If, however, it was thrown forward, it would follow a curved path in falling to the ground. Newton then reasoned that if thrown fast enough, it would circle the earth in an orbit.

From this theorizing, the link between gravity and the movements of the moon and the planets became apparent to him: the moon bound in an orbit around the earth because of the pull of earth’s gravity and the planets kept in their orbits by the sun’s gravity.

A Universal Law

After careful study, Newton formulated a precise mathematical description of this universal law. Simply stated, Newton’s equations said that all objects, small or large, exert a pull on one another, the strength of that pull being dependent on how massive the objects are and on the distance between them.

With some refinements, scientists still use Newton’s basic formulas describing gravity, particularly in planning such space ventures as sending a space probe to encounter Halley’s comet in 1985. In fact, English astronomer Edmond Halley, a colleague of Newton, used Newton’s theories to predict the year when that comet would next appear.

Newton’s discoveries about gravity gave him a glimpse of the order manifest in the universe, an orderliness that arises through intelligent design. But his work was by no means the final word on the subject. At the beginning of this century, scientists came to realize that some aspects of Newton’s theories were inadequate, even inconsistent.

Einstein and Gravity

In 1916 Albert Einstein put forward his general theory of relativity. His amazing discovery was that gravity not only shapes the universe but also governs the way we see and measure it. Why, gravity even affects the way time is measured!

Again, an illustration helps clarify matters. Imagine space to be like a boundless rubber sheet. Now, placing an object on this flexible mat will cause a dimple, or depression. According to Einstein’s description, the earth, the sun, and the stars are like objects on a flexible mat, causing space to curve. If you roll another object onto the rubber sheet, it will be deflected into a curved path by the depressed area around the first object.

Similarly, the earth, the planets, and the stars move along curved paths, following the natural “depressions” in space. Even a beam of light is deflected when passing near massive objects in the universe. Furthermore, Einstein’s equations predicted that light traveling against gravity would lose some of its energy, as noted by a slight shift in color toward the red end of the spectrum. Physicists call this phenomenon gravitational redshift.

Thus, besides clearing up the discrepancies arising from Newton’s discoveries, Einstein’s theory revealed new secrets of how gravity works in the universe.

Fascinating Effects

The ability of gravity to affect the way light travels gives rise to some astonishing consequences that astronomers have observed.

Desert travelers have long been familiar with mirages optical illusions that have the appearance of water shimmering on the ground. Now, astronomers have photographed cosmic “mirages.” How is this?

Light from a distant object, believed to be the active nucleus of a galaxy and called a quasar (or, quasi-stellar object), passes intervening galaxies in the line of sight from the earth. As the light passes the galaxies, it is bent by gravitational forces. The bending of the light forms two or more images of the one quasar. An observer on earth, thinking that light has come straight toward him, concludes that he is seeing more than one object.

Another fascinating aspect arising from Einstein’s work concerns black holes. What are they, and what is their connection with gravity? A simple experiment serves to answer.

Try throwing an object above your head. You will notice that it rises to a certain height, stops momentarily, and then falls back to the ground. With light it is different. A beam of light can escape from earth’s gravity because it travels fast enough.

Suppose now that the force of gravity was much stronger, strong enough to prevent even light from escaping. From such an object, nothing could escape. The object itself would be invisible because no light could escape its gravity and reach the eyes of an outside observer, hence the name black hole.

The German astronomer Karl Schwarzschild was the first to demonstrate the possibility, in theory, of black holes. Although there is, as yet, no unequivocal proof that black holes really do exist in the universe, astronomers have identified a number of possible candidates. Black holes may also be the hidden powerhouses of quasars.

Gravity Waves

On the basis of Einstein’s work, we can also picture gravity as an invisible web, linking everything and holding the universe together. What happens when that web is disturbed?

Consider again the illustration of the rubber sheet, and suppose that an object on the sheet is suddenly jostled to and fro. The vibrations generated in the sheet will disturb nearby objects. Similarly, if a star were violently “jostled,” ripples in space, or gravity waves, might be generated. Planets, stars, or galaxies caught in the path of a gravity wave would experience space itself contracting and expanding like a rubber sheet vibrating.

Since these waves have not as yet been detected, what proof do scientists have that Einstein’s theory is correct? One of the best indications comes from a star system known as a binary pulsar. This consists of two neutron stars in orbit about a common center, with an orbital period of about eight hours. One of these stars is also a pulsar it emits a radio pulse as it rotates, like the sweeping light beam from a lighthouse. Thanks to the precise timing of the pulsar, astronomers can map the orbit of the two stars with great precision. They find that the time of orbit is slowly diminishing in exact agreement with Einstein’s theory that gravity waves are being emitted.

On the earth, the effects of these waves are infinitesimal. To illustrate: On February 24, 1987, astronomers spotted a supernova a star undergoing a spectacular transformation, blazing forth with the brilliance of millions of suns as it blew off its outer layers. Gravity waves produced by the supernova would cause, on the earth, a shiver in dimension of only a millionth of the diameter of a hydrogen atom. Why so small a change? Because the energy would be spread out over a vast distance by the time the waves reached the earth.

Baffling

In spite of great advances in knowledge, certain fundamental aspects of gravity still baffle scientists. It has long been assumed that there are basically four forces the electromagnetic force responsible for electricity and magnetism, the weak and the strong forces acting within the nucleus of the atom, and gravity. But why are there four? Could it be that all four are manifestations of a single fundamental force?

Recently it was established that the electromagnetic force and the weak force are manifestations of an underlying phenomenon the electroweak interaction and theories seek to unify the strong force with these two. Gravity, however, is the odd one out it does not seem to fit in with the others.

Scientists hope that clues may come from recent experiments performed in the Greenland ice sheet. Measurements made down a one-and-a-quarter-mile-deep [2,000 m] hole bored in the ice seemed to indicate that the force of gravity differed from what was expected. Previous experiments, performed down mine shafts and up television towers, likewise indicated that something mysterious was causing deviations from the predictions of the Newtonian description of gravity. Meanwhile, some theoreticians are trying to develop a new mathematical approach, the “superstring theory,” in order to unify the forces of nature.

Gravity Vital for Life

The discoveries of both Newton and Einstein demonstrate that laws govern the movements of heavenly bodies and that gravity acts as a bond holding the universe together. A professor of physics, writing in New Scientist, drew attention to the evidence of design in these laws and said: “The most minute change in the relative strengths of gravitational and electromagnetic forces would turn stars like the Sun into blue giants or red dwarfs. All around us, we seem to see evidence that nature got it just right.”

Without gravity we simply could not exist. Just consider: Gravity holds our sun together, sustaining its nuclear reactions, which supply our needed heat and light. Gravity keeps our spinning earth in orbit around the sun making day and night and seasons and prevents us from being thrown off like mud from a spinning wheel. Earth’s atmosphere is held in place by gravity, while the pull of gravity from the moon and the sun generates regular tides that help circulate the waters of our oceans.

Using a tiny organ of our inner ear (otolith), we sense gravity and learn to take it into account from infancy when walking, running, or jumping. How much more difficult it is for astronauts when they have to cope with zero-gravity conditions in spaceflight!

Yes, gravity contributes to making life on earth normal for us. It is, indeed, a fascinating example of our Creator’s “wonderful works.” Job 37:14, 16.

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In this delightful experience, Luke makes use of his body’s five remarkable senses sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. Yet we have many other senses; how many depends on how one wishes to classify them. For example, the skin has sensitivity not only to touch but also to temperature (warm and cold) as well as to pain. The inner ear, besides being sensitive to sound, regulates our sense of balance by means of fluid that flows within its semicircular canals. In addition, there are receptors in the body that are responsible for our sense of hunger and thirst, as well as other senses.

