The Creationist's Approach to Cleaning Up the Waters

Why are our water bodies polluted? Is it man's fault? A Creationist Scientist says 'no' and he has a different approach to cleaning up the waters.

Much of the world's water pollution is the result of biological aging and overloading.

If, for example, too many nutrients encourage too much growth in the upper layers of the lake, eventually the systems at the lake bottom that dispose of the dead creatures from the upper layers will overload.

If that happens, lake water will have an accumulation of toxic gasses and less oxygen – a combination that can destroy the familiar and more popular game fish in the middle and upper levels of the lake.

When Bob Laing, a Creationist, looked for a solution to this problem, the first question he asked was, "Did God design a solution to this problem?" The answer is found in the way lakes turn themselves upside down twice a year.

In the spring and fall, as water temperatures change through 39°(F), the bottom waters are pushed to the surface by heavier, 39° water. At the surface, these "bottom waters" give up their poisonous gasses and absorb oxygen.

Laing went on to prove, using huge air bubbles and other equipment, that lakes could be saved by stopping the original source of the problem and then artificially duplicating the Creator's built-in system.

Environmentalists at first rejected his solution. However, today, Bob Laing and his Clean-Flo Laboratories, has restored over 1,000 lakes and ponds worldwide, including the Tokyo Garden Ponds, where each fish is worth up to $100,000!

Bob Laing arrived at his revolutionary approach to solving lake pollution because he is a Creationist. He knows that the creation is intelligently designed by our loving Creator.

Notes:
Runholt, Susan. 1990. "Clean-Flo Laboratories … cleaning up the world." Corporate Ink West (West Suburban Business Communities, Minneapolis, MN). Sept. p. 1; CreationMoments.com

2011 Christian Nature

"If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you [of] heavenly things?" John 3:12

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Silent War of Trees - Something to Think About

You are sitting under a tree, enjoying nature, completely oblivious to the war going on around you. Maybe that's because the war is a silent one?

A gypsy moth caterpillar infestation can strip the leaves from large numbers of trees, threatening the trees' lives. Since they don't have a means of escape, it doesn't seem as if the poor trees have much of a chance.

But botanists were tipped off to the possibility that trees may not be all that defenseless when they began to investigate why only a few trees were badly damaged by insects in an infected grove while most stood unharmed.

They discovered that when facing a threat like gypsy moth caterpillars, trees begin to defend themselves by sounding the alarm. A large variety of trees – including beeches, poplars, sugar maples and red oaks – communicate with each other.

Scientists believe the trees communicate by releasing chemicals called pheromones into the air. What they now know is that before insects attacking one tree can get to the tree next door, the second tree has already begun defending itself.

How do they defend themselves? When under attack or notified by other trees of attack, most trees begin to manufacture an array of poisons. Some of the poisons make leaves impossible to digest, while others kill the insects outright. Some make as many as eight poisons at once, and many can change the poisons that are made from year to year.

Our Creator's concern for living things extends even to plants. If He sees to this detailed level of care for trees, can there be anything in our lives that is too small for His loving concern?

Something to think about today.

Notes: Discover and Creation Moments.com

2011 Christian Nature

"Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you."
1 Peter 5:6-7

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Is This a Leaf or a Fish?

OK, is this a joke? A leaf that eats? Or is it a fish that looks like a leaf? Which is it - a leaf or a fish?

It's a warm day on the Amazon River. A small fish swims near the surface, looking among the natural floating river debris for some food. As he looks among the occasional leaf or twig in the water, he sees no danger.

At the same time, one of the floating "leaves" is waiting for the little fish to move just a bit closer. Then, without warning, the floating "leaf" comes to life, grabs the fish and eats it!

What the little fish thought was simply another floating leaf was actually another fish. The Amazonian leaf fish is carefully designed not only to look like a leaf, but to act like one as well. It has a flat body, very much like a leaf. A black line runs the length of its body, giving the appearance of the midrib of a leaf. A fleshy growth in its lower jaw looks like a leaf stem.

Beyond looking like a leaf, the leaf fish also acts like a leaf. It lies still in the water, drifting with the current. To hide its identity further, it draws its fins close to its body, removing any last hint that it is indeed a hungry fish looking for lunch.

The leaf fish combines deceptive coloring, appearance and behavior into one design so that it, too, can survive. In this, the leaf fish shows that the Creator makes nothing without also designing a special purpose for that creature.

According to the Bible, the same can be said even more emphatically for each human being He has made. Your Creator has a special purpose for you, too, and it begins with His plan of salvation for you through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Leaf Fish

2011 Christian Nature

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The Genetics of Music

I am a musician and have been a music teacher for people of all ages. I have been saddened to watch school systems throw out the music programs because they felt they served no 'purpose'. This view is totally evolutionary and contradicts thousands of years' proof otherwise. Music is not only genetic, but important, according to Scripture!

Assuming that the laws of nature could even invent musical ability, they would have no reason to do so. However, from the standpoint of creation, music serves to praise our Creator.

Unfortunately, some who enjoy music cannot carry a tune, while other people can play or sing a piece without even looking at any music after hearing it once.

The scientific study of musical ability has become an important area of study as a result of some recent discoveries.

Researchers have discovered that it's true that some people have natural musical ability and some don't. They have found that some people have perfect pitch, even if they have no musical training, while those who are tone-deaf remain tone-deaf despite musical training. Studies show that only about one person in 2,000 has perfect pitch.

Researchers were shocked to find solid evidence that musical ability is genetically inherited. Studying musical ability in both musically trained and untrained families, they found that musical ability follows a dominant inheritance pattern. Sons or daughters have a 50 percent chance of inheriting the gene from a parent who carries it.

