HI-TECH OPTICS

Beautiful too!

 Introducing the most sophisticated, binocular digital video camera system the world has ever known - the human eye. Check out its features:
sensitive to just 1 photon of light
sensitivity 10 billion:1
120 million rod receptors for light & movement detection
6 million cone receptors for technicolour & detail detection
auto synchronised focus for depth-of-field detection
auto aperture for light control
lens caps (eyelids) and dust resistant (eyelashes)
auto recycled tear lubrication
water & infection resistant
self-healing
Just new on the market?

Nah....been around since Adam was a boy!

Photocredit: gopixpic.com

PLANET EARTH

We continue our series: ‘Holy Bible of Science’ following the 4th article: ‘More science…wind & waves’: http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/more-sciencewind-waves.html

 

Does Planet Earth look round or flat to you?...from the first ever colour photograph taken from outer space.                 

The Jewish prophet Isaiah wrote in about 700 BC:

"It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth..."        Isaiah 40:22

…and that’s centuries before Aristotle claimed the Earth was spherical.                             

By the way, that’s just a colour chart below Earth which hangs on nothing in space, just as Job said about 3,500 years ago:

“He…hangeth the earth upon nothing.”          Job 26:7

Okay then, what about Earth’s continents?                                              
In 1912, German meteorologist Alfred Lothar Wegener proposed the theory of slow ‘Continental Drift’ from one super-continent now known as Pangaea (‘all lands’), comprising Laurasia in the north and Gondwanaland in the south.

Earlier, in 1859 French-American geographer Antonio Snider-Pellegrini proposed “rapid, horizontal divergence” at the time of the Great Flood.

Flemish mapmaker Abraham Ortelius was the guy who ‘put the world on the map’ with the first ever atlas: Thesaurus Geographicus. Way back in 1596 he suggested: “…Americas were torn away from Europe and Africa…by earthquakes and floods…”

So was there once just one super-continent? Absolutely!...  

“And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas: and God saw that it was good.”      Genesis 1:9-10   

No arguments there, but were today’s continents torn apart or have they been drifting apart over millions of years? Who was right?                                                    

Why not check with eye-witness account?                                                            

”For in [Peleg’s] days was the earth divided…”         Genesis 10:25                               
(Peleg lived 239 years)       

Based on eye-witness report, it takes only half a dozen words to describe the parting of the continents only ~4,000 years ago!

What do you know!...plate tectonics in the Bible - long before the science of ‘geology’ existed.   
Fantastic?  Of course!

This is the 5th article in the series: 'Holy Bible of Science' which appears on hotspuds.blogspot.com.au

NEXT:
 

Acknowledgements:  
scienceblogs.com  
geologyfreak.wordpress 
en.wikipedia.org   
pubs.usgs.gov     
ortelius.com        

Image credits:
commons.wikimedia.org      
antiqua-global.art.com      

A TURKEY FOR A DAD

Allow me to introduce this handsome bird, Alec. 

His proper name is Alectura lathami (Australian Brush Turkey) and he checks out the visitors at Shelly Beach near Port Macquarie, NSW.  His Mum and Dad never taught him any lifeskills, in fact, he may have never met them, but he will care for the eggs in his magnificent nest as if they were solid gold.  "Why bother mate? Those chicks will leave home as soon as they hatch."  

Let's find out more about Alec's incubator skills and those very special eggs, prized by dingoes, pythons, goannas and people.

The male Brush Turkey laboriously builds his nest on the ground, 4 - 5 metres in diameter and 1-1.5 metres high, from sticks, leaf litter and soil.  One or more females will lay their eggs in his jealously guarded nest over a 5 month period, with the eggs requiring incubation for 50 days.  He will maintain the temperature of the nest at 33 degrees C (91 F) and the humidity at 99%, checking regularly by testing soil in his beak from test holes in the nest.  When the chick hatches it must struggle unassisted to the top of the nest and immediately begin its independant life of finding food, running, retreating into branches of trees and nest building or egg laying, without any training from Mum or Dad.
The question is, why does it take an American biologist to tell us this about our local bird?.....  Apparently the thick egg-shells have pores that are cone shaped, so that as the chick scratches for more air, the holes dilate and admit more oxygen.
Wow!  Is that good design or good luck?

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

Michael Morcombe, 'Field Guide to Australian Birds', 2000, Steve Parish Publishing, Archerfield,    
Reader's Digest 'Complete Book of Australian Birds', 1990, Surry Hills, NSW
Dr. Jobe Martin, biologist
Photo Credit: Tony Sullivan

'BY JUPITER!'

“E fantastico!", exclaims Galileo.                                                                                                     

“Nah...listen Galileo, that’s just JUPITER with a few moons to keep it company.”                                  

Is that so??

It’s January 1610 and Galileo Galilei is 35 kms from Venice, checking Jupiter through his new-fangled telescope. Although he can’t realize Jupiter’s size he finds 4 moons. For cryin’ out loud - he's even inclined to agree with Copernicus proposing that outrageous theory that the 6 known planets orbit around the Sun...but he still 'hedges his bets' on that one. Is Galileo wrong to refer to these moons as planets? 