Thus, by means of an intricate communication system, our body responds to various stimuli to measure physical and chemical characteristics of our environment. Consider a few specifics.

The eye receives a continual flow of visual impressions. Light is focused on the millions of receptor cells of the retina, which responds to the light rays by producing electrical signals. The optic nerve carries the signals to the brain, where they are interpreted as visual images.

The ear has tiny hairs located in its inner part that oscillate in rhythm with the sound waves they pick up. They then feed electrical information that our brain interprets as sound.

Touch is a sense dependent on small receptors located in the skin. Apparently, different receptor cells are responsible for the various sensations of touch, pain, cold, and heat.

Taste is a sense made possible by microscopic nerve endings called taste buds. By means of these buds situated principally on the tongue, and to a lesser extent on other surfaces of the mouth, we can relish our food and drink.

Smell is closely linked to taste. The extraordinary sensitivity of the receptor cells housed in the roof of the nasal cavity enables them to detect just 1 molecule of some odorous substances in 1,000,000,000,000 parts of air! But just how these cells detect odors and give rise to nerve signals in the brain still baffles researchers.

Truly, our senses are remarkable gifts. What happens, though, when they are impaired? How do we cope? What can we do?

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Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite in the 1860’s, used silica from diatoms to stabilize nitroglycerin, which enabled him to form portable sticks of the explosive. Fossilized diatom shells are used commercially in many ways today—for example, to illuminate road paint, purify wine, and filter swimming pool water.

Far more important, though, is the fact that these tiny one-celled plants account for one fourth of the photosynthesis on our planet. Researchers Allen Milligan and Francois Morel, of Princeton University, U.S.A., have found that silica in the diatom’s glass shell causes chemical changes in the water inside it, creating an ideal environment for photosynthesis. The reason the glass is so ornate, scientists believe, is that a greater surface area is thus exposed to the water inside the cell, making photosynthesis more efficient. Just how these minute but beautiful cases are formed from silicon dissolved in seawater is still a mystery, but what researchers do know is that by absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen, diatoms play a vital role in sustaining life on earth, perhaps an even more important role than most land plants.

Morel rates diatoms “among the most successful organisms on earth.” Milligan adds that without their appetite for carbon dioxide, “the greenhouse effect might be much more severe.”

When diatoms die, their carbon remains sink to the ocean floor and eventually fossilize. Some scientists believe that in this form, under intense pressure, diatoms have contributed to the world’s oil reserves. Concern is growing, however, that as seawater temperatures rise because of global warming, this allows bacteria to eat the diatoms’ remains before they can sink, and carbon is released back into the surface water. Thus, even this tiny “jewel of the sea” is part of a marvelously designed life-sustaining system that could now be under threat.

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Yes, this amazingly versatile organ is also designed to move food around effortlessly, placing and holding it between the teeth for proper chewing and then moving it to the back of the throat to be swallowed.

If you enjoyed your food today, if the flavor made your mouth water, the tongue played a big part in your enjoyment. The tongue helps to mix saliva with the food we are enjoying, thus sparing us the possibility of stomach trouble later. It can even tell us if the food is good or bad by our sense of taste, which is located chiefly in the tongue. That is why you will see a cook tasting what is being cooked, to see if it is just right or if a little more seasoning needs to be added. Just a sip will tell the story.

Complicated Design

Though the human tongue seems to be a rather simple piece of muscle, a closer study of it shows that it is really a rather complicated organ designed with great intelligence. It has muscles that run in different directions, and this accounts for its being exceptionally movable and pliant. Some run lengthwise, others crosswise, some vertically. This makes it possible to shorten or lengthen the tongue, make it rise or descend, turn its tip in different directions or narrow it and turn the edges upward. It is this versatility that makes it possible to move food around in the mouth, pushing it between the teeth or even finding and holding a bit of grit that might not have been noticed in the salad.

In addition to the tongue’s being covered with mucous membrane, on its surface can be found four kinds of little protrusions called papillae. For example, one kind are made up of little cone-shaped projections that cover the whole surface as well as the borders and tip of the tongue. It is these that make the tongue in the cat family so rasplike that they can easily scrape bones clean of all flesh.

Next, there is another kind that are about the size of the head of a pin. They resemble a miniature toadstool, from which they got their name (fungiform). Located mostly at the tip and sides of the tongue, they are pink in color and usually contain special taste buds.

Another kind number just seven to ten in all and are arranged across the back of the tongue, being surrounded by taste buds. They can be seen with the naked eye.

Finally, scientists speak of a fourth kind that can be found on the sides of the tongue and in the folds of the mucous membrane at the back of the tongue.

A simple piece of muscle? Far from it. The tongue is of intricate design and of great value to its owner. Besides being so sensitive to taste and heat, the tongue is more sensitive to touch than any other part of the body.

Variety of Amazing Designs

In the animal realm a wide variety of amazing designs can be found. For example, consider the forked tongue of the snake. Some persons believe that a poisonous snake bites with its flicking tongue, thereby pouring poison into its victim, but such is not the case. It uses its teeth for that purpose. Besides being forked, the tongue of a snake is narrow and very sensitive. The snake will put it out of its mouth from time to time to feel the air. Then when it touches the sense cavities or so-called Jacobson’s organ in the roof of its mouth with the tip of its tongue, the scent molecules from the air, which have stuck to the tongue, give it a sense of smell. A tongue for smelling? Yes, the snakes have it. They even have a sheath into which the tongue may be withdrawn so that it will not become damaged when not in use.

The chameleon has a specialized, telescopic tongue that is exceptionally long for its size. Patiently and slowly this little creature will approach its potential meal until it has come close enough. Then, fast as lightning, it shoots its tongue out and the insect taste-treat is stuck to it. Rather similarly, most frogs have a long, protruding tongue that they use like a flyswatter to catch insects.

Ant bears or anteaters are champions when it comes to a fast draw with the tongue. When they tear open a termite nest with their powerful claws, then, so quickly that it can hardly be seen, their tongue starts to work. Their nose is long, and the tongue comes out of the mouth like a shot from a blowgun. It is long, fast-moving, and covered with a sticky substance. So, all the anteater has to do is draw its tongue back into its mouth and the termites that have stuck to it are drawn in for a tasty meal. Similarly the Asiatic pangolin, a type of scaly anteater, has a long, wormlike tongue used to capture ants for dinner.

Birds also have remarkably designed tongues. For example, the woodpecker has a tongue with a barbed and slimy tip ideally suited for snaring and withdrawing grubs from decaying trees. Then there is the beautiful little hummingbird that uses its amazing tongue like a drinking straw! For its drinks of nectar it flies from flower to flower. Though a very small bird, some species measuring only two and a half to three inches from the tip of the bill to the tip of the tail, it is heavy enough so that frail flowers cannot hold its weight. So it hovers close by the flower, using its long, slender tongue to draw out the sweet liquid by the suction method.

The bloodsucking lamprey, an eellike fish that lives on the Mediterranean and North Atlantic coasts, has a remarkable tongue. It is a strong muscle covered with horny membrane. This the lamprey uses like a suction pump to anchor itself to rocks or attach itself to other fish to suck nourishment from them.

Vegetation eaters like the giraffe also have marvelously designed tongues. The tongue of the giraffe may be as long as twenty inches and can quickly curl around and tear off leafy material for consumption.

The prize for the biggest tongue of all must go to the whale. It has been reported that the tongue of a one-hundred-foot blue whale can weigh 6,600 pounds. In fact, the tongue of one eighty-nine-foot-long blue whale, when weighed with its roots, was about as heavy as an average-size elephant. Imagine the strength it takes to move a tongue like that!

