science Archives

October 24, 2024October 21, 2024

Superstar Lucy and Anthropology

American Scientist magazine called Lucy “Paleoanthropology’s Superstar.” Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis) is a hominid fossil found in 1974. Paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson named it Lucy because the Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” was being played on the radio that year. Lucy had a brain size of 450 cc. A modern human’s brain is between 950 cc and 1800 cc, depending on sex and location. What is special about superstar Lucy?

Lucy stood about three feet seven inches tall, weighed around 60 pounds, and had a pelvis similar to a chimpanzee. Lucy’s limbs were close to the ratio of a monkey, with the femur and humerus being about the same size. In humans, there is a 2:1 ratio between these two bones. The opening into the skull through which the spinal column sends its messages to the brain is called the foramen magnum. In a human, that opening is centered in the middle of the skull, allowing a normal vertical position. In a monkey, the foramen magnum is in the back of the skull, so vertical standing is difficult. In the case of Lucy, the foramen magnum is not in the center of the skull and not in the very back of the skull. Vertical motion and standing would have been possible, but walking long distances would be difficult.

Graduate students and anthropologists have used superstar Lucy for fundraising, with many getting support for field research. In the 50 years since Lucy’s discovery, researchers have found many other hominid fossils in better condition than Lucy. The theory of human evolution 50 years ago was a tree with something like Lucy at the base. The newer models are that hominoid history is more of a bush than a tree.

So, where do Adam and Eve fit into all of this? The Bible says that man was formed “from the dust of the Earth … and man became a living being”. The Hebrew used here is “nephesh,” which the Hebrew lexicon says means “animal soul.” The passage does not say how long God took to do that or what process He used. We can understand some of what God did by looking at the fossils. What separates the first human is not his body. Our body chemistry is the same as other forms of life. What sets us apart is our creation in God’s image.

Genesis 1:26-27 describes the unique creation of man – not his physical body. “Let US create man in OUR image” refers to the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.” In other words, the image of God refers to our spiritual makeup. It isn’t our brains or our bodies that make us unique and special. All humans are created in God’s image with a spiritual aspect that can last eternally. The physical body will return to the dust from which it came (Genesis 3:19), but our spiritual body (soul) is not subject to the physical laws that govern all other life on Earth.

As anthropologists focus on superstar Lucy, The big question is, “When will we recognize the unique beauty of all humans and stop killing each other?”

— John N. Clayton © 2024
Reference: “Paleoanthropology’s Superstar” in the November/December issue of American Scientist magazine (pages 326 -327).

October 21, 2024October 27, 2024

Sea Robin Design

Small fish in the subfamily Prionotinae are among the most interesting ocean creatures. They are known as sea robins because they have large pectoral fins resembling bird wings. The sea robin design makes them distinctive, and some say, “bizarre.”

Sea robins live off the coasts of the Americas in the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific oceans. In addition to having fins that resemble bird wings, they have limbs like a crab. These legs are covered with tiny protrusions, which are like taste buds that can detect mollusks buried under the sand, allowing them to find food on the ocean floor.

When a northern sea robin (Prionotus carolinus) hatches, it has webbed fins for swimming. As the fish grows, the first three rays of the pectoral fins separate into three individual appendages on each side that can serve as legs for “walking” along the ocean floor. These appendages in northern sea robins can detect chemicals released by prey hidden under the sand. Each of these six “legs” has a large nerve that branches from the massive spinal ganglia to carry information to and from the brain.

The unique sea robin design includes fins to soar like a bird underwater, “legs” to walk on the sea floor and “taste” hidden predators, armor plating, and specialized muscles to generate croaking sounds by drumming on their swim bladder. This is another example of complexity in a life form that is too complex for a chance explanation. Evolutionary theories can explain one of the unique characteristics of the sea robin design, but all of these unique features have to come together to survive.

Controlling the populations of benthic sea creatures and keeping the ocean floor clean of debris requires a unique form of life, and the sea robin design remarkably fills the need. God’s creatures offer an understanding of God’s design wisdom, care, and engineering. Romans 1:19-20 tells us that things like this fish are an apologetic for the existence of God.

— John N. Clayton © 2024
References: Wikipedia and Current Biology

October 16, 2024October 14, 2024

Rivers and Streams Neglected

We take for granted many of the things God has created that our lives depend on. The classic example is neglected rivers and streams. Many rivers have become dumping grounds not only for human waste but for agricultural waste and chemical disposal. Scientific studies have shown us how destructive this is.

One-third of the American population depends on rivers and streams for drinking water. Seventy-five percent of commercial fisheries depend on rivers that run into the oceans or the Great Lakes. These include shrimp, clams, oysters, salmon, walleye, catfish, lake trout, cisco, grunions, and a host of rough fish used for cat food and fertilizer. Rivers and creeks, if adequately cared for, store billions of gallons of water annually. Much of the flooding in America is caused by the neglect of rivers and streams or the misuse of them by straightening, paving the stream bed, or narrowing the stream channel.

