Consider the Prairie Lupines, How They Grow

Today's Creation Moment:

Consider the Prairie Lupines, How They Grow

Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; ~Luke 12:27a

The remarkable recovery of flora and fauna around Mount St Helens, since the devastating eruption of 1980, was aided in large measure by a seemingly insignificant little plant, called the Prairie Lupine. It grows no taller than 24 inches, but is usually much smaller, with tiny blue flowers. Today, it grows in abundance in the areas most affected by the eruption and landslide.

Like all lupines, it is a legume. This means that it makes its own nitrogen compounds – an essential mineral for plants to grow. We say that it fixes nitrogen. The volcanic soil is deficient in this mineral, so the value of the plant is obvious, as it fixes more than enough for itself, and provides extra nitrogen for other, neighboring plants.

To be exact, it is not the plant itself that does the fixing. This is done by soil bacteria, called rhizobia, which reside in nodules in the roots of the lupine. What is even more interesting is that these bacteria cannot fix nitrogen, without attaching themselves to a suitable host plant, such as the lupine. So, the lupine needs the rhizobia, and the rhizobia need the lupine. This interdependency is known as a symbiotic relationship. A problem for the evolutionist is to explain whether the rhizobia evolved before the lupine, or vice versa. A far more scientific explanation is that both were designed by God for just such interdependence. Once again, the area around Mount St Helens, and the plants that live there, reveal the magnificence of God’s creative work.

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Well folks, this is the last day of creation moment month! I hope you all enjoyed reading each article article every day and hope you learned something new about God's wonderful creation. 

Enjoy your weekend!

Sincerely in the Lord,
Ashley

Rare and Hidden Flowers

Today's Creation Moment: 

Rare and Hidden Flowers

No man, when he lighted a candle, putteth it in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light.

~Luke 11:33

Two strange species of orchids are among the rarest flowers in the world. These unconventional plants live their entire lives underground, even flowering underground. Most often, their 

flowers never break the surface of the ground. One of these species, Cryptanthemus, has been found only three times in this century. Only 150 flowering Rhizanthella plants have ever been found.

Since they live in the dark underground, neither orchid has any need for chlorophyll or leaves. Each looks like nothing more than a white, waxy root. Rhizanthella produces a flower that is initially white, but which turns purplish as it ages. Its fragrance has been described as delicate and sweet. Cryptanthemus produces a candelabra flower stalk that has several white flowers with small red splotches. The flowers remain almost an inch under the soil. Both species begin life in the same way as most orchids. The orchid seeds germinate when threads of a fungus invade the embryo and form coils within the seed. At this point, other orchids grow leaves so they can make their own food. But these underground orchids continue to live in a symbiotic relationship throughout their entire lives, being fed by the fungus.

The wonders of God's creative handiwork never cease to amaze us. But God's greatest creation is a redeemed believer in Jesus Christ, a creation He does not want hidden. That's why He tells us in His Word to let the light of faith and new life He has given us in Christ shine onto those around us..

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The Deception of a Glow in the Dark Shark

Today's Creation Moment:

The Deception of a Glow in the Dark Shark

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?  

~ Jeremiah 17:9

The creation is filled with plants and animals which use deception to survive. The glow in the dark cookie-cutter shark is a master at such deception.

The cookie-cutter shark is only a foot to a foot and a half long. It doesn't have powerful muscles and can't swim very fast. But it doesn't need to. Lunch serves itself. The shark typically lives between 600 and 3,000 feet below the surface of the water. Looking down from above one of these sharks, you would probably not see it because the top of its body is as dark as the deep waters where it lives. Looking up from below, you wouldn't see the dark outline of the shark against the light that filters down from the surface. This is because of the shark's first deception: its underside is completely covered with light emitting cells that match the illumination from above. The deception doesn't stop there, however. A small patch beneath the shark's jaw doesn't glow. From beneath, the cookie-cutter shark looks like a small fish, just the kind of dinner a tuna might like. As the tuna speeds toward what it thinks is a small fish, at the last minute the shark turns and takes a bite out of the tuna. Its open, round jaw takes a plug of flesh out of the tuna – hence, the name cookie-cutter shark. Interestingly, most cookie-cutter shark wounds are not fatal.

The fact that the cookie-cutter shark's form, deceptions and habits all match each other perfectly is not a result of chance, mindless evolution but of God's careful design.

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The First Xerographer

Today's Creation Moment:

The First Xerographer

2 Chronicles 26:15

And he made in Jerusalem engines, invented by cunning men, to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks, to shoot arrows and great stones withal. And his name spread far abroad; for he was marvellously helped, till he was strong.

