Tag: biomimicry

Frog Choruses Sing Out a Song of Creation

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BY FAZALE RANA – JUNE 12, 2019

My last name, Rana, is Sanskrit in origin, referring to someone who descends from the Thar Ghar aristocracy. Living in Southern California means I don’t often meet Urdu-speaking people who would appreciate the regal heritage connected to my family name. But I do meet a lot of Spanish speakers. And when I introduce myself, I often see raised eyebrows and smiles.

In Spanish, Rana means frog.

My family has learned to embrace our family’s namesake. In fact, when our kids were little, my wife affectionately referred to our five children as ranitas—little frogs.

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Image: Five Ranitas. Image credit: Shutterstock

Our feelings about these cute and colorful amphibians aside, frogs are remarkable creatures. They engage in some fascinating behaviors. Take courtship, as an example. In many frog species, the males croak to attract the attention of females, with each frog species displaying its own distinct call.

Male frogs croak by filling their vocal sacs with air. This allows them to amplify their croaks for up to a mile away. Oftentimes, male frogs in the same vicinity will all croak together, forming a chorus.

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Image: Male Frog Croaking to Attract a Female. Image credit: Shutterstock

As it turns out, female frogs aren’t the only ones who respond to frog croaks.

A research team from Japan has spent a lot of time listening to and analyzing frog choruses with the hopes of understanding the mathematical structure of the sounds that frogs collectively make when they call out to females. Once they had the mathematical model in hand, the researchers discovered that they could use it to improve the efficiency of wireless data transfer systems.1

This work serves as one more example of scientists and engineers applying insights from biology to drive technology advances and breakthroughs. This approach to technology development (called biomimetics and bioinspiration)—exemplified by the impressive work of the Japanese researchers—has significance that extends beyond engineering. It can be used to make the case that a Creator must have played a role in the design and history of life by marshaling support for two distinct arguments for God’s existence:

Frog Choruses: A Cacophony or a Symphony?

Anyone who has spent time near a pond at night certainly knows the ruckus that an army of male frogs can make when each of them is vying for the attention of females.

All the male frogs living near the pond want to attract females to the same breeding site, but, in doing so, each individual also wants to attract females to his specific territory. Field observations indicate that, instead of engaging in a croaking free-for-all (with neighboring frogs trying to outperform one another), the army of frogs engages in a carefully orchestrated acoustical presentation. As a result, male frogs avoid call overlap with neighboring males on a short timescale, while synchronizing their croaks with the other frogs to produce a chorus on a longer timescale.

The frogs avoid call overlap by alternating between silence and croaking, coordinating with neighboring frogs so that when one frog rests, another croaks. This alternating back-and-forth makes it possible for each individual frog to be heard amid the chorus, and it also results in a symphonic chorus of frog croaks.

The Mathematical Structure of Frog Choruses

To dissect the mathematical structure of frog choruses, the research team placed three male Japanese tree frogs into individual mesh cages that were set along a straight line, with a two-foot separation between each cage. The researchers recorded the frog’s croaks using microphones placed by each cage.

They observed that all three frogs alternated their calls, forming a triphasic synchronization. One frog croaked continuously for a brief period of time and then would rest, while the other two frogs took their turn croaking and resting. The researchers determined that the rest breaks for the frogs were important because of the amount of energy it takes the frogs to produce a call.

All three frogs would synchronize the start and stop of their calls to produce a chorus followed by a period of silence. They discovered that the time between choruses varied quite a bit, without rhyme or reason, and was typically much longer than the chorus time. On the other hand, the croaking of each individual lasted for a predictable time duration that was followed immediately by the croaking of a neighboring frog.

By analyzing the acoustical data, the researchers developed a mathematical model to describe the croaking of individual frogs and the collective behavior of the frogs when they belted out a chorus of calls. Their model consisted of both deterministic and stochastic components.

Use of Frog Choruses for Managing Data Traffic

The researchers realized that the mathematical model they developed could be applied to control wireless sensor networks, such as those that make up the internet of things. These networks entail an array of sensor nodes that transmit data packets, delivering them to a gateway node by multi-hop communication, with data packets transmitted from sensor to sensor until it reaches the gate. During transmission, it is critical for the system to avoid the collision of data packets. It is also critical to regulate the overall energy consumption of the system, to avoid wasting valuable energy resources.

