Who Knows Better Than The Nose?

We all know that we each started out as a single cell in our mother's womb. Then those cells began to divide and within 21 days we had a working nervous system and a beating heart. 21 days!

How did all those new cells know how to hook up to each other to knit together our nerve connections?

How did other cells know to hook up with each other to make our circulatory system, or form the heart?

A fascinating new theory has now been proposed, based on the fact that every cell in your body has the same active genes that your nose uses to enable you to smell.

Known as olfactory genes, these genes have no known reason to be active in every one of your cells. Mammals and humans have more than a thousand different olfactory genes! One or another of these crisscrosses each of your cell seven times.

Researchers already knew that these genes were crucial to the development of your sense of smell as you formed in your mother's womb. As you formed, the nerve cells in your nose sent out growths, called axons, toward your brain.

Each of those axons finally grew into the part of the brain called the olfactory bulb. Once there it hooked up with the cell designed to sense the specific scent detectable by the nerve cell in your nose that sent it out.

It has now been proposed that olfactory genes are active in every one of our cells because this same method of wiring our noses for smell is used to link all our cells as we form in the womb.

If so, this system of knitting our unborn bodies together is an elegant and precise product of a loving Creator. You weren't put together by chance or by long-term evolution.

References: John Travis, Dialing up an Embryo, Science News, v.154

2009 Nature Girl

Did you not pour me out like milk, and curdle me like cheese, clothe me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews? Job 10:10-11

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Glow In The Dark Cookie-Cutter Shark Surviving Through Deception

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 or mindless evolution but of God's careful design.

References: S. Milius, Glow-in-the-dark shark has killer smudge, Science News, v.154, p.70.
Widder, E.A. In Press. A predatory use of counterillumination by the squaloid shark, Isistius brasiliensis. Environmental Biology of Fishes.

2009 Nature Girl

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? Jeremiah 17:9

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Norman Borlaug, Father of 'Green Revolution' Dies

One of the most influential and important figures of the 20th century recently died—Norman Ernest Borlaug (March 25, 1914 – September 12, 2009). If you never heard of Borlaug, you are not alone. His face never appeared on the cover of People magazine, and the cable networks didn’t cover the story of this 95 year-old-man's passing 24/7.

If Borlaug actually had been famous, his claim to fame would have been that, as the father of the Green Revolution, he saved hundreds of millions, perhaps even a billion, lives. As one writer put it, Borlaug’s work is why “food today is cheap and widely available, and why famines have become relatively rare events.”

As the Los Angeles Times noted in its obituary, “in 1960, the world produced 692 million tons of grain for 2.2 billion people.” Thirty years later, thanks to Borlaug’s pioneering efforts in areas such as fertilizers, drought-resistant seeds, and high-yield agriculture, mankind was producing three times as much grain while only using 1 percent more land.

People of a certain age will recall being told about starving children in places like India, usually as a way to get them to eat their dinner. Those children weren’t a fabrication. In the years following its independence from Britain, India struggled to feed its people and was on the verge of famine several times.

Today, thanks to Borlaug, India is a net food exporter. In gratitude, it made him the first non-Indian to be awarded its second-highest civilian honor, the Padma Vibhushan.

This wasn’t the only award Borlaug received. In 1970, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In his speech, he explained his vision in explicitly biblical terms. He reminded the audience that the link between hunger and social unrest wasn’t new. He quoted from Isaiah: “And it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their King and their God.”

He said that by applying what we have learned for “the well-being of mankind throughout the world,” he hoped to see another prophecy of Isaiah come to pass: “And the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose...And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water.”

People speak of making the world “a better place.” The vast majority of time, it’s only talk. But not with Borlaug. His legacy was so important that even his mistakes have a great deal to teach us.

In his Nobel address, Borlaug spoke of the need for the “fight for increased food production” and the “fight for population control” to “unite in a common effort.”

But as the U.K. Guardian noted, Borlaug’s own work actually undermined this erroneous, Malthusian worldview, which believes that human overpopulation will overwhelm the worlds’ resources. However, in 1970, there were 3.7 billion people on the planet. Today there are 6.5 billion. Yet the only food shortages are the results of bad policy, not an inability to grow enough food.

And, as Borlaug later realized, the biggest obstacles to his efforts were environmentalists like Paul Ehrlich, the author of The Population Bomb, who openly worried about the environmental impact of the green revolution. (I wrote about him extensively on this blog.)

But for Borlaug, people came first, which is why long after our disposable celebrities are forgotten, his legacy will live on.

Resource: The Legacy of Norman Borlaug, Breakpoint

2009 Nature Girl

“And the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose...And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water.” Isaiah

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Would You Wear a Cockatoo On YOUR Head?

Fancy (or bizarre) hats have been around for hundreds of years. They have always served as status symbols for women, and, at the same time, disastrous for birds! Feathers from hundreds of bird species were dyed, painted, and made into hats. They had all kinds of shapes: boas, aigrettes, tufts, and sprays. Of course, plumes were at the top of the fashion heap, and still are! See a woman in a plume hat, and you know she's not hurting for money!