How could mindless evolution develop a gene that codes for musical ability? Even evolutionists appear to be puzzled by this. But those of us who believe in the Creator praise Him whether we have musical ability or not!

It has been my experience that anyone can learn to read music if they are playing an instrument. But singing depends upon genetics.

Notes: "Genetic key to perfect pitch." Minneapolis Star Tribune

2011 Christian Nature


"And the priests waited on their offices: the Levites also with instruments of music of the LORD, which David the king had made to praise the LORD, because his mercy endures for ever, when David praised by their ministry..."
2 Chronicles 7:6a

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Creatures Who Appear to be Invisible!

Have you ever wished you could walk into a room and be invisible? Think of what you could hear if no one saw you! Well, there are creatures who can appear to be invisible. It's their protection!

The creation is filled with a remarkable number of creatures that are able to fool their enemies into thinking they are something else. They provide us with examples of God's attention to details in the creation.

The toad grasshopper of South Africa may be found among different kinds of rocks.

Grasshoppers that live among quartzite pebbles have the same lighter colors and markings as the pebbles, making them nearly invisible.

Across the valley, other toad grasshoppers – living among the volcanic rocks – are darkly colored like the volcanic rocks.

The Kenyan bush cricket lives almost invisibly among the moss that commonly covers trees because it looks just like the moss.

The Trinidadian katydid looks as if it might be a patch of blotchy fungus that grows on the same leaves it lives on.

The Malaysian katydid takes a different approach. It looks just like one of the veined leaves upon which it lives.

The Malaysian tussock moth has transparent patches on its wings so that with its coloration it looks like a decayed section of the leaf upon which it lives.

The larva of the silver king shoemaker butterfly eats leaves in the protection of nights' darkness and by day hangs from the leaf it has been eating, looking like part of the tattered leaf.

No creature was too small or unimportant when our Creator planned the details of His work. We should see from these examples that He cares for each of us. His message of how He cares for you is in the Bible.

Notes: "The masters of mimicry." Discover

2011 Christian Nature

"Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing [coin]? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father." Matthew 10:29

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Master of Disguise and Exception to the Rule

Mothers all over the world have either said or thought, "You're a man. You'll never understand what I'm going through with this pregnancy." And, for the most part, they are right! Women experience pregnancy and men don't. There is one exception. One male creature does, indeed, know what what it is to go through pregnancy. It's the male sea horse!

When it comes to designing the sea horse, God showed that there are no limits to His creativity. Maybe the sea horse is God's way of encouraging women to stop complaining? Just saying.

There are about 35 known species of sea horse, the largest of which grow to over a foot in length. Sea horses are masters of disguise. They can change color in seconds to match new surroundings.

While sea horses are fish, they have skin instead of scales. Their skin, which is tightly stretched over bony plates, produces growths to match surrounding vegetation. These growths will change to match new vegetation or disappear if there is no vegetation.

Although sea horses have neither teeth nor stomach, they eat small, tough crustaceans. They are able to grasp so tightly with their prehensile tails that they cannot be removed unless they want to move. Sea horses are also very social creatures, greeting their neighbors each morning by changing colors.

The sea horse is the only animal known where the male actually becomes pregnant and gives birth. Normally the mating ritual lasts for three days. It includes color changes, dancing and grasping. At the end of the ritual, the female deposits her eggs in the male's pouch.

For the next two weeks, the male protects, nourishes and aerates the eggs. When they are ready, the young are born alive and ready to swim. One male, whose pouch was a little bigger than half a teaspoon, gave birth to 1,572 young!

By its very existence, the sea horse offers elegant witness to a powerful, wise and personal Creator.

Notes: Natural History

2011 Christian Nature

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Renewal - The Master's Plan

We live in a world – indeed, a universe – that is in continual change. Things have been designed that way for a very important reason. Unfortunately, some people choose to define evolution as simply change. However, that's not the kind of continuous change that surrounds us.

The change we see around us serves to keep things the same. Biologists call this "stasis." That might sound contradictory, but think about it for a moment. A baby is born – that's change. The baby grows into a child and then a young adult. That's more change. In the end, though, a new generation is born to replace the last generation, and things are as they were. It's the cycle of life, common to all living things.

What's more, the interrelated life cycles of all living things complement each other. Plants use sunlight and carbon dioxide to make oxygen and food, which are needed by the animal kingdom and human beings. Each generation of living things reproduces after its own kind, helping to keep this balance in tune.

The change we see all around us was designed by the Creator to renew the creation so that it might remain stable – the same. We can truly say that the more things change, the more they stay the same. However, this state of affairs will not go on forever. One day – and perhaps soon – the world will end. The Son of God, Who was the instrument of our creation and the instrument of our salvation, will return. Are you ready to meet Him?

2011 Christian Nature

"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up."
2 Peter 3:10

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Fever Can Be a Good Thing

When I was a child, I would get extremely high temperatures when I got sick. High fever is not what I'm talking about in this post. But a small fever can be a good thing. In this case, should you try to lower your fever? Fever CAN be good for you.

Medical researchers are learning what happens in the body when we develop a fever. They say that the body's fever response is usually a very important part of our body's defense against disease.

Normally, the body's temperature varies throughout the day. If the body's temperature drops below 80° or climbs higher than 108° for a prolonged period, death usually results. Your body has a thermostat, called the hypothalamus, to keep its temperature within that range.

When disease germs are detected in your bloodstream, your white blood cells release a chemical called EP. EP quickly makes its way to the hypothalamus, where it raises the setting of your thermostat. This increase in temperature can make your body increase its production of T cells by 20 times or more to fight bacterial infection.

It also increases the production of blood chemicals that fight viruses. EP also blocks bacteria's ability to make use of the free iron in your blood at just the time bacteria are most in need of that iron. Even iguanas and fish are known to raise their body temperature when ill by moving into warmer environments.

