Jungle Fungus Fighter

Creation Moments

Jungle Fungus Fighter

December 10, 2024 • Ian Taylor

Throughout the open markets of Kenya, shopkeepers sell leaves and strips of bark from the warburgia bush. The leaves and bark are used to relieve toothaches, fevers, constipation, and the taste of meat gone slightly sour. Medical researchers have been examining extracts from the bush for use with antibiotics.

The immune system of a healthy person will keep fungal infections under control quite easily. When the immune system has been weakened by illness, however, heavy doses of antibiotics, chemotherapy are needed because fungal infections can be life-threatening.

Researchers discovered that two extracts from the warburgia bush can boost the effects of antibiotics. One of the extracts, coupled with an antibiotic used against yeast cells, resulted in a treatment that was 16 times more powerful than the antibiotic alone. Warburgia extracts also boosted antibiotics’ effects against various fungal infections, including the fungus that causes athlete’s foot.

How many medicines has our Creator hidden in the plants of the earth for us to discover? We can thank Him that, in His mercy, He has provided so many earthly remedies for the disease that has resulted because of sin. What is more important, however, is that we can thank Him for the forgiveness of sins that was won by Christ for us in His suffering and death.

Matthew 16:26

“For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”

Prayer: Thank You, Father, for Your generous gifts that have helped us reverse some of the earthly effects of sin. Bless our researchers as they continue to search for more medicines. However, help me always remember to look to Christ for the ultimate, permanent solution to my sin. In His Name. Amen.

Notes: Photo: Streets of Africa, Envato.

A Fish Story

December 11, 2024 • Ian Taylor

School biology textbooks offer students good facts but often bad interpretation of those facts. For example, when explaining how fish evolved into air-breathing land animals, students are usually offered a great deal of misinformation about living and extinct fish. It is not true that lungfish are an odd class of fish and that no other fish have lungs – many do, and some have lungs as well as gills. The textbook explanation says that all early fish had air-filled swim bladders, as most fish do today. The textbooks go on to say that the bladders in some of these fish eventually evolved into lungs. Then, as these fish spent more time on land, some of them gradually lost their gills and developed from amphibians into reptiles. The facts are shown in the fossil record where, according to evolutionists’ own inflated system of dating, lungs actually appeared in fish before swim bladders! A logical evolutionist would have to conclude that the fish’s air bladder evolved from lungs. The problem for evolutionists is that this is precisely opposite of what they need for the theory. If we telescope the evolutionary years into historical years, however, the fossil record agrees with Scripture. In other words, fish with lungs and fish with swim-bladders both appeared on day five of creation. The lesson for us here is that when science tells the truth, it actually confirms those seemingly simple statements found in the Bible. Genesis 1:20 “And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl [that] may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.” Prayer: Dear Lord, I thank You that among the din of man’s mistaken opinions, I have trustworthy knowledge available in Your Word. Increase my resolve to learn and apply Your Word so that I am not so easily misled by man’s mistaken opinions. Amen. Notes: Joachim Vetter. “Something fishy about lungs.” Creation ExNihilo, Vol. 14 No. 1, pp. 46-47. Photo: Fossil of fish, Envato.

Moth Talk

December 9, 2024 • Ian Taylor

Scientists are learning that there is much more going on among those moths that flutter around your yard light than they ever expected. Scientists have long known that moths communicate with each other, using hormones called pheromones. A female moth who is ready to mate will send a pheromone into the air. Males who sense the pheromone will seek out the female. Research now shows that the moths’ system is much more elegant than this. The female who wants to contact a male doesn’t simply send out a scented invitation. Rather, she releases her pheromones in a series of pulses. These pulses are released at the rate of from one to more than two pulses per second. Scientists used powder to study the pulses. To their surprise, they discovered that the pulses can be propelled for up to a meter. That’s equivalent to you being able to blow out a candle from 60 feet away! These pulses had researchers puzzled. Then they realized that the pulses would help male moths locate a female as they were drawn near by the scent of the pheromone. This seems to be confirmed by the fact that the male’s antennae send a signal to its brain that has the same frequency as the female’s pulses. The creation shows much more than design. Each of the details of the creation have the elegant intricacy of a master Designer. This is, in part, what St. Paul refers to when he writes that the very Godhead of the Creator can be seen in the creation. 1 Corinthians 15:28 “And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.” Prayer: Father in heaven, I admire and thank You for the excellence of Your workmanship in the creation. As I do my daily tasks, help me to take care to put the best workmanship into my work so that You will be glorified in everything I do. In Jesus’ Name. Amen. Notes: “Smoke Puffs for Sexual Communication.” Science News, Vol 25, #25, June 23, p. 393. Photo: Eyed hawk moth, Envato.

Intelligent Artists

December 6, 2024 • Ian Taylor

The ancient, yet beautiful, paintings in the Lascaux cave in France were discovered more than 80 years ago. The paintings are thousands of years old and there seems to be no other record of the painters. In those 80 years, researchers studying the paintings have deepened their admiration for the intelligence and skill of the artists. Researchers have found the scaffolding used by the artists as well as the stone lamps they used to light the work area. The palettes and even the pigments still on the palettes have also been found. Using scanning electron microscopes and other high-tech equipment, researchers learned that the artists collected a range of local minerals. Mineral deposits within 15 kilometers of the cave were able to provide a full range of colors. The minerals were ground into fine powder and mixed to create pigmented paints that hold their color and beauty to this day. As we look around the creation, we can clearly see that our Creator has a love for beauty. When He made us, He gave that appreciation for beauty to us as well. However, in our day we have also seen how man’s rebellion against God can twist art into ugliness and evil. Christians today need to face the question of what is art and what isn’t. As we do this, we can ask ourselves whether a given piece of art reflects our Creator’s love of beauty, or whether it reflects the ugliness of man’s sin and rebellion against his Creator. Psalm 90:17 “And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.” Prayer: Lord, I thank You for the beauty that surrounds us in Your creation. Increase the appreciation for true art that reflects Your love of beauty among Your people, and deliver us from art that reflects the ugliness of man’s sin. Amen. Notes: Ivars Peterson. “Pigment Processing for Cave Paintings.” Science News, Vol. 125, p. 348. Photo: Lascaux cave painting, EUX, PD.