Water expands when it freezes, unlike most other substances.

Ice and snow take up more

volume than the same amount of liquid water. This makes water denser as a liquid than
when frozen, so ice floats.

If ice did not float on the surface of the water, the floors of oceans and lakes would be
covered with glaciers of ice that would never melt. Surface ice also helps regulate the
climate by reflecting energy.

As a liquid, water’s temperature range is perfect for cycling water from the oceans to the
land. Water requires a lot of energy to evaporate into a vapor and it releases this energy
when it condenses back into liquid. This balances temperatures in the earth’s climate, as
well as inside living cells. If less energy were required for evaporation, then streams, rivers,
and lakes would evaporate away quickly.

If the earth had a thinner atmosphere, our planet would be hit with incoming rocks and
harmful radiation. Mercury, Pluto, and the moon have almost no air at all. Their surfaces are
scarred with craters from the impacts of giant boulders, little pebbles, and small grains of
sand. The surfaces of these planets are very hot when facing the sun and very cold when
facing away. If earth had a thicker atmosphere, our planet would be boiling hot. The weight
of the atmosphere on Venus and the "gas giant" planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and
Neptune) is very heavy. On Venus, for instance, the surface pressure is 90 times that of
earth! The surface pressure of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are even higher.

Earth has the right mixture of nitrogen and oxygen in its atmosphere. Venus and the gas
giants have the wrong kind of gases for humans (or any other life forms) to survive there.
Venus is mostly carbon dioxide. The gas giants are mostly hydrogen and helium. The other
planets have little or no "air" at all. Truly, the very air we breathe is an invisible yet universal
witness to God's protective providence.

Sunlight reaches us through our transparent atmosphere. Even though we can see through
it, our atmosphere is also a filter. It allows in the sun's radiation that is useful to life, but
blocks the radiation that is harmful to life. Only a fraction of the radio waves and some of the
visible light and infrared radiations are blocked, but almost all of the harmful ultraviolet
rays, x-rays and gamma rays never reach us.

We have been given an atmosphere that protects us. It provides just the right amount of air
and warmth we need. It allows the sunlight to reach the plants that feed us. Our transparent
atmosphere not only protects us, but it allows us to the see the stars and wonder at the
heavens. The question is: are these marvelous devices merely accidents, or are they
evidence of incredible design by a Creator?
 Examples of design
A couple examples of design in nature could be described. Two examples are described
below, one based on the argument from improbability and one based on the argument
from irreducible complexity.

Example 1. The Earth differs from other planets in ways that permit life to exist. If any
of these conditions were not present, life as we know it could not exist on Earth. For
example, Earth’s atmospheric composition is unique among planets in our solar system.
Carbon dioxide dominates the atmospheres of the other close planets, with little oxygen
or nitrogen. The opposite condition occurs on Earth, making it possible for life to exist
on Earth but not on the other planets. This is another example of an argument from
improbability. The rather precise conditions of temperature range, moisture,
atmospheric composition, etc., seem most reasonably explained as the result of design
rather than chance, even though we do not have enough information to calculate
probabilities.
Example 2. The cilium (pl. cilia) is a microscopic, hair-like structure that is part of a cell.
Cilia wave back and forth rapidly, moving either themselves or the medium around
them. Certain protozoa use cilia for locomotion through water, in a fashion analogous to
oars on a boat. Cilia line the respiratory tracts of mammals, where their motion moves
foreign particles upward toward the mouth.
A cilium consists of a bundle of microtubules held together in a special way. The
microtubules are made of a molecule called tubulin. The microtubules are linked
together by a stretchy molecule called nexin. Molecules of a protein called dynein extend
between microtubules. One end of the dynein molecule holds fast to one microtubule
while the other end walks up an adjacent microtubule. The microtubules would slide
past each other, but are prevented by the nexin connections. The resulting tension
causes the cilium to bend. Removal of the tubulin would destroy the cilium. Removal of
the nexin would cause the cilium to fall apart. Removal of the dynein would destroy the
ability to move. These three proteins form an irreducibly complex system. Intelligent
design is the best explanation for such systems.
In reality, a cilium contains at least two hundred different types of molecules. Some of
these molecules might not be required, or could be added one at a time. It is not
necessary that the irreducible complexity of the cilium extend to every type of molecule.
If any part of it is irreducibly complex, it violates Darwins hypothesis, and is evidence of
design.

