According to a report in ScienceDaily, there has been progress in understanding how the Bombardier beetle can eject such a powerful spray [The Bombardier Beetle, Power Venom, And Spray Technologies].The bombardier beetle, found mainly in Africa and Asia, is remarkable in that it can fire a powerful jet of hot, toxic fluid to fight off predators such as birds and frogs. While the chemical reaction that makes the venom has been understood for some time, the actual power behind the venomous squirt, which can travel as far as 20cm, has been cause for speculation.Note, there isn't a problem understanding the chemical reaction and how the beetles control it. That's been well understood for several decades. You can watch a young Richard Dawkins debunking the standard creationst claims in a video posted on Genomicron [Bombardier beetles].
Quantities of hydroquinone and hydrogen peroxide gases build up in the beetle’s abdomen but, when necessary for defence, get mixed together in a connected ‘combustion chamber’ to produce toxic benzoquinone. This hot fluid is then fired off at force in the face of enemy predators.
Ryan Gregory has followed this up with a more detailed posting that describes the evolution of bombardier beetles [Reducibly complex bombardier beetles]. Ryan was motivated to research this topic because one of the leaders of the University of Guelph creationist groups tried to use the bombardier beetle as evidence that evolution is impossible. I guess he didn't realize that this example has been refuted a long time ago.
[Photo Credit: Institute of Physics]
5 comments :
I think that's par for the course with creationists.
It's been happening ever since Paley (who was better at the argument from design that most modern practitioners - though that's faint praise indeed), whose arguments were debunked by Hume well before Paley made them.
Creationist arguments are by the deliberately ignorant, for the accidentally ignorant, in order to keep them that way.
As a result, creationists will continue to put forward long-debunked arguments. It's all they've got. So far, it looks like a fairly successful strategy.
Um, in case you didn't know, the guy who published this:
Andy McIntosh, from Leeds University, and Novid Beheshti, of Swedish Biomimetics 3000 Ltd discuss this research in detail in April’s Physics World.
...Andy McIntosh is a well-known YEC,
http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/bios/a_mcintosh.asp
...his hobby seems to be making analogies between the bombadier beetle spray and human technology and then deciding it couldn't possibly evolve.
McIntosh is a well known Young Earther who has tried to get Intelligent Design introduced to classrooms in the UK. He's actually a lecturer in thermodynamics yet claims that evolution breaks the second law.
I actually know a few creationists in the UK who manage to actually do some decent science (usually medical research). They seem to be able to manage the required cognitive dissonance much better than US based creationists who tend to avoid research entirely.
That article says the explosion comes from mixing the peroxide with the quinones. And yet the Dawkins video says, and demonstrates rather effectively, that the quinones are not directly involved.
I note that Beheshti is actually from McIntosh group in Leeds University, mostly having done medical research.
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