Animals Archives - Page 6 of 56 - DOES GOD EXIST? TODAY

July 3, 2023July 1, 2023

Human Actions Lead to Wildfires

In our part of the country, people will remember the summer of 2023 as the “summer of smoke.” Canadian wildfires combined with wind directions have brought heavy smoke into our area. The smoke has been so dense that a friend living in Chicago told me he could not see across the street – a distance of about 20 yards. In the past, we personally experienced California wildfires and saw their massive damage. The message we need to understand is that human actions lead to wildfires.

God designed the natural world to prevent massive fires from developing. When we allow brush to accumulate, lightning, human carelessness, or arson starts a fire, it will explode into a conflagration of massive proportions. The role of grazing animals is one way the natural world has been designed to prevent these huge fires.

Ireland is a rainy country, but in 2021, wildfires burned near Dublin for six weeks. The fuel for those explosive fires is a flowering plant called gorse. It grows in dense thickets and is highly flammable when it dries in late summer. The removal of an indigenous goat breed known as old Irish goats allowed the heathland to become overgrown. The result was annual fire outbreaks.

By introducing the old Irish goats back to the area where the gorse grows, the plant biomass is no longer a fuel source for the fires. An organization called the “Old Irish Goat Society” (OIGS) has been involved in a three-year project to reintroduce the endangered goat breed into areas suffering the threat of wildfires. One obvious risk in today’s world is that the goats will also eat desirable plants. In the past, carnivores prevented that from happening by limiting goat populations. The OIGS prevents that problem by equipping the goats with GPS colors that set off an alarm when the goats wander too far.

God built into the creation a variety of means of preventing wildfires. Once again, human actions lead to wildfires by altering the original system, which included grazing animals. Yellowstone National Park has similar results with elk herds. We must learn to allow the controlling agents that God built into the original system.

Reference: “Meet the Firefighting Goats of Dublin” in Discover magazine for July/August 2023, pages 10-11.

June 28, 2023June 27, 2023

The Titan Vessel and Piezophysiology

The recent tragedy with the Titan vessel imploding brings to mind the science of piezophysiology, the study of living organisms under high pressure. The connection between the Titan vessel and piezophysiology is that deep sea fish must survive under massive hydrostatic pressures such as the Titan was subjected to. How do they survive?

Building deep-sea vehicles has been an enormous challenge for engineers. The standard has been to build vessels of titanium in a spherical shape to equalize the water pressure all around. The Titan hull was made of carbon fiber five inches thick, and it was 22 feet long. The elongated shape increased the pressure load on the midsection. The vessel had been subjected to stress during about two-dozen previous dives. Each of those dives might have created small unnoticed cracks in the carbon fibers, like splitting wood along the grain. Those tiny cracks could lead to rapid and catastrophic failure.

Let’s do a little math to get some idea of the amount of water pressure. Water has a density of 62.4 pounds per cubic foot. One mile of water would be 5,280 feet. Each foot of water would put 62.4 pounds on any object one mile down. That would be 329,472 pounds on each square foot of a submarine or a fish. That is 164.7 tons in fresh water and even more in salt water, and the Titanic is about 2.4 miles down.

Water doesn’t freeze at that depth because pressure lowers the freezing point. Those who study piezophysiology tell us that fish living at those depths have flexible bones and cartilage, do not have swim bladders, have special blood adapted to deep-sea conditions, and have bioluminescence to compensate for the darkness of deep ocean environments.

We learn from the Titan vessel and piezophysiology that surviving deep under the ocean requires wise engineering. Humans have much to learn about the creatures of the deep, but the difficulty of visiting deep sea environments limits our knowledge. However, every discovery of piezophysiology and related fields speaks to God’s wisdom and design of life that allows those creatures to exist in a world that is forbidding for humans.

References: Oxford Academic, quora.com, and “How the unconventional design of the Titan sub may have destined it for disaster” in apnews.com

June 26, 2023June 25, 2023

The Design of Beetles

In every environment on Earth, frogs, fish, and various insects depend on beetles for food. We see beetles in deserts worldwide, and many desert animals rely on them as a food source. A mystery that has vexed scientists is the design of beetles that allows them to survive in arid climates.

Recent research shows that beetles have a unique system to recycle water. They have an organ near the end of their digestive system called the “rectal complex,” lined with blister-like cells that draw moisture out of fecal material. Instead of being excreted, the water passes through the wall of the rectal complex and back into the beetle’s body by osmosis. This process allows beetles to be very abundant in desert ecosystems, providing food for various desert creatures.