Affirmations of God’s Existence from

Design in Nature
by Dr. Jerry Bergman on October 17, 2012
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Abstract
This paper reviews several examples where humans have copied designs and
innovations found in nature. The examples illustrate the fact that a fertile source
of ideas for human innovations is the natural world. It also illustrates the fact that
one of the major reasons for belief in God is the beauty, design, and ingenuity
found everywhere in the natural world.

Introduction
Humanity has some impressive accomplishments in science, technology, the arts, and
music. The technological wonders of the last century have radically changed our world
and benefit us all enormously. While basking in our accomplishments, though, it
behooves us to acknowledge the fact that we have used the design found everywhere in
the world God created as the source for many of our achievements (Forbes 2006).

The main pursuit of scientists and students of nature is to read the “book of nature” that
God wrote.1 Most scientists spend their lifetime studying and learning from the wisdom
displayed everywhere in creation (French 1988). These “lessons from nature” have
inspired a new academic discipline called bioinspiration,meaning gaining inspiration
from the natural world, or biomimetics, mimicking the natural world, often shortened
to bionics (Allen 2010, p. 8; Bhushan 2007, p. 6). In short. bionics is the study of God’s
design in order to solve scientific and engineering problems.
Most inventions, from airplane flight to Velcro®, were in some way inspired by the
natural world (Forbes 2006). Swiss engineer, George de Miestral, obtained the idea for
Velcro from observing the burrs that stuck to his dog’s fur. Upon examination with a
microscope he discovered the little hooks on the burrs that attached to the dog’s fur
(Challoner 2009, p. 733).
Humans are not the originators of the physical world, but often imperfectly copy it. In the
fields of “engineering, chemistry, ballistics, aerodynamics—in fact in almost every area
of human endeavor—nature has been there first” and the natural world God made is
“infinitely more economical of resources and generally superior in performance” (Paturi
1976, p. 1). A few examples of this will eloquently illustrate the validity of this
observation. The fact that “nature” invented many innovations first has long been
recognized by scientists (Martin 1933, p. 14). This paper reviews only a few of the great
numbers of examples to illustrate this fact.

Butterfly-inspired Design of Thermal Imaging

Devices

Read more about butterflies in Kids AnswersMagazine from Answers Magazine.

The study of Morpho butterfly scales has allowed scientists to take heat detection to a
new level of both sensitivity and speed (Jarvis 2012, p. 1). Existing infrared detectors
require complex microfabrication and heat management technology (Pris, et al. 2012).
Thermal imaging is used to detect heat variations in a wide variety of industrial, medical
and military applications today, such as thermal vision goggles that allow soldiers to see
at night with a high level of detail.
Study of the design of iridescent Morpho butterfly scales has given scientists insight into
new and better thermal imaging systems. In these “resonators the optical cavity is
modulated by thermal expansion and refractive index changes, causing wavelength
conversion from invisible infrared to visible light” (Pris 2012, p. 1). Insight from the
wing scale design has allowed significant advances in existing detectors.
Wonder Materials from Nature
Harvard researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have
created a tough, low-cost, biodegradable material inspired by insects’ hard outer shells.
The material’s inventors say it has numerous applications and could provide a more
environmentally friendly alternative to plastic. The new material is made from shrimp
shells and proteins derived from silk called “shrilk.”

This clear, flexible, light material is as strong as aluminum twice its weight. Shrilk has
enormous potential because chitin is one of the most abundant materials in nature found
in everything from shrimp, snail, and clam shells to insect bodies. Thus, shrilk is not only
low cost, but also can be used in applications demanding a lot of material.