The Bible has many references to streams and rivers. The Psalmist pictured rivers as places of retreat and recovery (Psalms 1:3 and 65:9). Rivers and streams were involved in various biblical historical events. The book of Revelation uses rivers to portray the message of God concerning the future. (See Revelation 8:10, 9:14, 16:4, 16:12, and especially 22:1 & 2.) In Acts 16:13-15 we see people gathering at the riverside to worship.

The home of this ministry is located on the edge of the St Joseph River in Michigan. I moved to this area in 1959 to teach science in South Bend. In one course, the students took water samples and studied what the river was like in the past and what it might be like in the future. My students found used toilet paper, dead animals, bottles of chemicals, and rotten food. When a Notre Dame professor joined us, he pointed out that the city cemetery drained into the river. An oxbow lake that was part of the river was the city swimming hole. The professor suggested that the fluids from the cemetery in the water meant,” You are swimming in grandpa’s juices.”

The home where I live in retirement is on the river downstream from all of that. Five cities empty the overflow from their sewage treatment plants into the river. Like most rivers in America, the one I live by carries bacteria, chemicals, waste, and sewage. Rather than identify the human role and clean it up, our culture wants to blame God for the diseases that afflict innocent people.

God gave us rivers and streams as places of beauty and solitude, reflecting God’s creative wisdom. We see muskrats, peregrine falcons, beavers, turtles, deer, eagles, herons, swans, and a host of shoreline birds along the river. They all speak of God’s wisdom and planning and His desire for us to live as He called us to live. Romans 6 gives a great call for all of us. Please read it.

— John N. Clayton © 2024
Reference: american rivers.org

October 11, 2024October 9, 2024

The Beauty of Fall Colors

Fall is my favorite time of year. It is fascinating to watch the wildlife preparing for winter while the biting and stinging insects are suppressed and the night sky is delightfully clear. Here in Michigan, the coming of fall is heralded by a constant flow of colors. We begin with brilliant red sumac followed by crimson poison ivy wrapping itself around the still-green oaks and maples. As fall progresses, the maples and other species gradually change their colors, then the leaves begin to fall, and frost starts showing up. The beauty of fall colors in Michigan is astounding.

From a scientific perspective, we know how this system works. The chemical that gives green color to plants in the summer is chlorophyll-A. Chlorophyll allows plants to absorb energy mainly in the red and blue parts of the spectrum but very little in the green. Green is the highest energy of sunlight reaching Earth’s surface, and the leaves reflect green, preventing them from being burned by the summer sunlight. As the Sun’s angle becomes less, the green wavelengths are refracted away from Earth’s surface, reducing the chloroplasts in plant cells. In short, that means the chlorophyll is gone, and the green color goes away. We see the beauty of fall colors in the true colors of the leaves. Since each plant has a different chemical makeup in its leaves, each has its own color.

The chemistry of chlorophyll is highly complex, but the bottom line is that in the fall, chlorophyll no longer gives leaves their green color. Why is the system designed like this? Why is sumac different from hard maples, which are different from sugar maples, which are different from oaks? It seems that one chemical formula would work for all plants, making such a complex system unnecessary.

As I sit here writing this and admiring the beauty of fall colors, it seems that in spite of my science background, I feel I am looking at a wonderful painting by an artist applying a palette of colors with an eye for beauty. “Survival of the fittest” does not explain beauty and color, especially when other alternatives are available. It is also essential to understand that seeing the beautiful color of fall is something our eyes are designed to do.

Most animals do not see color and those that do use color as a survival device. Human eyes are designed to perceive color, and we are designed to appreciate and enjoy beauty. Take time to look for the colors around you, and know that they speak of God’s handiwork to bring something good into our lives.

October 10, 2024October 9, 2024

Should Humans Eat Meat?

One of the questions we face today is, “Should humans eat meat?” Genesis 9:1-3 tells us, “Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.’”

The atheist view is that we are just animals and nothing special. One issue of Skeptic magazine centered around animal rights and whether animals have the same rights as humans. The issue showed the impressive intelligence of ants, crows, octopuses, dolphins, goats, and turtles. Atheists typically jump from intelligence to animal rights and conclude that it is unethical for humans to eat animals and that we should consider the rights that animals have. One authority used in the atheist view is Peter Singer at Princeton University. He wrote “Animal Liberation,” often called “the bible of the animal rights movement.” Animal rights advocates argue that all human foods should be plant-based and that killing animals for food is a barbaric tradition that needs to stop.

There are major logical and factual problems with this view. Should humans eat meat? Is the intelligent behaior of animals the result of their thinking things out and acting on their thoughts, or is instinct the driving force? Is it a thought process or copying an observed behavior? Do crows, for example, take the lid off of a bottle because they figured out how to do it, or are they copying what they have seen humans do?

Another vital question is the result of restrictive diets: How will the human population survive if eating meat is no longer allowed? Getting enough protein and other crucial nutrients from plants for the world’s population is a significant challenge today. The problem would greatly increase without meat in the diet. We cannot overemphasize the importance of not causing pain to any of God’s creatures, but removing meat from everyone’s diet will cause more problems than it will solve.

“Should humans eat meat?” becomes a question because the atheist view fails to recognize that humans are unique because we are created in God’s image.