But besides tongues for hunting, sucking, scraping and tearing, what about their use for cleaning and first aid? Do not forget the domestic cat and how enjoyably it washes itself every day with its tongue, just as most animals do. And do not cats, dogs and other animals carefully bathe and cleanse a wound with their tongues? Or if you lose a tooth, do you not find your tongue taking much interest in the matter, carefully and tenderly probing the area?

Tongue Care and Usage

Such a remarkable and necessary organ certainly deserves our attentive care, because even this resilient member of our body can be abused. Interestingly, the Encyclopædia Britannica says that chronic inflammation of the tongue may be caused by the irritation of decayed teeth or an ill-fitted plate of artificial teeth, or by excessive smoking. Since such chronic inflammation may lead to cancer, it states: “The treatment demands the removal of every source of irritation . . . Smoking must be absolutely and entirely given up . . . and everything else which is likely to be a cause of irritation must be avoided.”

Good it is, too, to avoid irritation caused by the improper use of the tongue in speech. Screaming, angry and abusive speech irritate others and bring no benefit to anyone. “Death and life are in the power of the tongue,” the inspired proverb tells us. (Prov. 18:21) A person can train his tongue to speak what is good and to help others, but first he must train his mind in harmony with the wisdom from the great Designer of the tongue, Jehovah God. Then our tongues can be used for promoting peace and happiness among our families and friends, all to the praise of the Creator, whose wisdom can be seen in the tongue’s amazing design.

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At night the sky’s beauty is even more magnificent when bedecked in starry splendor. The breathless glory of the night is enhanced when the aurora weaves a delicate tapestry of color high overhead. Each garment assumes an infinite variety of shapes, all dazzling masterpieces of beauty, all creations of perfect art. Little wonder that worshipers of Jehovah referred to the beauties of our marvelous “roof” as “the wonderful works of the One perfect in knowledge,” “the wonderful works of God.” Job 37:14, 16.

Almost daily across the sky’s broad highway parade clouds of every size and description. Fluffy clouds, billowy clouds, fleecy clouds these are like glorious floats that silently glide by. There are white pillar clouds surrounded by straggling cloudlets, like children about their parents. There are wavy clouds and rolling clouds, the shapes and forms of which are worthy of the finest sculptor. There are huge clouds that look something like a mammoth cauliflower or an enormous white anvil.

The cumulonimbus, also called thunderheads, are massive. They are composed of billions of ice crystals. These formations can rise to 50,000 feet or more in height. A single formation can contain as much as 300,000 tons of water! An estimated 44,000 thunderstorms lash the earth’s surface every day, some 1,800 of them in action at any given moment! They are majestic in their awesomeness and from them can burst forth creation’s regal spectacle the rainbow. God speaks of it as “my rainbow,” obviously one of His wonderful works. Gen. 9:11-16.

Often the sky foretells the weather. In the western hemisphere when scattered cumulus clouds dot the sky, when the barometer remains steady or rises, and when the wind blows gently, fair weather will probably continue. The long curling clouds known as “mares’ tails” are generally a sign that foul weather, in the form of snow or heavy rain, will probably arrive within twenty-four hours. Also when dull-gray altostratus clouds darken the whole sky and the barometer drops, rain or snow will probably continue to fall. The Bible, at Matthew 16:2, 3, gives meaning to the fiery sky often seen at sunset: “When evening falls you are accustomed to say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is fire-red’; and at morning, ‘It will be wintry, rainy weather today, for the sky is fire-red, but gloomy-looking.’” A red sunrise presages the opposite of a red sunset.

Why the Sky Is Blue

What is this wonderful work of God we call “the blue sky”? Blue is not the color of air, as was believed by some in the nineteenth century. Nor is the blue due to light emitted by the atmosphere itself, for then it would appear blue at night. Were the air completely transparent or nonexistent, the sky would necessarily be as black as space, a fact confirmed by astronauts who journeyed above the atmosphere. “Up there, it’s a black-and-white world. There is no color,” said American astronaut Jim Lovell. But more recently spacemen returning from the surface of the moon have described the lunar surface as a nondescript gray.

Since the sky is not black to us on earth, the cause, then, must lie in the behavior of sunlight when it comes in contact with the substance of the atmosphere.

The color of the sky results from the air within less than one hundred miles of the earth. This belt of atmosphere is made up primarily of five gases, namely, nitrogen, oxygen, argon, water vapor (a compound of hydrogen and oxygen) and carbon dioxide. Besides these gases there are others that are rare, but in smaller amounts, such as helium, xenon, neon; and a few poisonous gases, such as methane, ammonia, carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide. Up to the realm of the highest familiar clouds the sky also holds quantities of foreign matter, such as pollen, dust, bacteria, soot, spores, volcanic ash, salt particles from the seas and dust from outer space.

When the sun’s radiation, which consists of electromagnetic waves of many different wavelengths, passes through the atmosphere, the longer wavelengths plow through the atmosphere quite easily and reach our earth. We may feel them as heat. But the shorter ones are scattered in all directions by the air molecules and other particles in the atmosphere. The blue light is bounced about again and again as it comes earthward from the sun. In other words, the blue sky is a gauzy glowing fabric spun of blue light and air. It is, moreover, only about twelve miles high; beyond this the sky darkens to violet. Above twenty miles the sky becomes black and the stars emerge.

Why the Other Colors?

Though generally blue, the sky may be red, orange, green, in fact, almost any color. It all depends on how light waves enter the atmosphere and what they encounter on their way down.

In the lower atmosphere are concentrated clouds, dust and all kinds of particle material. These being larger than air molecules, they scatter the longer wavelengths of light. When the sun is near the horizon its rays enter the atmosphere at a slant, passing through much more of the particle-laden air. All wavelengths are scattered, and only the longest red rays penetrate at all. So we have the ruddy hues at dawn and sunset. The more dust or cloud particles in the air, the deeper is the color. The less dust, the bluer the sky, because the long light waves come right through to the earth without being deflected, while the short blue light waves we see are the ones being bounced about by air molecules in the sky. Therefore, on a clear, relatively dust-free day, our marvelous “roof” is blue.

Other Sights in the Sky

When, after a few days of bright winter weather, high clouds, feathery and fragile, give to the sky a milky-white opalescence, bright rings, called halos, appear encircling the sun or moon. Halos of the moon are necessarily much fainter, and their colors are nearly imperceptible. In many parts of the world halos are visible, on the average, as often as once each four days. Even some of the brighter stars show coronas as thin, fleecy clouds glide slowly past. These halos may show several distinct concentric circles of color, each bluish on the inside, then passing through a yellowish white to a reddish brown on the outside. Sometimes they resemble circle rainbows in the sky. This phenomenon is caused by light waves being reflected off regularly shaped ice crystals floating high in the air.

The regular rainbow we see in the sky, which arouses awe and excitement, is formed by light playing on waterdrops as they fall. Each raindrop acts as a tiny prism, breaking down the sun’s white rays of mixed light into their component spectral colors. Occasionally droplets of mist can cause a rainbow, but generally it is the larger raindrops.

No two persons see the same rainbow. Each individual sees the rainbow from his particular point of view, because a rainbow is only light coming from a certain direction. Since the drops reflecting the light are falling, this means that we see a new rainbow formed by every new set of raindrops. What a magnificent gift from God the rainbow!

Sometimes a second rainbow may appear in the sky, lying outside the first and shining rather more faintly. Have you noticed, the colors in this rainbow are in the reverse order, with blue on the outside and red on the inside? This is because the light rays have undergone one more reflection on the internal surfaces of the raindrops and are reversed in much the same way as left becomes right and right becomes left in a mirror. But this extra reflection causes a reduction in intensity of the light, which is why the second rainbow is always dimmer.