Shrilk not only degrades in a landfill, but its basic components can be used as fertilizer.
Instead of blindly combining the materials, the researchers looked to what they call
“nature” to see not just what materials were used, but how. Fibroin, a protein derived
from silk, and chitin, a a long-chain polymer of a N-acetylglucosamine, a glucose
derivative, in an insect’s exoskeleton are layered, creating a stiff type of design, much
like plywood. By mimicking nature’s design of layering the chitin and fibrous proteins,
shrilk was created. The structural properties in nature are not chemistry only, but are also
the result of the architectural design employed in their assembly.

Bionic Science and Flight

Read more about the shark from The Aquarium Guide.

The many modern fruits of bionics includes flight (Allen 2010; Piotrowski 1987). This
science is not new: early humans built water dams after watching beavers. German
scientists modeled their first jet plane after the shark’s efficient body design that allows it
to rapidly travel through the water. Early jet planes were even painted to look like sharks.
Siepen put it well, “man still has much to learn from birds about flying. Men shape their
planes like birds and soar in imitation of them, but tailspins and other calamities
unknown to birds are inseparable from man’s adventures in an element not his own, be he
ever so skillful” (Siepen 1929, p. 767). Ever hear of a bird crashing to the earth due to
wind shear or ice? Even though we have copied birds, we have a long way to go before
our copy is perfected to a level to equal the abilities of birds and other flying creatures.
Many creatures are designed to run, fly, glide, and even parachute to the ground; all
engineering marvels that humans have now effectively copied. Airplanes require
ingenious feats of engineering, but, compared to birds, they are poorly maneuverable.
The idea of flying first came from birds, and flying improvements were also inspired by
various flying creatures.

Read more about the owl from The Zoo Guide.

Dragonflies can carry as much as fifteen times their own weight as they travel though the
air, yet most high performance aircraft cannot lift much more than their own weight.
Intrigued, scientists studied dragonfly wings and found that they function by generating
lift as a result of producing an airflow “whirlwind.” Efforts are now being made to apply
this principle to aircraft by designing wings that produce greater lift by “whirling the air”
(Allen 2010, p. 116–117; Yulsman 1984, p. 87).

Owls use special curved feathers on the front row of their wings that change the direction
of the air as it flows past, allowing them to fly at slower speeds than most other birds.
Slower flight is also quieter—obviously of great value in hunting prey at night. Owls can
sneak up on small game, such as rabbits and mice, with nary a whisper and frisk away
what will shortly become a meal. For this reason, the study of owl flight has had a major
influence on airplane and helicopter design, enabling them to not only fly faster in normal
air travel, but also to fly at much slower speeds. The advantages are enormous: a few of
the more obvious ones include less noise, shorter runways, and less costly airports.

Read more about the octopus from The Aquarium Guide.

We are very impressed with our modern, efficient jet engines, but octopi have effectively
used jet-like propulsion millennia before us. Their system expand a muscular “sack” in
their streamlined body to suck water in, then vigorously contract it to force a water jet
spray out of a small, well-designed opening with enough force to propel them forward.
Alternate expansion and contraction of their muscular sacks have effectively jet-propelled
octopuses through their watery world for millennia (Cousteau 1973).

The Science of Navigation

Human navigational experts have reached a level of technology that enables us to
accurately sail across an ocean to reach a minuscule island, yet birds can migrate for
many thousands of miles with such accuracy that they land on the same nesting sites each
year (Baker 1980). The complex navigational equipment that comes “standard” in a
bird’s head to achieve this feat weighs next to nothing. We have, so far, only imperfectly
copied their system; our airplanes use navigation equipment that can weigh a ton and cost
a fortune.

Humans have discovered numerous ways of detecting magnetic fields that we have put to
use in thousands of ways. Yet, research has found many animals possess a sixth sense,
namely magnetic field sensitivity, which they use for such purposes as a backup
navigation system (Baker 1980; University of Illinois 2009). Bees expertly use the sun as
a compass to make navigational calculations. At night, or on very cloudy days, they rely
on extensive patterns of polarized sky light. And when those patterns are blocked or
abbreviated by clouds, bees utilize a third, noncelestial reference system to guide them to
their home—the earth’s magnetic field.