— John N. Clayton © 2024
Reference: Skeptic magazine (Volume 29 #3) “Animal Minds – What do they think?”

October 8, 2024October 8, 2024

Life in Balance is Good

When God created and populated the Earth, he ensured everything was balanced. Genesis 1 describes the creation. After referencing the formation of life forms in verse 24, verse 25 concludes with “..and God saw that it was good.” Verses 26-31 describe the creation of humans and their relationship to vegetation and animal life. The chapter concludes by saying, “And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was VERY good.” God’s design in the natural world keeps life in balance.

Herbivores eat plants, keeping them in balance by spreading the seeds for more plants to grow. Carnivores keep the herbivore life in balance by feeding on the weak and old ones, preventing plants from being over-eaten. This simplified description of balance is evident in wild places worldwide. We have too often seen humans upset that balance. Selfishness, greed, ignorance, and power struggles have contaminated what was “very good” when God turned it over to humans to care for (Genesis 2:15).

Natural life in balance is excellent evidence of God’s design and wisdom in the creation. We can see what happens when humans upset that balance in these examples:

1) In the 1980s, Pablo Escobar, a Columbian drug lord, brought four hippos into the ecosystem. With no predators to control them, that number is 130 in 2024 and estimated to become 1400 by 2034. The estimated cost of removing the hippos is some 24 million dollars. With no natural enemies, the hippos have become a hazard to the people of Columbia.

2) In 1946, Argentina imported ten breeding pairs of beavers from North America, hoping to establish a fur industry. There are now roughly 100,000 beavers in Argentina, and they have decimated the native trees and built dams that have flooded forests and killed many native animal species.

3) In the 1970s, having a pet Burmese python was popular in Florida and became a raging business in Miami. When Hurricane Andrew ripped through Florida in 1992, hundreds of Burmese pythons escaped a reptile breeding facility. Today, tens of thousands of these snakes inhabit the Everglades. They can reach 20 feet long, weigh 200 pounds, eat just about anything, and spread parasites

These are just three examples of what happens when humans upset the balance that God built into the ecosystems of planet Earth. Finding a way to return the planet to life in balance as God made it is a massive challenge to biologists and wildlife managers. Human knowledge and understanding are very limited compared to God’s creative wisdom, which we see everywhere. To deny God’s existence and design requires more faith than any religious belief system.

— John N. Clayton © 2024
References: National Wildlife Federation, Fall 2024, pp 22-39, The Week, October 4, 2024, page 16, and Wikipedia.

October 3, 2024October 1, 2024

Neurons in Your Brain and AI

You can see an obvious example of God’s creation design by looking in a mirror. Everything you see and experience is due to neurons in your brain, messengers that use electrical and chemical signals to convey information, allowing you to live. Neurons carry data to different parts of your brain, spinal cord, and your whole body. Just trying to grasp the number and functional complexity of neurons is beyond human thinking. In one cubic millimeter of the human brain, a single neuron connects with 5600 nerve fibers, and our whole body contains 86 billion neurons that form 100 trillion connections.

Julie Polter, writing in Sojourners magazine (August 2024, pages 9-10), calls our attention to the fact that when we hold a baby and look into those sparkling eyes, “we become acquainted with tiny beings who are also full, unique people.” She goes on to say that “the neural pathways in a baby or toddler’s brain multiply when given loving attention and interaction from the people around them.”

We hear all the concerns about robots and artificial intelligence (AI), which is intelligence exhibited by computer systems. How can AI exist? Would anyone suggest it is some accident and just a product of chance? AI is limited in what it can do because it is relatively simple compared to the neurons in your brain. You are not an accident and not the product of blind chance.

Looking in the mirror and thinking about how special and unique every human being is, we see God’s design in an undeniable form. Jesus called His followers to recognize this special creation and love (agape) our enemies. Even though we may struggle to understand what others do, we know they are a product of God’s design. They can do wonderful things if they allow God to use them for the purpose He created them to accomplish.

— John N. Clayton © 2024
References: Harvard Medical School and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke on their websites

September 30, 2024September 29, 2024

Caterpillars Appear to Be Defenseless

Most of us know that caterpillars are a significant part of life on our planet. They are a stage in many insects’ lives and a substantial food for many other life forms. Most caterpillars appear defenseless, so you might assume they are in danger of being wiped out, meaning there would be no more butterflies and moths.

Some caterpillars, such as those for monarch butterflies, have a poison defense. However, recent research has shown that caterpillars are not as helpless as we might think. They are designed with a defense mechanism called “electroreception,” which allows them to avoid being eaten by predator wasps.

The caterpillar can use the bristles that cover its body to detect the faint electric field generated by the wasp’s wing beats. Once it detects the presence of a wasp, the caterpillar assumes a defensive mode. It may remain coiled up with the bristles facing outward or even enter a biting defense.

Electroreception is common in aquatic animals, but this is the first time this predator-prey interaction has been recorded in land creatures. While most caterpillars appear to be defenseless, like all living things, they are carefully designed to have what they need to survive and prosper.