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Image: The Internet of Things Made Up of Wireless Sensors. Image credit: Shutterstock

Through simulation studies, the Japanese team demonstrated that the mathematical model inspired by frog choruses averted the collision of data packets in a wireless sensor array, maximized network connectivity, and enhanced efficiency of the array by minimizing power consumption. The researchers conclude, “This study highlights the unique dynamics of frog choruses over multiple time scales and also provides a novel bio-inspired technology.”2

As important as this work may be for inspiring new technologies, as a Christian, I find its real significance in the theological arena.

Frog Choruses and the Argument from Beauty

The grandeur of nature touches the very core of who we are—if we take the time to let it. But, as the work by the Japanese researchers demonstrates, the grandeur we see all around us in nature isn’t confined to what we perceive with our immediate senses. It exists in the underlying mathematical structure of nature. It is nothing short of amazing to think that such exquisite organization and orchestration characterizes frog choruses, so much so that it can inspire sophisticated data management techniques.

From my vantage point, the beauty and mathematical elegance of nature points to the reality of a Creator.

If God created the universe, then it is reasonable to expect it to be a beautiful universe, one that displays an even deeper underlying beauty in the mathematical structure that defines the universe itself and phenomena within the universe. Yet if the universe came into existence through mechanism alone, there isn’t any real reason to think it would display beauty. In other words, the beauty in the world around us signifies the divine.

Furthermore, if the universe originated through uncaused physical mechanisms, there is no reason to think that humans would possess an appreciation for beauty.

A quick survey of the scientific and popular literature highlights the challenge that the origin of our aesthetic sense creates for the evolutionary paradigm.3 Plainly put: evolutionary biologists have no real explanation for the origin of our aesthetic sense. To be clear, evolutionary biologists have posited explanations to account for the genesis of our capacity to appreciate beauty. But after examining these ideas, we walk away with the strong sense that they are not much more than “just-so stories,” lacking any real evidential support.

On the other hand, if human beings are made in God’s image, as Scripture teaches, we should be able to discern and appreciate the universe’s beauty, made by our Creator to reveal his glory and majesty.

Frog Choruses and the Converse Watchmaker Argument

The idea that biological designs—such as the courting behavior of male frogs—can inspire engineering and technology advances is also highly provocative for other reasons. First, it highlights just how remarkable and elegant the designs found throughout the living realm actually are.

I think that the elegance of these designs points to a Creator’s handiwork. It also makes possible a new argument for God’s existence—one I have named the converse Watchmaker argument. (For a detailed discussion, see my essay titled “The Inspirational Design of DNA” in the book Building Bridges.)

The argument can be stated like this:

  • If biological designs are the work of a Creator, then these systems should be so well-designed that they can serve as engineering models for inspiring the development of new technologies.
  • Indeed, this scenario plays out in the engineering discipline of biomimetics.
  • Therefore, it becomes reasonable to think that biological designs are the work of a Creator.

In fact, I will go one step further. Biomimetics and bioinspiration logically arise out of a creation model approach to biology. That designs in nature can be used to inspire engineering makes sense only if these designs arose from an intelligent Mind.

In fact, I will go one step further. Biomimetics and bioinspiration logically arise out of a creation model approach to biology. That designs in nature can be used to inspire engineering makes sense only if these designs arose from an intelligent Mind. The mathematical structure of frog choruses is yet another example of such bioinspiration.

Frogs really are amazing—and regal—creatures. Listening to a frog chorus can connect us to the beauty of the world around us. And it will one day help all of our electronic devices to connect together. And that’s certainly something to sing about.

Resources

Endnotes
  1. Ikkyu Aihara et al., “Mathematical Modelling and Application of Frog Choruses As an Autonomous Distributed Communication System,” Royal Society Open Science 6, no. 1 (January 2, 2019): 181117, doi:10.1098/rsos.181117.
  2. Aihara et al., “Mathematical Modelling and Application.”
  3. For example, see Ferris Jabr, “How Beauty is Making Scientists Rethink Evolution,” The New York Times Magazine, January 9, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/09/magazine/beauty-evolution-animal.html.

Reprinted with permission by the author
Original article at:
https://www.reasons.org/explore/blogs/the-cells-design/read/the-cells-design/2019/06/12/frog-choruses-sing-out-a-song-of-creation

Spider Silk Inspires New Technology and the Case for a Creator

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BY FAZALE RANA – NOVEMBER 28, 2018
Mark your calendars!