Echo Location Systems

Humans have developed radar and sonar systems to guide their planes safely through fog
and their ships through water. We have even bounced signals off the moon to learn about
its surface. Bats have been effectively using the miracle of the modern science of radar
echo location for millennia. Setting blindfolded bats loose in a dark room that was strung
with many fine, silken threads revealed that they could effortlessly dart about without
striking or breaking a single thread (Turner 1975).

Read more about the bat from The Zoo Guide.

Experiments on bats were first carried out in 1793 by the Italian monk, physiologist
Lazzaro Spallanzani, who confirmed that bats were using sonar because they flew around
in confused patterns if one ear was plugged (Munch 1974, p. 104). We now know that
bats use ultrasonic vibrations that range from 12 to 120 kilohertz (humans hear from 20
to 20,000 hertz, a fraction of what bats use). Bats emit as many as sixty supersonic sound
pulses each second that strike objects and bounce back to their ears. An accurate measure
of the time required for the echo to return is used by the bats to calculate the location of
objects. More amazingly, when bats send out their signals their ear muscles automatically
shut off their hearing so that their radar picks up only the guiding echoes (Turner 1975).

Bats are not the only animals with this ability. The oil bird of South America is a cave
dweller that effectively navigates around its dark world by emitting tones in the range of
6 to 12 kilohertz. So that the animal is not confused by the normal background cave echo,
the waves they produce are much longer than those produced by most cave-dwelling
insects.

Read more about the dolphin from The Aquarium Guide.

The echolocation system used by dolphins allows them to be as skillful in water as bats
are in air (Munch 1974, p. 108). Dolphins can avoid slim metal rods equally well whether
day or night—and they can even distinguish between different fish of the same size by
echo-location (Thomas, et al. 2002). Dolphins also use their system of navigation for
communication. They can obtain a panoramic view of their environment by moving their
head from side to side to scan a large area in front of them while producing as many as
100 sound bursts per second.

Spiders as Engineers
Creatures as small as spiders are master engineers that can spin webs stronger than steel
using a material known for its strength that can easily hold many times their own weight
(Ritchie 1979). Each spider type also has its own unique web style—a trade name of the
builder—all of which display marvels of geometric design and workmanship. Some
spiders can even dive under water in air-filled “diving bells,” a feat that they achieved
millennia before humans invented their submarines and bathyspheres, a spherical deep-
diving chamber in which persons are lowered by a cable to study deep-sea life.

Spiders lift heavy loads by dropping moist web strands from an overhead limb to the
objects on the ground that they wish to hoist up to their nest such as nest building
material and food. After fastening the object to the strand, they then wait for it to dry. As
it dries, it shrinks and lifts the object slightly. More wetting and waiting causes more
shrinking and more hoisting. Spiders patiently work with these web cables until the load
is several inches above the ground, then they construct a nest in it. How this tiny arachnid
learned to produce the right combination of material that shrinks when it dries so that this
technique can be used to lift loads cannot be explained by gradual evolution. Nor can
how they learned to properly apply the scientific principles involved to solve this
problem. The big question, though, is, “If evolution were true, how did these spiders
survive until they mastered these feats?”
Animals also display a high level of engineering skill. A bird nest shows skill in masonry,
weaving, tunneling, statics (the science of construction such as bridges and buildings),
and expert use of structural strength properties. Beavers build large dams out of trees and
mud and construct spacious underground homes with underwater entrances that limit the
entry of almost every would-be intruder. Silkworms manufacture a high quality strong
thread called “silk” that has been used by humans for centuries to produce fine clothes
and expensive scientific instruments (Ritchie 1979). Some creatures, such as certain
water insects, manufacture tiny bricks that they use to build chimney-shaped towers
(Martin 1933, p. 14).