Fortunes were paid by rich individuals for exotic feathered hats. Gorgeous feathered hats could command as much as $190 in the early Edwardian era. The Edwardians were masters in the art of excess, and the flamboyant hats of the era are a clear example of this.

But, unbelievably, at one point whole stuffed birds were used to decorate hats! Can you imagine a woman walking around with an cockatoo on her head? Oh, too funny! Eventually, though, people began protesting.

In America the Audubon society expressed concern and in England the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) campaigned for ecological understanding.

Eventually plumage pleas were heard and Queen Alexandra forbad the wearing of rare osprey feathers at court so that the osprey bird was not plundered for feathers.

For a few years magazines quietly ignored making reference to feathers on hats as women continued to wear them. But soon the use of other rare bird feathers was banned and thereafter only farmed feathers could be used and only from specific birds.

Now I know what some of you men are saying. But wait! What's that on your feet? Or in your coat pocket or hip pocket? Not leather, is it? Alligator, perhaps? Uh-huh, I thought so!

As Solomon said, "All is vanity." Remember: he was the world's wisest man. The vanity of men and women have certainly hurt other creatures made by God. So I think I'll just wear my hair and wear non-leather shoes.

2009 Nature Girl

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The Planet With The Elongated Orbit - Freaky?

It was recently reported that another set of new planets had been discovered circling another star. We pointed out that in each case, most of the planets were too large to support life. In many of the instances, the planets also had egg shaped orbits that would provide them with harsh, highly erratic climates—if they had any atmosphere at all.

In his recent announcement of the discovery of the 17th planet discovered orbiting another star, Geoffrey W. Marcy of San Francisco State University and the University of California, Berkeley, points out another problem with these solar systems. In pointing out the problem, he wonders if our solar system, where the planets have relatively circular orbits, is an exception to the rule. In every other planetary system so far seen, the planets either have very oval orbits or they lie closer to their star than Mercury is to our sun.

Marcy points out than an additional problem with having a planet with a highly elongated orbit in a solar system is that it would eliminate any planets with circular orbits. It would be only a matter of time before the planet with the elongated orbit would send the planet with a circular orbit into its star or out into deep space.

But where Marcy is wrong, is that while our solar system may be unique, it is no freak of nature. Rather, our solar system has clearly been specially designed by a loving and all powerful God to support life.


References: R.C., Solar system planets: Freaks of nature?, Science News, January 30, 1999, v.155, p.79

2009 Nature Girl

Then God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years. Genesis 1:14

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National Parks Series Coming to PBS!

PBS has a real treat in store for us! Starting Sunday, September 27th at 8/7c we can watch the first episode by Ken Burns. It took Ken and Dayton Duncan five years to complete this series!

Filmmaker Ken Burns and his longtime colleague Dayton Duncan take us on a behind the scenes tour of their new PBS series, THE NATIONAL PARKS: AMERICA'S BEST IDEA. The team explains why they chose The Parks as their subject, as well as describing their five-year journey through research, scripting, filming and editing the series.

Yosemite Park is the world's first National Park. In the beginning, three states fought over the right to 'own' it, but once the colonies were established, California won out when it was federalized. Yosemite has the most geographically diverse topography that a human being could see in one day (walking).

(Photo: Yellowstone, Wyoming, 1872) Yosemite National Park is located in the central Sierra Nevada of California. It takes approximately 3.5 hours to drive to the park from San Francisco, approximately 6 hours from Los Angeles, and 7 hours from San Bernardino. Yosemite is surrounded by wilderness areas: the Ansel Adams Wilderness to the southeast, the Hoover Wilderness to the northeast - beautiful slide show at this link - and the Emigrant Wilderness to the north.

The 1,189 sq mi park is roughly the size of Rhode Island and contains thousands of lakes and ponds, 1,600 miles of streams, 800 miles of hiking trails, and 350 miles of roads. Two federally designated Wild and Scenic Rivers, the Merced (photo at the top is of the Merced River) and the Tuolumne, begin within Yosemite's borders and flow westward through the Sierra foothills, into the Central Valley of California.

Annual park visitation exceeds 3.5 million, with most visitor-use concentrated in the seven square mile area of Yosemite Valley.

On Martha Stewart's Show today I watched 35-year photographer, Tom Murphy teaching Martha about the wildlife in Yosemite and showing her the unbelievably beautiful scenery. If you would like to see a slide show of Tom Murphy's Yosemite Photography, click here.

Don't forget! Sunday, September 27th at 8/7c on PBS!


2009 Nature Girl

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Ansel Adam's Yosemite

Those who know me know how much I love photos by Ansel Adams. This man was a genius with black/white (or grey scale) photography, and his favorite place to photograph was Yosemite National Park. No one was ever as good as Ansel, and I haven't seen anyone since his death who is as good.

Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American photographer and environmentalist, best known for his black-and-white photographs of the American West and primarily Yosemite National Park.

For his images, he developed the zone system, a way to determine proper exposure and adjust the contrast of the final print. The resulting clarity and depth characterized his photographs. Although his large-format view cameras were difficult to use because of their size, weight, setup time, and film cost, their high resolution ensured sharpness in his images.

I was perusing videos today and found this wonderful video where the son of Ansel Adams, Michael, tells the story of his father and his entire family in Yosemite. Since I enjoyed it so much, I want to share it with you. Even if you didn't know who shot that black and white photo, you probably have seen Ansel's work. Enjoy!



2009 Nature Girl, Ansel Adam's Fan!

Photo is my favorite one by Ansel: Shot at Unicorn Peak, "Thunderclouds"

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Modern Medicine Is Catching Up with the Bible

For thousands of years the Bible has taught that there is a link between spiritual health and physical health. When rationalism came along, many sought to deny the spiritual aspect of humans. For them, the spiritual and the material have nothing to do with each other. Even medicine was, and still is, taught and practiced by many without any consideration of humans' spirituality. In one survey, only 20 percent of doctors reported that spirituality and healing ever came up during their medical education.

According to several surveys, that rationalistic view is now beginning to change. These surveys include a 1996 poll of family physicians, a 1997 poll of HMO professionals and a 1987 survey of Americans. Now, 87 percent of the American public believe that prayer and other religious practices help in the treatment of people who are ill. Most surprising, 99 percent of all physicians polled believe these things help.

Forty-one percent of the American public polled said that their ill health had been improved or even cured because of personal prayer. It is not out of place, according to 74 percent of Americans, for doctors to begin a discussion of a patient's spiritual needs as part of the patient's treatment.

It's not surprising to learn that the Bible was right thousands of years before modern medicine learned that spiritual health and physical health are related. But it is nice to see this area of science finally catching up with the Bible.

References: Better Health, Summer 99, v.15, n.2.

2009 Nature Girl

Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh, and strength to your bones. Proverbs 3:7-8

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The Nature of Saliva

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. Saliva is nothing to sneeze at!

But the greatest love He has shown us is in sending His Son to give us spiritual healing.

References: Judy Foreman, The spitting image gains credibility, Star Tribune, September 12, 1999, p.E3.

2009 Nature Girl

But to you who fear My name the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings; and you shall go out and grow fat like stall fed calves. Malachi 4:2

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Nature Praise - You Make All Things Beautiful

Ecclesiastes 3:11

"He has made every thing beautiful in His time:"

In His time, in His time,
He makes all thing beautiful in His time.
Lord, my life to You I bring,
May each song I have to sing,
Be to You a lovely thing, in Your time.

In Your time, in Your time,
You make all thing beautiful in Your time.
Lord, my life to You I bring,
May each song I have to sing,
Be to You a lovely thing, in Your time.

2009 Christian Nature

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Learn Proper Authority from the Wasp

Wasp colonies in temperate zones usually wait until the end of summer to raise male young. That's because male wasps are typically useless consumers of food. They don't do anything worthwhile in the nest or help gather resources.

Female paper wasps often practice what experts call "male stuffing." When food is brought into the nest, a job carried out by females, other females will stuff their brother's head first into unused nest cells. Needless to say, in the typical nest males have short lives.

The first exception to this pattern was discovered in Costa Rica. Researchers from the University of Washington in Seattle have discovered a species of wasp in which the males are not only in charge, but also help out in the nest! The female wasps still gather the food, but the males demand and get all they want, even from the queen.

But the males were also observed fanning an overheated nest to cool it. They helped remove water during a flood, and they helped take care of the larvae. The males of this species remain with their parent colony for an unusually long time for wasps. Yet, at any time, they can father a new colony. Other tropical species are now being studied to see if this behavior is unique.

The Bible teaches that proper authority is respected when it comes from a spirit of servanthood. This pattern seems to extend even to wasps. Modern human culture needs to be reminded of the principle that when males pitch in and help, their leadership will be appreciated and followed.


References: S. Milius, Male Insects Rule in a Tropical Society, Science News, v.155, p.116.

2009 Christian Nature

The hand of the diligent will rule, but the slothful will be put to forced labor.
Proverbs 12:24

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Christians and Environmentalism

These are discouraging times for environmentalists. The momentum to adopt sweeping measures to combat man-made global warming has slowed, even ground to a halt in some places.

Australia and New Zealand, for example, have rejected and repealed their attempts to reduce CO2 emissions. And the French public is up in arms over the government’s plan to impose a “carbon tax.”

Even after all the scare stories, people are having second thoughts about the cost of—or even the need for—reducing greenhouse gas emissions. What’s needed, according to one prominent environmentalist, is a more reliable source of motivation—that is, religious belief.

At the British Science Association Festival, Lord May, the group’s president, said that population growth, climate change, and other environmental offenses “threaten our existence on this planet.”