On December 14th (2018), Columbia Pictures—in collaboration with Sony Pictures Animation—will release a full-length animated feature: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The story features Miles Morales, an Afro-Latino teenager, as Spider-Man.

Morales accidentally becomes transported from his universe to ours, where Peter Parker is Spider-Man. Parker meets Morales and teaches him how to be Spider-Man. Along the way, they encounter different versions of Spider-Man from alternate dimensions. All of them team up to save the multiverse and to find a way to return back to their own versions of reality.

What could be better than that?

In 1962, Spider-Man’s creators, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, drew inspiration for their superhero in the amazing abilities of spiders. And today, engineers find similar inspiration, particularly, when it comes to spider silk. The remarkable properties of spider’s silk is leading to the creation of new technologies.

Synthetic Spider Silk

Engineers are fascinated by spider silk because this material displays astonishingly high tensile strength and ductility (pliability), properties that allow it to absorb huge amounts of energy before breaking. Only one-sixth the density of steel, spider silk can be up to four times stronger, on a per weight basis.

By studying this remarkable substance, engineers hope that they can gain insight and inspiration to engineer next-generation materials. According to Northwestern University researcher Nathan C. Gianneschi, who is attempting to produce synthetic versions of spider silk, “One cannot overstate the potential impact on materials and engineering if we can synthetically replicate the natural process to produce artificial fibers at scale. Simply put, it would be transformative.”1

Gregory P. Holland of San Diego State University, one of Gianneschi’s collaborators, states, “The practical applications for materials like this are essentially limitless.”2 As a case in point, synthetic versions of spider silk could be used to make textiles for military personnel and first responders and to make construction materials such as cables. They would also have biomedical utility and could be used to produce environmentally friendly plastics.

The Quest to Create Synthetic Spider Silk

But things aren’t that simple. Even though life scientists and engineers understand the chemical structure of spider’s silk and how its structural features influence its mechanical properties, they have not been able to create synthetic versions of it with the same set of desired properties.

 

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Figure 1: The Molecular Architecture of Spider Silk. Fibers of spider silk consist of proteins that contain crystalline regions separated by amorphous regions. The crystals form from regions of the protein chain that fold into structures called beta-sheets. These beta-sheets stack together to give the spider silk its tensile strength. The amorphous regions give the silk fibers ductility. Image credit: Chen-Pan Liao.

Researchers working to create synthetic spider silk speculate that the process by which the spider spins the silk may play a critical role in establishing the biomaterial’s tensile strength and ductility. Before it is extruded, silk exists in a precursor form in the silk gland. Researchers think that the key to generating synthetic spider silk with the same properties as naturally formed spider silk may be found by mimicking the structure of the silk proteins in precursor form.

Previous work suggests that the proteins that make up spider silk exist as simple micelles in the silk gland and that when spun from this form, fibers with greater-than-steel strength are formed. But researchers’ attempts to apply this insight in a laboratory setting failed to yield synthetic silk with the desired properties.

The Structure of Spider Silk Precursors

Hoping to help unravel this problem, a team of American collaborators led by Gianneschi and Holland recently provided a detailed characterization of the structure of the silk protein precursors in spider glands.3 They discovered that the silk proteins form micelles, but the micelles aren’t simple. Instead, they assemble into a complex structure comprised of a hierarchy of subdomains. Researchers also learned that when they sheared these nanoassemblies of precursor proteins, fibers formed. If they can replicate these hierarchical nanostructures in the lab, researchers believe they may be able to construct synthetic spider silk with the long-sought-after tensile strength and ductility.

Biomimetics and Bioinspiration

Attempts to find inspiration for new technology is n0t limited to spider silk. It has become rather commonplace for engineers to employ insights from arthropod biology (which includes spiders and insects) to solve engineering problems and to inspire the invention of new technologies—even technologies unlike anything found in nature. In fact, I discuss this practice in an essay I contributed for the book God and the World of Insects.

This activity falls under the domain of two relatively new and exciting areas of engineering known as biomimetics and bioinspiration. As the names imply, biomimetics involves direct mimicry of designs from biology, whereas bioinspiration relies on insights from biology to guide the engineering enterprise.

