The Resilin
According to new researches of a team of scientists at the University of Cambridge, the resilin protein plays an important role in the life of the crabs and fishes, enhancing their motion, signaling and sensing of their environment. “The exquisite rubbery properties of resilin are known to be put to use as energy storage mechanisms in jumping insects and as biological shock absorbers in many animals. I have now shown that it is used to simplify the sensory and motor control systems at a limb joint.” says Malcolm Burrows the leader of the team.
Burrows suggests that the use of resilin springs can have two cost saving advantages. First, by saving the space that would be required for a muscle to do the job of ‘resetting’ the movement, the resilin spring allows the muscle that generates the power stroke to become larger and hence more powerful. Second, the amount of nervous control required can be reduced because one direction of movement is controlled automatically by a spring. As a result of this natural engineering, these limbs of the crab Carcinus maenas can beat in a coordinated way at a remarkable 20 times a second.[2]
The resilin, also found in the wings of insects, was already described in 2003 by the zoologist Michael Dickinson who showed its complexity. He wrote: “Although the material properties of the elements within the hinge are indeed remarkable (resilin is one of the most resilient substances known), it is as much the structural complexity as the material properties that endows the origami-like wing hinge with its astonishing properties.” In other words, “one of the most complex skeletal structures known, is the wing hinge of insects–the morphological centerpiece of flight behavior.”
“The wing joint is comprised of a special protein, called resilin, which has tremendous flexibility. In laboratories, chemical engineers are working to reproduce this chemical, which demonstrates properties far superior to natural or artificial rubber. Resilin is a substance capable of absorbing the force applied to it as well as releasing the entire energy back once that force is lifted. From this point of view, the efficiency of resilin reaches the very high value of 96%. This way, approximately 85% of the energy used to lift the wing is stored and reused while lowering it.[1] The chest walls and muscles are also built to help this phenomenon.
A similar passage appeared in the 2005 Nature magazine:
Resilin is a member of a family of elastic proteins that includes elastin, as well as gluten, gliadin, abductin and spider silks. Resilin is found in specialized regions of the cuticle of most insects, providing low stiffness, high strain and efficient energy storage; it is best known for its roles in insect flight and the remarkable jumping ability of fleas and spittle bugs. Previously, the Drosophila melanogaster CG15920 gene was tentatively identified as one encoding a resilin-like protein (pro-resilin). Here we report the cloning and expression of the first exon of the Drosophila CG15920 gene as a soluble protein in Escherichia coli. We show that this recombinant protein can be cast into a rubber-like biomaterial by rapid photochemical crosslinking. This observation validates the role of the putative elastic repeat motif in resilin function. The resilience (recovery after deformation) of crosslinked recombinant resilin was found to exceed that of unfilled synthetic polybutadiene, a high resilience rubber.[3]
One of the very well known properties of resilin is its elasticity, which exceeds the quality of even the best synthetic rubber known to date: polybutadiene. Even after stretching it very much it will go back to its original shape without losing any of its initial elasticity. It is due to this amazing quality of resilin that a fly can beat its wings 500 million times in its life span, without causing any damage to them. Even more astonishingly, during the whole life of the insect, the resilin is never renewed.
No one of the scientists asks the question, does the high complexity and perfect, unique quality of resilin really points to a directionless, blind process of evolution? But let’s the evidence speak for itself.
References:
1. Bilim ve Teknik Görsel Bilim ve Teknik Ansiklopedisi (Encyclopedia of Science and Technology), p. 2678
2. Malcolm Burrows. A single muscle moves a crustacean limb joint rhythmically by acting against a spring containing resilin. BMC Biology, 2009;
3. Synthesis and properties of crosslinked recombinant pro-resilin, Christopher M. Elvin et.al, Nature437, 999-1002 (13 October 2005)
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The Fiber-optic Sponge
In 2003 Aizenberg at.al discovered some amazing features of the deep-sea sponge named the Venus Flower Basket that live near hydrothermal vents and are, as they say: “remarkably similar to commercial silica optical fibers and are capable of forming an effective fiberoptical network.”[1] Actually more than the similarity is their superior qulity to man-made fiber-optic cables that the team noted down in four points:
1. Focus: “Other interesting design elements include terminal lens-like extensions located proximally and barb-like spines located along the spicule shaft. The presence of these lens structures at the end of the biofibers improves the light-collecting efficiency [that] offers an effective fiber-optical network with selected illumination points along the length of the crown-like fibrous network surrounding the cylindrical skeletal lattice.”
2. Cool: “Second, the formation of the biosilica fibers occurs at ambient temperatures and pressures.” Man-made glass fibers are made at high temperatures. “Their complex structure and composition are encoded in the organism and are controlled by specialized organic molecules and cells. The low-temperature formation of silica in organisms, as an alternative to the high-temperature technological process, is a subject of extensive studies.”
3. Dope: “The low-temperature synthesis brings about an extremely important feature: the ability to effectively dope the structure with impurities that increase the refractive index of silica. Our elemental analysis showed, for example, the presence of sodium ions in the entire fiber, particularly in the core. Sodium ions (and many other additives) are not commercially viable optical fiber dopants because of manufacturing challenges, including devitrification at high processing temperatures. In the case of these spicules, however, the presence of sodium ions results in the increase of the refractive index to values approaching and even exceeding that of vitreous silica.
