Images found in online ICR article.
Posted on 09/24/2013 8:01:13 AM PDT by fishtank
'Living Gears' Might Have Evolutionists Hopping Mad by Brian Thomas, M.S. *
When planthoppers hop, they really do pop. These tiny creatures fling themselves with such fury that, frankly, things would go awry if their jumping mechanisms were not properly tuned. For example, if one leg hopped a bit sooner or with slightly greater force than the other, the insect would just fling itself sideways. Good thing tiny gears synchronize their hind legs.
Well, technically the planthopper in question is a youngster—a nymph planthopper. But sure enough, Bristol biologist Greg Sutton found two minute rows of interlocking teeth at the base of the insect's legs. When it jumps, the gears mesh, keeping the two legs in lock-step. Sutton captured the gear action, which lasts for just a few milliseconds, using high-speed cameras. This remarkable mechanism helps the planthopper launch itself hundreds of times its body length with a single jump.
According to NPR Morning Edition, Sutton said this is "the first mechanical gear system ever observed in nature."1
It may be the first gear system ever actually observed, but it is not the first known. Scientists have been examining the effects of molecular gears for some time.
Bacterial flagella, for instance, incorporate a gear system that runs at variable speeds—forward and reverse—and that even has a clutch that can disengage the motor from the flagellar propeller.2 In 2008, biochemists also reported molecular gears found in a viral DNA packaging motor.3
These examples—all appearing as if they just rolled out of a miniature machine-shop—clearly indicate a meticulous and intentional design too difficult for evolutionists to explain. Surely these living gears could only have been created.
References
Cole, A. Living Gears Help This Bug Jump. NPR Morning Edition. Posted on npr.org September 13, 2013, accessed September 14, 2013.
Thomas, B. Bacterial Clutch Denotes Design. Creation Science Update. Posted on icr.org July 1, 2008, accessed September 16, 2013.
Thomas, B. Virus Motors Impossible for Evolution. Creation Science Update. Posted on icr.org January 9, 2009, accessed September 16, 2013.
* Mr. Thomas is Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.
Article posted on September 23, 2013.
Images found in online ICR article.
And how, pray tell, does this disprove modern evolutionary science in any respect? Oh wait, it doesn’t.
I can’t/won’t understand how this evolved so it must be Jesus
Scientists dedicate their lives to studying nature because it is so fantastically amazing. But this author thinks by pointing out that nature is fantastically amazing he rebukes them.
Just plain weird.
But the title of the article says it "Might Have Evolutionists Hopping Mad". It doesn't say why they might be "mad" about it, or even offer any evidence that any of them actually are, but we are assured that they might be. And if they are, then it must be because it falsifies the Theory of Evolution, right?
“clearly indicate a meticulous and intentional design too difficult for evolutionists to explain. Surely these living gears could only have been created. “
An opinion based on nothing other than BS and malarkey.
Evolution can occur in a universe created by a Creator, the two are not mutually exclusive and saying stuff like this is silly.
But I think the point is that this arrangement seems to be somehat binary (it works or it doesn't work). The gears are synchronized, which allows successful jumping. If the gears were not perfectly synchronized, the jumping would go very badly. So, one might surmise that the gears "came out of nowhere" rather than slowly evolving through random genetic drift over millions of years. It's not a question of improvement over time: it works or it doesn't work.
It does however act to highlight the silliness of the idea that given enough time "anything" is possible - even insects developing a gear-meshed jumping mechanism.
You know, it's ok to say the words "wow - its possible that this creature was created...
to wit:
"When confronted with the order and beauty of the universe and the strange coincidences of nature, it's very tempting to take the leap of faith from science into religion. I am sure many physicists want to. I only wish they would admit it".
Physicist Tony Rothman
So what? The transmission in my truck just appeared out of nowhere!
I’m not hopping mad. Are you hopping mad? Do you know anybody who is hopping mad?
your automatic transmission evolved from a standard
I don't think anybody believes that "given enough time anything is possible." That sounds like a straw man - bearing false witness if you will.
Or not. Because bugs can jump without "gears," and they could presumably jump better with simpler versions of the gears than they could without them. So I'm not sure why this is particularly difficult to puzzle out at all, other than it's yet another example of a brilliantly carved out ecological niche. The headline claims that scientists are "hopping mad" about this -- but as far as I can tell that's a total lie.
I suppose they started as meshed gears with one tooth on each gear, and then built up from there ...
Any deity worthy of a graven image can cobble up a working universe complete with fake fossils in under a week - hey, if you're not omnipotent, there's no real point in being a god. But to start with a big ball of elementary particles and end up with the duckbill platypus without constant twiddling requires a degree of subtlety and the ability to Think Things Through: exactly the qualities I'm looking for when I'm shopping for a Supreme Being.- Lee DeRaud
I’m not. Don’t know of anyone else that is. Maybe they got so mad they hopped into orbit, and we now can’f find them.
I had one fall out in the middle of nowhere............
really. well then. how would a broken gear work? or what would be the macro-evolutionary purpose of a broken gear?
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