The Converse Watchmaker Argument for God’s Existence

The idea that biological designs can inspire engineering and technology advances is highly provocative. It highlights the elegant designs found throughout the living realm. In the case of spider silk, design elegance is not limited to the structure of spider silk but extends to its manufacturing process as well—one that still can’t be duplicated by engineers.

The elegance of these designs makes possible a new argument for God’s existence—one I have named the converse Watchmaker argument. (For a detailed discussion see the essay I contributed to the book Building Bridges, entitled, “The Inspirational Design of DNA.”)

The argument can be stated like this: if biological designs are the work of a Creator, then these systems should be so well-designed that they can serve as engineering models for inspiring the development of new technologies. Indeed, this scenario is what scientists observe in nature. Therefore, it becomes reasonable to think that biological designs are the work of a Creator.

Biomimetics and the Challenge to the Evolutionary Paradigm

From my perspective, the use of biological designs to guide engineering efforts seems fundamentally at odds with evolutionary theory. Generally speaking, evolutionary biologists view biological systems as the products of an unguided, historically contingent process that co-opts preexisting systems to cobble together new ones. Evolutionary mechanisms can optimize these systems, but even then they are, in essence, still kludges.

Given the unguided nature of evolutionary mechanisms, does it make sense for engineers to rely on biological systems to solve problems and inspire new technologies? Is it in alignment with evolutionary beliefs to build an entire subdiscipline of engineering upon mimicking biological designs? I would argue that these engineering subdisciplines do not fit with the evolutionary paradigm.

On the other hand, biomimetics and bioinspiration naturally flow out of a creation model approach to biology. Using designs in nature to inspire engineering only makes sense if these designs arose from an intelligent Mind, whether in this universe or in any of the dimensions of the Spider-Verse.

Resources

Endnotes

  1. Northwestern University, “Mystery of How Black Widow Spiders Create Steel-Strength Silk Webs further Unravelled,” Phys.org, Science X, October 22, 2018, https://phys.org/news/2018-10-mystery-black-widow-spiders-steel-strength.html.
  2. Northwestern University, “Mystery of How Black Widow Spiders Create.”
  3. Lucas R. Parent et al., “Hierarchical Spidroin Micellar Nanoparticles as the Fundamental Precursors of Spider Silks,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA (October 2018), doi:10.1073/pnas.1810203115.
Reprinted with permission by the author
Original article at:
https://www.reasons.org/explore/blogs/the-cells-design/read/the-cells-design/2018/11/28/spider-silk-inspires-new-technology-and-the-case-for-a-creator

Hagfish Slime Expands the Case for a Creator

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BY FAZALE RANA – MARCH 8, 2017

The designs found in biological systems never cease to amaze me. Even something as gross and seemingly insignificant as hagfish slime displays remarkable properties, befitting the handiwork of a Creator. In fact, the design of hagfish slime is so ingenious, it is serving as the source of inspiration for researchers from the US Navy in their quest to develop new types of military technology.

What Are Hagfish?

Hagfish are ancient creatures that first appeared on Earth around 520 million years ago, with representative specimens recovered in the Cambrian fossil assemblages. These eel-like creatures are about 20 inches in length with loose fitting skin that varies in color from pink to blue-gray, depending on the species.

The hagfish are jawless but have a mineralized encasement around their skull (cranium). With eyespots instead of true eyes, these creatures have no vision. Hagfish are bottom-dwellers. To explore their environment, they make use of whisker-like structures. As scavengers, hagfish consume dead and dying creatures by burrowing into their bodies and ingesting the remains from the inside out. Remarkably, hagfish absorb nutrients through their skin and gills, in addition to feeding with their mouths. In fact, researchers estimate that close to half their nutrient intake comes through absorption.

Hagfish Slime

When disturbed or attacked by predators, hagfish secrete a slime from about 100 glands that line the flanks of their bodies. (This behavior explains why hagfish are sometimes called slime eels.) Produced by epithelial and gland thread cells, the slime rapidly expands to 10,000 times its original volume. A single hagfish can generate around 5.5 gallons of slime each time it’s disturbed. Once secreted, the slime coats the gills of attacking fish, suffocating the predator. With the predator distracted, the hagfish performs this defensive maneuver that allows it to escape, while scrapping the slime off its body to prevent self-suffocation.