This litany is a familiar one whose power, judging by recent events, has diminished. May, the former chief science adviser to the British government, told attendees that better motivation for changing behavior is needed.

So what better motivator than religion? May noted that “religion had historically played a major role in policing social behavior through the notion of a supernatural ‘enforcer.’” Since “religion may have helped protect human society from itself in the past,” it may be able to do it again by invoking this supernatural punisher.

Actually, what May wants isn’t so much the threat of punishment as the respect for authority and the obedience produced by religion, Christianity in particular. If people won’t reduce their carbon emissions for the sake of Mother Earth, perhaps they will do so for their Heavenly Father.

Mind you, Lord May is an “avowed atheist.” Still, as the British magazine Spiked summed it up, “desperate times call for desperate measures.”

For people who believe that “we are already exceeding the ecological footprint which Earth could sustain,” having others invoke a non-existent deity is a small price to pay for averting catastrophe.

The transparent cynicism of this appeal is almost amusing—what’s not is the willingness of religious people, including some Christians, to play along.

In providing a religious rationale for the policies of people like Lord May, they are not, as they suppose, caring for creation. The kind of environmentalism espoused by May and others is a kind of idolatry. It elevates the creation above the Creator—and everything else.

As I have said before, for this kind of environmentalism, the problem is people. “Nature” can only thrive if human beings are diminished. It’s why a new study by the London School of Economics, revealingly entitled “Fewer Emitters, Lower Emissions, Less Cost,” concludes that contraception is the most cost-effective way to reduce global warming.

Christians ought to have no part in promoting this kind of anti-human environmentalism. If May and company desire the aid of a deity, well, their own idol will just have to do.

2009 Nature Girl

^{Romans 1:18}The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.

²⁰For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

²¹For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.

²²Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools ²³and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

²⁴Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.

²⁵They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator—who is forever praised.

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How Old Is The Earth? Look At The Milky Way!

When we look at the size of the universe, it sometimes becomes easier to see evolution as credible. After all, when we see galaxies that are said to be billions of light years away, it seems possible that there really have been millions of years. But, in truth, the immensity of space is really not so friendly to evolution's claim that the universe, and the Earth, are billions of years old.

The Milky Way galaxy, like many galaxies, is a spiral galaxy. You have probably seen the illustrations showing spiral arms of stars wrapped around the bright center of our galaxy.

The stars closest to the center of our galaxy rotate around the center more rapidly than the stars further out on the spiral arms. When these differences in speed are worked out, we discover that our galaxy, no less our Earth, cannot be billions of years old. If the Milky Way was that old, the spiral arms would have long ago become nothing more than a disc of stars.

Evolutionary scientists recognize this problem, calling it the winding up dilemma. But they have been unable to come up with an explanation that is satisfactory.

As we look at the creation for evidence of its age, the clues we have so far found can only give us an upper limit. They cannot give us an exact age. But even the size of the universe fails to support the idea that the creation is billions of years old.

If instead, we piece together the biblical genealogies, which are really ancient calendars, we arrive at an age for the creation of a little more than 6,000 years.


References: D. Russell Humphreys, Ph.D., Evidence for a Young World, Creation Matters, July/August 1999.

2009 Nature Girl

Is not God in the height of heaven? And see the highest stars, how lofty they are! Job 22:12

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Planet Earth and An Awesome God

Every once in a while, I contemplate God's creation and I am overwhelmed by the beauty of it. Take just the planet earth - more beauty exists there than I could possibly digest in a lifetime.

Earth is a terrestrial planet, meaning that it is a rocky body, rather than a gas giant like Jupiter. It is the largest of the four solar terrestrial planets, both in terms of size and mass. Of these four planets, Earth also has the highest density, the highest surface gravity, the strongest magnetic field, and fastest rotation. It also is the only terrestrial planet with active plate tectonics.

The photo shows the size comparison of inner planets (left to right): Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. (Thank you, Wikipedia!)

The Earth's terrain varies greatly from place to place. About 70.8% of the surface is covered by water, with much of the continental shelf below sea level. The submerged surface has mountainous features, including a globe-spanning mid-ocean ridge system, as well as undersea volcanoes, oceanic trenches, submarine canyons, oceanic plateaus and abyssal plains. The remaining 29.2% not covered by water consists of mountains, deserts, plains, plateaus, and other geomorphologies (landforms).

Once I started trying to learn about planet earth, I discovered there was more there to learn than I would ever be able to learn. What it did was make me marvel at the specificity of God's creation on just the planet earth!



It's not hard to praise God when I consider what He has created and allowed to evolve over time. He's truly awesome!

2009 Nature Girl

You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being. Revelation 4:11

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Stress - Dangerous For Your Unborn Baby

We all instinctively know that worry and anxiety is not good for us. Previous studies have shown that stress affects our health and makes our immune systems less efficient. But somehow that knowledge doesn't seem to be enough to keep us from fretting about the challenges and problems of life.