Does the fever response just accidentally happen to help fight infection or was it designed to work the way it does? Clearly we must thank God for this cleverly designed defense against disease.

2011 Christian Nature

"Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones." Proverbs 3:7-8

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From Israel - A Vaccine For Cancer?

Israel's Vacciguard introduces a unique biotech system to develop immunizations against some of the world's deadliest maladies, from cancer to CMV, and West Nile virus.

The notion of a vaccine for cancer - or for many other deadly diseases nearly impossible to control, let alone cure - may seem to be no more than wishful thinking. But that is exactly what Israeli biomed startup Vacciguard is introducing: A technology tool for developing vaccines against a wide range of diseases from cancer to West Nile virus.

We may be in the 21st century, says Vacciguard CEO Dr. Anat Eitan, but more than 15 million people die each year from infectious diseases - and not only in developing countries.

"Our technology consists of proprietary peptide carriers which are derived from a protein element called Heat Shock Protein 60 enabling a much more effective method of battling bacteria and viruses," says Eitan.

Vacciguard's research shows that when carrier peptides from HSP60 are attached to external areas of a pathogen or tumor (known as an antigen), the "arms" of the immune system are activated -- enabling the generation of specific T-cells that support a long-lasting immune memory against the antigen-bearing pathogens or tumors. The system works very effectively, even without the addition of agents generally used to boost the response to a vaccine under existing technologies.

"We are able to take small sections of the bacteria or virus that by themselves are unable to activate the immune system because they contain only weak antigens, and turn them into strong immunogens," Eitan tells ISRAEL21c. Immunogens are antigens that can provoke an adaptive immune response.

Hope against deadly diseases

Vacciguard's system could provide a way to develop effective vaccines against maladies that currently have no effective treatments, such as meningitis type B, three types of West Nile virus and cytomegalovirus (CMV), which infects between 50 percent and 80% of adults in the United States, and 40% worldwide. CMV, though many have never heard of it, also is the main cause of devastating defects in newborns.

"CMV is typically unnoticed in healthy people, but can be life-threatening for those with weak immune systems, such as the elderly, HIV sufferers, organ transplant recipients and the like. With our system, we can develop vaccines for any of these situations," says Eitan. She adds that there is great interest in the United States in offering immunization against CMV to women before they become pregnant.

One of the reasons for the Vacciguard system's greater effectiveness is how its components are derived. "Most of the currently used vaccines are based on either an attenuated pathogen or a single whole protein of a bacteria or virus," explains Eitan.

"We can take a few amino acids from the pathogen that are common in all its strains, and develop a single vaccine that is effective against all the strains of the selected pathogen -- instead of developing a specific vaccine to each strain as is the case with the existing technologies."

As a result, Vacciguard technology can be used to quickly develop vaccines for different permutations of a disease - and address issues of resistance in later generations of bacteria and viruses, as well.

Successful studies with mice

Vacciguard's technology was developed by Prof. Irun Cohen, a world-renowned immunologist at Rehovot's Weizmann Institute of Science, who has been working to develop HSP60 as a vaccine base for many years. Cohen has published more articles in the journals of Science and Nature than any other Israeli scientist.

Vacciguard, established in 2007 and incubated at the Misgav Venture Accelerator for biotechnology, has conducted extensive studies using mice. In one test, all the mice that were exposed to pneumonia but were not given a vaccine died - while almost all of the mice that received the injection survived.

The studies were promising enough to persuade Campus Bio, the drug development division of Clal Biotech, to invest $1.4 million in Vacciguard. Under the recent agreement, the Rehovot-based Vacciguard team will develop a vaccine for CMV.

"It's exciting to be part of a venture that can for the first time provide an effective treatment for millions who in the past had little or no hope of overcoming their condition," says Eitan. "We believe that our technology will be at the forefront of helping those people."

Source: David Shamah

2011 Christian Nature

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The Designer's Excellent Engineering For the Lowly Cricket!

Swish! The swiftly moving bat cuts almost invisibly through the darkness, silent to all but those who can hear its ultrasonic radar. What chance does a poor night-flying cricket – prized as a tasty bat snack – have? Ah, The Designer has provided excellent engineering for the lowly cricket!

Let's treat this problem as if you were the Creator, faced with the problem of giving your night-flying cricket a chance against its predator.

Of course, you could design the cricket so that it would stay in its hiding place at night, but then you wouldn't have a night-flying cricket. You could give the cricket the ability to hear the bat's radar, but that alone won't help the cricket if he can't get to safety.

The solution our true Creator has invented to help the cricket preserve its life is another example of His engineering excellence. He has built the cricket with a single-celled bat detector that is wired into the cricket's nervous system. The detector is triggered by the frequency that bats use for navigation. When triggered, the cell fires off up to 500 impulses per second. These impulses automatically cause the cricket to steer away from the source of the ultrasound.

The most impressive engineering fact about this bat detector is that it only works if the cricket is in flight and therefore vulnerable to bats. When crickets are safe from bats – resting, hiding, eating or preening – the bat detector cell doesn't fire any warning at all!

The precise elegance that the Creator has designed into the cricket for its protection is a witness to His wisdom in caring for all that He has created. Learn more about that wisdom in the Bible.

2011 Christian Nature

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The Common Man Knew This Fossil Was Not Extinct!

There are times when the common man knows more about a creature than the scientists do. Such is the case with the coelacanth.

The coelacanth is a rather strange-looking fish that was supposed to have become extinct 70 million years ago with the dinosaurs. That's what scientists thought, anyway. After all, they argued, the fish looks so primitive. Its fleshy fins are obviously the first step in the evolution of legs.

