“Science Takes a Lesson From Nature”
THE above was a heading in The New York Times of August 31, 1993. The article noted that a growing number of scientists who design new materials have become involved in the field of biomimetics. The Times defined biomimetics as “the study of the structure and function of biological materials as models for artificially created ones.”
The article acknowledged that lowly sea animals and spiders make materials that are superior to similar substances that today’s scientists can make. The abalone, for example, draws calcium carbonate, the powdery component of chalk, from water and makes microthin plates. It then cements many such plates together with a mortar of protein and sugars. Dr. Mehmet Sarikaya says the shell’s structure is 30 times stronger and tougher than the ordinary calcium carbonate made in the laboratory. “We don’t have the technology to make the layers of material as thin as they are in sea shell,” he admits.
Similarly, spiderweb silk is stronger than steel and more durable than nylon. Scientists are studying the silk in hopes of making fibers stronger than Kevlar, the substance used to make bulletproof vests. However, the complex manufacturing processes of the spider are as yet beyond human duplication.
“Spiders produce silk using water as a solvent in the open air, at ambient temperatures and pressure, and it goes through all these stages to become a stable, water-resistant web of great strength,” noted Dr. Christopher Viney of the University of Washington in Seattle. “Yet to produce a tough fiber like Kevlar, you have to make it under high pressure using concentrated sulfuric acid.” Thus, this scientist admits: “We have a lot to learn.”
Think about it. If the best of human technology is unable to produce what lowly sea creatures and spiders can, doesn’t it seem reasonable to believe that these creatures are the product of a superior intelligence? Wisely, we will give credit to the Great Designer—whose work today’s scientists are striving to imitate—for his incomparable ingenuity in filling the earth with his productions.—Psalm 104:24.