Amazing and Instructive Insect Design

Most wasps can construct a type of paper similar to human manufactured wood pulp
paper (Martin 1933, p. 104). The familiar bees and wasps nests make paper that they
form into a hexagonal shape, a strong design that wastes less space than a circle.
Hexagons are now a common structural shape in buildings that are used in the framework
of roofs and other structures. Bees also use a hook and eye system to help hold parts of
the bee hive together similar to that used in clothing today instead of buttons.

Read more about the archerfish from The Aquarium Guide.

Certain types of ants construct living bridges so that their comrades can traverse over
water. Some ants practice animal husbandry—herding “aphids” that they “milk.” Other
ants even grow plant fungus in an expertly prepared leaf garden. Yet other ants construct
boats out of leaves to enable them to effectively float across water. Archerfish use a
stream of water to accurately “shoot” resting insects above the water while the fish are
still in the water, correcting for optical refraction caused by the water-air interface.

Every human-made building requires a ventilation system to circulate air. Bees

effectively “air-condition” their hive with their wings that function as power-driven fans
to maintain a constant airflow and clay termite mounds are designed so that their body
heat produces ventilation through their tall, well designed, mound structures (Martin
1933, p. 104; Allen 2010, p. 118-119).

Although blind to red, bees are able to see ultraviolet (to which we are blind) as a
separate color. Knowledge of this has helped humans to open the door to our discovery of
infrared sensitive eyes in snakes, polarized light-sensitivity in bees, and even
electrosensitive organs in fish (Forbes 2006).

Hypodermic needles used today to inject medicine into millions of patients, saving
countless lives, are considered a wonder of modern medicine. Insects, though, were
first—mosquitoes, wasps and bees all possess well-designed, effective, hypodermic
needles. In the bee it is called a stinger because it is used to “sting” its enemies to protect
itself.

Researchers are now studying insects to develop more energy efficient machines. Our
earth-moving machines can carry tons of dirt, sand, and gravel for miles, and our modern
energy-economy concerns have motivated engineers to double the gas mileage of many
vehicles, but we have achieved nowhere near the efficiency level of many animals. A
flea, for example, can pull 400 times its weight—yet not eat for as long as a year.
Although less than an eighth of an inch long, it can jump from 13 to 36 inches, similar to
a man using only his own power to jump over the 555-foot-tall Washington Monument.

Our dream of cryogenic (very low-temperature) preservation of life, has so far failed—
but the flea does it quite well. If frozen, the creatures are fine when thawed out. They
have survived in the frigid Antarctic under thick layers of snow and ice, and have been
known to live for as long as seventeen months without food, but probably could survive
for much longer. This is how they live in extremely cold places that have long, very cold
winters.

We were not even first to master radio communication: female moths send out a radio
frequency signal over a large area to enable distant male moths to pick up their messages.
Before their radio system was discovered, scientists believed that the female moth used
only odors to attract males. This view was revised after efforts to interfere with the odor
call failed. Researchers eventually learned that the female moth possesses a “broadcasting
station” and the male a “receiving set” nearby his antennae (Burton 1985).

Although humans can copy some things from insects, others are far more difficult to
duplicate. An excellent example is bioluminescence—the production of light by fireflies,
glowworms, shrimp, jellyfish, bacteria, worms, mollusks, fish, and even some single-
celled organisms (Rehder 1988).

Light- and Energy-producing Systems Copied but

Not Equaled
Complex chemical light-producing systems, chemiluminescence, are called cold light
systems because the chemical reaction produces much light and very little heat. To
increase the light intensity the eyes of some living organisms use a pigment cell layer that
functions as a reflector and transparent tissue shaped to form an effective lens. Modern
spotlights, automobile headlights, and flashlights are all patterned after this reflector-lens
design. Although the chemistry of cold light has been studied for some time, scientists
still do not understand the process, and have not been able to produce a practical way to
do what animals do naturally. Light emitting diodes (LED’s), which use electric current
to produce cold light, thus are called electroluminescence, are the closest we have come
to the efficiency achieved by natural bioluminescence systems.