Xerography is the process used in most copying machines today. The page you want copied is exposed to the bright light in the machine. That light enables the machine to make an image of your original, using electrostatic charges to record the light and dark spots on your original. The toner – that fine black powder – is then drawn to those spots on the copier paper in exactly the same spots that were dark on your original. After the powder is fixed in place, your copy – perfect in every detail – pops out.

Most of us consider xerography to be a modern work-saving wonder. However, xerography may not be such a modern invention. Researchers at Stanford Research Institute now believe that xerography was invented and first used almost 150 years ago!

That’s when Louis Daguerre introduced the photographic process named after him. The earliest photographs we have are daguerreotypes. These sharp, crisp pictures used silver and iodine vapor to fix an image on a plate. The process used the xerographic principle of setting up electrostatic charges on a plate wherever light struck it. It was the sharpness in the detail of the daguerreotypes that convinced researchers that Daguerre’s process was xerographic.

Unfortunately, his process was cumbersome and dangerous. Nor did Daguerre understand how the process worked. If he had, Abraham Lincoln might have had a copier in the White House!

That humans are ever inventive and creative arises from the fact that they are the creation of an unlimited and wonderful Creator.

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Saliva Is Nothing To Spit At

Saliva Is Nothing To Spit At

Malachi 4:2

But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. 

Someday, instead of having to give a blood sample during your physical exam, the doctor might just ask you for a saliva sample. Saliva is an amazing fluid. Besides helping us moisten and digest 

food, saliva is able to speed healing and fight bacteria, fungi and viruses. Saliva is chemically almost identical to the clear part of your blood. It even has, in lesser concentrations, the infectious organisms found in your blood.

Let's say, for example that you suddenly find yourself in a stressful situation. The level of the hormone cortisol will increase in your blood in response to the stress. Within 20 minutes, that increase will be evident in your saliva. This means that someday saliva tests may replace blood samples. In the United States, saliva tests have been approved to diagnose AIDS, illegal drugs, periodontal disease, alcohol and premature labor. If the hormone estriol rises in a woman's blood before 36 weeks of gestation, doctors know that the woman may go into labor prematurely. Saliva testing is also used to check hormone levels in women who are having a difficult time conceiving a child. Other countries have approved a saliva test for hepatitis B.

Saliva's remarkable abilities are a witness to a loving Creator. He knew that we would sin and thus bring disease into the world. So He gave us saliva that not only defends us against infection but also helps us heal. But the greatest love He has shown us is in sending His Son to give us spiritual healing.

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How Small Can Life Be?

Today's Creation Moment:

How Small Can Life Be? 

Which doeth great things past finding out; yea, and wonders without number. 

~Job 9:10

How small can a living thing be and still be considered alive? Viruses are not considered living things because they cannot reproduce on their own. But now scientists have confirmed the existence of bacterai that are smaller than the largest viruses and yet can reproduce on their own. They call this amazing class of bacteria nanobacteria. They are less that 20 percent the size of normal bacteria.

The unusual nanobacteria have some unusual abilities. Normally, cells in the immune system detect a bacterium in the bloodstream, engulf it, and destroy it. But nanobacteria are able to trick immune cells into committing suicide. Luckily, nanobacteria reproduce very slowly. While the average bacteria reproduces once an hour, nanobacteria take three days to double their numbers. But they still do a lot of damage. Researchers have found that nanobacteria are apparently able to build a calcium shell around themselves. It appears that when they enter the bloodstream, they quickly migrate to the kidneys, where they begin building their shells. Researchers investigating whether nanobacteria cause painful kidney stones have reported testing 30 stones so far. Each stone showed antibodies that bind to nanobacteria. The good news is that if nanobacteria are a cause of kidney stones, they can be eradicated with antibiotics.

While scientists are unsure of how something so small can be alive, our wonderful Creator is able to fashion even these tiny, amazing creatures.

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Sense and Smell

Today's Creation Moment: 
Sense and Smell

Leviticus 3:5

 And Aaron's sons shall burn it on the altar upon the burnt sacrifice, which is upon the wood that is on the fire: it is an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord.

What determines the sort of smells that we like and dislike? Is it nature or nurture? Do we like the smells of the environment, in which we were brought up, or are our likes and dislikes inherited from previous generations?

Scientists at the University of Campinas in Brazil have done some interesting work on the subject. The olfactory sense is by far the most complex of our senses. Our eyes basically work with three kinds of sensors, arranged around the three primary colors. Taste involves 49 different receptors, but can be approximated by five primary tastes. However, the number of different olfactory sensors numbers into the thousands, with at least ten primary scents—though there could be more.

