blue and one gray sock on. That's because our eyes have cone cells to detect color, as well as rod cells that are sensitive to light, but cannot see color. So, as the light level becomes lower, we have a decreasing ability to detect colors.
Not so with the hooded gecko. Based on their study of gecko eyes, some scientists wondered whether they could see in the dark. To test this, they made cards with a checkerboard pattern of blues and grays. Geckos were then trained to take crickets labeled with one of the cards. Then, when they offered the geckos crickets labeled with a blue card, they rewarded with the expected cricket. Crickets labeled with gray cards were made bad-tasting by being placed in salt water. During these tests the light level was so low that researchers could not tell the difference between colors. However, the geckos took the crickets labeled with blue cards more than twice as often, proving that they could see the color differences.
While we marvel at God's unlimited creativity in providing for His creatures needs, we see this truth by faith. Faith also shows us that God redeemed us through His Son.
I thank You, Lord for the gift of sight. Help me to see more clearly through the eyes of the faith You have given me. Amen.
Science News, 11/27: 2004, p. 342, S. Milius, "Color at Night." Photo: Gecko (not the hooded gecko). (PD)
Psalm 146:8
The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind: the LORD raiseth them that are bowed down: the LORD loveth the righteous....
You get up early. The illumination isn't very good, you put on your socks anyway, only to find out, in the light of day, that you have one blue and one gray sock on. That's because our eyes have cone cells to detect color, as well as rod cells that are sensitive to light, but cannot see color. So, as the light level becomes lower, we have a decreasing ability to detect colors.
Not so with the hooded gecko. Based on their study of gecko eyes, some scientists wondered whether they could see in the dark. To test this, they made cards with a checkerboard pattern of blues and grays. Geckos were then trained to take crickets labeled with one of the cards. Then, when they offered the geckos crickets labeled with a blue card, they rewarded with the expected cricket. Crickets labeled with gray cards were made bad-tasting by being placed in salt water. During these tests the light level was so low that researchers could not tell the difference between colors. However, the geckos took the crickets labeled with blue cards more than twice as often, proving that they could see the color differences.
While we marvel at God's unlimited creativity in providing for His creatures needs, we see this truth by faith. Faith also shows us that God redeemed us through His Son.
I thank You, Lord for the gift of sight. Help me to see more clearly through the eyes of the faith You have given me. Amen.
Science News, 11/27: 2004, p. 342, S. Milius, "Color at Night." Photo: Gecko (not the hooded gecko). (PD)
WHAT VALUE IS MUSIC?
Genesis 4:21
"And his brother's name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ."
The Bible tells us that the earliest generations of human beings were making music. By the time the eighth generation of man came along, Jubal, a member of that generation was able to make his living providing musical instruments. On the evolutionary side of things, however, musical ability would seem to provide no survival advantage. Yet, the human brain devotes considerable resources to the processing of music. Our love of music is wired into our brain. Each of our sense organs is important to our enjoyment of music. And each of these organs is linked to its own part of the brain which is responsible for how we experience the music.
Parts of the brain are reserved for memory which stores the music. Other parts of the brain are dedicated to trying to understand the entire piece of music, referencing back to parts of the music stored in the memory. Even more interesting is that one need not hear music to activate the various parts of the brain devoted to music. Positron-emission tomography reveals that a person only needs to imagine music for these portions of the brain to become active. The ability to make or appreciate music offers us no apparent survival value, and therefore, according to evolutionary theory, should not have developed. Yet, our brains, and indeed, all our senses, are designed to make and appreciate music.
The obvious message here is that evolution had nothing to do with the formation of human beings. Rather, we were created by God Who loves music, and wants us to praise Him with music.
Father, I thank You for the gift of music and the ability to appreciate it. Amen.
Science Frontiers, No. 141, 5-6/02, "Why Music?" Photo: Courtesy of Pixabay. (PD)
Genesis 4:21
"And his brother's name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ."
The Bible tells us that the earliest generations of human beings were making music. By the time the eighth generation of man came along, Jubal, a member of that generation was able to make his living providing musical instruments. On the evolutionary side of things, however, musical ability would seem to provide no survival advantage. Yet, the human brain devotes considerable resources to the processing of music. Our love of music is wired into our brain. Each of our sense organs is important to our enjoyment of music. And each of these organs is linked to its own part of the brain which is responsible for how we experience the music.