The Aurora

Neither a rainbow nor a cloud formation, except perhaps a glorious sunset or sunrise, can compare with the aurora in the sky, that is, the northern or southern lights. No written description or photographs can convey the true magnificence of these ever-changing, luminous displays, often in vivid colors. Sometimes they are so bright that one can read by their light.

Generally the aurora flickers, suggesting a blazing fire just over the hill. Often the glow kindles into brilliance, assuming the shape of a huge arc, or it may take the form of bundles of rays like those of sunlight shining through holes in a cloud. These shafts of light may be pale white, emerald green, violet or rose red. At times the aurora may appear to hang in folds like a huge curtain or drapery of a stage. It may shimmer like the folds of a great screen hanging from the sky that is stirred by a silent wind. Or it may burst into feverish activity. Yellow becomes tinged with red and green as rays leap upward, subside, then dart ahead again.

There is nothing with which one can compare the delicate beauty and coloring of the aurora caused by clouds of electrically charged particles coming from the sun and entering the earth’s magnetic field. These particles collide with molecules of air, causing them to vibrate and give off the red, white, blue and green lights of their awesome displays. The aurora another of God’s marvelous gifts to man.

The Lightning Miracle

An estimated 9,000,000 lightning bolts strike the ground daily. About half the time, what people see in the sky as a single lightning flash is actually composed of up to ten successive strokes streaking along the same path as the first. There may be as many as forty pulses in a second, which is about how long the lightning’s path stays open. The heat in the path rises so abruptly that the surrounding air breaks the sound barrier in moving away. The result is thunder. The sky at such a time is alive with fire and sound.

There are various kinds of lightning. Heat lightning occurs on the horizon and is considered to be the reflection of strokes too far away to be directly seen or heard. Sheet lightning takes place inside clouds, blanketing them with a widespread flickering light. Ribbon lightning occurs when a strong wind blows the conductive channel of a multiple stroke to one side. The successive strokes rage upward a few feet apart, appearing like ribbons of light.

But what good is accomplished by all this fire filling the sky? It is now known that lightning helps greatly to fertilize the soil. Eighty percent of the atmosphere or sky is nitrogen, an essential food for plants. About 22,000,000 tons of this nutriment float over each square mile of the earth. But as it exists in the atmosphere nitrogen is unusable by plants. Before plants can take life from it, it must undergo a series of chemical changes, very much as food in our digestive system must undergo changes. Lightning in the sky touches off the series of changes. Air particles are made white-hot by lightning, for it can heat a two- to ten-inch channel of air hotter than the sun’s surface. Under this intense heat, the nitrogen combines with the oxygen in the air to form nitrogen oxides that are soluble in water. The rain dissolves the oxides and carries them down to earth as dilute nitric acid. Reaching the earth, the nitric acid reacts with the minerals of the earth, there to become nitrates on which plants can feed. Since plants can feed and live, man and animals can feed on plants and live!

What a marvelous gift lightning is from God to man! It does more than light the sky. Meteorologists estimate that lightning bombards the earth at a rate of more than one hundred times a second, transforming the upper air into fertilizer for plants!

God has given us, not only a practical sky, but a marvelous “roof” filled with awe-inspiring, ever-changing beauties and wonder, a sky that moves faithful men to praise Jehovah the Doer of all these wonderful things. Ps. 136:4.

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Yet, have you really given much thought to your amazing sense of hearing? And what about that possessed by other creatures? Even a brief investigation can be intriguing.

How Are You Able to Hear?

A glance at the accompanying illustration shows that your ear is much more than that trumpetlike organ on the side of your head. That part is merely the auricle. It catches sound waves and sends them inward, along the external auditory canal. In it are tiny hairs and wax-producing glands. Their purpose? To prevent dust, insects, and so forth, from going deeper and causing damage.

When sound waves reach the end of the canal, they strike your eardrum, composed of thin, taut tissue. Its resulting vibrations are amplified and transmitted in your middle ear by three minute bones, the auditory ossicles. They are commonly called the hammer, anvil and stirrup because of their shapes. The stirrup “taps” the membrane of the “oval window,” transmitting the vibrations to your fluid-filled inner ear. Sound waves also enter the inner ear through the “round window,” below the “oval window.” Some waves even travel through your skull bones into the inner ear.

Above the inner ear’s central vestibule are the semicircular canals. Movements of fluid within them enable you to maintain physical balance. However, hearing is associated with the cochlea. Sound waves passing through fluid set in motion the cochlea’s basilar membrane. In turn, its movement causes vibration of the hair cells making up the organ of Corti. This motion stimulates the nerves attached to the hair cells. Finally these nerves, through the auditory nerve, send messages as electrical impulses to your brain’s hearing center. All of this is well known, but just how a person can understand such signals continues to baffle men of science.

A Word About What You Hear

You cannot hear every sound that surrounds you, and that is a good thing. As a babe in arms, your auditory range may have run from 15 to 30,000 cycles, or vibrations, a second. But say that it was very far below 15 cycles. Why, then you would hear your own heartbeats, even your bone and muscle movements!

Though it has certain limitations, your hearing range is astounding. While individuals differ, in general the loudest sound that one can tolerate is 2,000,000,000,000 times as great as the least perceptible sound! Indeed, the human ear has the maximum sensitivity practical for its needs.

As the years pass, of course, imperfect humans experience progressive loss of hearing ability. Among other things, this is because tissues of the inner ear lose their elasticity. The upper level of the auditory range reportedly drops from 30,000 cycles when one is a baby to around 4,000 cycles by the time one is eighty. Nevertheless, even that is enough for normal conversation.

Truly a Masterwork!

Your ears have built-in protection against extremely loud noises. Of course, a sudden nearby explosion can result in excessive vibrations that could cause irreparable damage to your intricate hearing apparatus. But if a very loud sound develops gradually, quick-acting muscles can ‘turn down the volume.’ The eardrum’s membrane is tightened to reduce its vibrations, and middle-ear muscles twist the auditory ossicles. Thus the stirrup does not transmit such great vibrations through the “oval window” into the inner ear.

Protection also is afforded by the Eustachian tube, running from the nasal cavity to the middle ear. This passageway carries air and equalizes the pressure inside your eardrum with that outside. Here, then, is a safeguard against the breaking of your eardrum due to a great change in external air pressure.

Think, too, about the sounds you hear. In an amazing way, you distinguish between the rumble of thunder and the clatter of wagon wheels, the footsteps of a person and the hoofbeats of a horse, even if you cannot see their source. Moreover, usually both ears can be ‘tuned in’ on sounds. Perhaps you dropped a coin and did not see where it rolled. Yet, you heard it hit the floor, possibly bouncing a time or two. Then you listened as it rolled and struck a chair. Finally, you heard the coin flop over and reverberate before coming to rest. Both ears help you to locate the spot.

Not without good reason, it has been said of the human ear: “If an engineer were to duplicate its function, he would have to compress into approximately one cubic inch a sound system that included an impedance matcher, a wide-range mechanical analyzer, a mobile relay-and-amplification unit, a multichannel transducer to convert mechanical energy to electrical energy, a system to maintain a delicate hydraulic balance, and an internal two-way communications system. Even if he could perform this miracle of miniaturization, he probably could not hope to match the ear’s performance.” Sound and Hearing, by S. S. Stevens, Fred Warshofsky and the editors of Life, page 38.

Yes, the human ear truly is a masterwork. How well it demonstrates the wisdom of Jehovah God, the incomparable Maker of the hearing ear! Prov. 20:12.

Hearing in the Animal World

You have a right to be impressed with the wonder of human hearing. But what about that of other creatures? Well, people can see the external ears of dogs, cats, horses and monkeys, and they know that such animals respond to sounds. Also, though birds lack external ears, most persons are well aware that these creatures can hear. As a matter of fact, a bird’s auditory range is about the same as man’s. What about snakes? Can they hear?

