Natures wonders: leaf-cutter ants are armored (Introduction)

by David Turell , Wednesday, November 25, 2020, 15:35 (1457 days ago) @ dhw

Thank you for a number of fascinating posts. I’ll comment only briefly, in order to restore the balance between your theories and others.

Leaf-cutter ants

QUOTE: “'Our finding of biomineral armour in a leaf-cutting ant provides another exciting new parallel to humans,” says Currie. “The evolution of protective armour for engaging in wars with other agriculturalists.'”

DAVID: Certainly it provides protection in wars. The parallelization between us and ants is amazing. God sees to it protection is designed into His creations.

I suggest that the amazing parallel may lie in the ability of their intelligent cell communities and ours to design the physical protections, just as their intelligence and ours design manufactured protections. (Your God may be the source of all forms of intelligence.)
xxx

bumble bees

QUOTE: When the gap became narrower than their wingspan, the bees took a longer time to scan the opening. And then they did something remarkable: they turned their bodies to fly through sideways. Some of the bees’ bodies did bump the sides of the narrowed opening—but every one of the 400 recorded flights through the gap was a success."

DAVID: Wow!! Bee aerobatics. I doubt they have flight schools. Question inborn ability or training? No answer yet.

I suggest simple intelligence. The experiment was an intelligence test, and they passed.
xxx

intracellular organization

QUOTE: How do the right proteins organize themselves in a sea of fluid swarming with millions of molecules? Do they bump into each other by chance, or does the cell actively organize its fluid space to bring the correct partners together?

DAVID: Cells are manufacturing factories and they have to be organized just like production lines, but they don't appear that way to the naked eye; just sloppy soups. I had a course in physical chemistry in 1953!! Why has biology research just beginning to catch up? Try to tell me this was not designed!!!!

I agree that it looks designed. And if the cell “actively organizes its fluid space…”, the implication would seem to be that the cell knows what it’s doing – a mark of intelligence.

xxx

Milky Way

QUOTE: "Large sky surveys of our galaxy are certain to revolutionize our understanding of the Milky Way. As even these early results show, it is clear we still have much to learn."

DAVID: Lesson is that we still have lots to learn, which really means today's thoughts about how and/or why God did what He seems to have done may be entirely off the mark.

Learning does not “really mean” thoughts about how or why your God did it, but I have no doubt that in a few hundred, let alone a few thousand years, humans (if still around) will have found out a lot more about every aspect of the universe’s history, God or no God. But that won't stop you and me from guessing now, will it?!

Let the guessing continue!!!