Two different types of proteins comprise hagfish slime. One of the components, mucin, is a large protein found widely throughout nature, serving as the primary component of mucus. Secreted by epithelial cells, mucin interacts with water molecules, restricting their movement, contributing to the slime’s viscosity.1

Additionally, hagfish slime consists of long, thread-like proteins. These protein threads are 12 nanometers in diameter and 15 centimeters long! (That is one big molecule.) These dimensions equate to a rope that is 1 centimeter in diameter and 1.5 kilometers in length. These protein fibers are incredibly strong, equivalent to a string that is 100 times thinner than a strand of human hair, but 10 times stronger than a piece of nylon.

Inside the gland thread cells, these protein fibers are carefully packaged like a skein of yarn, held together by other proteins that serve as a type of molecular glue.2 When the secreted hagfish slime contacts seawater, the glue proteins dissolve, leading to an explosive unraveling of the protein skeins, without any of the fibers becoming tangled. The protein threads contribute to the slime’s viscoelastic properties and provide the mechanism for the rapid swelling of the slime.

Hagfish Slime Inspires Military Technologies

The unusual and ingenious properties of the slime and the slime’s thread proteins have inspired researchers from the US Navy to explore their use in military technology. For example, the remarkable durability of the protein fibers (reminiscent of Kevlar) suggests an application for them in bulletproof vests. The properties of the hagfish slime could also be used as a flame retardant and a shark repellent for Navy divers.

Other commercial labs are exploring applications that include food packaging, bungee cords, and bandages. In fact, some have gone as far as to dub the thread proteins as the ultimate biodegradable biofiber.

Biomimetics and the Case for a Creator

In recent years, engineers have routinely and systematically benefited by insights from biology to address engineering problems and to inspire new technologies by either directly copying (or mimicking) designs from biology, or using insights from biological designs to guide the engineering enterprise.

From my perspective, the use of biological designs to guide engineering efforts fits awkwardly within the evolutionary paradigm. Why? Because evolutionary biologists view biological systems as the products of an unguided, historically contingent process that co-opts preexisting systems to cobble together new ones. Evolutionary mechanisms can optimize these systems, but they are still kludges.

Given the unguided nature of evolutionary mechanisms, does it make sense for engineers to rely on biological systems to solve problems and inspire new technologies? Conversely, biomimetics and bioinspiration find a natural home in a creation model approach to biology. Using designs in nature to inspire engineering makes sense only if these designs arose from an intelligent Mind—even if they are as disgusting as the slime secreted by a bottom-dwelling scavenger.

Resources

Endnotes

  1. Lukas Böni et al., “Hagfish Slime and Mucin Flow Properties and Their Implications for Defense,” Scientific Reports 6 (July 2016): id. 30371, doi:10.1038/srep30371.
  2. Timothy Winegard et al., “Coiling and Maturation of a High-Performance Fibre in Hagfish Slime Gland Thread Cells,” Nature Communications 5 (April 2014): id. 3534, doi:10.1038/ncomms4534; Mark A. Bernards Jr. et al., “Spontaneous Unraveling of Hagfish Slime Thread Skeins Is Mediated by a Seawater-Soluble Protein Adhesive,” Journal of Experimental Biology 217 (April 2014): 1263–68, doi:10.1242/jeb.096909.
Reprinted with permission by the author
Original article at:
https://www.reasons.org/explore/blogs/the-cells-design/read/the-cells-design/2017/03/08/hagfish-slime-expands-the-case-for-a-creator

Earwax Discovery Gives New Hearing to the Case for Intelligent Design

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BY FAZALE RANA – FEBRUARY 22, 2017

If you are like most people, you probably haven’t devoted much thought to earwax, unless it relates to the safest way to clean it out of your ears.

But earwax is worth thinking about, because it is a remarkable substance with extraordinary properties, as recent work by engineers from Georgia Institute of Technology (GIT) attests.1 In fact, the GIT researchers think that they can use their new insight about earwax to develop specialized filters for electronic devices that must perform in dusty environments.

By using earwax as an inspiration for new technology, these researchers have unwittingly provided more evidence for intelligent design, while at the same time raising a powerful challenge to the evolutionary explanation for the history and the design of life.

What Is Earwax?

This substance is an eclectic mixture of fatty acids, fatty alcohols, cholesterol, and squalene formed from secretions of the sebaceous and the ceruminous glands that line the outer portion of the ear canal. Earwax also consists of shed epithelial cells and hair.