Insects annually damage up to 20% of the world’s food supply. Because of the design of the rectal complex, red flour beetles (Tribolium castaneum) can survive in dry food storage such as wheat and flour. While this design benefits desert creatures, it is a real problem for humans. Researchers studying these beetles have found a gene that appears to be the key to their ability to recycle water.

The design of beetles serves them well in their natural habitat, but it creates problems when they get into stored human food. God has given living creatures the ability to survive and humans the intelligence to understand the design to benefit our survival.

Reference: Science News May 6 & 20, 2023, page 5

June 21, 2023June 20, 2023

Chemical Defense Against Predators

God’s design in the natural world provides protection for animals that would appear to be unable to defend themselves. Some animals can’t bite or run, and camouflage is not an option because their environment changes too quickly. Toads and frogs are classic examples of this, but they have an effective chemical defense against predators.

The Sonoran Desert toad (Incilius alvarius) in the desert southwest (also known as the Colorado River toad) defends itself with a chemical mix secreted through its skin. This toad is very large, and its desert environment makes hiding difficult. All toads secrete toxins through their skin, but the Sonoran Desert toad secretes a substance known as 5-MeO-DMT from glands behind each eye and on its legs. This chemical is a powerful hallucinogen secreted by no other toad or frog, and predators quickly learn to avoid it.

The giant leaf frog (Phyllomedusa bicolor) in South America (also known as the giant monkey frog) secretes a chemical known as kambo, which causes violent regurgitation and seizures and even affects the heart function of predators. The chemicals differ with each species, and researchers are trying to determine how the defenses work. Sonoran Desert toads and giant leaf frogs are geographically isolated, yet they share a common problem of vulnerability. They both use a chemical defense against predators but with different chemicals.

Interest in the Sonoran Desert Toad has increased because people have found that licking the toad produces a high. The psychedelic effect has caused people to catch the frogs, threatening their survival. Although predators are smart enough to leave them alone, apparently, humans are not. Abusers call the 5-MeO-DMT toxin “the God molecule,” but researchers warn that it can cause cardiac arrest.

Researchers are studying the ability of toads and frogs to secrete a chemical defense against predators. The difference in the chemicals depending on the species is still a mystery, but it’s a testimony to the design built into the natural world, allowing diversity in living things. The statement of God’s design of humans in Psalms 139:14 is also true of every creature in God’s creation.

Reference: Science News (May 6 and 20, 2023, pages 21-22)

June 15, 2023June 14, 2023

Beauty in the Natural World

Everywhere we look, we see beauty in the natural world. One example of that is Wilson’s bird-of-paradise (Cicinnurus respublica). This unique and exotic bird displays extravagant plumes and feathers that capture attention.

Males are more brightly colored than females. They have a black head with a turquoise crown and yellow feathers on the nape of the neck. Their iridescent tail feathers form the shape of a handlebar mustache. These birds flash and shimmer their colors in the gloom of the forest floor only on two islands in Indonesia.

The most fascinating behavior of Wilson’s bird-of-paradise is the vivid and complex dance males perform to entice females. Because his movements are so robust that he needs an open space free of clutter, he first crafts his “dance floor.” To prepare the dancing area, the bird clears the ground of leaves and other obstacles that could disrupt his performance. Scientists have tested this behavior by placing leaves in front of the bird. That obstruction provoked the bird, causing him to immediately clear the leaves from the area.

A female will find a perching spot on a branch to watch the show from above. As the male dances, she examines every detail of his routine to decide whether to choose him as a mate. Wilson’s bird of paradise females are very critical performance judges.

The dancing ability and intelligence of these birds are astonishing. Wilson’s bird-of-paradise is only one of God’s many beautiful and fascinating species. You can read about more of them at THIS LINK. Beauty in the natural world is difficult to explain by naturalistic evolution since, in many cases, the beauty has no survival value. However, a creative Designer who loves beauty would certainly create a beautiful world and give humans, created in His image, the ability to enjoy and be inspired by beauty in the natural world.

June 8, 2023June 1, 2023

The Nutritional Value of Oysters

We live in an age when worldwide food supplies are limited, and there is incredible food waste in America. However, one food source God has given us is present in all of the world’s oceans. It is the five species of oysters harvested in the United States and many places worldwide. The nutritional value of oysters and their availability makes them an important food source.