Meanwhile, fishermen off the east cost of Africa were familiar with the creatures because the fish were turning up in their nets.

Science discovered in 1938 what these fishermen already knew. In the last half-century, more than 80 of the creatures have been caught and studied. Deep-diving submarines have also allowed scientists to study the coelacanth in its natural habitat.

As science has learned more about the coelacanth, it has become clear that this fish is not primitive; neither does it provide aid and comfort to evolution. Studies on living creatures show that the fins are structured all wrong if they are evolving into legs. They're just fins. In addition, the coelacanth is a remarkably sophisticated creature.

It reproduces more like a mammal than a fish, giving birth to live young after about a year's gestation. The coelacanth has a small second tail that improves its swimming abilities. It also appears to have a gland that gives it the added ability to find its prey by detecting the prey's electrical signals.

Science had declared the coelacanth extinct, primitive and an evidence for evolution. Now having studied them, we learn that each scientific conclusion was wrong and that the coelacanth glorified its Creator by its sophisticated design.

If you would like to teach your children about fossils - even how they can build their own fossils! - I recommend The Fossil Book (Wonders of Creation) by Gary and Mary Parker. It's a fabulous book that will fascinate you and your children!


2011 Christian Nature

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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More Scientists Being 'Persuaded By the Evidence'

Persuaded by the Evidence, a growing number of scientists, some of them with worldwide reputations, are changing their minds about evolution. While many of these scientists are recognizing that evolution is in trouble, they are not necessarily becoming Christians or creationists.

The world-famous astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle announced that there is so much information within higher forms of life that they could not have evolved. Dr. Hoyle said that he could not understand why so many biologists deny this obvious fact and accept evolution.

The scientific world was solidly shaken when Dr. Colin Patterson, head of paleontology at the British Museum, admitted at the American Museum of Natural History in Chicago that he knew nothing about evolution that was true.

He said that he had asked other scientists if they could name one thing about evolution that was true. Silence was the usual answer. Dr. Patterson called the evolutionary theory "anti-knowledge." He especially faulted those who say evolution is a fact, yet admit they don't know how it works.

Evolutionary theory is the great modern creation myth. As a myth, it is no challenge to the Bible. It's even losing support in the scientific community.

Notes: Sunderland, Luther. 1988. Darwin's Enigma. El Cajon, CA: Master Books

2011 Christian Nature

"For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty." 2 Peter 1:16

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Where's The Designer?

Like many others, when I see a beautiful building, or a beautiful landscaping, I want to know 'Where's the Designer?' It's just common sense that without a Designer, there can be no Design!

A new science called biomimetics is making news. In the past we have talked about how some of man's designs are often similar to God's which do the same job. However, in biomimetics, researchers actively seek to study the creation to learn of designs that will solve engineering problems.

We are all familiar with the story of how thistle seeds inspired Velcro. Engineers have used the design of the owl's wing to make the structures that carry electrical current to trains. The result is a much quieter ride.

The moth's eyes' ability not to reflect light helps make it harder to be spotted by birds. The same design has now been used to make a nonreflective film. The result is a film that can be used to help prevent windows from reflecting light. This film will soon be available commercially.

Many dyes are toxic, yet many creatures manage to show off bright colors without using toxic substances. Materials engineers studied how the jewel beetle produces its color. The result is a film that seems to change color depending on the angle from which you view it.

No scientist can offer a rational explanation for how so many thoughtful and efficient designs could be generated in a mindless universe. These designs are fingerprints God left all over the creation so that man might seek Him out.

Notes: Nikkei Weekly, 2/22/10, p. 17, "Biomimetics yields life-inspired products."
Creation Moments

2011 Christian Nature

"For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead..." Romans 1:20a

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The Bird Who Does NOT Fly and Other Oddities

One of the more unusual creatures God made was thought extinct until it was rediscovered in 1958. And it is very different from other birds! It is a bird that does NOT fly!

The kakapo parrot lives in New Zealand. The most unusual parrot on Earth, it is one of only a few known parrots that prefers to sleep during the day and becomes active at night. Weighing in at five pounds, it is also the world's heaviest parrot. It is, perhaps not surprisingly, the world's only non-flying parrot.

The Creator's unusual expression of inventive creativity in designing the kakapo did not end here. The mating habits of the kakapo are especially peculiar for birds. In mating season, the males gather in locations that are used year after year for mate selection. Female parrots come to these places to inspect the males to select a mate. However, in most un-bird-like fashion, the males provide absolutely no help building the nest or rearing the young.

The kakapo is remarkable because of its many strange traits, most of which would make it least fit for survival. In other words, not only is it an unusual creature, but its more unusual characteristics seem to put it at a disadvantage as far as evolution is concerned. So while evolution would not have made the kakapo, our inventive Creator did, perhaps as a witness against evolution.

2011 Christian Nature

Many, LORD my God,
are the wonders you have done,
the things you planned for us.
None can compare with you;
were I to speak and tell of your deeds,
they would be too many to declare. Psalm 40:5

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An Artificial Fat For Plastic Surgery?

Israel's Juvenis offers doctors a unique ‘artificial fat' compound for rebuilding or smoothing out large areas of tissue altered by medical procedures. Tenergel is the only product that feels like natural tissue, said Dan Touitou, CEO of Juvenis.

When a person undergoes a major medical procedure - breast surgery, facial reconstruction or even liposuction -- the face- or body-altering aftermath often takes a serious emotional toll even when the treatment is successful from a medical point of view.

Enter Israel's Juvenis. The company's Tenergel product was developed to let plastic surgeons more easily and inexpensively fill in or smooth out areas that were cut away by the scalpel.

