The wonders of creation

[Sher]

I would love to see posted here interesting facts and tidbits about various things in biology ...

... in layman's terms, please


My interesting fact:

If a 175-pound man had the comparitive strength of an ant, he could lift four tons.


So any time your gettin' low
'stead of lettin' go
Just remember that ant
Oops there goes another rubber tree plant
(High Hopes ... Frank Sinatra ...Writer(s): Cahn/Van Heusen)

[wienerdog]

I don't know if this is what you're looking for, but I'm always amazed at how tough and fragile our lives are. For fragile, I heard about a guy who had a box of Kleenex in the back window of his car; he slammed on the brakes, the box flew forward, and the corner of it hit him in the neck and severed his spinal cord, and killed him.

For tough, I heard about a woman who had a bowling ball fall three or four stories onto her head. It fractured her skull, but she had no permanent damage.

[Sher]

That's fine, Wienerdog ...

I was just meaning any interesting facts ... I am constantly amazed by Creation ... and find those facts "kinda kewl" (:lol:) to read.

[dizzle]

I am just amazed in what seems to me to be a common sense way. I have two pet parrots, and I was looking at my birds today and just imagining the inanity of not seeing the Creatior. That from nonlife, chemicals, unguided whatsover, came such complex and marvelous life. Truly as one person has noted (I cannot remember the name) - Evolution is a Fairy Tale for adults, the modern creation myth.

[$cirisme]

The water bear can lose 99% of it's water and still survive.

It goes into a death-like state. It can survive between -300 and +500 degrees(F) of water. It can survive 10,000 times the amount of radiation a human can. And one was found in dried-up desert moss that came back to life after 120 years with no water or food.

[Sher]

Today @ 06:04 PM post located here (http://www.theologyweb.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=107552#post107552)
cirisme:

The water bear can lose 99% of it's water and still survive.

It goes into a death-like state. It can survive between -300 and +500 degrees(F) of water. It can survive 10,000 times the amount of radiation a human can. And one was found in dried-up desert moss that came back to life after 120 years with no water or food.

:: blink, blink ::

:eek:

[Omega Red]

By pumping enough sugar into it's cells the North American frog can survive slow cooling to -5oC (below freezing point of water).

http://www.exploratorium.edu/frogs/woodfrog/woodfrog_3.html

[Sher]

Yesterday @ 08:49 PM post located here (http://www.theologyweb.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=107647#post107647)
Omega Red:

By pumping enough sugar into it's cells the North American frog can survive slow cooling to -5oC (below freezing point of water).

http://www.exploratorium.edu/frogs/woodfrog/woodfrog_3.html

That's cool!

[Socrates]

Today @ 09:04 AM post located here (http://www.theologyweb.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=107552#post107552)
cirisme:

The water bear can lose 99% of its water and still survive.

It goes into a death-like state. It can survive between -300 and +500 degrees(F) of water. It can survive 10,000 times the amount of radiation a human can. And one was found in dried-up desert moss that came back to life after 120 years with no water or food.

The other name for this tiny (<1 mm) creature is tardigrade, and they are just as cirisme says. AiG's Creation magazine (http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/) had an article about them as well as about extremophilic bacteria by the Ph.D. biologist Dr David Catchpoole, 24(1):40–43, December 2001.

There are heaps of amazing examples of design in the creation at www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/faq/design.asp

[Sher]

/me checks to see if her leg is being pulled

120 years?? Geeze ...

[Marc Schindler]

Omega Red: Omega Red:

By pumping enough sugar into it's cells the North American frog can survive slow cooling to -5oC (below freezing point of water).

The original article merely said -5oC, and while this is normally below the freezing point of water, it's not necessarily the point at which water will freeze. If there are no changes in pressure and the temperature drops quickly enough that the energy of dropping through the triple point is less than normal, water won't freeze. It also helps if certain glycols are present.


See the next post...

[Marc Schindler]

Socrates,
The other name for this tiny (<1 mm) creature is tardigrade, and they are just as cirisme says. AiG's Creation magazine had an article about them as well as about extremophilic bacteria by the Ph.D. biologist Dr David Catchpoole, 24(1):40–43, December 2001.

There are heaps of amazing examples of design in the creation at www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/faq/design.asp


I seem to have learned more about frogs when I was a lad than your creationist" scientists" have learned.

Frogs are squishy. That means their remains are not well preserved, and that's why they're not found so much in the fossil record.

But there's enough to raise some interesting questions, which I pass on to you: why are there no amphibiams in isolated islands, like Madeira, Hawaii or the Galapagos?

