WINNING BY A NOSE
After studying how dogs smell, scientists are trying to develop an artificial nose, reported ScienceDaily.com (15th February 2009). Professor Eric Paterson of Penn State’s Applied Research Lab explained, “When a dog sniffs, odourant-laden air passes through the nasal vestibule and then through a labyrinth of exquisite complexity. This is nature’s solution to packing a large surface area in a small volume — crucial for delivering odours to millions of olfactory receptors, specialized proteins embedded in the olfactory epithelium. ‘Smelling’ occurs when odourant molecules bind to these receptors and produce signals that are interpreted by the brain. To take a closer look, researchers “created a computational fluid dynamics model based on the equations of fluid motion and high resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of an actual dog’s airway.”
COMMENT: These scientists are putting a lot of effort into developing an artificial nose, based on the “exquisite complexity” of the canine nose with its “millions of olfactory receptors” and “specialized proteins.” If they succeed the result will be something which, although clever, will be vastly inferior to the real thing. Chance could never produce the nose of a dog, anymore than it would produce an inferior copy.

ITS ALL DONE BY MIRRORS
ScienceDaily.com (8th January 2009) reported “A remarkable new discovery shows the four-eyed spookfish to be the first vertebrate ever found to use mirrors, rather than lenses, to focus light in its eyes.” Professor Julian Partridge from the University of Bristol, said: “In nearly 500 million years of vertebrate evolution, and many thousands of vertebrate species living and dead, this is the only one known to have solved the fundamental optical problem faced by all eyes – how to make an image – using a mirror.” The spookfish actually only has two eyes, but each is split into two connected parts. “One half points upwards, giving the spookfish a view of the ocean – and potential food – above. The other half, which looks like a bump on the side of the fish’s head, points downwards into the abyss below. These ‘diverticular’ eyes are unique among all vertebrates in that they use a mirror to make the image.”
COMMENT: We would ask how blind, mindless evolution could possibly “solve the fundamental optical problem faced by all eyes – how to make an image – using a mirror.” This fish’s eyes are truly amazing, and bear the indelible stamp of a wise Creator-designer.

ALL IN THE EYE
“Larvae of marine invertebrates – worms, sponges, jellyfish - have the simplest eyes that exist”, reported ScienceDaily com. (23rd November 2008). “They consist of no more than two cells: a photoreceptor cell and a pigment cell. These minimal eyes, called eyespots, resemble the 'proto-eyes' suggested by Charles Darwin as the first eyes to appear in animal evolution.” Researchers believe this shows them “how the very first eyes in evolution might have worked.” Studying the larvae of the marine ragworm Platynereis dumerilii, the scientists found that a nerve connects the photoreceptor cell of the eyespot and the cells that bring about the swimming motion of the larvae.... Platynereis can be considered a living fossil... Studying the eyespots of its larva is probably the closest we can get to figuring out what eyes looked like when they first evolved.” COMMENT: Evolutionists claim that eyes have evolved gradually from an “eye-spot with photoreceptive cells”. However, they cheat by assuming the existence of these “proto-eyes” in the first place, unable to explain where they came from. To explain the origin of something, surely you should start at the beginning? And even the supposedly “minimal” eyes of these marine invertebrates are highly complex. The Bible explains it best: “Ears that hear and eyes that see — the Lord has made them both.” (Proverbs 20: 12).

CHILDREN ARE ‘BORN BELIEVERS’
Dr Justin Barrett, a senior researcher at the University of Oxford's Centre for Anthropology and Mind claims that children are "born believers" in God and do not simply acquire religious beliefs through indoctrination, reported the Daily Telegraph (24th November 2008). He said that “young people have a predisposition to believe in a supreme being because they assume that everything in the world was created with a purpose. He says that young children have faith even when they have not been taught about it by family or at school, and argues that even those raised alone on a desert island would come to believe in God... Children's normally and naturally developing minds make them prone to believe in divine creation and intelligent design. In contrast, evolution is unnatural for human minds; relatively difficult to believe,” said Dr Barrett.
COMMENT: Those who have worked with children in the church will not be surprised at these comments. This certainly undermines Richard Dawkins’ claim that children only believe because they are indoctrinated by grownups. We recognise that “all have sinned”, but we were created to have a relationship with our Creator. As Blaise Pascal said, "There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man that cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.” Sadly, as they grow up and are confronted with humanistic, evolutionary ideas, many turn away from God, unless they have a firm grounding in the evidences which support the Bible.

“TEN BILLION EARTHS” CLAIM
According to the Daily Mail (16th February 2009) astrophysicist Dr Alan Boss believes, “There could be ten billion ‘Earths’ in the universe and it is inevitable that some contain life.... At the very least you’ll have microbes all over the place.” And ScienceDaily.com (21st February 2009) reported: “Data from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter suggest the discovery of ancient springs in the Vernal Crater, sites where life forms may have evolved on Mars. Hot springs have great astrobiological significance, as the closest relatives of many of the most ancient organisms on Earth can thrive in and around hydrothermal springs. If life forms have ever been present on Mars, hot spring deposits would be ideal locations to search for physical or chemical evidence of these organisms and could be target areas for future exploratory missions.” COMMENT: Speculation about extraterrestrial life continues unabated. The claim that there could be “ten billion earths” is absurd, when we only have evidence of one! As usual, these claims are based on the unprovable assumption that life will arise given the right conditions. Experimental science shows that life only comes from life, so the existence of hydrothermal springs on Mars proves nothing.