Juvenis is a very safe form of "artificial fat," says company CEO Dan Touitou. "Tenergel is a unique compound polymer in gel form that is perfect for filling large volumes, such as breast augmentation reconstruction or facial reconstruction."

In addition, he says, Tenergel can be used to smooth out the appearance of the skin after liposuction and to "firm up" difficult-to-treat areas such as the buttocks, as well as many other applications.

The best part of Tenergel, says Touitou, is what it's made of - organic materials including castor oil and citric acid. Both are considered foods by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and have long been approved for use intravenously. Though Tenergel still needs FDA approval for medical use, Touitou does not anticipate any problem with the approval process, since the product's ingredients are safe and well-known.

Another advantage of Tenergel is its durability.

"Nearly all of the filler products on the market today require an almost complete reapplication after a period of time," Touitou says. For example, valoneic acid dilactone (VAD), used in lip reconstruction, is quite expensive - and almost completely disappears in a half year. Based on extensive animal studies Juvenis has conducted, Tenergel normally shows just a 20 percent reduction in the same amount of time.

"Besides, only Tenergel is suitable for large volume application, unlike VAD and other popular materials used by plastic surgeons," Touitou adds.

In fact, there is only one other product on the market that could be considered a competitor for Tenergel, made by a Dutch company, Touitou says - and this product is more expensive and lasts for far less time than Tenergel. Injectable and affordable, Tenergel can be applied on an outpatient basis, and is scar free. Plus, says Touitou, it is the only product that "feels" right, like natural tissue.

A revolution in plastic surgery

Breast augmentation, one of the many plastic surgery procedures where Juvenis could find a large demand for its product, is the number one aesthetic surgery procedure in the world. It accounts for 17 percent of all surgical procedures. In 2009, for example, more than 1.9 million breast augmentation surgeries were performed across the globe, mostly in China (222,000), the United States (204,000), Brazil (173,000) and Europe (150,000). At an average cost of $5,000 per procedure, the total amount spent is more than $9.5 billion.

Established in 2008, Juvenis is located in Misgav, in northern Israel, and is a part of the Misgav Venture Accelerator. Along with Touitou, who has worked in the commercial pharmaceuticals business for years, the company is led by co-founders Prof. Abraham Domb, head of the forensic sciences division of the Israel Police, and Dr. Lior Yankelson, who has established a number of medical startups in the past.

The company, which holds several patents, expects to start clinical trials in the next month or two, and is aiming for European Union approval by next year.

"Tenergel is inexpensive, long-lasting, and large-volume -- the only product on the market with all three characteristics," says Toutiou. "This could be a real revolution in plastic surgery."

By David Shamah

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Ancient Well Proves Ancient Humans Were Smart!

A few years ago, archaeologists discovered a water well that is the oldest they've ever seen. Because of the well's sophisticated design, they immediately concluded that ancient humans were much smarter than they ever expected.

The well was found beneath the Mediterranean sea bed off the coast of Israel. The location in which the well was discovered is part of a 10-acre site of an ancient city that was found beneath 10 feet of sand and 39 feet of seawater. Other, more shallow wells have also been found at the site as well as stone houses, fireplaces, 23 skeletons, seeds, tools – and the village garbage pit.

The deepest well is a round shaft, extending 16 feet into the ground and paved with stone. Evolutionary archaeologists said that the discovery raises some interesting questions. For example, how did ancient humans know that if they dug deep enough they would find the water table? Archaeologists also wondered where ancient humans learned the skill of sinking a round shaft and paving it with stone.

Finds like these, which extend so-called modern humanity with all their skills and intelligence further into the past, are no surprise to those who accept the Bible's account of human history.

We would guess that this city was built within several generations after the great Flood. That date is not ancient for human beings, since we have been fully human and skilled since the sixth day of the universe's existence. In fact, based on the Bible's description of Adam and the first generations of humans, we are probably less skilled today than most ancient people.

2011 Christian Nature

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There Is Nothing New Under the Sun

For much of my life, I have heard theories on just how ancient men built and moved the Egyptian Pyramids. So many 'modern' people do not seem to understand the intelligence and resourcefulness of millions of ancient men and women! But I know my God and 'He Don't Make Junk!' There really is nothing new under the sun.

It is unfortunate that we so often have the sense that nothing technologically important has happened in human history until modern times. This helps maintain the illusion that humans are indeed progressing and evolving upward.

Differential gears, allowing a machine to perform two functions simultaneously, were not used in modern times until 1575. However, a model planetarium using differential gears was found in a ship that sank off Greece in 78 B.C. While Ben Franklin is given credit for discovering electricity, electric batteries dating from 100 B.C. have been found in Iraq. (That's right!)

The Gate of the Sun is a 10-ton, intricately carved stone gate in Bolivia, 13,000 feet above sea level. In Mexico there are boulders with faces carved on them. They were erected between 1250 and 400 B.C., carved out of boulders weighing up to 24 tons that were quarried 45 miles away from their present location. How were these giants moved and erected?

Joseph Davidovits, a scientist at the Geopolymer Institute in France, believes he may know. He suggests that the builders chemically broke down the stone with acid. Then they carried the liquid stone to the present sites and poured the liquid into molds.

In support of his theory, Davidovits points out that some Indians still use this method now, while traces of the acid can still be found in some ancient stone structures.

Despite all of our modern gadgets, there is no evidence that humans are any more clever today than they were on the first day they walked the Earth – just as the Bible says.

Notes:Patton, Robert. 1982. Ooparts. Omni, v. 4. p. 53.

2011 Christian Nature

What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun. Ecclesiastes 1:9

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A Blessing or a Curse? It Depends!

Most of us have lived long enough to figure out that something can be a blessing or a curse, depending. . .