Earwax is produced by all mammals, including humans. Two different types of earwax are found in humans, referred to as wet and dry. Honey brown in color, wet earwax contains a higher concentration of lipids and pigments than dry earwax. A single genetic change converts wet earwax (which is the genetically dominant form) into dry earwax (the genetically recessive form), which is gray and flaky.

The type of earwax a person has reflects their ancestry, with people of African and European descent having the wet variety and Asian and Native American people groups having dry earwax. Anthropologists have noted a correlation between earwax type and body odor. People with wet earwax tend to be more odiferous than people with dry earwax. Anthropologists think this correlation reflects sweat production levels, with people with wet earwax sweating more profusely than people with dry earwax. Presumably, the mutation which alters the color and consistency of the earwax also impacts sweat production. Anthropologists think that reduced sweating may have offered an advantage to Asian peoples and Native Americans, and consequently, dry earwax became fixed within these populations.

What Is the Function of Earwax?

Earwax serves several functions. One is protecting the inner ear from water, dust particles, and microorganisms. Even though earwax is a solid substance, it allows air to flow through it to the inner ear. Yet, the high fat content of earwax makes it an ideal water repellent, keeping water away from the inner ear. The hair fibers in earwax serve a useful function, forming a meshwork that traps dust particles. And the acidic pH of earwax and the lysosomes from the cellular debris associated with it impart this waxy secretion with antibacterial and antifungal properties.

The fatty materials associated with earwax also help lubricate the skin of the inner ear canal as the earwax moves toward the outer ear. Earwax motion occurs via a conveyor action set up, in part, by the migration of epithelial cells toward the outer ear. These migrating cells, which move at about the same rate as fingernails grow, carry the earwax along with them. Jaw motion also helps with the earwax movement.

By comparing earwax from several animals and by video recording earwax in human ear canals, the GIT researchers discovered that earwax has special properties that make it a non-Newtonian fluid. It is solid at rest, but flows when under pressure. Apparently, the pressure exerted on the earwax from jaw movements helps it to flow toward the outer ear. This movement serves as a cleaning mechanism, carrying the debris picked up by the earwax toward the outer ear. Interestingly, the particles picked up by the earwax alter its consistency, from a waxy material, to a flaky solid that readily crumbles, making it easier to clear the outer ear, while making room for newer, cleaner earwax.

New Technology Inspired by Earwax

The GIT engineers recognized that, based on its physical properties, earwax could serve as an inspiration for the design of new types of filters that could protect electronics from water and dusty environments. With a bit of imagination, it is possible to conceive of ways to take advantage of shear-thinning behavior to design filters that could be readily replaced with cleaner ones, once they have trapped their limit of dust particles.

Biomimetics, Bioinspiration, and the Case for Intelligent Design

It has become rather commonplace for engineers to employ insights from biology to solve engineering problems and to inspire the invention of new technologies. This activity falls under the domain of two relatively new and exciting areas of engineering known as biomimetics and bioinspiration. As the names imply, biomimetics involves direct copying (or mimicry) of designs from biology, whereas bioinspiration relies on insights from biology to guide the engineering enterprise.

From my perspective, the use of biological designs to guide engineering efforts seems fundamentally at odds with evolutionary theory. Generally, evolutionary biologists view biological systems as the products of an unguided, historically contingent process that co-opts preexisting systems to cobble together new ones. Evolutionary mechanisms can optimize these systems, but they are still kludges, in essence.

Given the unguided nature of evolutionary mechanisms, does it make sense for engineers to rely on biological systems to solve problems and inspire new technologies? Is it in alignment with evolutionary beliefs to build an entire subdiscipline of engineering upon mimicking biological designs? I would argue that these engineering subdisciplines do not fit with the evolutionary paradigm. On the other hand, biomimetics and bioinspiration naturally flow out of a creation model approach to biology. Using designs in nature to inspire engineering only makes sense if these designs arose from an intelligent Mind.

Resources

“Engineers’ Muse: The Design of Biochemical Systems” by Fazale Rana (article)
“Beetles Inspire an Engineering Breakthrough” by Fazale Rana (article)

Endnotes

  1. Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, “The Technological Potential of Earwax,” Science News(blog), ScienceDaily, January 6, 2017, www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/17016092506.htm.
Reprinted with permission by the author
Original article at:
https://www.reasons.org/explore/blogs/the-cells-design/read/the-cells-design/2017/02/22/earwax-discovery-gives-new-hearing-to-the-case-for-intelligent-design