PEANUT BUTTER AND GREEN DIAMONDS
Isaiah 40:28
"Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, [that] the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? [there is] no searching of his understanding."
Perhaps you have read one of the many news articles about an amazing new process for making diamonds. The new process uses simple heat to make diamonds out of anything that has carbon in it.
Diamonds are made of carbon atoms - that black stuff in soot - which are tightly arranged into the careful rows of a crystal. The result is a clear crystal, harder than anything on earth. Artificial diamonds have long been made using a great deal of heat and pressure. But the new process, using temperatures as low as 250 degrees (F), condenses carbon atoms out of vapor in low pressure. The new process is much cheaper and is able to place a diamond coating on various materials. Long-wearing machine parts can be diamond coated, as can ball bearings, making them permanently lubricated. Watch crystals, coated with diamond to make them scratch resistant, will be marketed by Seiko.
Now diamonds can be made cheaply and easily out of most anything. One researcher even made a diamond out of peanut butter, although he reported that the diamonds had a greenish tinge to them because of the nitrogen in peanuts.
We have only begun to scratch the surface, so to speak, in learning about the wonderful abilities the Creator built into the material world. We are only beginning to discover the depths of His wisdom. Such discovery is in keeping with His instructions to us to subdue the earth.
Dear Father, in amazement I thank You for the wonderful things You have made, only a little of which we have learned so far. I pray that more Christian young people would go into science careers, remaining faithful to the truth of Your Word and faithful to Your charge to subdue the earth. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
Photo: A rose-cut synthetic diamond created by Apollo Diamond using a patented chemical vapor deposition process. Courtesy of Steve Jurvetson. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
Isaiah 40:28
"Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, [that] the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? [there is] no searching of his understanding."
Perhaps you have read one of the many news articles about an amazing new process for making diamonds. The new process uses simple heat to make diamonds out of anything that has carbon in it.
Diamonds are made of carbon atoms - that black stuff in soot - which are tightly arranged into the careful rows of a crystal. The result is a clear crystal, harder than anything on earth. Artificial diamonds have long been made using a great deal of heat and pressure. But the new process, using temperatures as low as 250 degrees (F), condenses carbon atoms out of vapor in low pressure. The new process is much cheaper and is able to place a diamond coating on various materials. Long-wearing machine parts can be diamond coated, as can ball bearings, making them permanently lubricated. Watch crystals, coated with diamond to make them scratch resistant, will be marketed by Seiko.
Now diamonds can be made cheaply and easily out of most anything. One researcher even made a diamond out of peanut butter, although he reported that the diamonds had a greenish tinge to them because of the nitrogen in peanuts.
We have only begun to scratch the surface, so to speak, in learning about the wonderful abilities the Creator built into the material world. We are only beginning to discover the depths of His wisdom. Such discovery is in keeping with His instructions to us to subdue the earth.
Dear Father, in amazement I thank You for the wonderful things You have made, only a little of which we have learned so far. I pray that more Christian young people would go into science careers, remaining faithful to the truth of Your Word and faithful to Your charge to subdue the earth. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
Photo: A rose-cut synthetic diamond created by Apollo Diamond using a patented chemical vapor deposition process. Courtesy of Steve Jurvetson. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
CATERPILLARS' DIET CHOICES
Psalm 86:8-10
"Among the gods [there is] none like unto thee, O Lord; neither [are there any works] like unto thy works. All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name. For thou [art] great, and doest wondrous things: thou [art] God alone."
The diamondback caterpillar is the number-one pest of plants in the cabbage family. But scientists are finding that this caterpillar isn't as guilty of causing low yields in cabbage family plots as has been thought.
It turns out that, given a choice between a cabbage field which is doing very well and a field next door which is not doing so well, the diamondback caterpillar will prefer to munch on the less healthy field where yields are already decreased. That might seem like poor judgment on the part of the caterpillar. But scientists have only recently learned what the caterpillar seems to have known all along.