And here's a bit of reading up for you on how amphibians develop (a very short excerpt from a longer article in the Encyclopaedia Britannica:

Mesodermal derivatives

The body muscles and axial skeleton

The somites, formed in the early stages of development from the upper edges of the mesodermal mantle adjoining the notochord, are complex rudiments that subdivide and give rise to very diverse body structures. The coelomic cavity, present initially, becomes obliterated by the side-to-side flattening of the somites, so that the thinner, outer parietal layer of the somite comes in close contact with its thicker visceral layer. The visceral layer of the somite very early subdivides into two parts. The upper, dorsolateral part called the myotome remains compact, giving rise to the body muscles. The lower, medioventral part of the somite, called the sclerotome, breaks up into mesenchyme, which contributes to the axial skeleton of the embryo—that is, the vertebral column, ribs, and much of the skull. The parietal layer of the somite, at a later stage, is converted into mesenchyme that, together with components of the neural crest, gives rise to the dermis of the skin and, for this reason, is called the dermatome.

The cells of the myotome are elongated in a longitudinal direction and become differentiated as muscle fibres. The myotomes, originally situated dorsally, expand on either side, penetrating between the skin on the outside and the lateral plates of the mesoderm on the inside, until they meet midventrally; the whole body is thus enclosed in a layer of developing muscle. As the somites and myotomes are segmented, so are the muscles derived from them. Metamerism, or segmentation, a feature in the embryos of all vertebrates, remains preserved only in the adults of fishes and of terrestrial vertebrates that have elongated bodies (salamanders, snakes); it becomes largely erased in four-footed animals that depend on their limbs for locomotion.

The mesenchyme derived from the sclerotomes condenses as cartilage around the notochord and the spinal cord. It forms the cartilaginous vertebral column and ribs. In the head region it produces a part of the cartilaginous skull, mainly its posterior and ventral parts; anteriorly the somitic mesenchyme is supplemented by mesenchyme from the neural crest. Cartilaginous capsules of the olfactory organ and the ear fuse with the cartilaginous capsule surrounding the brain; to this complex are also added cartilages associated with the jaws and gill skeleton. Cartilage in the vertebral column and in the skull is replaced later in the bony fishes and in the terrestrial vertebrates by bone. At a still later stage, dermal bones are added, which, while they have no precursors in the cartilaginous skeleton, develop in the adjoining mesenchyme.


Marc,
Please respect the intent of this section as being for creationists/theists only.
Thanks.

[$cirisme]

I seem to have learned more about frogs when I was a lad than your creationist" scientists" have learned.

Can I infer from that statement that you are not a creationist?

This is a creationist only section. :smile:

[dizzle]

Marc it appears that you are not a creationist by the standard envisioned for this forum. Please contact me by PM to clarify please.

[Marc Schindler]

I admit. I've been posing as a creationist to spy on them. I don't know how the truth ever made it out....

So flog me with a piece of wet gopher wood.:lol:

[dizzle]

Marc, that was a serious question. I am still unclear, the question was not meant to obnixous but genuine. I would think as a Mormom you would be, but then again, your posts seem to advocate unguided naturalistic evolution. Can you please clarify?

[Marc Schindler]

I have now checked over the entire thread from the beginning, and see that I have made a faux pas. Je m'excuse, and I'll exit from the thread immediatement.

[Marc Schindler]

Okay, since I've made a dufus of myself, I'd like to share something I think is in the spirit of the thread (after all, a theistic evolutionist is still a believer, and personally I feel that once one has faith, one can see the "signature" of God everywhere you look). Here's my favourite example, and it's from the book of Job. This is from an essay I wrote on it years ago. Go to http://www.members.shaw.ca/mschindler/B/JOB.htm and scroll down about 60% of the way. You'll see a beautiful shot of the Pleiades star cluster in the constellation Taurus. When I took a semester of astronomy and then a semester of astrophysics, we had to do a spectrogram of the Pleaides (which is notorioiusly difficult because of the nebula in front -- that's why they give first year students this assignment!).

We did this with 12" Newtonians bolted to a concrete pad on deep pilings outside the main dome of what was then the Dominion Observatory at Priddis, Alberta, now a suburb of Calgary but way back then it was far out of the city and light pollution wasn't a problem. It was also -40oC, so we all made jokes about all the stars looking like hot coffee! Turns out our instructor, Dr. Cliff Anger, who is now retired, was a radio astronomy specialist, and also an evangelical Christian. I never learned that in class -- he told me during this lab we were doing on the Pleiades. It was an interesting discussion.

Anyway, from the picture on down, skip the epilogue (unless you want to read it), and go to some of the footnotes, especially 18, which explains some of the astronomical terms one encounters in the KJV of Job.

[Socrates]

05-23-2003 @ 12:20 PM post located here (http://www.theologyweb.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=105130#post105130)
SherBear:

If a 175-pound man had the comparitive strength of an ant, he could lift four tons.

Scaling is an interesting phenomenon, and is often counter-intuitive. Actually one of the best articles I've seen on it was by the leading evolutionist J.B.S. Haldane, "On Being the Right Size".

Something which we studied in our high school applied mathematics class was jumping. It turns out that we would expect creatures to be able to jump to about the same absolute height not the same relative height. So it's not surprising at all that a flea and a man can jump to the order of 10^0 m upwards.

[$cirisme]

The other name for this tiny (<1 mm) creature is tardigrade, and they are just as cirisme says. AiG's Creation magazine had an article about them as well as about extremophilic bacteria by the Ph.D. biologist Dr David Catchpoole, 24(1):40–43, December 2001.