Blessings can become curses. For example, a painkiller may be used to cover up an injury that needs immediate treatment. Pain is unpleasant. However, when pain tells us to move our hand from the hot burner, it helps us prevent worse injury.

When God created the universe and placed humans on this Earth, there was no disease, no pain and no death. The Bible tells us that God also knew that our freedom to withdraw our love from Him would also result in the consequences of withdrawing that love – that is, disease, pain and death. In His wisdom, God filled the creation with chemical factories that could provide temporary help for pain and disease.

Foxglove, or digitalis, offers a treatment for heart failure. Quinine, from a South American tree, is used to treat malaria. Steroids come from a Mexican yam. A treatment for gout is made from the autumn crocus. A fungus that grows on the rye plant and caffeine from coffee beans are used to treat migraine headaches. White willow bark, which contains a form of aspirin, has been used for thousands of years as a natural treatment for pain and fever.

Pain, disease and death call our attention to our much more serious spiritual condition. If we did not have to face death in this life, we would be condemned to spend eternity in an imperfect world. We can thank God that He has provided the remedy for our sin in the forgiveness of sins through His Son, Jesus Christ. I know I am grateful for His gift! It is definitely a blessing!

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Life Is Full of Thin Lines

This question is asked over and over, by seekers and by non-believers. It shows the thin lines that exist in this world.Life is full of thin lines.

If God created the world and everything in it in perfection, where did disease, sickness and death come from?

It's clear from the Bible that God did not intend for humans to suffer disease and death. However, when humans withdrew their love from God by disobeying Him, they caused the nature of creation to be changed.

It appears that it would take only small, subtle changes in chemistry and biology to change helpful and good organisms into deadly organisms. For example, botulism is a fatal food poisoning caused by the botulinum toxin produced by a microbe growing in food. Botulinum is the most powerful toxin known to modern science.

Medical researchers have discovered that very tiny amounts of botulinum toxin may be safely injected into spasmodic muscles to stop involuntary spasms. These small doses stop involuntary nerve impulses without interfering with voluntary use of the muscles.

This therapy promises to help people who suffer from involuntary clinching of eyelids, throat, misaligned eyes, stuttering and the cramps often suffered by musicians, writers and typists.

Therapy appears to work for several months before it must be repeated, and there appear to be no side effects. This treatment is not theoretical; doctors are being trained in using it right now.

So a dangerous poison can be medicine. Perhaps this hints at a purpose God may have originally intended for the botulism microbe.

2011 Christian Nature

"Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field…" Genesis 3:18

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Does Evolution Make Sense?

Does evolution make sense to you?

Today the Bible is often accused of giving answers that don't add up to reality as we know it. Many Christian students have been told that evolution gives answers that do make sense. Is this really true? These are questions that we Christians can and should ask when we are told that evolution fits the world as we know it.

Evolutionary geology says that, on the average, geological processes such as erosion and mountain building have always taken place at the same rate we see them happening today.

However, if we take the volume of the world's continents and divide it by the known rate of continental erosion, we find that it should take only 14 million years to erode the continents down to sea level.

We are also told that the last mountain building activity took place about 65 million years ago. So if evolutionary geology is correct, the continents should have long ago been worn down to sea level.

Evolutionary biologists tell us that the first modern women lived about 200,000 years ago. At an average of three children per family (the current world average is four), the world's population should have reached 3.5 billion in 4,000 years. In fact, we reached that figure only within recent centuries. Yes, wars and disease accounted for more losses in the past, but this fact does not explain this huge error.

More examples could be mentioned. The truth is, the facts don't add up to evolution. They do support the Bible's view of history. Explanations that deny the Creator just don't add up.

2011 Christian Nature

"Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?"
Isaiah 40:21

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Birds of a Feather Flock to Israel

Between its resident species and the millions who fly in for rest and replenishment during migrating seasons, Israel is a bird-watching paradise.

Photo by Jorge Novominsky/Flash90

Tens of thousands of cranes fly through the Hula Valley in northern Israel every spring and fall.

At least 500 million birds of 200 different species fly across Israel each spring and autumn en route to and from Africa, Europe and Asia. And more than 70 native Israeli species, such as the hoopoe (its national bird since 2008), cuckoo, Egyptian vulture, short-toed eagle, hobby and lesser kestrel, often head to warmer Africa in winter.

Hordes of birdwatchers from across the globe flock to strategic locations along the migratory route twice every year to take in this extraordinary sight. And all year long, naturalists work hard to preserve flyways, gather data on the visiting birds and teach adults and kids how to make these feathered friends feel welcome.

Award winning Israeli ornithologist Yossi Leshem heads the International Center for the Study of Bird Migration in central Latrun.

ICSBM's many projects range from studying the birds and their habits to protecting them during their long trip. It has a radar warning system for military and commercial pilots aimed at preventing bird strikes, a common danger during takeoff and landing. When planes hit birds at high speeds, these accidents are not only fatal to the birds but also dangerous for pilots and sensitive equipment.

Migrating birds know no boundaries

Leshem worked with Jordan, Greece and Turkey to expand this successful scheme throughout the region, and collaborates with ornithologists in European, Mideast and African countries to study the behavior of migrating birds as a predictor for climate change.

Photo by Doron Horowitz/Flash90.

Flocks of Pelicans visit Israel on their long migration.

Leshem's slogan, "Migrating birds know no boundaries," was the title of a six-year USAID-Middle East Regional Cooperation Foundation-funded program that established ringing stations and trained Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians to staff them.

Ringers, also known as banders, capture visiting birds long enough to place an aluminum band around one leg. The band is engraved with contact and ID information so as to monitor them from year to year and place to place.

In another project of the program, schoolchildren in Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan tracked the movement of migrating German white storks fitted with satellite transmitters.

