Category Archives: home school

God’s Creation – Deep Sea Sponges

People are not often aware of how scientists frequently base their research on things already existing in the natural world that God created.  Until the invention of the electron microscope, cells were believed to be simple, consisting of nothing but indeterminate protoplasm.  Cells are now know to be anything but simple – each one a miracle of complexity.  Scientists are now adapting the structure of fascinating deep sea sponges – to achieve phenomenal strength – coupled with flexibility.  From Creation Moments:

Psalm 107:24

“These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.”

 “The most perfect design I’ve ever seen.” Those words were uttered by a materials engineer after studying a deep sea sponge from the Pacific Ocean. And, indeed, the Euplectella aspergillun, claimed to be an early and primitive sponge, can teach modern materials engineers a number of useful things.

Deep Sea SpongeThe sponge’s body is made up of a thin layer of cells over an intricate glass skeleton. The sponge grows into a cylindrical shape about 8 inches long and about an inch across. The wonder lies in the glass skeleton that is made up of vertical and horizontal beams of glass. Diagonal beams strengthen this grid. One-third of these beams are thicker than the others, adding the extra strength of ridges to the cylinder. What’s more, each of these glass beams is made up of small cylinders of glass glued together with more glass-like tree rings.  The result is a structure that spreads the pressures that might crush an ordinary glass structure this size. It is a delicate looking, but nearly unbreakable, glass structure.

In a less-than-scientific test, one researcher noted that one has to jump full weight on one of these cylinders to even produce any cracking, and such jumping will still not break it. “The most perfect design I’ve ever seen,” said the researcher. There’s little that we at Creation Moments can add to that.

http://www.creationmoments.com/radio/transcripts/most-perfect-design-i-ve-ever-seen

The more tech minded may enjoy this video showing the lab simulation of a deep sea sponge spicule (a slender pointed usually hard body; especially :  one of the minute calcareous or siliceous bodies that support the tissue of various invertebrates (as sponges)

PSALM 118:28)

seas

 Thou art my God, and I will praise Thee: Thou art my God, I will exalt Thee.    

Honey for Your Heart

I’m sharing this wonderful article from Creation Moments, because there is a lesson for all of us here.

Job 35:10-11

“But none saith, Where [is] God my maker, who giveth songs in the night; who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven?”

It has long been known that an African bird known as the honeyguide leads badgers to bees’ nests, where the badger tears the nest apart to eat the honey. The badger always leaves more than enough for the honeyguide.

Lesser honeyguide in MapungubweNow it has been learned that the honeyguide has a similar relationship with the Boran people of Kenya. When the bird has found a bees’ nest, it will alert the Boran, bidding them to follow it to the honey site. On the other hand, if the Boran want to know where honey is, they know how to whistle and call for a honeyguide.

The honeyguide also calls to the people so that they know which way to go. When the Boran reach the honey, they always make sure that they leave some for the honeyguide. Researchers also reported that they saw honeyguides scouting out bees’ nests at night so that they had good sites to lead the Boran to the next day.

While the honeyguide does get its reward of honey in return for its help, the intelligence of the honeyguide in establishing these relationships with human beings is impressive. But while the honeyguide can help teach us that the creation is the work of an intelligent Creator, it cannot teach us how to have a relationship with Him. For that we must go to the Bible.

http://www.creationmoments.com/radio/transcripts/helpful-honeyguide

Try to think back to those times, when the Lord has led you somewhere, and you trusted Him fully to lead you to the expected end.  Just as the man in the video trusts that the Honey Guide would not lead him to a hornet’s nest – we can know that our Savior will not lead us astray if we fully trust in Him.

My favorite Bible verse:

PROVERBS 3:5-6

healing hand

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

The Beauty of Bees

There is no such thing as a “simple” life form. . .

Genesis 1:25

“And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that [it was] good.”

According to the Bible, God created the land-living insects, and that would include the bees, on day six of creation. This was just three days after He created the flowering plants. According to evolution, bees evolved from a simpler insect after the pollen-bearing plants had developed. The specialized bee and its complex social structure was thought to have taken a long time to evolve.

Fast bees or fast talkingCreationists, who believe the time line of events laid out in Scripture and reject inflated evolutionary years, were not surprised when a bee was found preserved in amber which evolutionists said was many millions of years older than the oldest known bee. The almost perfectly preserved bee is like modern bees and can even be identified as a worker. Not only does this show that bees, with all their superb specializations, were around much earlier than ever thought by evolutionists, it also shows that they were around for some time before this specimen lived. In fact, the evolutionist who reported the findings admitted that there is a real problem explaining how bees could have developed nearly at the same time as pollen-bearing plants.

As creationists, we have no such problem. Bees were created, fully formed, only a few days after pollen-bearing plants. Science has shown us once again that the biblical history makes more sense than the evolutionary story of history.

http://www.creationmoments.com/radio/transcripts/fast-bees-or-fast-talking

PSALM 117:1-2

117 O praise the Lord, all ye nations: praise Him, all ye people.

For His merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever. Praise ye the Lord.

Tadpoles Declare the Glory of God

Tadpoles Declare the Glory of God

Researchers have discovered that bioelectrical signals are essential to the development of normal head and facial features in tadpoles. The signals actually outline the features – eyes, nose, mouth, etc.

The Tufts biologists found that, before the face of a tadpole develops, bioelectrical signals (ion flux) cause groups of cells to form patterns marked by different membrane voltage and pH levels. When stained with a reporter dye, hyperpolarized (negatively charged) areas shine brightly, while other areas appear darker, creating an “electric face.”

“When a frog embryo is just developing, before it gets a face, a pattern for that face lights up on the surface of the embryo,” said senior author Dany S. Adams, Ph.D. Adams is a research associate professor in the Department of Biology in the Tufts School of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Tufts Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology. “We believe this is the first time such patterning has been reported for an entire structure, not just for a single organ. I would never have predicted anything like it. It’s a jaw dropper.” [TUFTS NOW, August 6, 2011]https://web.archive.org/web/20151025084332if_/http://www.youtube.com/embed/ndFe5CaDTlI?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparent

O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made them all: the earth is full of Thy riches. Psalm 104: 24