A study conducted by researchers from the State University of New York at Stony Brook examined the effect of a mother's stress on the birth weight of her baby. They studied 130 women between the ages of 18 and 42 years of age.

This exhaustive study examined causes of stress, including daily feelings of anxiety, long term anxiety and financial stress. They also factored in 66 medical risk factors associated with the birth weight of their child.

They found that premature births were most likely among women who faced both medical risks and emotional stress. In fact, they concluded that emotional stress was more likely to produce underweight births than just medical risks alone.

Researchers admitted that every mother to be faces some stress, often without harm to the baby. But the key is how one deals with negative events in one's life.

We can deal constructively with stress by giving all our cares to God. Because God has loved us so much that He even allowed His Son to be sacrificed for our salvation, we know He will carry all our cares.

References: B. Bower, Anxiety weighs down pregnancies and births, Science News, v.138, p.102.

2009 Nature Girl

1 Peter 5:6-7 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

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All of Creation Praises God!

"Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and all that move in them" (Psalm 69:34)

We may not yet understand the full purpose of God in creation, but at least one aspect of that purpose is that all things created should somehow praise their Creator. This theme occurs often in Scripture, especially in the psalms. For example, in addition to the exhortation in our text:

"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows his handiwork" (Psalm 19:1).

"Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy; they will sing before the LORD, for He comes, He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth." (Psalm 96:11-13).

"All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD; and Your saints shall bless You" (Psalm 145:10).

"Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars.
Praise him, you highest heavens and you waters above the skies.

Praise the LORD from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths,
lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding, you mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds," (Psalm 148:3-4,7-10).

The Lord Jesus said that if men should refuse to praise Him and "should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out" (Luke 19:40). Yet even though the whole creation--in its beauty, complexity, and providential orderliness--gives continual praise to its Creator, men perversely have "worshiped and served the creature (or more aptly stated, the creation) more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever" (Romans 1:25).

How poignant, therefore, is the final verse of the book of Psalms: "Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise you the Lord" (Psalm 150:6).

Christian Nature 2009

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Glow Little Glowworm! What Makes Firelies Glow?

When I was young, I was mesmerized by fireflies. Every summer, at Grandma's house, my sister and I chased them - Grandma called them 'light'nin' bugs' - and then we put them in a jar so we could watch them flash on and off. I always wondered why these wonderful creatures glowed and flashed!

And then.... today I was on one of my favorite sights, Creation Tips, and found this wonderful article. I want to share my new-found knowledge with you.

What Makes A Firely Glow?
Why Do Gloworms Glow?

One of the most baffling mysteries of the insect world has been what makes a firefly glow in the dark.

Fireflies, also called lightning bugs, are luminous nocturnal beetles made up of about 1900 species living in tropical and temperate areas. The common glowworm is a member of the same beetle family (Lampyridae).

Fireflies range in size from a few millimetres up to about an inch (25 millimetres), and have special light organs under their abdomen. Females that lack wings are commonly referred to as glowworms.

There are a few peculiarities about fireflies, one of which is that some adult fireflies do not eat. Another is that frogs that eat large numbers of fireflies start to glow themselves.

Another mystery came to light in July 2008 when a researcher from the University of Queensland, David Merritt, found that Tasmanian cave glow-worms deep inside dark caves are able to tell whether it is day or night outside. Despite their continuously dark environment, they light up brightly during the day and switch off at night.

But the biggest mystery has been what causes them to glow.

Secret revealed at last

Neurobiologist Dr. Barry A. Trimmer was the lead author of a paper in the journal Science in which he finally revealed the secret of what makes a firefly glow.

The secret is nitric oxide. This is a dissolved gas that lets the firefly's nervous system switch on its flash of light. Most firelies produce short, rhythmic flashes.

In a complex arrangement between nerve cells, light-producing cells, and an enzyme-assisted reaction, the lightning bug's lantern emits that greenish glow so common in the early summer twilight in some parts of the world.

We must add of course, that even though scientists now know what makes the firefly glow, the whole complex arrangement shouts that only the Master Creator could create and put together such an amazing little insect in the first place.

Source www.creationtips.com

2009 Nature Girl and Firefly Lover!

Genesis 1:20‑21 "And God said, "Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky." So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good."

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No Larnyx, No Speech - Lovely Blessing!

If you're a reader of this blog, you know different species of birds, animals, insects, and fish communicate on a limited basis with one another. But human speech is unique, enabling 'creationists' to praise God for the larnyx. It's a blessing!

Come on, 'fess up. Have you ever stopped to think what a blessing your larnyx is?

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 allows those who believe in our Creator God, to see it is one more testimony of His wise handiwork.

References: Roger Lewin, Spreading the word, New Scientist, 5 December 1998, p. 46.

2009 Nature Girl

Excellent speech is not becoming to a fool, much less lying lips to a prince. Proverbs 17:7

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What Is The Truth About Global Warming?

What is the truth about global warming (or 'climate change' as it's now called)? We need to understand the truth about global warming and its effect on everyone. This issue is about a lot more than fossil fuel.