Parts of the brain are reserved for memory which stores the music. Other parts of the brain are dedicated to trying to understand the entire piece of music, referencing back to parts of the music stored in the memory. Even more interesting is that one need not hear music to activate the various parts of the brain devoted to music. Positron-emission tomography reveals that a person only needs to imagine music for these portions of the brain to become active. The ability to make or appreciate music offers us no apparent survival value, and therefore, according to evolutionary theory, should not have developed. Yet, our brains, and indeed, all our senses, are designed to make and appreciate music.
The obvious message here is that evolution had nothing to do with the formation of human beings. Rather, we were created by God Who loves music, and wants us to praise Him with music.
Father, I thank You for the gift of music and the ability to appreciate it. Amen.
Science Frontiers, No. 141, 5-6/02, "Why Music?" Photo: Courtesy of Pixabay. (PD)
RELAX
Genesis 6:3
"And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years."
Before the Flood, people were living hundreds of years. As man grew more evil, God declared that man's lifespan would be reduced to 120 years. Modern biology has learned that we do indeed have built-in timers in each of our cells that limit the number of times they can divide. When enough cells can no longer divide, we die. We can even do things to speed up the timers.
The timers are called telomeres. However, every time a cell divides, a small part of each telomere is lost. When these telomeres are worn down to nothing, the cell no longer divides and soon dies. Researchers studied 58 healthy women between the ages of 20 and 50. All the women had children, but 39 of them had a child that was seriously chronically ill. Stress levels were measured through questionnaires while blood samples provided information about their cell health. Among other things, scientists checked for levels of an enzyme that maintains the health of telomeres. The mothers who saw their stress levels as high proved to have much shorter telomeres than those who reported little stress. They reported that cells from stressed women had telomeres that were as short as unstressed women ten years older.
Scripture tells us to cast all our cares on the Lord. Among the many blessings of doing so are healthy telomeres.
Father, I cast all my cares on You. You have loved me through Your Son, Jesus Christ. I trust Your love. Amen.
Science News, 12/4: 2004, p. 355, C. Brownlee, "Stressed to Death." Photo: Human chromosomes (grey) capped by telomeres (white). Courtesy of U.S. Department of Energy Human Genome Program. (PD)
Genesis 6:3
"And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years."
Before the Flood, people were living hundreds of years. As man grew more evil, God declared that man's lifespan would be reduced to 120 years. Modern biology has learned that we do indeed have built-in timers in each of our cells that limit the number of times they can divide. When enough cells can no longer divide, we die. We can even do things to speed up the timers.
The timers are called telomeres. However, every time a cell divides, a small part of each telomere is lost. When these telomeres are worn down to nothing, the cell no longer divides and soon dies. Researchers studied 58 healthy women between the ages of 20 and 50. All the women had children, but 39 of them had a child that was seriously chronically ill. Stress levels were measured through questionnaires while blood samples provided information about their cell health. Among other things, scientists checked for levels of an enzyme that maintains the health of telomeres. The mothers who saw their stress levels as high proved to have much shorter telomeres than those who reported little stress. They reported that cells from stressed women had telomeres that were as short as unstressed women ten years older.
Scripture tells us to cast all our cares on the Lord. Among the many blessings of doing so are healthy telomeres.
Father, I cast all my cares on You. You have loved me through Your Son, Jesus Christ. I trust Your love. Amen.
Science News, 12/4: 2004, p. 355, C. Brownlee, "Stressed to Death." Photo: Human chromosomes (grey) capped by telomeres (white). Courtesy of U.S. Department of Energy Human Genome Program. (PD)
BIRDS DO MENTAL TIME TRAVEL
Matthew 13:4
"And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up...."
Episodic memory, the ability to remember something that happened in the past is called mental time travel. It has long been thought that only humans are capable of episodic memory. New research suggests that some birds are also capable of mental time travel.
Researchers gave captive Western scrub jays wax worms, one of their favorite foods. As they usually do, the jays made their selections and hid the worms in the trays of sand provided. Five days later, the birds were allowed to recover their treats. The jays discovered that after the five days, the worms had begun to decay. The researchers fooled a second batch of jays by replacing their decayed worms with fresh worms just before the birds were allowed to find their treats. Then both batches of birds were again allowed to take and hide a choice of worms. Those birds that had had experience with the decayed worms, would no longer take new worms to hide. But the birds that had been fooled took the worms and buried them, still expecting them to be good later. In other words, the birds remembered what happened in the past and adjusted their behavior. Other tests offered similar results.