‘Jou pater’ (Father Jove) is HUGE: a mass greater than all other planets put together, and compared with Earth: 318 times greater, a volume 1000 times larger, and a magnetic field 14 times stronger. Could you take 10 hours to rotate your belt at 45,250 kmh?  This unique gaseous planet RADIATES twice the energy it receives, being the centre of its own MINIATURE SOLAR SYSTEM with at least 64 satellites including the very unique Galilean Moons: volcanic Io, icy Europa, rocky Ganymede and Callisto of silicate and ice. Its Great Red Spot alone is three times the size of Earth and has been storming for at least as long as we’ve been watching.

By the way, Jupiter sits right where Bode’s Law says it should be at 5.2 times further from the Sun than Earth, and in its 12 year orbit spends one year aligned with each of the constellations of the Zodiac – right now it’s Cancer’s turn.  How neat.

Did we learn anything new?

Photo credit: noao.edu

DRAGONFLIES - beautiful aviators

What is it about this little critter that so fascinates schoolgirls?

It can't be seen easily for most of its life, being a jet-propelled nymph (mud-eye) under water, and when it finally gets airborne near the end of its life, it might hover, or fly so fast (80 kph) you might not even see it, inspiring a unique aviation design.  It is a skilfull killer, with 3 sets of jaws, 30,000 eye facets and a voracious appetite to match - hardly appealing to feminine sensitivities.

Ahhh, but those fairy wings!.......beautiful and delicate like gossamer.

The dragonfly has 4 flutter-resistant wings that can be operated independently in hover, forward or reverse flight, with turns on a dime in the blink of an eye.  Wow! better than any modern aircraft design! 

Now beat this one.  A male and a female dragonfly can mate in flight, requiring them to manipulate 8 delicate independent wings in coordinated flight, clasp together, and now transfer sperm - all at the same time, without auto-pilot or GPS.  Too easy - when you're designed for it.

 

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
Dr. Jobe Martin, biologist
Photo credits:
Dragonfly wings / marketplace.secondlife.com
Dragonflies mating / birdingindia.wordpress.com

MIRACLE or MISTAKE?

Following:  http://discoveryiopna.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/just-bag-of-chemicals.html

 

The Royal Miracle

What strange creatures we are!  A mum’s precious baby is her little miracle…..while others are discarded as ‘mistakes’??

Sperm that enter the vagina are immature until undergoing capacitation by uterine secretions and the female immune system recognises the same male.          
More of the miraculous!

The first sperm to enter the zona pellucida around the ovum blocks entry for all other sperm and the two gamete cells now form the zygote, carrying your complete genome: all the genetic information to make YOU!   Yes, we have a new miracle: YOU.

Next day, this zygote divided miraculously by mitosis to produce 2 daughter nuclei, each with 23 pairs of chromosomes. (Just as well you started with 23+23 not 46+46 because 92 chromosomes are found in a rat!)

Mitosis continued and on about Day 5 differentiation miraculously decided the future roles of your 8 identical cells - that have extended arms to huddle together!

Before your mum knew you were there you miraculously had your own pulse by about Day 21 and your own heart after 4 weeks.

There’s sure to be much more of the miraculous behind your birth but here is one that most mums have never heard of:
We were all born with 3 shunts, including a ‘hole-in-the-heart’ – the foramen ovale, which closed the moment you were born.

Yes! You and I really are miracles – NOT mistakes.                                                             

So is the Bible wrong when it says...?

“…He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things…for in Him we live, and move, and have our being…for we are also His offspring.”

Maybe even old Job had it right after all...?

“The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.”    

“Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about….”

NEXT:  ‘The Unique You’

Quotations from KJV Bible: Acts 17:25-28, Job 33:4 ; 10:8-

Photo credit:
people.com
                                                                                

 

FLIGHT FEATHERS & VELCRO

Rainbow lorikeet

Have you ever had to pick Bathurst burrs out of your socks?  

In 1941, Swiss electrical engineer George De Mestrel was picking burrs out of his socks and his dog's coat after a ramble in the woods when George cleverly realized the potential for hook fasteners and invented Velcro, borrowing the idea from the design of burrs. 

Did he realize that birds would be unable to fly if there were no hook fasteners in their flight feathers? 
So who designed these? 

We have all seen the main shaft (rachis) of a bird's flight feather and the barbs that branch off this.  What is harder to see are the barbules branching off the barbs and without a microscope you will never see the barbicel hooks that lock the barbules together. Try unzipping the barbs of a feather then re-zipping the gap by stroking it between your fingers.

But that’s not all!  A flight feather is designed with stiffness for the downward wing stroke, and somehow knows how long to grow and what colour pattern to display, depending on its location on the wing or tail.  Birds have hollow bones and can manipulate their flight feathers, even in flight – but that’s a story for later.