Often we as believers are interested in the internal affairs of our journey – the unseen. This is a good thing. It should lead us to a concern for our world, calling us to be stewards of the physical evidence of those unseen things. We cannot excuse sloppy maintenance of our world, nor rationalize ignorance of it. We soon find the two are connected.

Our friends at the Cornwall Alliance have much to say about our call to be good stewards of creation. They explain an agenda for our earth’s preservation and promotion of God’s glory linking us to solutions that, unlike current Cap and Trade ideas or global warming threats, help those in third world nations, along with all of those who will ever visit this celestial globe.

God calls us to steward creation, but presently much environmental advocacy and activism contradict sound theology and sound science. In response to this, a diverse task force representing a wide range of the theological, scientific and economic disciplines has been brought together to craft the Cornwall Stewardship Agenda. This agenda is designed to flesh out the broad principles of the 2000 Cornwall Declaration on Environmental Stewardship (endorsed by over 1,500 clergy, religious leaders, and other people of faith), and answer the practical question of what public policy principles religious leaders and policymakers should support in their desire to achieve Biblically balanced stewardship.

The Cornwall Agenda will address a variety of stewardship issues, the first of which are “poverty and development” and “climate and energy.” This Introduction lays the philosophical groundwork for the rest of the document. In summary:

• Mankind has a divinely ordained responsibility to exercise faithful stewardship. Because we and our neighbors are created in God’s image, Scripturally sound stewardship honors God’s emphasis on meeting human needs (particularly those of the poor), cultivating human creativity and helping people flourish. Therefore, environmental policies should harness human creative potential by expanding political and economic freedom, instead of imposing draconian restrictions or seeking to reduce the “human burden” on the natural world. Suppressing human liberty and productivity in the name of environmental protection is antithetical to the principles of stewardship and counterproductive to the environment.

• When addressing environmental problems, we should respond first to firmly established risks in ways that are cost-effective and have proven benefit. Prudent stewardship will avoid siren calls to action on speculative problems that are based on politicized science or media-driven hype, focusing instead on well-understood and well-argued evidence. In the world of policy priorities, arguments that millions may die in the next century (due, for example, to poorly-understood and wildly exaggerated claims about climate change) must yield primacy of place to well-understood problems (like unsafe drinking water, dirty fuels like wood and dung, and malarial mosquitoes) that cause some 4-5 million deaths annually and that could be solved for a fraction of the proposed cost.

• Because of its emphasis on human productivity and the priority of people in God’s created order, supporters of the Cornwall Agenda are frequently mischaracterized as not caring at all about environmental stewardship. Many seek to create an artificial paradigm in which a person either embraces the idea that there are too many people on the planet causing all manner of environmental devastation (including catastrophic man-made global warming), or he is written off as simply unconcerned about “creation care.” That paradigm, however, is false: Cornwall supporters believe the best way to care for both people AND the planet is through policies that allow increasing numbers of people around the world to fulfill their role as stewards of God’s good creation. Read more...

2009 Cornwall Alliance For The Stewardship of Creation

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Warm Atlantic Fish Survive Cold Waters?

How do warm fish survive in very cold water? A number of species of fish live, apparently comfortably, in Antarctic waters as cold as the freezing temperature of sea water, which is a couple of degrees colder than fresh water. This presents us with several mysteries.

First, cold slows down the chemistry necessary for life. At these temperatures, life's chemistry all but stops.

Second, from a creation perspective, how could fish created to live in a perfect, warm, comfortable world be able to live in an environment that makes life seemingly impossible?

A team of biologists from Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station have found some remarkable answers to these questions.

The biologists studied an enzyme found in many creatures that changes a compound called pyruvate into lactate within the muscles. In the Antarctic fish, this enzyme appears to help this conversion take place at speeds usually only found in warmer creatures.

It seems that the cold-water fish have a slight modification of this common enzyme that allows the enzyme to work more quickly despite the cold. And yes, researchers have also found the same modified version of the enzyme in a South American warm-water species.

It appears that God's foreknowledge of what would become of His once-perfect world, and His desire to provide for His creatures, led Him to give this special version of this enzyme to creatures of His choosing.

QUESTION: If God provides so wisely for fish, will He not provide for you and me, for whom His only Son died?

References: C. Wu., Fish enzyme flexes to adapt to the cold, Science News, v.154, p.183.

2009 Nature Girl

But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you; and the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; and the fish of the sea will explain to you. Job 12:7-8

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Who Is The Master of Aerodynamics?

Aerodynamics, the science of flight, is a highly complex science. This is because many complex forces are acting on anything in flight. These forces include the power available for flight and drag produced by the flying object. Each of these categories includes many additional forces that depend on the shape of the flying object, the shape and length of the wings, the speed and the altitude. This is why, for example, high altitude planes have very long wings.