These initiatives have continued and expanded. Israel now has a national network of 10 bird-watching stations run in cooperation with the Israel Ornithology Center, and Leshem is working with Palestinian and Jordanian authorities to attract additional eco-tourists and birdwatchers to the Middle East.

Strategic stopover in Eilat

Once upon a time, the natural salt marsh at the southern tip of Israel was a major "gas station" for birds heading up from Africa in the spring, according to Rea Shaish of the International Birding and Research Center in Eilat.

"After crossing the deserts south of us, they have to refuel," explains Shaish. "They stop every few days to regain their fat sources to support them energetically and stay hydrated."

Overdevelopment caused the marshes to disappear by the 1960s, leaving the migrating birds high and dry. After a couple of decades, the Keren Kayemeth LeYisrael-Jewish National Fund transformed a rubbish heap in the same area into a green sanctuary with freshwater and saline lagoons. And the birds returned.

"We have made it as close as possible to the old salt marsh. Here they have an area in which to rest and refuel without disturbance," Shaish tells ISRAEL21c.

IBRC monitors the effects of environmental changes on banded birds by tracking their movements and migration every year. "We also have an educational project with schools here in Eilat and guided tours for tourists every week, where we explain about ringing, which is our main research tool," says Shaish, who is a ringer, tracker and guide at the facility.

The IBRCE offers a two-week session for volunteers during the autumn and spring migration. They learn how to handle different species as they extract them from traps and nets for ringing, such as swallows, prinias, little stints and shrikes.

At the peak of spring, hundreds of species from Asia and Europe stop by, including large raptors such as steppe eagles, sparrow hawks and white storks. "The dominant species are blackcap warblers, barn swallows and European bee-eaters, one of most colorful birds in Israel," says Shaish.

Israel issued this coin in 2009 to honor its hundreds of feathered friends.

The center is home to a year-round population of several hundred pink flamingos, adding color to Eilat's 200-plus indigenous species such as sun birds, shrikes and hoop larks.

Some birds winter in Israel

"Our winter is very light and warm, so a lot of migrating birds stay here for the winter," says David Glasner of the International Birdwatching Center of the Jordan Valley at Kfar Ruppin.

Grey herons, black kites, robins, common cranes and ducks are among 94 species of cold-weather visitors providing a dependable population for birdwatchers to enjoy.

"Even the numbers of some resident species in Israel grow during the winter because others come from northern countries like Turkey or Greece," adds Glasner. "We have 350 species on our local checklist, at least 120 of which are wintering birds."

The center has developed and shared strategies to protect the hungry travelers from getting entangled in the nets topping the many commercial fish ponds in the area and from ingesting pesticides as they peck in its vast agricultural fields.

In partnership with Israel's Nature Reserve Authority, IBCJV offers fish farms alternative wide-stringed nets less likely to snare birds. When necessary, its staff rescues, rings and sets free fish-eating pelicans, cormorants and herons that do get stuck. Any wounded birds are sent for treatment at a hospital in the Ramat Gan Safari.

To keep farmers and birds happy, the best solution has been setting up barn owl and kestrel nesting boxes as part of a national effort to introduce this natural rodent-control method. Reducing pesticide use benefits everyone from the migratory birds to the end consumer.

In another longstanding cooperative venture, the IBCJV partners with Israel Electric to keep larger migrating birds such as pelicans, herons and white storks from getting electrocuted on power lines.

"Our part in this is to find the places where the birds are getting electrocuted and inform the electric company," Glasner tells ISRAEL21c. "They come and install insulation around the high-voltage wires so when the birds sit on the poles and touch the wires with their wings, they do not get electrocuted and do not damage the system."

The center offers real-time bird-watching information for visitors and correspondents, and maintains a rural lodge in walking distance of the bird-watching hot spots on its grounds.

Bird-lovers flock to Israel

"To see the birds of Europe you come to Israel, because they all migrate here," says Jerusalem Bird Observatory manager Alen Kacal. "Israel is one of the best places in the world to view bird migration, along with Panama, Morocco and Gibraltar."

The JBO, Israel's first urban wildlife center, sits between the Knesset and the Supreme Court. Its sheltering trees and shrubs attract the kinds of insects that birds like to eat, and there is a pond for bathing and drinking. Thousands of birds stop here to fill their bellies and rest before continuing their long trek, and some -- including many European robins and chaffinches -- choose to stay permanently.

The center's ringing operation bands more than 10,000 birds a year and records each one's weight, gender and species. This provides a wealth of information about the feathered visitors.

"If a bird we ringed ends up in Estonia or Kenya, they contact us and tell us where the bird is, and we do the same," she tells ISRAEL21c. "We've been able to make detailed maps of where the birds go, how long it takes them to get there, what their route is and where the most important ‘gas stations' are along the way. These are the places we need to preserve."

Human visitors of all ages flock to JBO daily for informal bird-watching as well as lectures, demonstrations and creative art programs.

"We want people to be aware of what's in their backyards, and we want them to make a personal connection with the nature around them," says Kacal. "We also try to make a global connection: The little bird they see here has come from Sweden on a huge journey and if we don't take care of our environment it cannot eat or drink and it will die. So we have a global responsibility."

Where to see migrating birds

The Kibbutz Lotan Ecotourism and Birdwatching Center in the Arava Valley is among several prime bird-watching spots during the spring and fall migrations. Other southern hot spots include the Negev desert, Dead Sea and Eilat. In northern Israel, popular bird-watching areas are the Agamon Hula Ornithology and Nature Park, Kibbutz Ma'agan Michael near the southern Carmel Mountains, and the Beit She'an and Jezreel valleys.