There are heaps of amazing examples of design in the creation at www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/faq/design.asp

See, I'm not half as dumb as I look.

Er, wait... :doh:

[dawnghost]

Gastric Brooding Frogs are notable for their reproductive habits. The female swallows her clutch of eggs and the tadpoles hatch in her stomach. The tadpoles secrete chemicals that cause the female to cease feeding and switch off the production of hydrochloric acid in the stomach wall. The young are birthed through the mother's mouth once fully developed as froglets. After leaving the mother's mouth, the young frogs are independent. Scientists have been interested in these species' ability to shut down the secretion of digestive acids the implications of which could have an important bearing in the treatment of people who suffer from gastric ulcers. - taken from http://www.mongabay.com/05gastric_brooding_frog.htm

and here's a picture of this cutie giving birth:

http://allaboutfrogs.org/picts/babyfrg.jpg

and yes! that is a thumb you see behind the frog, to show how tiny even the mama is.

sadly, they are now believed to be extinct... but what a wonderful example of special design they are!

[Lizard]

Having spent most of the weekend in the yard pruning trees and bushes I am amazed at how plants can take rain water, and dirt add a little solar power and make leaves and wood.

[wienerdog]

Here's a more personal example of the "weirdness" of creation.

A few months ago my poor, long-suffering, long, suffering wiener dog was very sick. As soon as he was better, he had a large blood clot in one eye. Our vet gave us some drops to put in it, and it slowly went away. A month later, he had a large blood clot in his other eye. We put the drops in it, and it went away almost immediately.

Recently, I noticed a dark patch on his iris, on the same spot where the first blood clot had been. By now, I was convinced that my poor little wiener dog was going blind, that he would have to have an operation, and maybe have his eye taken out and have to wear a little wiener patch. Late last week, my wife took him back to the vet. He said he's perfectly OK, he's not unhealthy. However...get ready...he's growing an extra pupil! My dog is a freak! Apparently his little wiener body responded to the eye trauma by growing a third pupil. My wife asked the vet if it's going to hurt his vision, and he said if anything, he'll be able to see better!

My wife and I have been joking about this ever since: "He was trying to grow an eye on the back of his head and missed," etc. I made a comment to the effect, "That protusion coming out of your dog's ribcage? It's alright, it's perfectly healthy. He's just growing a second tail. Don't let him get too happy, though, or he'll start wagging both at the same time, and he'll fall over." My dog is a freak!

[Sher]

Great examples you guys!

That frog was too cool :thumb:

And poor wienerdog ... but :lol:

[1ofWaterNFire]

I don't know if this counts, but...

Something I heard from a speaker that spoke at this Creation Science Tour I went to.

Camels don't live in the desert because they're don't long for water, camels are actually happy when you give them water. So why do they live in deserts?
Cactuses (or a type of them?) grow needles in real dry condition, but when watered, they soften and flowers blossom, probably meaning they like water. But these guys grow in the desert. Why?
A type of bird (darn, can't recall, besides the fact that I heard this thing in another language...) I guess takes a migratory trip and sleeps on ice, and these birds don't like ice but do it anyways. Why?
Salmons lay eggs in one spot and swim out, but when the time to give birth arrives, they all travel back to where they were born. Why do they do that?
A small island formed (forgot name of island... sorry) and somehow animals were living on it. It sparked the curiosity, and under observation, it was found animals swam to that island, even though some died during the process. Why?
Probably you guys have some other things to add to this list. Strange migratory behaviors of animals. If you know any, please share. :teeth:

And the question is why?

The speaker interpreted it this way, and I thought it made sense. In the Bible, God tells the creatures to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. (well, tells the fish to fill the seas, and after the Flood was over, God tells Noah to bring out the animals so they can increase in number on earth.) Noah is told to increase in number on earth. This is what God said to the animals as they came out of the ark. The humans deliberately disobeyed it and built the Tower of Babel. However, the animals obeyed it and still do today. And in the case of animals swimming to the newly formed island - to their deaths! I don't know. I thought that's pretty cool. :teeth:

[Socrates]

05-29-2003 @ 02:22 AM post located here (http://www.theologyweb.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=109986#post109986)
Faramir:

Having spent most of the weekend in the yard pruning trees and bushes I am amazed at how plants can take rain water, and dirt add a little solar power and make leaves and wood.

And chemists still can't duplicate photosynthesis. The main point is that the chemical machinery uses light photons to split the water molecule and release the hydrogen (as well as oxygen, the byproduct). The trouble is, when chemists made photosynthetic molecules, they were quickly destroyed by the photons that made the process work. Yet we don't see exploding leaves ;)

As usual, our best minds can't approach the design in nature. But the atheists and their compromising churchian allies claim it is unscientific to propose that nature's design had a designer far more advanced than we. Conversely, it's allegedly good science to claim that these more advanced systems had no designer at all! Psalm 14:1 and Romans 18-25 come to mind yet again.