It is now known that animal bioluminescence is caused by a highly efficient system using
a protein called luciferin and an enzyme known as luciferase (Munch 1974, p. 118).
Luciferase is a catalyst that produces cold light from luciferin in the presence of oxygen.
Humans have, so far, unsuccessfully tried to copy the luciferin-luciferase system to
achieve a high efficiency light generating system for practical use—normal incandescent
light bulbs produce as much as 95% heat and only 5% light—an enormously inefficient
and wasteful system of lighting. Fluorescent lighting is at best only 10% to 15% efficient
and bioluminescence systems have a amazing 96 percent efficiency (Shelton 2008)!
If the process of cold light could be mastered and inexpensively produced, it would
revolutionize our nation as much as Edison’s original light bulb did. The reaction that
produces cold light in these animals “is the most efficient energy-changing system known
. . . far superior to anything human engineers have invented for changing chemical or
electrical energy to light energy” (Munch 1974, p. 119).
Although we have produced electroluminescent materials similar to the
chemiluminescence achieved by animals, we have not yet learned to economically and
effectively produce light as animals do. Chemiluminescence in animals is highly efficient
compared to human lighting systems. Florescent lighting is only about 22 percent
efficient compared to around 90 percent for some animal chemiluminescence systems
(Roda 2010). Our best scientists are also trying to copy the ability of plants to exploit
renewable solar energy (Balzani 1994, p. 31). Scientists are making progress and are now
elated to have mimicked the first vital step in photosynthesis (Bullis 2008). And although
humans harnessed electrical energy only recently, electric eels have been generating up to
700 volts to stun larger animals to defend themselves for millennia.

Even Rats Can Teach Humans Something

Researchers discovered that rats’ teeth are always sharp because their teeth design
consists of a hard surface on one side and a soft surface on the other. As they are used,
the soft part wears down much faster, keeping the teeth continuously sharp. This finding
was applied in developing a saw blade that sharpens itself. This blade is constructed from
tungsten carbide powder that is mixed, pressed, and heated. When cutting metal, it lasts
up to six times longer than the next best blade in common use today.

Nature’s Measuring Devices

Human-designed clocks come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and accuracies. Yet many
plants and animals have built-in clocks that use a mechanism which still baffles scientists
(Ward 1971, Mathur 2005, pp. 122-134). Some crabs can tell time, a fact known because
they respond to tide cycles—but if moved in a location with a different time for the tide
cycle hey still react with the same accurate timing. We now know that a crab’s physical
reaction is not due to perceiving time from the environment, but its own internal built-in
clock. Even plants such as algae operate on cycles, and if put in a different environment,
the same cycle persists (Binkley 1990).

Fiddler crabs change color to camouflage themselves as the tide goes out, an ability not
linked to the tide, but to the animal’s internal clock. The cycle occurs even if they are
removed far from the ocean. The cycle is also not linked to a twenty-four hour day, but
occurs fifty minutes later every twenty-four hours. Only the start of the cycle is
connected to the particular locality in which the crab lives. The cycle is set when the crab
is born and, once set, accurately corresponds with the tide until it dies (Winfree 1987).

This natural clock may provide an intriguing solution to the human problem of jet lag or
“time motion sickness.” Animals such as clams have built-in clocks and can tell when a
high tide is going to occur even if they are far removed from their home waters. They
retain their sense of time in relation to their home high tide no matter where they are and
regardless of the surrounding conditions. If we could understand how they maintain their
time relationship, the jet lag problem would be better understood, and maybe even
solved.

Only recently have humans been able to accurately measure temperature. Many plants,
and even some reptiles and insects, are keenly aware of the heat level, and if we learn to
read their signs, we can likewise read the temperature (Levenson 1989). The number of
chirps the snowy tree cricket produces per minute corresponds to the air temperature, and
can be translated into the temperature with an accuracy level of within a degree or two
(Walker 1962, p. 427).