By Abigail Klein Leichman

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Wild, Wild Medicine!

Euell Gibbons was related to me by marriage. He was also my friend, and he taught me and my children a whole lot about living off the land. So I knew long ago that God had placed everything His created beings would need on this Earth. Let's look at the 'Wild, Wild Medicine' today.

That chimpanzee, there...he could teach you a thing or two about medicine, as could this bear! That's not such a silly statement. Naturalists are discovering that many animals use a variety of plants and other items to treat their illnesses. Animals often know about the medicinal properties of plants when modern medicine has yet to learn about them.

Recently naturalists noticed that one of the monkeys in the African preserve under their care had become lethargic, lost her appetite and obviously had a severe gastric upset. A few hours after she became sick, she started munching on a native shrub that is not a normal part of the monkey's diet. She chewed the plant, swallowed the bitter juice and spit out the pulp.

By the next afternoon, her symptoms were gone and she was feeling better. After a little research, scientists discovered that local tribes use juices from the same plant to treat intestinal upset and loss of appetite.

Studies of the juices of a root that bears rub into their coats show that the bears are using an effective insecticide. Scientists have observed elephants, monkeys, birds and bears eating a variety of things that were not a normal part of their diet, only to discover that the things being eaten had medicinal properties.

Most amazing is that the animals know how best to take their medicine. If a leaf is best swallowed whole to kill intestinal parasites, it will be swallowed unchewed!

Who other than the Great Physician Himself could have taught the animals this medicine?

If you do not know who Euell Gibbons was, you're missing out on knowing about one of the first amazing naturalists on record. CLICK HERE to read my memories of 'Ever eat a pine cone? Many parts are edible!' Euell Gibbons.

2011 Christian Nature

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The Problem With Male and Female

"God created them male and female." That simple phrase heaps a world of problems on those who believe in evolution.

Evolutionists tell us that in the early stages, evolution would have produced creatures that reproduce without the need for male and female. They then suppose that some mutation would have produced the gender differences, but what advantage would these differences offer?

Quite the contrary, these differences would be a disadvantage and become quickly selected out. An even more serious problem is that, according to evolution's history of life, the male and female sexes must have developed in different kinds of creatures dozens of times.

No one has the slightest idea how one or a dozen mutations could have produced male and female. To change a creature from having no gender into a male or a female requires developing several new organs, changing some others, creating entire, new hormone systems, and changing others. New organs and systems would have to be immediately integrated into the workings of the rest of the body.

In addition, the independently developed male changes would have to work with the independently developed female changes. Changes would also have to be made in the brains of the new creatures so that they would want to mate with each other. And evolutionists tell us this must have happened dozens of times!

Yes, that simple phrase "God created them male and female" leaves evolution with an imponderable mystery. This mystery is solved easily by God's Word. What a mistake it is to say that the Bible is obsolete in our modern scientific era!

2011 Christian Nature

"Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created." Genesis 5:2

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The Tropics Extended Into the Polar Regions?

Is it possible that the tropics once extended into the Arctic Polar Regions? Well, both archaeology and the Bible suggest that the world was once quite different from the world we know today. Each agrees that the Earth's climate was once much more uniform than it is today.

At one time, the tropics may have extended into what are today polar regions. However, the Bible and evolutionary geology don't agree on how long ago that was. Bible-believing geologists, on the other hand, are reporting evidence to support the Bible's story of history.

In the last few years, scientists have been surprised to discover dinosaur fossils in Alaska. Dinosaurs need warm temperatures – warmer than Alaska was thought to have been.

In 1986, on Canada's Axel Heiberg Island, only 600 miles from the North Pole, scientists found a huge, dense forest. Some of the trees were well over 125 feet tall. They have been snapped off at the stump and are neither fossilized nor petrified, but remain as fresh wood. Even some of the leaves are still intact. The area was filled with spruce, hickory, dawn redwood and cypress trees and was evidently a swamp, since tropical turtle and alligator remains have also been found.

Tree rings show that the area was warmer in the recent past, while the size of the rings tell us that there were short, hot summers during which rapid growth occurred, followed by long, dark winters as there are today.

The most interesting conclusion reached by the scientific team is that the entire region must have been subjected to a huge flood! This discovery tells us that all of geology must be restructured to present a history that agrees with the Bible's story of the Earth's past.

Notes:
"Search for a Tropical Arctic" (Television documentary). 1990. Federal Department of Energy, Mines and Resources (Canada).

2011 Christian Nature

"For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven." Psalm 119:89

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We Are All Left-Handed!

In my mother's time, if a child was born left-handed, every effort was made to change the child to right-handed. My own mother was one of those children. Left-handedness was thought to be a 'weakness'! But in reality, we are all left-handed, and our lives depend upon it. Let me explain.

Biologists have absolutely no idea why molecules of living things are left-handed. You see, when biological molecules are made in "origin of life" experiments, they are always a mixture of both left-handed and right-handed molecules – mirror images of each other that won't work together in living things.

A right-handed amino acid can be chemically identical to a left-handed amino acid. But for some mysterious reason, a living organism will treat the right-handed amino acid as if it were useless, even though normal chemical reactions ignore the difference. This tells us that living things are much more that just the result of chemical reactions. As the Bible suggests when it describes the creation of life, living material is different in some very important ways from nonliving material.

The fact that life uses only left-handed versions of biological molecules poses another problem for those who think that life formed spontaneously without a Creator. While experiments show that some simple biological molecules can be formed in the laboratory, experiments always produce a mixture of left- and right-handed molecules.

So life's origin, with its left-handed-only molecules, remains a mystery to those who reject the Creator. Could this be why God designed life with left-handed only molecules in the first place?

Notes: Steve Olson, Science

2011 Christian Nature

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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