Nature 3, Man 0: Fruit Flies

Recent experiments have revealed that when perturbed in flight, a fruit fly can recover its heading to within 2 degrees in less than a tenth of a second. Here’s how the researchers describe the results:

Just as the Wright brothers implemented controls to achieve stable airplane flight, flying insects have evolved behavioral strategies that ensure recovery from flight disturbances.

This is yet another example of evolutionary euphemism. Recovery from flight disturbances is a complex, fine-tuned capability integrating sensors, algorithms and actuators. Not the stuff of random mutations. So the evolutionary euphemism compares it with the Wright brothers and their flying machines. -- Cornelius Hunter

Regular readers of the Ball Bounces will know that I am an avid fan of the Wright brothers and how they solved the problem of flight by focusing on the problem of control rather than thrust. What has taken the best, creative, wilful minds of man to accomplish, blind, dead, dumb, nature did without even trying -- and embedded its technology in an object the size of a, er, fruit fly.

I'm scoring this one for nature.

Score is now Nature 3, Man 0.

(To read all the articles in this series, select the Nature vs. Man keyword on the left side of the blog).

Nature 2, Man 0: Bees' Tiny Brains Beat Computers, Study Finds

                             Image via Wikipedia

Bees can solve complex mathematical problems which keep computers busy for days, research has shown.

The insects learn to fly the shortest route between flowers discovered in random order, effectively solving the "travelling salesman problem" , said scientists at Royal Holloway, University of London.

The conundrum involves finding the shortest route that allows a travelling salesman to call at all the locations he has to visit. Computers solve the problem by comparing the length of all possible routes and choosing the one that is shortest.

Bees manage to reach the same solution using a brain the size of a grass seed.

If only I can have faith the size of a bee's brain!

Once again we see man playing catch-up.

"Despite their tiny brains bees are capable of extraordinary feats of behaviour," said Raine. "We need to understand how they can solve the travelling salesman problem without a computer."

Nice.  (Although I'm not sure about the "computers busy for days" bit.)

Since man is trying to replicate this engineering feat, and since when it comes to graph theory bees are "the bees' knees", I'm calling this Nature 2, Man 0.

Nature 1, Man 0: Gecko Feet

Image by Furryscaly via Flickr

Stanford University News:

A Stanford mechanical engineer is using the biology of a gecko's sticky foot to create a robot that climbs. In the same way the small reptile can scale a wall of slick glass, the Stickybot can climb smooth surfaces with feet modeled on the intricate design of gecko toes.

The toe of a gecko's foot contains hundreds of flap-like ridges called lamellae. On each ridge are millions of hairs called setae, which are 10 times thinner than a human's. Under a microscope, you can see that each hair divides into smaller strands called spatulae, making it look like a bundle of split ends. These split ends are so tiny (a few hundred nanometers) that they interact with the molecules of the climbing surface.

The interaction between the molecules of gecko toe hair and the wall is a molecular attraction called van der Waals force. A gecko can hang and support its whole weight on one toe by placing it on the glass and then pulling it back. It only sticks when you pull in one direction – their toes are a kind of one-way adhesive, Cutkosky said.

Purposeful, goal-oriented, solution-seeking man employs all of his intelligence and design abilities and yet is still playing catch-up to (so we are assured) dumb-as-a-rock, wasn't-even-trying Nature.

I'm scoring this one Nature, 1; Man, 0.

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• Scaling buildings like Spiderman could be a reality, scientists claim (telegraph.co.uk)

Quote of the Day: "Who Predicted The Complexity?"

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Who predicted the complexity: the Darwinians or the intelligent design proponents?  You already know the answer.  The Darwinians have been wrong on this matter time and time again.  The origin of life would be simple (the Warm Little Pond of Darwin’s dreams).  Protoplasm would be simple.  Proteins would be simple.  Genetics would be simple (remember Darwin’s pangenes?).  The carrier of genetic information would be simple.  DNA transcription would be simple (the Central Dogma).  The origin of the genetic code would be simple (the RNA World, or Crick’s “frozen accident.”).  Comparative genomics would be simple, and we would be able to trace the evolution of life in the genes.  Life would be littered with the trash of mutations and natural selection (vestigial organs, junk DNA).  Simple, simple, simple." -- CreationSafaris.Com

Darwinists accuse Christians of committing the logical fallacy of argument from personal incredulity. At some point, incredulity is the rational response, and its opposite is not reason but gullibility. One man's "incredulity" is another man's skepticism.

I've never met a self-confessed "skeptic" who was skeptical of darwinism. They direct their skepticism at facts which, if true, would demand a radical change of mind, heart, and behaviour -- something the ancients called "repentance".

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• Notes - Artificial Evolution V (pealmasa.wordpress.com)

Quote of the Day: "It’s Infinitely More Complex”

Image via Wikipedia

“When we started out, the idea was that signalling pathways were fairly simple and linear,” says Tony Pawson, a cell biologist at the University of Toronto in Ontario.  “Now, we appreciate that the signalling information in cells is organized through networks of information rather than simple discrete pathways.  It’s infinitely more complex.” -- Tony Pawson

There is an elegantly simple Solution to this infinite complexity.

In the beginning was the Word.

Regain your humanity. You are wonderfully made in God's image. Rebel against the atheist machine.™