Some naturalists contend that snakes cannot hear. Actually, however, recent findings show that these animals have an auditory mechanism and can hear fairly well. For instance, researchers Peter H. Hartline and Howard W. Campbell found that not only substrate vibrations but also airborne sounds evoked electrical responses in species of three snake families. Concerning a boa constrictor, they wrote: “If a brain response is accepted as indicative of hearing, these snakes can hear airborne sound.” Science, March 14, 1969, Vol. 163, No. 3872, page 1222.

The Bible implies that the cobra can “listen to the voice of charmers.” (Ps. 58:4, 5) In this regard, the New York Times of January 10, 1954, stated: “Dr. David I. Macht, research pharmacologist of the Mount Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, is one of the world’s leading authorities on cobra snake venom. . . . Dr. Macht reported that in working with cobras and cobra venom he became acquainted with a number of Hindu physicians, well educated, and from different parts of India. All agreed that cobras respond to some musical tones, from musical pipes or fifes. Some forms of music excite the animals more than other forms, the physicians reported. Indian children, playing in the dark in the countryside, are even warned not to sing lest their sounds attract cobras, he said. Dr. Macht commented that Shakespeare, who repeatedly referred to serpents as deaf . . . merely repeated a common misunderstanding. On the other hand, Dr. Macht said, the psalmist was right who implied conversely, in Psalm 58, Verse 5, that serpents can hear: . . . Contrary to the claims of some naturalists, Dr. Macht said, snakes are ‘charmed’ by sounds, not by movements of the charmer. Revise the textbooks, the physicians recommended.”

What About Insects?

Some researchers have concluded that not all insects can hear. Yet, many of these little creatures have remarkable hearing ability. Some respond to sounds below man’s auditory range. Others can detect those over two octaves higher than any that humans can perceive.

Insect auditory equipment varies and often turns up in unusual places. Eardrums of short-horned grasshoppers are on the sides of their abdomens. The male attracts a lady grasshopper by rubbing the edges of his front wings with spines attached to his back legs. This is ‘music to the ears’ of the female that hears it and decides to become his mate.

Katydids and crickets have “ears,” too. Where? Just below what you might term the “knees” on their front legs. Of course, these are only tiny openings. But all the female katydid must do to pick up the male’s mating sound is to move her legs in the direction of the call!

The Marvel of Echolocation

Some creatures employ the sense of hearing in quite an extraordinary way. They are equipped for echolocation. These animals emit high-frequency sounds and are guided, by listening and responding to rapidly returning echoes as the sounds are reflected by objects. For instance, bottle-nosed dolphins use this method to avoid underwater obstacles.

Among echolocators is a well-known flying mammal the bat. If you were to release a bat in a completely dark room, it could-fly about without hitting the walls or other objects. This is because the animals emit sound pulses of high frequency; as the sounds strike obstacles, they listen for the echoes. Why, they sometimes send out over 200 pulses a second! By interpreting the messages resulting from these echoes, the creature-charts a safe course.

The bat also uses its astounding guidance system to locate the insects on which it dines. But just how it tells the difference between echoes reflected by obstacles and those returning from potential meals remains a mystery to man. For that matter, certain bats catch their prey right on the obstacle, a leaf.

Another remarkable factor is that the bat does not hear the sounds it emits. Every time one is sent out, ear-muscle contractions ‘turn off the sound’ so that only the echo is heard. Furthermore, each bat may possess and follow its own pattern of sound because there is not mass confusion when hundreds of these creatures flock together.

What a system of sound emission and hearing the Creator has given the bat! It has been said: “Scientists estimate that, ounce for ounce and watt for watt, the bat’s sonar is a billion times more sensitive and efficient than any radar or sonar device contrived by man.” James Poling, in Marvels & Mysteries of Our Animal World.

Protect Your Hearing Ability

Whether you look at the animals or consider yourself, doubtless you will admit that hearing ability truly is amazing. And surely you will want to care for and protect your hearing apparatus.

Your ears are being assailed by many unwanted sounds in this modern world. Noise pollution has become quite a problem in many places. If you must work around excessively loud machinery, for example, the use of earplugs may be advisable. They may protect you against ear injury and hearing loss.

If you now are a tobacco user, another way to protect your hearing is to stop using tobacco. The nicotine in tobacco causes constriction of inner-ear arteries. This, in turn, reduces blood flow and consequently the flow of nourishment that the inner ear needs in order to play its vital role in your life.

Never probe in your ears with objects such as hairpins or matchsticks. If you break the skin in this way, infection may result.

Do you have your ears examined from time to time? Well, having periodic ear examinations would not be amiss. It certainly pays to protect your amazing ability of hearing.

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Scientists estimate that the spruce forests in just the southern third of Sweden release about 75,000 tons of pollen each year. A single ragweed plant, the bane of North American hay-fever sufferers, can produce a million grains of pollen a day. Carried by the breeze, ragweed pollen has been found 2 miles [3 km] above the earth and up to 400 miles [600 km] out to sea.

But why does pollen trigger an allergic reaction in some people? Before we consider that question, let us take a close look at pollen and see the amazing design found in these minute grains.

Tiny Grains of Life

Pollen, says The Encyclopædia Britannica, is “formed in the anther, or male apparatus, in seed-bearing plants and transported by various means (wind, water, insects, etc.) to the pistil, or female structure, where fertilization occurs.”

In flowering plants, pollen grains are made up of three distinct parts a nucleus of sperm cells and two layers that make up the wall or shell of the grain. The tough outer layer is highly resistant to disintegration and able to withstand strong acids, alkalies, and even intense heat. Nevertheless, with few exceptions, pollen is viable for only several days or weeks. The tough shell, though, may last for thousands of years without decaying. Hence, pollen grains can be found in abundance in the earth’s soil. In fact, scientists have learned much about the earth’s botanical history by studying pollen found in soil samples taken from various depths.

That history can also be quite accurate, thanks to the distinctive designs found on the outer shell of pollen grains. Depending on the type of pollen, the shell may be smooth, wrinkled, patterned, or covered with spines and knobs. “Thus, for purposes of identification, the pollen of each species is as reliable as a human fingerprint,” says professor of anthropology Vaughn M. Bryant, Jr.

How Plants Pollinate

Once a pollen grain comes in contact with the stigma, a part of the pistil in female plants, a chemical reaction causes the pollen grain to swell and to grow a tube that reaches down to the ovule. Sperm cells from inside the pollen grain then travel down the tube to the ovule, causing a fertilized seed to form. When the seed is mature, it simply needs to settle in the right environment in order to germinate.

While some seed-bearing plants grow as either male or female, most produce both pollen and ovules. Some plants self-pollinate; others cross-pollinate by transferring pollen to other plants of the same species or of a closely related one. Those that cross-pollinate “often avoid self-pollination by shedding their pollen either before or after the stigmas on the same plant are receptive to it,” says Britannica. Others have the chemical wherewithal to detect the difference between their own pollen and that of another plant of the same kind. When they detect their own pollen, they inactivate it, often by blocking the growth of the pollen tube.

In an area where there is a variety of vegetation, the air may be a veritable cocktail of pollens. How do plants sift out the pollen they require? Some employ complex principles of aerodynamics. Consider pine trees, for example.

Harvesting the Wind

Male pinecones grow in clusters and, when mature, release clouds of pollen to the wind. Scientists have discovered that female pinecones, in cooperation with the pine needles surrounding them, channel airflow in such a way that airborne pollen swirls and falls toward the reproductive surfaces of the cones. In receptive females these surfaces become exposed when the scales open slightly, separating from one another.