Brazilian scientists showed, as expected, that the construction of the olfactory sensors in the noses of laboratory mice was mostly determined by genetics. However, they placed genetically different mice in similar olfactory environments, and genetically similar mice in differently smelling environments, to see if environmental characteristics had any influence on these receptors. They did. The genetic factor was the most important, but there was a significant difference between receptors in genetically similar mice placed in different environments.

It is interesting that, in the Bible prayer is likened to an aroma ascending to the Lord. This is the reason for much of the symbolism of aromatic sacrifices, both from the smell of cooking, and from the scent produced by skilled perfumers. God desires an environment of sweet-smelling prayer for us, and this is clearly the best environment for us to be in.

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Scuba Gear for Bacteria

Scuba Gear for Bacteria

Shall any teach God knowledge? seeing he judgeth those that are high.

~Job 21:22

Biotechnology may be a new word to you. It’s a relatively new science. Biotechnology is the science of engineering custom-made life forms. For example, biotechnologists can add to a bacterium the gene that makes fireflies glow. This procedure gives the bacterium the ability to glow.

Today, many engineered bacteria have been designed. They make medicines, hormones, enzymes and even food products. As biotechnologists are learning more about how to custom-design bacteria, they are able to make bacteria that are better able to do their assigned jobs. The efficiency of bacteria in doing their jobs can be affected by how efficiently they use their food and how much  oxygen they need. Getting enough oxygen to bacteria growing in  vats is often a challenge.

Biotechnologists have now discovered a bacterium that does well in low-oxygen situations. It can get by with periods of lower oxygen because it makes hemoglobin, the same molecule that carries oxygen in our blood. The bacterium uses the hemoglobin much like scuba gear to help it breathe. Biotechnologists have successfully added the hemoglobin gene to bacteria to make an enzyme used in the commercial production of high-fructose corn syrup. As a result of their increased efficiency, these bacteria are now able to make twice as much enzyme.

Even so-called “simple” living things are a symphony of carefully designed abilities. Modern science is revealing that they are intelligently designed by our Creator.

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The Amphipod's Unique Escape

The Amphipod's Unique Escape

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 

~James 4:7

The hunted are smart to stay downwind of the hunter. Many predators hunt using scent, at least in part. The same principle works in water. Many predators smell chemicals given off by their prey and use that scent to help them locate their prey. If you were a predator in a stream you would be smart to stay downstream from your prey. The prey won't smell you. In addition, you might be able to smell him if he gets too close.

Amazingly, the little shrimp-like amphipod seems to be able to smell predators even downstream. Researchers from Lund University in Sweden have discovered that amphipods can even smell a brown trout downstream and try to avoid it. Scientists designed an artificial stream that divided into two branches. Down one branch was a brown trout, while no predator waited down the other branch. Then amphipods were placed upstream of the branch and allowed to go downstream. When the amphipods came to the branch, they avoided the branch with the trout. To check whether the amphipods were actually smelling scents from downstream, researchers put trout scents in the downstream water. This was enough to cause the amphipods to avoid that branch. Yet, when trout were placed in one of the downstream branches in glass tubes, keeping their scent from entering the water, the amphipods did not respond to the sight of the trout.

We, too, are being hunted as prey by the devil and his forces. We would do well to learn how to sense where the devil lies in wait for us, and like the amphipods, flee from him.

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Human Speech Itself Glorifies God

Human Speech Itself Glorifies God

Excellent speech becometh not a fool: much less do lying lips a prince.

~Proverbs 17:7

Several different animals communicate on a limited basis with one another. But human speech is unique, leaving those who believe in evolution perplexed. The very oldest human fossils show the bony structures needed to support speech. Evolutionists will admit, in a candid moment, that they have no idea how speech 

could have evolved. One modern researcher said they have only "inferences based on hunches."

Some scientists have observed that human beings come with the built-in ability to learn and speak. While this idea is not popular among evolutionists, it is supported by the unique structure of the human vocal tract. No other creature has anything like it. The human larynx is placed low in the throat. That placement creates a sound chamber that allows us to make language expressive. Moreover, the placement prevents us from breathing and eating or drinking at the same time. But we are not born that way. A newborn's larynx is placed higher up in the throat, allowing a baby to breathe and suckle at the same time. By the time a child is six,and has no need to suckle and breathe at the same time, but is learning language, the larynx has moved to its adult position.

This obviously designed arrangement in support of human speech presents only more problems for the evolutionist. But for those who believe in our Creator God, it is one more testimony of His wise handiwork.

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