One critical force that has been under recent study is the turbulence that forms at the tips of the wings. The shorter the wing, the more energy-consuming turbulence forms at the tip of the wing. Different wing designs have been tried to decrease this turbulence. Engineers have had some success reducing this turbulence with winglets. You may have seen these small vertical wings on the wingtips of some airplanes.

Swiss researchers have been studying vultures with the hope of finding a better solution to this problem because vultures have a relatively short wing span that has proven to be surprisingly efficient. They discovered that this is because the feathers at the vultures' wing tips spread out. They then tested a wing with a finger like cascade of blades at the end. Their new wing was more than four times more efficient than the average wing design in use today!

It takes a great deal of faith in evolution to think that natural selection possesses such knowledge of aerodynamics. Clearly the vulture was designed by an intelligent Creator Who understands aerodynamics even better than we do!

References: Wingfingers, Flying/January 1999, p.108.

2009 Nature Girl

Then God said, 'Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.' Genesis 1:20

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Know About The Red Knots? Super Smart!

Shore birds like the oystercatcher search for buried mollusks - that would be shells, snails, slugs and oysters - by touch. They poke around in the sand, hoping to find a hard shelled mollusk. But if you have ever tried to find something that was hiding where you couldn't see it, you know that this method of looking for something is not very efficient. But another shore bird, the Red Knot, seems to know just where to find its hidden food.

Scientists observed that the red knot, a type of sandpiper, was seven to eight times more efficient at finding buried food than it would be if it were randomly searching.

Red Knots, who also search for food by pushing their bills into the sand, did better than those birds who search by touch. The answer didn't come until scientists looked at the red knot's bill under the microscope. On the top of the bill they found tiny pits. Inside the pits they found cells called Herbst corpuscles.

Scientists knew that other shorebirds have organs similar to these corpuscles that are used to feel vibrations from wriggling prey. They theorized that the Red Knot's Herbst corpuscles sense pressure changes in the displaced water under the sand when a mollusk obstructs the water's flow.

Next they tested captive birds who were trained to find mollusks in pails of sand. Scientists found that if the sand was dry, the Red Knots did not do very well. But when the sand was wet, the Red Knots could indeed find the hidden mollusks.

God's creative nature and divine wisdom has provided His living creatures with a beautiful variety of ways of making their living.

Oh, Lord, what a variety You have given us!

References: S.M., New hunting trick explains bird luck, Science News, v.154, p.107.

2009 Nature Girl

The eyes of all look expectantly to You, and You give them their food in due season. Psalm 145:15

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To What Extremes Will The Human Body Go?

You never know what unexpected danger might put your life on the line. But God knows, and He has equipped every human with backup systems that are programmed to respond to all sorts of emergencies.

Astronauts shivering in a broken-down spacecraft far from earth. A woman falling off a cliff.

A backpacker encountering a furious bear at a bend in the trail.

How could these people possibly survive? Each depended on incredible biological emergency systems to stay alive. We live in a cursed world where dangers lurk around every corner. Recognizing the potential threats to our lives, God provided our bodies with contingency plans, ready to activate at a moment’s notice.

Whatever extra energy or infusion of chemicals our bodies need, whatever quick changes are required for us to make quick decisions or conserve precious resources, the brain is always ready to act. The beauty of these emergency systems is that we don’t have to learn them. Every person begins life with these abilities, which are passed down through the generations, originating in our first parents, Adam and Eve.

Researchers are learning more and more about how our brain switches operations when thrown into hazardous situations. You may never face life-threatening situations, or you may face them only once, but in any case, God has equipped you to have a better chance of surviving. Read more... The Human Body—Wired for Extremes. It’s a sneak-peek article from the October–December issue of Answers magazine.

2009 Answers in Genesis, thank you!

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The Cagey, Great Imposter FLY

Deep inside an ant colony, perhaps in a decaying log in northern Idaho or even the north woods of Minnesota, there are ants who think they are taking care of their only pupae. In addition to attending to their young, however, they are providing a dangerous ant predator with food and protection as it matures. The predator, called Microdon, matures into a fly like creature that lives only long enough to mate and lay eggs.

How does Microdon get welcomed into the ant's nest? It folds itself in half and ends up looking just like an ant larva. When researchers exposed some of the fly larvae in an ant nest, the ants quickly rescued the folded-over Microdon as if they were ant larvae.

During its first of three larval stages, Microdon enters an ant cocoon and eats the contents. During its two later stages, Microdon moves unchallenged about the nest, eating more ant larvae. This fact at first puzzled researchers, since ants communicate and identify each other through specialized chemical signals. Further research revealed that Microdon are actually able to perfectly mimic this chemical communication!

But perhaps the most fascinating features of Microdon are the odd structures found on the outside of its third stage. These vary from individual to individual and may look like toadstools or flowers. Scientists are unsure of their purpose. But they do marvel over the rich variety of the shapes, which seem unnecessary. While such variety may be unnecessary, they and the other features of Microdon testify to the rich creativity of our Creator God.