Researcher Karl J. Niklas conducted extensive tests on the aeronautical wizardry of pinecones. In the magazine Scientific American, he wrote: “Our studies reveal that the unique shape of the cone produced by each plant species results in idiosyncratic [distinctive] modifications of the airflow patterns . . . Similarly, each type of pollen has a distinctive size, shape and density, causing the pollen to interact with the turbulence in a unique way.” How effective are these techniques? Says Niklas: “Most of the cones we studied filtered their ‘own’ pollen from the air but not that of other species.”

Of course, not all plants pollinate by harnessing the wind much to the relief of allergy sufferers! Many make use of animals.

Seduced by Nectar

Plants that are pollinated by birds, small mammals, and insects usually employ things like hooks, spines, or sticky threads to attach pollen to the body of the foraging pollinator. A hairy bumblebee, for example, may find itself hauling off some 15,000 pollen grains in a single load!

Bees, in fact, are the preeminent pollinators of flowering plants. In return, plants reward bees by giving them both sweet nectar and pollen to eat, the latter providing proteins, vitamins, minerals, and fats. In an extraordinary act of cooperation, bees may visit over 100 flowers on a single trip, but they will collect pollen, nectar, or both from just one species until they have gathered enough or until supplies run out. This remarkable, instinctive behavior helps to ensure efficient pollination.

Fooled by Flowers

Instead of offering sweet treats, some plants rely on elaborate deceptions to coax insects to pollinate them. Consider the hammer orchid, which grows in Western Australia. The hammer orchid’s flower has a lower lip that, even to the human eye, almost perfectly resembles the plump, wingless female thynnid wasp. The flower even emits a chemical copy of the sex pheromone, or sex attractant, of the real female wasp! Poised at the end of an arm just above this alluring decoy are sticky bags filled with pollen.

A male thynnid wasp, lured by the scent of the imitation pheromone, will grab the decoy and try to fly off with “her” in his grasp. As he takes off, however, his momentum flips him and his intended up and over, right into the sticky pollen sacks. After realizing his mistake, he releases the decoy which is conveniently attached to a hinge, allowing it to fall back into place and flies off, only to be fooled again by another hammer orchid. This time, however, he pollinates the orchid with the pollen he picked up on his previous encounter.

But if female thynnid wasps are active, males will invariably choose one of them, not the impostor. Conveniently, the orchid blooms several weeks before female wasps emerge from their underground pupae, giving the flower a temporary advantage.

Why the Allergies?

Why are some people allergic to pollen? When tiny pollen grains lodge in the nose, they get trapped by a layer of sticky mucous. From there they move to the throat, where they are swallowed or coughed out, usually without any ill effects. Sometimes, though, pollen excites the immune system.

The problem lies in pollen protein. For some reason the immune system of an allergy sufferer views the protein of certain pollens as a threat. The body reacts by setting off a chain reaction that causes mast cells, which are found in the body’s tissues, to release histamine in inordinate amounts. Histamine causes blood vessels to dilate and become more permeable, so that they leak fluids that are rich in immune cells. Under normal circumstances, these immune cells migrate to the site of injury or infection, where they help to rid the body of harmful invaders. For allergy sufferers, however, pollen triggers a false alarm, which translates into irritated, dripping nostrils, swollen tissue, and watery eyes.

Researchers believe that people inherit the tendency to be allergic from their parents, although the tendency may not relate to a specific allergen. Pollution could also be a sensitizing factor. “In Japan a direct relation was found between sensitivity to pollen and proximity to areas with high levels of diesel exhaust particles in ambient air,” said the BMJ. “Animal studies suggest that these particles increase allergic sensitisation.”

Happily, for many sufferers, antihistamines can ease their symptoms. As the name suggests, these drugs oppose the action of histamine. Despite pollen’s irritating effects, however, one cannot help but be deeply impressed by the ingenuity evident in both the design and the dispersal of these tiny particles of life. Without them, planet Earth would be a barren place indeed.

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Yet, ants receive favorable mention in the oldest book on earth. “Go to the ant, you lazy one; see its ways and become wise,” says the Holy Bible. (Prov. 6:6) Evidently this means that the lazy person can learn something from the lowly ant. But what?

The Bible also indicates that ants are among creatures “instinctively wise.” (Prov. 30:24, 25) Does this mean that they think deeply, make intelligent plans and then carry them out?

Searching for answers to such questions will put us in unusual company. In fact, tracking ants, observing them and visiting their abodes can be quite an adventure.

Meet a “Superfamily”

Ants are insects of the “order” Hymenoptera, which also includes wasps and bees. But ants themselves form what is called the “superfamily” Formicoidea. All very scientific, isn’t it? Well, whatever you call them, there are some 15,000 species of ants on earth, and they live everywhere except in the polar regions.

One thing is sure: Ants are supernumerous. Why, in just one ten-acre (4-hectare) woodland plot investigated, there were an estimated eleven to thirteen million of only one species, to say nothing of all the other ants in that same area!

A Close-up View

While there are ants by the millions, suppose we take a closer look at them as individuals. Let’s start with color. Some ants are yellowish, but the majority are black, brown or red. “But I’ve also heard of white ants,” you may remark. “What about them?” Actually, “white ants” are not ants at all. They are termites and belong to another family of insects.

Now, for a word about ant anatomy. The body consists of three parts: (1) the head; (2) the thorax; and (3) the abdomen. Ants have several nerve centers, the largest being the brain, situated in the insect’s head. Most of these creatures have a compound eye on each side of the head. These eyes may consist of six to over a thousand lenses, each like a minute eye. Additionally, certain winged ants possess three simple eyes on the back of the head. Though ant vision is often very dim, and certain ants have no eyes, at least some ants can see rocks and other things and use these “landmarks” as a guide in their travels.

While looking at the ant’s head, notice the two antennae extending outward. Feeling, tasting and smelling all are associated with these “feelers.” And please do not overlook those jaws. They open and shut from side to side, not up and down.

The ant’s three pairs of legs are attached to the thorax. So are wings, if the insect happens to have any. Next comes the abdomen, containing the crop, in which food is stored and carried to others of the ant community. The ant’s stomach and intestines are situated behind the crop in its abdomen. One more thing: Some ants have a pain-producing sting. In fact, by stinging, fire ants have been known to kill young birds that have not yet left the nest.

A Place to Call “Home”

“Home” for the ants is just a small place to begin with, ‘a little nest to call their own.’ It may be a mere burrow in the ground or under some rocks. Certain ants form mounds or anthills, by piling earth and twigs around and over their nests. Inside there are corridors linking a number of chambers. Other ants dig perhaps some sixteen feet (five meters) into the earth, and their underground maze of rooms and passageways may become quite extensive. Why, some nests cover a whole acre (.4 hectare)!

Carpenter ants set up housekeeping in wood. While they do not consume the wood, they do chew out spaces in it. This is not so bad if their home happens to be an old log in the forest. But it is another matter, indeed, if “home” turns out to be the beams of your house. Why, buildings may collapse because carpenter ants establish living quarters in their timbers!

Some ants weave leaves together to make the outer walls of their homes. In doing this, they use the silky material given off by developing ants, or larvae. While some adult ants hold the leaves in place, others move the larva back and forth, sewing together the edges. Still other ants make “carton,” using wood particles, and possibly some sand, all cemented together with their saliva. But the insects called army ants are not housing engineers. They merely cluster around the mother ant and her young ones, perhaps hanging from a log with their legs hooked together to form a temporary shelter.