Acknowledgements:
Dr. Gary Parker, biologist
www.whitcombministries.org
wikipedia.org
Photo credit: australiananimallearningzone.com
Image credit: daviddarling.info

 

 

HUH?...DINOSAURS IN THE BIBLE?

We continue our series: 'Holy Bible of Science', following the 2nd article: 'Wildlife Park Safari':
http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/wildlife-park-safari.html

 

So the Science Master hasn't finished with Job, hey?

Now He points out the behemoth to Job.

Behemoth??  Never heard of it!

Maybe not but ask the kids to name an animal that ate grass, had huge muscles, with bones like metal beams and bars, and a tail the size of a cedar tree...straightaway they'll tell you it’s got to be the Brachiosaurus.

The first specimen was discovered by Elmer S. Riggs beside the Colorado River in 1900 and was probably not full size. It seems like they grew to about 26 metres long and weighed up to 45 tonnes. Other Sauropods were even larger: the Seismosaurus was about 40 metres long and weighed about 77 tonnes.

Imagine big game hunters trying to bag one of those.  Nigh on impossible!

You think that would be a challenge?... what about the livyathan!               

The leviathan was apparently a huge rough-scaled sea-dragon that even breathed fire. Try to catch one and you'd never try again!

Mmm...not the sort of pet you'd take home for your kids to play with. We began this safari with lions but it looks like this dragon was the king of the beasts.

So there’s two species in the Bible for palaeontologists to study. Sir Richard Owen coined a name for this new find in 1842 – dinosauria: terrible lizard….but here they were in the Holy Bible of Science all along. Some scientists claim that dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago but the Master Scientist tells Job: “I made with thee”…what do you know…dinosaurs created on the same day as Man!                          

No wonder they are finding dinosaur haemoglobin, blood vessels still elastic, collagen, osteocalcin, and even skin…all remarkably preserved.

NEXT:   'More Science.....wind & waves'
http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/more-sciencewind-waves.html

The series: 'Holy Bible of Science' appears on hotspuds.blogspot.com.au 
Why not click on this link to see the 1st article?...

http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/science-master-in-twister.html

Acknowledgements:
sciencekids.co.nz 
about.com
World Book 2005
Sarfati J. ‘The Greatest Hoax On Earth’, 2010, Creation Book Publishers, Atlanta 
Image credits:
surfab.it 
thanasis.com


 



  

 

 

       

 

      

     

                                                                           

                                                                                          

                                                                                                                  

                                                                                 

 

                                                                               

                                                                                                    

 

 

 

 

 

JUST A BAG OF CHEMICALS?

Following:  ‘Who made Jack ‘n’ Jill?’…
http://discoveryiopna.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/who-invented-jack-n-jill.html

Are you and I just bags of chemicals?  Hardly. Science is forced to admit that life cannot arise from non-living chemicals. Period.          

Tale of Louis Pasteur by Spencer Johnson

Famous bacteriologist Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) put that one to bed long ago when he proved dead meat cannot produce living maggots without the help of living flies.  Simple.           
So where did life come from?

Geneticists say we all carry the same ‘mitochondrial DNA’ (the energy program), as if from one woman.  
In fact they call it: 'the mitochondrial Eve'!

“Adam called his wife’s name Eve (Heb:Chavvah); because she was the mother of all living.”

Of course, ever since then people have been making people – right??  Sort of.                     

The human body comprises at least 10,000,000,000,000 somatic (body) cells which are constantly being replaced – miraculously by mitosis! (cell division)  Every new cell has been produced by an existing cell – so where did the first cells come from?  
Let's look for more miracles that medicos can't explain.                                                 

The basic building-block of life is the amino acid, assembled into linear chains as protein, with over 100,000 different proteins in our bodies.  Nearly all cells contain 2 metres of Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) programmed with 3 billion characters and necessary for making protein, BUT… 

protein is needed to have DNA, AND…                         
it takes about 150 proteins to make 1 protein.                                                            
Come to think of it…who wrote that DNA program?                                                       
Another set of miracles!                                                                                                         

By the way, only ‘left-handed’ amino acids are found in organic molecules, AND.... proteins are assembled into architectural components that fit together like Lego.  Two more miracles! 

All somatic cells carry 23 pairs of chromosomes, except the gamete cells – the ovum and sperm, which carry only 23 single chromosomes, thanks to meiosis.               
Yes - another miracle. 

So what happens when sperm meets ovum?                          
More miracles??

Click on video link: 'Programming of Life
'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00vBqYDBW5s

 
NEXT:  'Miracle or mistake?'
Click on: http://discoveryiopna.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/miracle-or-mistake.html

 

Quotation from KJV Bible: Genesis 3:20                                                         

Acknowledgements:                                                                   
Programming Of Life, LaBarge Media, 2011                                                         
Anatomica, Global Book Publishing, 2001, Lane Cove, Aust                                             
World Book 2005                                                                               
Wieland, C. ‘One Human Family’, Creation Book Publishers, 2011, Atlanta GA                                     
Image credit: morrison.net.nz