THE VALUE OF WATER, PART 2--ORIGINS OF LIFE

The story of life is the story of water. As discussed in my recent postings, scientists have derived differing hypotheses as to the origin of water on Earth. They range from ice-bearing asteroids and meteors colliding with Earth to water-bearing cosmic dust particles binding together to form the Earth. However, there does not appear to be any cogent evidence to support these assertions. In point of fact, no one really knows how water was delivered to Earth.

Nevertheless, the fact is that there is water on Earth, in aquifers below the surface; in oceans, lakes, rivers, ponds and puddles on the surface; and in clouds above the surface. And, this water is in all its various forms and states.

So, what does this water mean for us? In the first instance, it appears that animal life on earth originated in water--in seas and oceans. How this happened, again, no one knows for sure. One hypothesis is that life came from rocks. Water, as a solvent, over time eroded certain minerals from rocks, resulting in chemical formation of amino acids from the mineral mix, which in turn resulted eventually in formation of living organisms.

Assertions of chemical evolution, however, were criticized in the book "The Mystery of Life's Origin" by Thaxton, Bradley and Olsen. "They showed that attempts to explain the origin of the first living cell from simpler nonliving chemicals had failed and that these theories had specifically failed to explain the origin of the information necessary to produce the first life." (Meyer, "Darwin's Doubt", 2013, p. 341) In other words, chemistry alone could not produce information in DNA leading to life.

The oldest period in Earth history is called pre-Cambrian, perhaps a little over 4 billion years ago. The first forms of life appeared in the pre-Cambrian period, according to fossil records. They appeared in water, in seas and oceans. They were one-celled organisms and sponges, simple soft tissue organisms having few cell types.

After the pre-Cambrian period, the following period was the Cambrian, which began about 540 million years ago. The fossil record reveals that beginning about 530 million years ago, the "Cambrian Explosion" occurred. Literally, this was an explosion of a multitude of many different and complex animal forms in the seas and oceans. They include trilobites, jelly-fish like creatures, worm like things, shrimp like critters and shell bearing animals. Indeed some of the examples looked like something out of a 1950's science fiction movie. These Cambrian sea animals had sophisticated body plans, including such features as compound eyes, legs, outer skeleton, mouth, digestive system, stomach, reproductive organs, skin, wings and anus. In other words, these sea animals were characterized by features that we can expect to see in all forms of contemporary animal life.

The Cambrian Explosion appeared suddenly. There is no fossil record of any evolution or transition from the simple pre-Cambrian organisms to the complex body plans evidenced in the Cambrian fossils. Darwin's basic theory is that animals have evolved through the process of random mutations and natural selection. In his book "Darwin's Doubt", Meyer reviews Darwin's theory as well all of the off-shoots from that theory that have followed. Meyer concludes that Darwin and Neo-Darwin theories of evolution cannot explain how the genetic information and the novel proteins and systems to regulate expression of that information necessary to build the complex Cambrian body plans could arise. He concludes that the only supportable explanation for the source of the necessary genetic information to build the new body plans is "intelligent design."

The Earth is exceptional. It is designed for life. An important component of the design for life is water. And water was the environment for the beginning of animal life and its explosive Cambrian expansion into countless different and complex body plans. Clearly, water has had value.

FLY WITH US, SAID THE BEE

A recent news telecast reported that the U.S. Air Force is funding research on how bees and other insects fly.* The project, said to cost $9 million is being conducted at the University of Washington. The research seeks to learn the flying secrets of such critters to enable development of more sophisticated and efficient aircraft.

In the telecast, the reporter stated: "when you watch in slow motion with the help of a high-speed camera, you get a whole new perspective on the mysterious and incredibly complex world, of insect flight. So how does a bee with such a giant body and such tiny wings actually fly?", he asked a researcher. Came the reply, "It beats its wings really fast, and you can't even see that."

The project is known as the Center for Excellence on Nature-Inspired Flight Technologies and Ideas. The emphasis appears to be on "Nature". As the researcher stated, "We look to nature. Are there ideas and principles that nature is using to solve hard flight control problems? Can we use those ideas to inspire new technologies, and can we use technology to deepen our understanding of how nature solves its problems?" To borrow and reverse a phrase from a well-known boxer, is the idea "to sting like a butterfly and float like a bee?"

It is interesting to see a situation where science is relying upon "Nature" to enhance human flight technology. Accordingly,"Nature" necessarily must have intelligent design which enables successful insect flight and which, in turn, is deemed instructive to human design.

On hot summer days, it is common to see honey bees drinking water at the edges of bird baths, puddles and ponds. Bees need water during the honey flows in order to process honey. Perhaps water researchers should examine how bees efficiently ingest water from such sources, transport it to their hives and purify it for incorporation in the honey production. Maybe Nature's design has another lesson for us.

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*PBS Newshour, July 17, 2015