A Caste System All Their Own

Ants live cooperatively in well-organized groups or colonies, and the Bible appropriately calls these social insects “a people.” (Prov. 30:25) Among them there are three basic castes: (1) the “queen” or “queens”; (2) the males; and (3) the workers. The Bible says that the ant “has no commander, officer or ruler.” (Prov. 6:7) A person might think that the “queen” is the ruler in an ant community, but that is not so. Interestingly, it has been said: “Outstanding in any typical colony is the queen; she is not a ruler in any sense of the word, but is the mother, and frequently the founder, of the colony. She lays the eggs from which all the other ants develop.”—The Animal Kingdom.

Whereas the “queen” may live up to fifteen years, the males, which usually have wings, generally live just a few weeks. Their responsibility? To mate with the “queen.” For some reason unknown to man, ordinarily toward evening of a particular day all the ant colonies of a certain species within miles will drive out the winged males and females. The evicted ants then try out their wings in what is called the marriage flight. Usually while airborne, the males and females mate. At this time, and perhaps from more than one male, the female takes in sufficient sperm cells for a lifetime of prodigious egg-laying.

After the marriage flight, the ants drop to the ground and the males soon die or are eaten by various mammals or birds. The female chews or tears off her wings, crawls to a secure place under cover, lays some eggs and cares for them until workers develop. They then take over the arduous tasks and she becomes merely the attended egg-laying “queen.” This is the beginning of a new colony. How big do colonies become? They vary considerably, but one very large colony was made up of an estimated 238,000 ants.

Life in the colonies means laborious toil for worker ants, sexually underdeveloped females. Their tasks include finding and bringing in food, caring for the eggs and the young ones, cleaning and enlarging the nest, as well as defending the colony. Incidentally, with worker ants as caretaken, the eggs hatch into tiny white grubs that molt or shed their skin several times, becoming fully developed larvae. Some larvae spin cocoons from their own saliva. In time, the larva sheds its skin and becomes a pupa. While resting in this stage, changes occur and an adult emerges. Ants have no bones, but become hardbodied as adult insects.

Defending the colony is the task of “soldiers,” worker ants having rather formidable jaws and bigger heads. Speaking of heads, a janitor ant may block entry to the nest in a tree trunk by plugging the entrance from inside with its greatly enlarged and camouflaged head. Now, that’s really using one’s head! In defense, some ants use their stings effectively. Others spray intruders with caustic material or foul-smelling liquid that they produce. Upon contact, the caustic substance can cause a person’s skin to dry up and slough off. Insect victims may even be maimed or killed.

A Family of Many Kinds

There are ants of numerous types in the superfamily Formicoidea. Without being technical, let us look at them according to their “life-style.” Concerning the ant, the Bible says: “It prepares its food even in the summer; it has gathered its food supplies even in the harvest.” (Prov. 6:8) Once it was said that all ants were chiefly carnivorous and did not store food for the winter months due to remaining in a torpid state during that season. In the year 1871, however, a naturalist found certain ants in southern Europe that did “harvest” grain. Today it is known that some ants feed on seeds. Two very common varieties of ants in the Middle East—the black Atta barbara and the brown Atta structor—eat seeds and store them for use in winter, when it is difficult to secure food. For that matter, it is not uncommon to find the ant known as Messor semirufus nesting near threshing floors, granaries or grainfields, where their food is plentiful. Broadly known as harvester ants, certain species do ‘gather food supplies in the harvest,’ even as the Bible said centuries ago.

Some ants might be considered as “farmers.” Leafcutter ants use their jaws to cut bits of leaves and flowers. In fact, they have been known to strip an entire tree of foliage in just one night. As these insects take the pieces “home,” they appear to be carrying parasols; so they are called parasol ants. The leaves are not eaten, however. Rather, they are chewed into a mash on which fungus grows. Then the insects feast on these delicacies grown on the ants’ very own underground ‘mushroom farms.’

“Cows” of a sort are kept by some ants. These ants look after aphids (plant lice), leaf hoppers and scale insects that live on plants near the colony’s nesting site. For that matter, the brown cornfield ant keeps aphids right in its nest most of the time. With their antennae, the ants stroke the backs of their “cows,” thus ‘milking them and causing these insects to release from their abdomens a sweet substance called honeydew. On this, these ants feast ‘to their hearts’ content.’

Food storage poses no problem for the honey ants. Whether they themselves collect sweet juices from flowers or get honeydew from other insects, these ants store the delicious liquid. Some young ants continue swallowing it until they swell up to the size of a pea. Known as repletes, these living “honey pots” hang by their feet from the ceiling of the nest and give up honey from the mouth when hungry ants come along.

Whether intentionally or by accident, some ants turn out to be slave masters. They raid the nests of another species and bring home the pupae or cocoons of the other ants. Before these are eaten, however, some ants emerge and go right to work as though they originally belonged to the colony of their captors. It appears that the Amazon ant deliberately captures and enslaves other ants.

On the March!

Long-legged brown or black insects known as Driver Ants in Africa and Legionary Ants in the Americas can be quite a menace. Also called army ants, these “villains” go out in hunting parties, marching along in broad columns and devouring nearly all other insects in their path. Why, they have attacked birds and even humans, and have been known to reduce a tethered or tied horse to a mere skeleton in just hours!

Yet, there is a good side to this “villain.” Says The Animal Kingdom: “The Indians and other natives living in their palmthatch huts look forward to the appearance of driver ants. These people simply go outside and let the insects swarm through their homes, knowing that, when the ants have passed, every other insect, cockroach, fly, and spider will also be gone. Their only worry is that the colony might suddenly decide to bivouac for the night or longer in one of the houses, a situation not very pleasant for the occupants.”

Are Ants “Instinctively Wise”?

The Bible classes ants among things that are “instinctively wise.” (Prov. 30:24, 25) Scientists that have studied ants in mazes have concluded that these insects can use their sight to recognize “landmarks.” Employing the sense of smell, they can also be directed by odors. They even seem to learn from experience. None of this means, of course, that ants reason things out and make intelligent decisions. Why, when rains washed their normal odor trail away, a column of army ants accidentally started on a circular path on a sidewalk and went around and around until they all dropped dead! But of ants it has been admitted: “Small as they are when compared with man, they display memory, learning and the ability to correct mistakes.”

This is ‘instinctive wisdom’ in action. It results, not from the exercise of reasoning ability, but from the instincts with which the Creator has endowed these intriguing creatures.

By now you may realize why the “lazy one” is told, “Go to the ant.” (Prov. 6:6) Such a person can learn something about industriousness and foresight from this lowly insect. Instead of sleeping during a season favorable for work, he should be like the ant that ‘prepares its food in the summer.’ (Prov. 6:8; 30:25) In fact, if the “lazy one” happens to be loitering under a shade tree, perhaps a column of busy ants will get him into action without much delay.

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When it comes to living things, however, the same logic is often abandoned. A designer is not considered necessary. But the simplest single-celled organism, or just the DNA of its genetic code, is far more complex than a shaped piece of flint. Yet evolutionists insist that these had no designer but were shaped by a series of chance events.

However, Darwin recognized the need for some designing force and gave natural selection the job. “Natural selection,” he said, “is daily and hourly scrutinising, throughout the world, the slightest variations; rejecting those that are bad, preserving and adding up all that are good.”1 That view, however, is now losing favor.

Stephen Gould reports that many contemporary evolutionists now say that substantial change “may not be subject to natural selection and may spread through populations at random.”2 Gordon Taylor agrees: “Natural selection explains a small part of what occurs: the bulk remains unexplained.”3 Geologist David Raup says: “A currently important alternative to natural selection has to do with the effects of pure chance.”4 But is “pure chance” a designer? Is it capable of producing the complexities that are the fabric of life?

Evolutionist Richard Lewontin admitted that organisms “appear to have been carefully and artfully designed,” so that some scientists viewed them as “the chief evidence of a Supreme Designer.”5 It will be useful to consider some of this evidence.