References: Gregory Paulson and Roger D. Akre, “A Fly in Ant's Clothing,” Natural History, 1/94, p.56

2009 Nature Girl

O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches. Psalm 104:24

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Pollen Sheds New Light on the Shroud of Turin

New evidence not only suggests that the Shroud of Turin dates to the first century, but also places it in the Jerusalem area. The Shroud of Turin is a 13 foot long, three foot wide piece of cloth that many people believe was the burial cloth of Christ. It bears a negative image of what appears to be a man who was crucified. A small bit of the cloth was carbon-dated in 1988 and the results led many to believe that the cloth came from the Middle Ages.

Now a botanist from Hebrew University has announced that he has identified pollen, taken from the shroud, of two important species that are found together only in the Jerusalem area. Pollen from the same two species was also identified on the Sudarium of Oviedo, a smaller cloth which has traditionally been considered the burial face cloth of Jesus.

Both are stained with type AB blood - which is comparatively rare among Europeans ... its incidence is 18 per cent among Jewish populations of the present-day Near East. This cloth has been in Oviedo, Spain, since 760 A.D. and is documented back to the first century. Both cloths have pollen from a thistle which some have suggested was used to fashion Jesus' crown of thorns.

The other pollen found on both cloths is from a common Jerusalem tumbleweed, an image of which also appears on the Shroud of Turin. Both plants bloom in Jerusalem around the time of the Passover.

While this intriguing new evidence suggests both cloths are authentic, we must be careful! The Christian faith does not rise and fall on such evidence. We stand on the Gospel of salvation through the forgiveness that Jesus won for us.

Please note: In April of this year, I published a very interesting and mysterious article which I wrote several years ago, "Who Folded the Burial Napkin for Jesus?" It will explain the Jewish customs which only serve to make the question more mysterious. Check it out!

2009 Christian Nature

References: (RSN) REPORTER, August 1999, p.9,
Minnesota Christian Chronicle, August 12, 2000, p.9

But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. Matthew 12:39

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The New Pledge of Allegiance Being Taught To Our Children

The new pledge of allegiance being pushed upon us,
and being taught to our children in place of the "old" one.

^{Romans 1:18}The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.

²⁰For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

²¹For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.

²²Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools ²³and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

²⁴Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.

²⁵They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator—who is forever praised.

Do you know what your children are being taught in school?

2009 Christian Nature

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God's Bird That Glows In the Dark - Rainbow Finch

Have you ever tried to get a bottle in a baby's mouth in a dark room? It would be handy if the baby had a glowing target on its mouth. God has given the Gouldian Finch, a native of Australia, a unique solution to this problem.

The Gouldian Finch - also known as the Rainbow Finch - sports bright, parrot like colors. A single bird may carry feathers in up to six brilliant colors, including sky blue, dark blue, yellow, green, purple and black. The finch's face may be red, orange or black.

Found mostly in the grasslands of northern Australia, the finches usually build their nests of loosely woven dried grass. These nests are usually built in a tree hollow, a termite mound or in the grass itself. Consequently, finches often find themselves having to feed their young in low-light conditions.

Knowing the behavior He built into these birds, God has provided a solution for this problem. You might put a nightlight in the baby's room so you can find her mouth at night. God has done about the same for the Gouldian Finch. Their young have two pairs of iridescent nodules marking the margin of their beaks. These nodules don't generate light. Instead, they are highly efficient reflectors that glow purplish blue in all but total darkness.

Lest anyone question whether these nodules were specially designed to help the parents feed their young, we note that the nodules disappear as the young birds mature into adulthood.

God can claim ownership over all living things because He made them. Because He made you and me He has not only claimed ownership over us, but even though we ruined His perfect creation with our rebellion, He sent His Son to save us.

References: Carl Wieland, “Purple Pearls of Creative Wisdom,” Creation, 21(3) June-August

2009 Nature Girl

I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine.
Psalm 50:11

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Want a Cockroach for a "Pet"?

Once in a while I print a story that's unbelievable. Today's story is such a story. How would you like to have a cockroach for a "pet"? If so, I know where you can get one. No idea how much you would have to pay, but you would have to fly to Australia to pick him up.

His name is Heathcliffe, he's a giant burrowing cockroach and now he's contending for the title of world's heaviest insect.

But though it may sound unappealing, Heathcliffe and his kind are not the average dirty, imported roaches, The Daily Telegraph reports.

Australia's giant cockroaches give birth to live young, look after them in a burrow, make "great pets" and dine on leaves, the paper reported.

"They are the world's heaviest cockroach and if not the heaviest of all insects, they are certainly a contender," Sydney University senior biology lecturer Nathan Lo said Thursday.

"They are different to other insects in a lot of ways and are totally unrelated to the American or German cockroaches found in Australian households," Lo told The Daily Telegraph.

Click here to read from from The Daily Telegraph.

I think I will stick with my pet dog. She's been spade.

2009 Nature Girl - but not that 'nature'!

Photos by Cameron Richardson

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