God has given all His creatures the abilities they need to make a living without regard to where those creatures are on the manmade evolutionary ladder.
Father, I thank You that You have given me and all creatures what we need for life here. Amen.
Science News, 2/14: 2004, pp. 103-105, Susan Milius, "Where’d I Put That?" Photo: Western scrub jay. Courtesy of Minette Layne. (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Matthew 13:4
"And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up...."
Episodic memory, the ability to remember something that happened in the past is called mental time travel. It has long been thought that only humans are capable of episodic memory. New research suggests that some birds are also capable of mental time travel.
Researchers gave captive Western scrub jays wax worms, one of their favorite foods. As they usually do, the jays made their selections and hid the worms in the trays of sand provided. Five days later, the birds were allowed to recover their treats. The jays discovered that after the five days, the worms had begun to decay. The researchers fooled a second batch of jays by replacing their decayed worms with fresh worms just before the birds were allowed to find their treats. Then both batches of birds were again allowed to take and hide a choice of worms. Those birds that had had experience with the decayed worms, would no longer take new worms to hide. But the birds that had been fooled took the worms and buried them, still expecting them to be good later. In other words, the birds remembered what happened in the past and adjusted their behavior. Other tests offered similar results.
God has given all His creatures the abilities they need to make a living without regard to where those creatures are on the manmade evolutionary ladder.
Father, I thank You that You have given me and all creatures what we need for life here. Amen.
Science News, 2/14: 2004, pp. 103-105, Susan Milius, "Where’d I Put That?" Photo: Western scrub jay. Courtesy of Minette Layne. (CC BY-SA 2.0)
WHICH CAME FIRST, THE DEFENSE OR COUNTERMEASURES?
Luke 11:21
"When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace...."
Our Lord recognized that in a sinful world we must be prepared to protect ourselves. The same is true in the animal and plant world. When it comes to trying to explain this truth using evolutionary thinking, there are some serious difficulties.
There are many plants that have effective defenses against the insects that attack them. For example, a plant called Bursera defends itself with poisons that squirt from its leaves when a certain beetle larva attempts to feed on it. However, the larvae have learned to chew on a particular part of the leaf first. When they do this they disable the plant's defense system and can munch away on the leaf without fear of harm. According to evolution, the plant's defense mechanism and the beetle's countermeasures had to evolve simultaneously: countermeasure perfectly matching defense, otherwise the countermeasure would be quite useless. The probability of this happening, even if evolution was true, is extremely remote. Even evolutionists have realized this problem and have published their attempts to explain how this could happen, but such explanations are based on a complex foundation of evolutionary assumptions and little evidence.
According to evolution, such unlikely interrelationships had to evolve by chance many times when one looks at all the defenses that plants use and predators can outsmart. Creationists see these systems as created fully formed by our Creator.
Lord, I thank You that although You created a perfect world, You provided for our needs in a sinful world. Amen.
Science News, 11/15: 2003, p. 318, "Chronicling a war of beetle vs. leaf." Photo: Bursera simaruba. Courtesy of Kurt Stueber. (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Luke 11:21
"When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace...."
Our Lord recognized that in a sinful world we must be prepared to protect ourselves. The same is true in the animal and plant world. When it comes to trying to explain this truth using evolutionary thinking, there are some serious difficulties.
There are many plants that have effective defenses against the insects that attack them. For example, a plant called Bursera defends itself with poisons that squirt from its leaves when a certain beetle larva attempts to feed on it. However, the larvae have learned to chew on a particular part of the leaf first. When they do this they disable the plant's defense system and can munch away on the leaf without fear of harm. According to evolution, the plant's defense mechanism and the beetle's countermeasures had to evolve simultaneously: countermeasure perfectly matching defense, otherwise the countermeasure would be quite useless. The probability of this happening, even if evolution was true, is extremely remote. Even evolutionists have realized this problem and have published their attempts to explain how this could happen, but such explanations are based on a complex foundation of evolutionary assumptions and little evidence.
According to evolution, such unlikely interrelationships had to evolve by chance many times when one looks at all the defenses that plants use and predators can outsmart. Creationists see these systems as created fully formed by our Creator.
Lord, I thank You that although You created a perfect world, You provided for our needs in a sinful world. Amen.
Science News, 11/15: 2003, p. 318, "Chronicling a war of beetle vs. leaf." Photo: Bursera simaruba. Courtesy of Kurt Stueber. (CC BY-SA 3.0)
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