Human Walking Machines

The ability of machines to travel on all types of terrain was possible only in the last
century with the invention of snowmobiles, four-wheel-drive Jeeps, and pneumatic tire
vehicles. Smooth travel on really rough terrain, though, has eluded our best engineers
until researchers studied “daddy-long-legs.” Their ability to coordinate their jointed legs
to smoothly transverse across extremely uneven surfaces has aided in the development of
“walking machines” designed to carry humans across terrains presently accessible
primarily by helicopters. Insects such as daddy-long-legs have been designed to
effortlessly solve some of the most frustratingly complex problems that engineers and
roboticists are now struggling with (Kleiner 1994; Brand 1987).

Transversing a flat terrain is a relatively easy feat, but a device capable of making the
constant adjustments required to “walk” across an uneven surface is a much more
difficult task. Spring-loaded tires absorb some bumps, as do vehicles that can toss and
turn easily, but researchers are hoping to develop non-wheeled devices that can walk
across ocean floors or distant planets. The Ohio State University’s Robert McGee noted
that we know the insect design works exceptionally well in nature (McGhee 1979, pp.
176–182). To duplicate the daddy-long-leg’s technical achievements, McGee and other
researchers are analyzing the animal’s movement.

To do this, researchers built a rough terrain using wooden blocks and filmed arachnids
strolling across their obstacle course. They then determined the “logic” the animals used
to transverse the obstacle course and from this data inferred the nervous system’s
organization. Next, they attempted to reproduce the mechanical aspects of the feat. The
researchers have found the animals’ eyes are not essential for navigation, but instead they
use their longest pair of legs as “feelers” to sweep the ground ahead, then program each
leg to stop at a different point so as to maintain a level body (Corn 1987). After years of
research, compared with the average arachnid, walking robots are pitiful shufflers, but
advances are being made as computer technology develops (Kleiner 1987, p. 27;
Berardelli 2009). As of 2012 we still have not been able to achieve the effectiveness of
these animals.

From the Large to the Small

When humans turn their powerful light and radio telescopes toward the heavens, they
view supernovas, white dwarfs, red giants, spiral nebulae, globular star clusters, billions
of galaxies, and trillions of stars. They observe our eight planets and scores of comets
move about the sun, all in well-defined orbits, running on an amazingly precise schedule.
Even our most powerful telescopes are still too nearsighted to see the boundaries of our
seemingly endless universe.

Find out more about the how the heavens declare the glory of God from The Beauty & Wonder of Our Universe
chart.

Some speculate that it is even possible for stars to produce gamma-ray lasers called
grasers. Humans did not develop a successful maser until the mid 1950s—and this was
hailed as a dramatic scientific breakthrough that now has had an enormous impact on
society. Yet, the heavens have generated these high-energy excited atom systems since
their creation—for what reason, we do not yet know, but speculation abounds (Hecht and
Teresi 1982). Lasers and masers are a system used to amplify light (electromagnetic
radiation) enormously so the light can be powerful enough to burn holes through steel.

Laser light is aligned so that it does not spread out much as it travels on its path, thus
becomes less intense as it travels away from the laser source. Scientists have sent a laser
to the moon with so little spread as it travels towards its destination, thus very little light
loss from the light beam, that it is visible on the moon. The term laser originated as an
acronym for “Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.” A maser is a
similar system except it uses microwave radiation instead of visible light. MASER,
stands for “Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.”
Humans have built complex masers and lasers for use in medicine, electronics,
communications and other fields. Yet radio astronomers have found that modern science
has been scooped by natural systems that do not need a jungle of coaxial cables, power
supplies, and strip-chart recorders to build a maser (Nourse 1989).

One type of maser was discovered in the variable giant red stars, and later other types
were found, including stellar water and silicon monoxide masers. Learning how they
produce masers could do much to improve scientists’ electronic masers used for industry.
Although only molecular masers have been observed coming from space, some scientists
believe that optical lasers, free electron lasers, and chemical lasers all exist in outer space.

