The bombardier beetle is an amazing animal. It has a fully-functional chemical weapon that it uses to protect itself. Inside its body are two chambers that are separated by a muscle-controlled valve. In the first chamber, the beetle makes and stores hydrogen peroxide and hydroquinone. In the second chamber, it makes and stores two enzymes. When the beetle feels threatened, it opens the valve between the two chambers, which allows all the chemicals to mix. The enzymes catalyze a reaction between the hydrogen peroxide and hydroquinone, resulting in the production of a very hot gas. The gas builds up pressure and is then released, shooting from the abdomen and hitting whatever the beetle thinks is a threat. As shown in the video above, this weapon is quite effective.
The bombardier beetle has fascinated young-earth creationists for quite some time, because its chemical weapon is best understood as a product of design. This fascination caused Dr. Andy McIntosh, a young-earth creationist, to lead his research team at the University of Leeds to develop an artificial system that mimics the bombardier beetle’s weaponry. What was the result? New technology that received the 2010 Outstanding Contribution to Innovation and Technology award at the Times Higher Education awards ceremony in London.
Dr. McIntosh is a professor of thermodynamics and combustion theory at the University of Leeds and performs original research into how pressure waves interact with flames and how hazardous materials are ignited. Because he reads the young-earth creationist literature, he is very familiar with the exquisite design of the bombardier beetle. As a result, he decided to see if it could teach his team anything new in the areas related to their research.
One way you can learn about a system is to try to build your own model of it, so that’s what Mcintosh’s team did. Over the course of five years, they made a scaled-up version of the insect’s defense mechanism and used it to propel a variety of liquids several feet. Along the way, they learned a lot about controlling a liquid’s droplet size, temperature, and velocity. As McIntosh says:
Nobody had studied the beetle from a physics and engineering perspective as we did, and we didn’t appreciate how much we would learn from it.
They apparently learned a lot, since they say their research can lead to significant advancements in the design of nebulizers, medical injection systems, fire extinguishers, and fuel injection systems.
As I have mentioned before, young-earth creationism is good for science. This research shows that young-earth creationism is also good for engineering.
I see amazing potential for this technology to be used by women who get hit on creepy guys at bars!
Black Sheep, I am surprised McIntosh didn’t list that one!
Bahahaha, Black Sheep! I’m glad to read this news about Dr. McIntosh.
It reminds me of a somewhat unrelated topic – a show on the History Channel about Biblical history from a military perspective. It highlights several instances in which generals in recent history have implemented tactics and geographic information found in the Bible – and had success with it!
How timeless are the facts woven in GOD’s Word and creation!
Amanda, I had not heard of military leaders using tactics and geographic information from the Bible. I would love to learn more about that. It doesn’t surprise me, of course. As you said, many of the facts woven into Scripture are timeless.
So young earth creationists actually do REAL science. Very enjoyable read. Thanks, Dr. Wile!
They do, indeed. Of course, you wouldn’t know that if you only listened to evolutionists, as one of their favorite lies is that young-earth creationists aren’t scientists.
Elizabeth, though very few and far between, young earth scientists may achieve minor results like above. Not surprisingly, any breakthrough they might achieve are in fields completely unrelated to their bible based belief system like young earth or creationism thelselves? Ironic, isn’t it? 😀
Elizabeth, NoOne has NoIdea what he is talking about. As the article clearly states, this specific breakthrough was directly related to McIntosh’s young-earth creationism, as it was the young-earth creationist literature that got him interested in the bombardier beetle. In addition, in the link that explains why young-earth creationism is good for science, you can learn how young-earth paleontologist Leonard Brand used Flood geology to correct evolutionists and provide the proper interpretation of fossil footprints in Arizona. These are just two of many examples of young-earth creationists using young-earth creationism to produce solid scientific results.
Of course if you believed everything evolutionists say, anybody crazy enough to be a creationist to begin with cannot understand science nor make any scientific breakthrough at all. They’re just to dumb for that. 😛
How true, Josiah.
Oh! I wonder how much new technological advances we would have today, if we followed in the footsteps of great scientists such as George Washington Carver who looked to the work of the greatest Scientist to be an inspiration and guide for their work. How many secrets are there yet to be revealed that are hidden in our own backyard? We were created to imitate and follow our Creator!
That’s so true, Enoch. Carver himself used the following story to explain his “love affair” with the peanut.
Although he does not portray this as a real conversation between him and the Lord, he says it illustrates why he chose to study the peanut. That attitude is what produced modern science, and if more scientists had that attitude today, science would be significantly more advanced.