Oysters are a keystone species that filter and clean sea water by consuming microorganisms. The average female oyster will produce up to 100,000,000 eggs a year. However, humans’ indiscriminate harvesting of wild oysters has reduced oyster populations in the U.S.A. to only 1% of what they were in the 1800s. In addition to the wild oyster population, these mollusks can be grown in artificial environments anywhere. Artificial tanks can use the runoff from forests, wetlands, and marshes to feed the oysters.

The nutritional value of oysters is well known. According to WebMD, six medium-sized oysters would produce 50 calories, 1 gram of fat, 21 mg of cholesterol, 150 mg of sodium, 5 grams of carbohydrates, and 4 grams of protein. For an American on a 2000-calorie diet, this serving would provide 28% of the daily iron needs, 4% of the vitamin C, and 3% of the calcium. Oysters are also an excellent source of vitamin B12, essential for brain health. They are also rich in vitamin D, copper, zinc, and manganese, all micronutrients that may help to prevent bone loss and osteoporosis.

Our food shortages are not because God hasn’t provided what we need. Current problems of land use, waste disposal, and nutritional deficiencies would be over if humans decided they have had enough war, greed, selfishness, pride, and arrogance. If we would start wisely using what God has given us and applying what we know, we could end hunger and malnutrition on the planet.

References: USA Today for April 23, 2023, page 5PE and WebMD.com.

June 7, 2023June 1, 2023

Tardigrades Have Incredible Resilience

NASA’s “Astronomy Picture of the Day” for May 21, 2023, shows a small creature called a tardigrade crawling on some moss. The picture is an electron micrograph of the tardigrade, which is a millimeter long (0.0393701 inches). Most tardigrades range between 0.3 and 0.5 mm. They eat plants and bacteria and help convert them to other forms essential to molding and shaping the environment. In addition, tardigrades have incredible resilience to adverse conditions.

Tardigrades can go for decades without food or water. They can withstand temperatures near absolute zero but can also survive in boiling water. They can survive in pressures well above what has been measured on the ocean floor or even in a near-perfect vacuum. Tardigrades have incredible resilience, allowing them to survive direct exposure to high radiation levels. They can repair their own DNA or reduce their body water content to a few percent.

They were first described in 1773 by a German zoologist who called them “little water bears.” Then, in 1777, an Italian biologist gave them the “tardigrade” name, which means “slow walker.” These creatures remind us that living things too small to see with normal human vision are major movers and shapers of higher life forms.
The formation of unseen life systems that allow us to exist demonstrates life’s complexity. It demands an acceptance of the fact that we are not just a chance collision of atoms. The more we see of life and design in the creation, the more we comprehend the magnitude of the Creator’s power and wisdom.

Reference: NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day

June 6, 2023June 1, 2023

Convergent Evolution and Carcinization

When unrelated species of animals or plants have common features, evolutionary biologists call it “convergent evolution.” There are many examples, such as:
* Dolphins and bats use echolocation to find food.
* Titan arum and rafflesia plants use putrid odor to attract pollinators.
* Nightingales and humpback whales sing similar songs just for beauty.

Those are only a few of the vast number of examples that scientists explain as convergent evolution. You can probably think of others. For example, bats, birds, and insects all have wings, but they are not related. In addition, unrelated venomous or poisonous creatures often wear bright colors as a warning, for example, snakes, frogs, and insects. Usually, the convergent features of various animals and plants serve an obvious purpose for the species’ survival.

Perhaps the most repeated convergence appears in the crab-like body shape. A crab has a flat, rounded shell and a tail that tucks under its body. Evolutionary biologists say that body plan has “evolved” at least five times. Scientists even have a name for this phenomenon. They call it “carcinization,” but they can only guess why it happened.

The result of carcinization is that many unrelated crustaceans resemble crabs. As a result, we often call them crabs even though they are not true crabs. A familiar example is the so-called king crab. Crab-shaped animals come in a wide range of sizes and live in various habitats, from the oceans to the mountains. So, with these creatures living in diverse ecosystems, scientists have difficulty explaining why they evolved the same body plan. Some suggestions include the tucked-under tail providing greater safety from predators or the body shape allowing them to move sideways.

We have a suggestion of why the crab shape, or carcinization, shows up in so many different crustaceans. Rather than convergent evolution, the common traits can be explained by a common Creator. That would explain why these creatures have the DNA building blocks for crabbiness – oops, I mean crab body shape.