Little Things

Let us start with the smallest of living things: single-celled organisms. A biologist said that single-celled animals can “catch food, digest it, get rid of wastes, move around, build houses, engage in sexual activity” and “with no tissues, no organs, no hearts and no minds—really have everything we’ve got.”6

Diatoms, one-celled organisms, take silicon and oxygen from seawater and make glass, with which they construct tiny “pillboxes” to contain their green chlorophyll. They are extolled by one scientist for both their importance and their beauty: “These green leaves enclosed in jewel boxes are pastures for nine tenths of the food of everything that lives in the seas.” A large part of their food value is in the oil that diatoms make, which also helps them bob buoyantly near the surface where their chlorophyll can bask in sunlight.

Their beautiful glass-box coverings, this same scientist tells us, come in a “bewildering variety of shapes circles, squares, shields, triangles, ovals, rectangles always exquisitely ornamented with geometric etchings. These are filigreed in pure glass with such fine skill that a human hair would have to be sliced lengthwise into four hundred slices to fit between the marks.”

One group of ocean-dwelling animals, called radiolarians, make glass and with it build “glass sunbursts, with long thin transparent spikelets radiating from a central crystal sphere.” Or “glass struts are built into hexagons and used to make simple geodesic domes.” Of a certain microscopic builder it is said: “One geodesic dome will not do for this superarchitect; it has to be three lacelike fretted glass domes, one inside another.”8 Words fail to describe these marvels of design—it takes pictures to do so.

Sponges are made up of millions of cells, but only a few different kinds. A college textbook explains: “The cells are not organized into tissues or organs, yet there is a form of recognition among the cells that holds them together and organizes them.”9 If a sponge is mashed through a cloth and separated into its millions of cells, those cells will come together and rebuild the sponge. Sponges construct skeletons of glass that are very beautiful. One of the most amazing is Venus’s-flower-basket.

Of it, one scientist says: “When you look at a complex sponge skeleton such as that made of silica spicules which is known as [Venus’s-flower-basket], the imagination is baffled. How could quasi-independent microscopic cells collaborate to secrete a million glassy splinters and construct such an intricate and beautiful lattice? We do not know.”10 But one thing we do know: Chance is not the likely designer.

Partnerships

Many cases exist where two organisms appear designed to live together. Such partnerships are examples of symbiosis (living together). Certain figs and wasps need each other in order to reproduce. Termites eat wood but need the protozoa in their bodies to digest it. Similarly, cattle, goats and camels could not digest the cellulose in grass without the help of bacteria and protozoa living inside them. A report says: “The part of a cow’s stomach where that digestion takes place has a volume of about 100 quarts and contains 10 billion microorganisms in each drop.”Algae and fungi team up and become lichens. Only then can they grow on bare rock to start turning rock into soil.

Stinging ants live in the hollow thorns of acacia trees. They keep leaf-eating insects off the tree and they cut up and kill vines that try to climb on the tree. In return, the tree secretes a sugary fluid that the ants relish, and it also produces small false fruit, which serves as food for the ants. Did the ant first protect the tree and then the tree rewarded it with fruit? Or did the tree make fruit for the ant and the ant then thanked it with protection? Or did it all chance to happen at once?

Many cases of such cooperation exist between insects and flowers. Insects pollinate flowers, and in return flowers feed insects pollen and nectar. Some flowers produce two kinds of pollen. One fertilizes seeds, the other is sterile but feeds insect visitors. Many flowers have special markings and smells to guide insects to the nectar. En route the insects pollinate the flower. Some flowers have trigger mechanisms. When insects touch the trigger they get swatted by the pollen-containing anthers.

For example, the Dutchman’s-pipe cannot pollinate itself but needs insects to bring in pollen from another flower. The plant has a tubular leaf that envelops its flower, and this leaf is coated with wax. Insects, attracted by the smell of the flower, land on the leaf and plunge down the slippery slide to a chamber at the bottom. There, ripe stigmas receive the pollen that the insects brought in, and pollination takes place. But for three more days the insects are trapped there by hairs and the waxed sides. After that, the flower’s own pollen ripens and dusts the insects. Only then do the hairs wilt, and the waxed slide bends over until it is level. The insects walk out and, with their new supply of pollen, fly to another Dutchman’s-pipe to pollinate it. The insects do not mind their three-day visit, since they feast on nectar stored there for them. Did all of this happen by chance? Or did it happen by intelligent design?

Some types of Ophrys orchids have on their petals a picture of a female wasp, complete with eyes, antennae and wings. It even gives off the odor of a female in mating condition! The male comes to mate, but only pollinates the flower. Another orchid, the bucket orchid, has a fermented nectar that makes the bee wobbly on its feet; it slips into a bucket of liquid and the only way out is to wriggle under a rod that dusts the bee with pollen.

Nature’s “Factories”

Green leaves of plants feed the world, directly or indirectly. But they cannot function without the help of tiny roots. Millions of rootlets each root tip fitted with a protective cap, each cap lubricated with oil push their way through the soil. Root hairs behind the oily cap absorb water and minerals, which travel up minute channels in the sapwood to the leaves. In the leaves sugars and amino acids are made, and these nutrients are sent throughout the tree and into the roots.

Certain features of the circulatory system of trees and plants are so amazing that many scientists regard them as almost miraculous. First, how is the water pumped two or three hundred feet above the ground? Root pressure starts it on its way, but in the trunk another mechanism takes over. Water molecules hold together by cohesion. Because of this cohesion, as water evaporates from the leaves the tiny columns of water are pulled up like ropes ropes reaching from the roots to the leaves, and traveling at up to 200 feet an hour. This system, it is said, could lift water in a tree about two miles high! As excess water evaporates from the leaves (called transpiration), billions of tons of water are recycled into the air, once again to fall as rain a perfectly designed system!

There is more. The leaves need nitrates or nitrites from the ground to make vital amino acids. Some amounts are put into the soil by lightning and by certain free-living bacteria. Nitrogen compounds in adequate quantities are also formed by legumes plants such as peas, clover, beans and alfalfa. Certain bacteria enter their roots, the roots provide the bacteria with carbohydrates, and the bacteria change, or fix, nitrogen from the soil into usable nitrates and nitrites, producing some 200 pounds per acre each year.

There is still more. Green leaves take energy from the sun, carbon dioxide from the air and water from the plant’s roots to make sugar and give off oxygen. The process is called photosynthesis, and it happens in cell bodies called chloroplasts so small that 400,000 can fit into the period at the end of this sentence. Scientists do not understand the process fully. “There are about seventy separate chemical reactions involved in photosynthesis,” one biologist said. “It is truly a miraculous event.”12 Green plants have been called nature’s “factories”—beautiful, quiet, nonpolluting, producing oxygen, recycling water and feeding the world. Did they just happen by chance? Is that truly believable?

Some of the world’s most famous scientists have found it hard to believe. They see intelligence in the natural world. Nobel-prize-winning physicist Robert A. Millikan, although a believer in evolution, did say at a meeting of the American Physical Society: “There’s a Divinity that shapes our ends . . . A purely materialistic philosophy is to me the height of unintelligence. Wise men in all the ages have always seen enough to at least make them reverent.” In his speech he quoted Albert Einstein’s notable words, wherein Einstein said that he did “try humbly to comprehend even an infinitesimal part of the intelligence manifest in nature.”13

Evidence of design surrounds us, in endless variety and amazing intricacy, indicating a superior intelligence. This conclusion is also voiced in the Bible, where design is attributed to a Creator whose “invisible qualities are clearly seen from the world’s creation onward, because they are perceived by the things made, even his eternal power and Godship, so that they are inexcusable.” Romans 1:20.

With so much evidence of design in the life around us, it does seem “inexcusable” to say that