Switching our examination from the incomprehensibly vast to the unimaginably minute,
we can use the electron microscope to probe normally invisible wonders. With a
scanning-tunneling electron microscope, humans can now visualize immensely tiny
structures of marvelous order and intricacy. And each electron, neutron, proton, and
hundreds of other subatomic particles are likewise a world that is just now being
explored. A vast world exists at this level waiting to be discovered: a world humans did
not create, but one that takes a studious, intelligent person years to properly begin to
understand. Even a lifetime of study can barely uncover nature’s wonders. A comparison
of our achievements with those of our Creator’s, such as those discussed above, should
humble us before God.

Nanotechnology

Read more about the gecko from The Zoo Guide.

In nature, all cells function at the micro- to the nanoscale level, and understanding “these
functions can guide us to imitate and produce nanodevices and nanomaterials.
Abstractions of good design from nature are referred to as biomimetcs” (Bhushan 2007,
p. 6).

An example is the amazing ability of a family of lizards called Geckos that run up a
vertical wall and then walk upside down across the horizontal ceiling.2 To achieve this
feat they rely on their approximately
… half a million submicrometer keratin hairs, called spatulae, which are what make their feet …
so sticky. Each hair is 30—130 µm long and is only one tenth the diameter of a human hair and
contains hundreds of projections terminating in 0.2—0.5 µm spatula-shaped structures. The foot
typically has about 5000 hair/mm2. Each hair produces a tiny force (˜ 100 nN), primarily due to
van der Waals attraction, and possibly capillary interactions (meniscus contribution), and
millions of hairs acting together create a large adhesive force on the order of 10 N with a pad
area of approximately 100 mm2, sufficient to keep geckos firmly on their feet, even when upside
down on a glass ceiling (Bhushan 2007, p. 6).

The next question scientists had to answer is how to break the bonds that hold them to the
ceiling. Scientists determined that the bonds between the keratin hairs and the surface are
broken by “peeling,” in a similar way that occurs when one removes adhesive tape.
Scientists
. . . are attempting to create a new type of adhesive tape by mimicking the structure of gecko or
spider feet. Geim et al. reported the fabrication of a “gecko” tape made by microfabrication of
dense arrays of flexible plastic pillars that are little more than 2 µm tall with a pitch on a similar
scale (Bhushan 2007, p. 6).

Summary
Humans are in awe when standing before creation, from the tremendous expanse of the
universe to the infinitesimally tiny. Contemplating the lessons found in the infinite
variety of plant life that tastefully clothes every type of terrain, and fashionably changes
its cover to fit the area and season, inspires respect. A close look at the millions of animal
life types with which the earth teems staggers the imagination. Knowledge of this should
humble us before our awesome God and Creator, and force us to realize how ignorant we
are before Him.

It would be unreasonable to conclude from these marvels that the workings of natural
law, time, and chance alone produced it all. When we see the enormous intelligence
implanted in so-called unreasoning creatures, we appreciate that they are the result of the
wisdom and power that designed them. Scanning the heavens and marveling at the
myriad of stars it contains—about 6,000 are visible on a clear night—reminds us that
“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the sky shows his handiwork” (Psalm 19:1).
Since scientists study more of these wonders of creation than others and of all persons
they should vividly see the great wisdom and power of the Creator who made all things,
although, sadly, many are blind to this fact (Romans 1:18–23; 2 Peter 3:5). Many human
inventions only poorly copy God’s creations—and our imitations took the best human
minds and centuries to develop. The meek person realizes that much of the universe will
probably forever be beyond the power of the human brain to comprehend and understand.
What does a study of the natural world—of which we have only given a few simple
examples—tell us about its origin? In the words of Paturi, “Since Darwin, biologists have
been firmly convinced that nature works without plan or meaning, pursuing no aim by the
direct role of design. But, today we see that this conviction is a fatal error” (Paturi 1976,
p. 11). After all has been said, the conclusion is “You are worthy, O Lord, To receive
glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and
were created.” (Revelation 4:11)