May 30, 2023May 30, 2023

The Careless Use of Chemicals to Control Pests

One of the significant challenges we face is dealing with biological pests. In the United States, the accepted pest control method is using chemicals to kill anything that affects crop growing, spreads diseases, or just annoys us. We use weed and vegetation killers, insect sprays, chemical treatments for trees, and chemicals for the soil to make our lives more comfortable and increase the food supply. Unfortunately, the problems caused by the careless use of chemicals to control pests become more evident as we see the collateral damage and the cost of chemical production and distribution.

The current battle over the potential cancer-causing effect of Roundup reminds us of the health damage Agent Orange caused for military personnel in Vietnam. On a personal note, my younger brother died from the effects of Agent Orange that he was exposed to during his military service. We need to realize that God has given us tools to control negative environmental influences without the careless use of chemicals.

Studies show that the collateral damage from air pollution and ground-level ozone includes increased heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and dementia. Even aggression among animals and humans increases when pollution levels rise. For example, a study of 70,000 U.S. cases showed more people were bitten by dogs on smoggy days.

American foulbrood is a bacterial disease that has wiped out many broods of honey bees and is apparently catalyzed by pesticides used on crops that bees pollinate. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved an oral honeybee vaccine against the disease. But, again, this is an example of collateral damage from the careless use of chemicals to control pests.

Natural pest control avoids collateral damage. For example, vineyard owners near Cape Town, South Africa, use a group of domesticated Indian runner ducks to eat the snails and bugs that infect their vines. In addition to eating the pests, the ducks leave natural fertilizer to nourish the vines.

People use bats to eat insect pests in various places worldwide. Locust swarms are not an issue where bat populations are large. Insecticides can cause the death of songbirds, and as the bird populations decline, insect swarms increase, creating more problems. Even removing fish and frog populations harms pest control, as fish and frogs eat many insects and their larvae.

God has built pest controls into our planet, but humans often upset the balance. Restoring natural controls is within our reach, but people often believe the careless use of chemicals to control pests is easier and more profitable. Unfortunately, ignoring God’s design leads to health problems linked to the chemicals we dump on our land and into our rivers, lakes, and oceans.

References: “What pollution does to you” in the March 25, 2023, issue of Science News, “The list of diseases linked to air pollution is growing” in Science News, September 2017, and Solutions, a publication of the Environmental Defense Fund.

May 25, 2023May 25, 2023

Deciding Who is Human and Who Isn’t

The Bible tells us that humans are created in the image of God, giving us a spiritual nature – a soul. That means all races and sexes of humans are equal. Galatians 3:28 says it well, “you are all one in Christ Jesus.” While that is speaking of Christians, it applies to all humans since anyone can become a Christian. Those who reject belief in God have a harder time deciding who is human and who isn’t.

In the past, people justified slavery based on the claim that certain racial groups were not human and thus could be exploited by those deemed human. People today use the same illogic to justify abortion.

People use various criteria for deciding who is human and who isn’t. For example, when I was a young college student in the 1950s, we were told that the ability to make and use tools was the deciding factor. That teaching was nullified when researchers found that many animals make and use tools. For example, researchers have seen macaques in Phang Nga Bay in Thailand crack nuts with stones and discard sharp flakes, similar to early human tools.

More recently, anthropologists have suggested that the ability to recognize yourself in a mirror is evidence of self-awareness and is a cognitive ability unique to humans. One reason for this interpretation is that chimps and orangutans show they recognize themselves when they look in a mirror. That led to the conclusion that chimps, orangutans, and humans are all one family. However, a recent study of bluestreak cleaner wrasses by cognitive scientists at Osaka Metropolitan University in Japan has shown that these inch-long fish can recognize themselves in a mirror.

When researchers put a parasite-like mark on cleaner wrasses’ throats and allowed the fish to see their reflection in a mirror, they rubbed themselves on rocks to remove the mark. The wrasse could also pick its picture out of four photos that included three other wrasses. It’s essential to point out that self-awareness allows the physical survival of these fish because the wrasses eat parasites off the bodies of other fish. Knowing which fish will seek their help and which will eat them involves recognizing faces. This private awareness is a survival feature God has given them and doesn’t translate to emotions, thoughts, or language.

Humans are unique because of our spiritual nature, created in God’s image. Therefore, other criteria for deciding who is human and who isn’t are doomed to failure.

Reference: Scientific American, June 2023, pages 16 and 19.