Better Science Without Darwin
Scientists wouldn’t rush to imitate
nature if it was poorly designed
The modern Gold Rush called Biomimetics (imitation of nature) continues apace. It’s a pathway out of Darwinism and into a new biology of the future, where engineering design is appreciated and mimicked, without any need to tack on just-so stories about how the designs emerged by chance over millions of years. Here are a few recent examples of research on this theme with no mention of evolution.
From seashells to cement, nature inspires tougher building material (Princeton University, 11 June 2024). Inspired by oysters and other marine animals, materials scientists are finding out how to make lightweight materials that are both strong and crack resistant.
What fire ants can teach us about making better, self-healing materials (Binghamton University, 12 June 2024). Those living near fire ant colonies may not appreciate them, but some scientists are intrigued by their ability to cling to one another in large rafts that can survive floods. Rob Wagner describes the joy of imitating nature:
“Living systems have always fascinated me, because they achieve things that our current engineered materials cannot — not even close,” he said. “We manufacture bulk polymeric systems, metals and ceramics, but they’re passive. The constituents don’t store energy and then convert it to mechanical work the way every single living system does.”
Wagner sees this storage and conversion of energy as essential to mimicking the smart and adaptive behaviors of living systems.
Innovative Bird-Eye-Inspired Camera Developed for Enhanced Object Detection (Institute for Basic Science, 30 May 2024). Korean researchers are trying to imitate the sophisticated eyes of birds.
The eyes of raptors such as eagles can accurately perceive prey from kilometers away. Is it possible to model the camera technology after the bird’s eyes?
Researchers developed a new type of camera, which was inspired by the structures and functions of bird’s eyes. A research team led by Prof. KIM Dae-Hyeong at the Center for Nanoparticle Research within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), in collaboration with Prof. SONG Young Min at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), has developed perovskite-based camera specializing in object detection.
Biomimetic artificial islet model: A new way to control high blood sugar (Medical Xpress, 28 May 2024). Diabetes is a huge problem, but generating insulin like the islet cells in the pancreas do has been difficult. Researchers at the Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory are working on improvements by learning how the natural cells work.
Inspired by natural islet structures, a team of Chinese scientists developed a biomimetic artificial islet model based on microcapsules, which integrates a microvascular network and uses microfluidic high-voltage electrospray technology to achieve fine regulation of blood sugar levels.
Spider Silk Sound System #ASA186 (Acoustical Society of America, 16 May 2024). Researchers from Binghamton University are looking to spiders to see how they detect sound with their webs.
The best microphone in the world might have an unexpected source: spider silk. Spiders weave webs to trap their insect snacks, but the sticky strands also help spiders hear. Unlike human eardrums and conventional microphones that detect sound pressure waves, spider silk responds to changes in the velocities of air particles as they are thrust about by a sound field. This sound velocity detection method remains largely underexplored compared to pressure sensing, but it holds great potential for high-sensitivity, long-distance sound detection.
Cameras inspired by insect eyes could give robots a wider view (New Scientist, 16 May 2024). Researchers at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology have fashioned a working robotic camera based on compound eyes of insects. So far they’ve achieved 37 individual facets with a 220° field of vision. It’s a small start, but far inferior to the 30,000 facets in a dragonfly eye giving the insect a nearly 360° view. Their cheap imitation might help drones that participate in the dramatic new coordinated light shows being used at fireworks displays.
Bio-inspired materials’ potential for efficient mass transfer boosted by a new twist on a century-old theory (Cambridge University, 7 May 2024). “The natural vein structure found within leaves – which has inspired the structural design of porous materials that can maximise mass transfer – could unlock improvements in energy storage, catalysis, and sensing thanks to a new twist on a century-old biophysical law” called Murray’s Law.
Murray’s Law, put forward by Cecil D. Murray in 1926, describes how natural vascular structures, such as animal blood vessels and veins in plant leaves, efficiently transport fluids with minimum energy expenditure.
“But whereas this traditional theory works for cylindrical pore structures, it often struggles for synthetic networks with diverse shapes – a bit like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole,” says first author Cambridge PhD student Binghan Zhou.
Dubbed ‘Universal Murray’s Law’, the researchers’ new theory bridges the gap between biological vessels and artificial materials and is expected to benefit energy and environmental applications.
Biomimetic piezoelectric nanomaterial-modified oral microrobots for targeted catalytic and immunotherapy of colorectal cancer (Fan et al., AAAS Science Advances, 8 May 2024). Could biomimetics help cure one of the most common cancers? This paper describes in detail a targeted treatment using microbots mimicking a spherically-shaped bacterium.
No More Needle Phobia: Personalized Medicine Just Got More Flexible (Univ. of Southern California, 1 May 2024). Soft, stretchable microneedles are being developed at USC, inspired by the spiny skin of the sea slug.
Wind turbines based on condor wings could capture more energy (New Scientist, 16 April 2024). A ten percent gain in power could be attained by shaping wind turbine blades in the shape of condor wings. Such wings also reduce air resistance.
HKUST Researchers Develop Revolutionary Biomimetic Olfactory Chips to Enable Advanced Gas Sensing and Odor Detection (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 28 March 2024). Real biological noses work better than “e-noses” (artificial odor detectors), but incremental gains are being made by scientists attempting to imitate them.
From bacteria to birds, from sea slugs to dragonflies, all of creation reveals magnificent design solutions to real physics problems. Why re-invent the wheel, when our Creator has shown how to make things work with finesse and elegance? With millions of cells, plants and animals to investigate, humans will never run out of subjects to learn from. And God can recreate every design from a zygote, growing the eagle’s eye and the spider’s silk glands from a single cell. When humans can create robots that lay eggs and hatch perfect copies of the robots that grow up and maintain all the relationships of their parts while working throughout the developmental process, then maybe they will have something to boast about, but not before the Supreme Architect of the universe who did that, and far more, from the beginning. The Bible says he spoke all these wonders into existence! How vast the knowledge and wisdom of our Creator!
Biomimetics is a way out of the Darwinian Dictatorship that has ruled biology for too long. The Darwin Party hacks will be run over by the stampede of researchers in the great Bio-inspiration Gold Rush. After that, memories of natural selection will fade away like autumn leaves.
The article on bird-eye cameras above was the only article in today’s list that mentioned evolution, crediting “countless years of evolutionary adaptation” for the superior vision of the eagle.
“Birds’ eyes have evolved to quickly and accurately detect distant objects while in flight. Our camera can be used in areas that need to detect objects clearly, such as robots and autonomous vehicles. In particular, the camera has great potential for application to drones operating in environments similar to those in which birds live,” remarked Prof. Kim.
Sorry to spoil an otherwise perfect game. Call “fowl” on the illogical thinking of these Koreans for attributing good engineering to the Stuff Happens Law. They undoubtedly learned this fallacy from the West. Shouldn’t they know that the communist regimes they fear had built their totalitarian dictatorships on a Darwinian view of the world?
BTW, tell the evolutionists who can read these reports and still talk about “Poor Design” to pound sand. See Jerry Bergman’s answers to those claims in his book, Poor Design:
