bioluminescence Archives - DOES GOD EXIST? TODAY

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

January 25, 2021January 24, 2021

Squid Communication by Bioluminescence

Several Bible passages encourage us to look at the creation around us and know there is a God by what He has made. Romans 1:20 says, “For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” We can see the power and nature of God by looking at the things in the natural world all around us. One of those things is squid communication by bioluminescence.

Humboldt squid (Dosidicus gigas) living 1500 feet (457 m) below the ocean’s surface in total darkness hunt for food in groups. These are big animals averaging six feet (1.8 m) long, but they don’t bump into each other. Recent research has shown that Humboldt squid use squid communication by bioluminescence. The squid have small light-producing organs in their muscle tissue, and they can convey information by changing the pigmentation pattern.

Scientists from Stanford University and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute say that what these squid do is similar to humans using turn signals in traffic. But even more than that, they can use changes in pigmentation patterns in a way similar to how humans arrange words in a sentence. Ben Buford of Stanford says that this is an example of a complicated form of animal communication never seen before in deep-sea creatures.

The more we learn about creation, the more we see complexity and design that speaks of a Creator who built into every animal the tools for survival. Squid communication by bioluminescence is just one more evidence of design. Indeed we can know there is a God through the things He has made.

Reference: National Wildlife magazine, February/March 2021, page 8.

September 27, 2019September 26, 2019

Ghostly Seadevil Finds a Mate in the Dark

More than a mile (2250 meters) below the ocean, there is a world of darkness. Finding a mate in that dark place could be a challenge, but a species of anglerfish with the scientific name Haplophryne mollis has the problem solved. The solution is to keep your mate permanently attached. The so-called ghostly seadevil finds a mate in the dark and doesn’t let go.

The female sends out pheromones, chemicals which attract the males. The males, which are much smaller than the females, have a keen sense of smell to detect the pheromones in the water. Ghostly seadevils are called anglerfish because they have a “fishing lure” in front of their face to attract other fish which they eat. In the case of the ghostly seadevil, only the female has the lure, and it’s bioluminescent, meaning that it glows in the dark.

Once the male has detected the pheromone, he looks for the glowing lure. He examines the shape, color pattern, and flash pattern of the lure to tell if this is a female of his same species. If it is, he clamps onto her with his teeth and doesn’t let go. Eventually, their skin grows together, and their blood vessels join. She provides his nourishment, and he fertilizes the eggs which she lays. The eggs float upward to the ocean’s surface where they hatch, and the larvae feed on plankton. As they mature, the seadevils migrate back down into the ocean depths and repeat the cycle of life.

This is a drawing because pictures are hard to get in the dark ocean. In this case, you can see that two males have attached themselves. You can also see the bioluminescent lure on the front of the female fish’s head, and that’s how the ghostly seadevil finds a mate in the dark. They have a “ghostly” appearance because their bodies are translucent like many creatures living in darkness. This cycle of life seems strange, but it has too many coincidences to be accidental. We think it shows the creativity of the God who designed life to survive everywhere on Earth.
— Roland Earnst © 2019

June 2, 2019May 30, 2019

Romantic Get-Away Inside a Sponge

Venus flower basket
The Venus’ flower basket (Euplectella aspergillum) is a deep ocean sponge with fascinating properties and an unusual symbiotic relationship with a pair of crustaceans. We call it a romantic get-away inside a sponge.

The Venus’ flower basket is classified as a glass sponge because its body is made of silica, which is chemically the same as glass. The silica fibers are woven together to make a hollow, cylindrical vase-like structure. The fibers form a fine mesh which is rigid and strong enough to survive deep underwater. The picture shows a Venus’ flower basket more than 8400 feet (2572 meters) under the ocean’s surface.

Glassy fibers thin as a human hair but more flexible and sturdier than human-made optical fibers attach the sponge to the ocean floor. The sponge forms the fibers at ocean temperatures while human-made glass fibers require high-temperature furnaces to melt the glass. Human-made fibers are brittle while the sponge’s fibers are more flexible. Scientists are studying these sponges to find ways to make better fiber-optic cables.

We think it’s amazing that the Venus’ flower basket lights its fibers using bioluminescence to attract prey. Even more interesting to us is the symbiotic relationship these sponges have with some crustaceans called Stenopodidea. The Venus’ flower basket holds captive two of those small shrimp-like creatures, one male and one female, inside the sponge’s hollow mesh tube. The captive creatures clean the flower basket by eating the tiny organisms attracted by the sponge’s light and consume any waste the sponge leaves. The sponge provides the crustaceans with protection from predators.

As the crustaceans spawn, their offspring are small enough to escape from the basket and find their own sponge-home where they grow until they are trapped. Because a pair of crustaceans spend their lives together inside the sponge, Asian cultures sometimes use a dried Venus’ flower basket as a wedding gift to symbolize “till death do us part.”

The Venus’ flower basket and the crustaceans benefit each other by mutual cooperation, which we call symbiosis. One more thing, the bioluminescence comes from bacteria that the sponge collects. This amazing three-way partnership occurs deep under the ocean where humans have only recently explored. We think this romantic get-away inside a sponge is another evidence of Divine design, not chance mutations.
— Roland Earnst © 2019