4. No Stress: “Another advantage of the low-temperature synthesis is evidenced in the lack of the polarization dependence on the refractive index. Birefringence in commercially prepared fibers often occurs as a result of the residual thermal stresses in the fibers upon their cooling. Ambient condition formation of the spicules in biological environments prevents the development of any residual thermal stress.
Summarizing the results of their research work Aizenberg writes:
In conclusion, we have demonstrated an example of nature’s [sic] ability to evolve [sic] highly effective and sophisticated optical systems, comparable and in some aspects superior to man-made analogs. High fracture toughness arising from their composite structure, the presence of index-raising dopants, the degree of silica condensation, and the absence of residual stress in these fibers suggest an advantage of the protein-controlled, ambient temperature synthesis favored in nature [sic]. Whether these optical properties are biologically relevant or not, the mechanisms of the formation of silica spicules in E. aspergillum are inspiring to materials scientists and engineers. We believe, therefore, that this system represents a new route to improved, silica-based optical fibers, constructed by using a bottom-up approach.
The most surprising in the whole research was the ability of the sponge to act as a lamp. “Such a fiber-optical lamp might potentially act as an attractant for larval or juvenile stages of these organisms and symbiotic shrimp to the host sponge.”
We are wondering how scientists can persistently claim that blind nature could evolve such a perfect fiber-optic sponge that greatly surpasses the best brains of modern technology. Although the simplest of multicellular organisms, they give inspiration for technological improvement. Actually, any highly efficient and sophisticated systems are products of engineering, which certainly requires intelligence, intention and purpose. Thus, our suggestion is rather design than evolution.
Reference:
1. Aizenberg et al., “Biological glass fibers: Correlation between optical and structural properties,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.0307843101 (published online before print on 03/01/2004).
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How to determine design from biological data as opposed to religious prejudice is described in following four points:
1. Specified complexity is a reliable indicator of design.
2. Many biological systems exhibit specified complexity.
3. Undirected, or unintelligent, material causes do not suffice to explain the origin of specified complexity in biological systems.
4. Intelligent design constitutes the best explanation for specified complexity in biological systems.
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Related news
Light Inside Sponges: Sponges Invented (and Employed) The First Fiber Optics
ScienceDaily (Nov. 19, 2008) — Fiber optics as light conductors are obviously not just a recent invention. Sponges (Porifera) — the phylogenetically oldest, multicellular organisms (Metazoa) — are able to transduce light inside their bodies by employing amorphous, siliceous structures.
Already more than ten years ago, the finding of photosynthetically active organisms inside sponges raised the question, how they could survive there in an otherwise presumably dark space. Already at that time, the marine biologists Elda Gaino and Michele Sarà from Genova, Italy, hypothesized, that light might be transferred inside the sponge body.
Marine zoologists from the University of Stuttgart, and from the Leibnitz Institute for Marine Sciences at the University of Kiel, both within the research project BIOTECmarin, could now show, that the siliceous skeletal elements (spiculae) of the marine sponge Tethya aurantium in fact can transduce light, and do so in living sponges.
Sponges without those spicules — like the aspicular sponge Aplysina aerophoba — are not able to transport light inside their tissue. In their latest research, the scientists from Stuttgart and Kiel are the first to demonstrate light transduction inside living sponges. Until now light transduction could only be shown in explanted single spicules after laser illumination.
The authors Franz Brümmer, Martin Pfannkuchen, Alexander Baltz, Thomas Hauser and Vera Thiel published these exciting results in the Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology with the title: Light inside sponges.
Reference:
1. Brümmer et al. Light inside sponges. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 2008; DOI: 10.1016/j.jembe.2008.06.036
May 11, 2009—Talk about ruining a good beach day.
Swarms of up to a thousand giant trilobites—extinct marine arthropods such as this 35-inch-long (90-centimeter-long) fossil specimen—roamed shallow prehistoric seas, new fossils show.
The 465-million-year-old fossils, found recently in northern Portugal, are of the largest trilobites ever discovered.
The trilobites may have clustered to mate and molt—shedding old exoskeletons as new ones grew in—as well as avoid predators, scientists say.
The benefits of swarming may explain why these distant relatives of horseshoe crabs were among the most widespread arthropods of the Paleozoic era (542 to 251 million years ago).
(Related: “Horseshoe Crabs Remain Mysteries to Biologists.”)
Even so, finding complete specimens bigger than 12 inches (30 centimeters) is rare—making the new find “remarkable,” the study authors write in a recent edition of the journal Geology.
The critters lived at high latitudes near Gondwana—a huge southern supercontinent—and close to the South Pole during the Ordovician period.
This oxygen-rich, cold-water habitat may have contributed to these trilobites’ gigantic sizes, the authors added.
But repeated, sudden, “lethal” influxes of oxygen-starved water may have led to the newfound trilobites’ demise millions of years ago.
—Christine Dell’Amore
Comment: The Vedas and the anthropologists describe the existence of big plants, animals and aquatics in the remote past. They are also mentioned in Mayan, Chinese, Greek and other cultures. The example of this 90cm long trilobite fossil goes in the favor of this theory.
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An interesting reading of the 3rd. edition of an online book: “World History And The Eonic Effect”, Civilization, Darwinism, and Theories of Evolution By John Landon. (In the book, not all the points are in agreement with the Krishnascience views.)