Crystalline Silk

Creation Moments

Crystalline Silk

December 5, 2024 • Ian Taylor

Scientists have been studying the safety line used by the common garden spider to save itself when falling. This safety line is as strong as nylon and has twice as much stretch.

The drag line silk is only one of several kinds that the spider can make. Scientists report that the silk is made of sections that are crystalline and sections that are like rubber. This makes it both stretchy and strong. Amazed chemists note that usually when you make something stronger, you also make it more likely to break rather than stretch. Since spider silk is twice as strong as silkworm silk, why hasn’t it been used to make more things?

To harvest enough spider silk for study, scientists place a spider on a piece of cardboard. Then they bump the spider off the cardboard. As the spider makes the drag line silk, a scientist turns the cardboard to reel it in. One spider made half-a-mile of silk in ten minutes! This fact might give you a hint about why spider silk isn’t used to manufacture items. It’s too fine. In the early eighteenth century, an inventor did make gloves and stockings from spider silk. However, his experience showed that it would take more than half a million spiders to make a pound of silk!

The spider and its silk are engineering marvels that clearly show why we must rely on a Creator to explain the world in which we live.

2 Corinthians 4:7

“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.”

Prayer: Lord, I thank You for the intricate wonders that surround me in Your creation. As I do my tasks, help me to put my best workmanship into them. Help me to do everything as my best offering to You. Amen.

Notes: J. A. Miller. “Spider Silk Stretch and Strength.” Science News, Vol 125, #25, June 23, p. 391. Photo: Yellow garden spider, Envato.

The Dynamic Rainforest

December 24, 2024 • Ian Taylor

The environmental movement has rightfully shown concern about the South American rainforest. While it is true that the entire rainforest system is a delicately balanced harmony of thousands of subsystems, it is generally believed that it has taken millions of years to evolve. After all, each living thing forms part of the environment for other living things so that adaptation is a dynamic process seemingly taking much longer than might be imagined. This is why the rainforest is spoken of as being a fragile ecosystem. Anthropologist Anna Roosevelt of the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, has found, in Brazil, the oldest evidence of pottery in the Americas. The site where the pottery was found supported a large and industrious population. Roosevelt points out that the descendants of these ancient peoples conquered large parts of South and Central America. They cleared rainforests, built cities and spread their culture and industry. After the invasion of the Europeans in the 1500s, these cultures died out and the rainforests again took over. Thus, today’s rainforests are likely only a few hundred years old, meaning that it has not taken millions of years of adaptation. While we are not advocating greedy exploitation of the rainforest, it would seem from previous history that the most fragile element of the ecosystem is not the plants and animals but the indigenous human populations. Psalm 50:10-11 “For every beast of the forest [is] mine, [and] the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field [are] mine.” Prayer: I thank You, Father, that You have so wisely made the creation able to cope with a range of changing conditions. Help our knowledge of Your work of creation grow so that we may not abuse Your creation by either misuse or under-use. In Jesus’ Name. Amen. Photo: Marajoara culture funerary urn, São Paulo Museum of Art CC BY SA 4.0, Wikimedia-Commons, Changes Made.

Clouds of Beauty

December 23, 2024 • Ian Taylor

The painted lady butterfly gets its name from the beautiful design in orange, black and white on its wings, which average about two and a half inches in full span. Every year, millions of these little creatures are seen in full migration. The painted lady is the most widespread of all species of butterfly. It is found in Asia, Africa and South America. The species familiar to North Americans migrates from Mexico all the way to Canada. This is a one-way trip because the female butterfly lays her eggs in Mexico, then migrates to Canada, where she eventually dies. In some way the following year, each newly hatched butterfly in Mexico knows exactly when and where to migrate, but this is one of the great mysteries of migration. Some years there are more painted lady butterflies than others, and Dennis Murphy, director of the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University, has pointed out that the migrating population can be a thousand times greater in an exceptional year compared to normal years. Dr. Murphy believes that these unusually large populations are the result of drought conditions that also produce a greater crop of weedy thistles. The painted lady butterflies live on these thistles and never threaten any other crop. God’s design of the painted lady butterfly bears witness to His work as an artistic Creator who paints the landscape for thousands of miles with these beautiful creatures and a logical Creator who maintains the balance of nature. 1 Peter 3:3-4 “Whose adorning let it not be that outward [adorning] of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; But [let it be] the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, [even the ornament] of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.” Prayer: I thank You, Lord, for the lavish beauty You have created and shared so generously with all, rich or poor. Help me to be better able to share the beauty of Your salvation with those whose lives I touch. Amen. Photo: Painted lady butterfly, Envato.

The Miracle of Hearing

December 20, 2024 • Ian Taylor

Your high school biology textbook may have given you the idea that modern science understands how hearing works. While science understands the general principles, researchers are still trying to understand the details. Hearing starts with the skin and cartilage on the outside of our heads that we call the ear. This tissue is carefully designed to collect sound waves and focus them into the hole in the lower center part of the external ear. That hole is a tube that runs for about an inch to the eardrum. As the eardrum vibrates with the incoming sound, tiny specialized bones pick up the vibrations. One of these bones changes the vibrations into hydraulic pressure. The sound, now converted to hydraulic pressure, is sent to the cochlea. This coiled, bony canal is lined with tissue that has four long rows of hair cells. A vibration as small as the width of an atom will move these hairs. Each movement of the hair causes a change in the electrical potential of the hair cell’s membrane. This change triggers a current that is fed to the auditory nerve and interpreted as sound by the brain. Each of the hairs in the ear responds best to a specific frequency. The ability to hear could have been engineered using a much less complex design. Such a design, however, would leave us unable to hear the subtleties of an orchestra or a bird’s song. Our Creator is not only capable of excellent workmanship, but also generous in His creation. 2 Samuel 22:50 “Therefore I will give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen, and I will sing praises unto thy name.” Prayer: I thank You, dear Father, for the richness of the sounds in Your creation. Let my voice praise You and tell others of Your wondrous works, especially the salvation You have prepared through the forgiveness of sins through Your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen. Photo: Doctor with human Ear anatomy model, Envato.