The caterpillar's primary predator is a parasite wasp. But this wasp looks for its meals in healthy cabbage fields. So while the wasp is looking for caterpillars in healthy fields, the caterpillars are next door in the field that isn't doing quite so well. This means that the solution to caterpillar problems on cabbage family plants is not more insecticide, but healthier plants.
The logical question is, how did the caterpillars figure out how to outsmart the wasps? The obvious answer is that their Creator, Who knows all about wasps and caterpillars, built this wisdom into the caterpillars.
Dear Father in heaven, help us all to learn more about how Your creation works so that we may benefit from Your wisdom and become more productive and less destructive. I especially ask that You would use Your people to lead the way in this so that You may be glorified even among unbelievers. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
Photo: Tobacco hornworm caterpillar Manduca sexta parasitized by Braconidae wasp larvae. Courtesy of Stsmith. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Psalm 86:8-10
"Among the gods [there is] none like unto thee, O Lord; neither [are there any works] like unto thy works. All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name. For thou [art] great, and doest wondrous things: thou [art] God alone."
The diamondback caterpillar is the number-one pest of plants in the cabbage family. But scientists are finding that this caterpillar isn't as guilty of causing low yields in cabbage family plots as has been thought.
It turns out that, given a choice between a cabbage field which is doing very well and a field next door which is not doing so well, the diamondback caterpillar will prefer to munch on the less healthy field where yields are already decreased. That might seem like poor judgment on the part of the caterpillar. But scientists have only recently learned what the caterpillar seems to have known all along.
The caterpillar's primary predator is a parasite wasp. But this wasp looks for its meals in healthy cabbage fields. So while the wasp is looking for caterpillars in healthy fields, the caterpillars are next door in the field that isn't doing quite so well. This means that the solution to caterpillar problems on cabbage family plants is not more insecticide, but healthier plants.
The logical question is, how did the caterpillars figure out how to outsmart the wasps? The obvious answer is that their Creator, Who knows all about wasps and caterpillars, built this wisdom into the caterpillars.
Dear Father in heaven, help us all to learn more about how Your creation works so that we may benefit from Your wisdom and become more productive and less destructive. I especially ask that You would use Your people to lead the way in this so that You may be glorified even among unbelievers. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
Photo: Tobacco hornworm caterpillar Manduca sexta parasitized by Braconidae wasp larvae. Courtesy of Stsmith. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
SHRIMP KIDNAPS CHEMIST!
Job 35:10-11
"But none saith, Where [is] God my maker, who giveth songs in the night; Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven?"
High drama takes place even among the tiny, almost unnoticeable creatures in the most remote parts of the world. In the frigid waters of Antarctica, for example, there's a tiny plankton which kidnaps even tinier chemists for its protection.
The tiny shrimp-like creature has absolutely no defense of its own. But this creature is not a shrimp without a plan. As it searches about, it may find an even smaller snail-like pteropod that it will fasten to its back.
The pteropod makes a chemical which fish hate. Fish which have tried to eat one of the shrimp-like creatures with its chemist backpack have been seen to shake their heads violently and spit the pair out. But the shrimp's captive backpack slows down his foraging for food. So after several days, the shrimp releases the pteropod unharmed to search for more food and, hopefully soon, another pteropod.
It sounds rather silly to suggest that one day, many years ago, one of these tiny plankton noticed that fish never ate pteropods because they produce a chemical defense. Who would suggest that once he told his friends, all the shrimp-like plankton starting kidnapping pteropods? This strategy was obviously taught to the plankton by the Creator Himself.
Dear Lord, there is nothing that You have made that You do not care about. Fill me with the same love and concern for what You have created. Help me to love my fellow human beings as you do. Amen.
Photo: Sea angel was once known as a pteropod.
Job 35:10-11
"But none saith, Where [is] God my maker, who giveth songs in the night; Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven?"
High drama takes place even among the tiny, almost unnoticeable creatures in the most remote parts of the world. In the frigid waters of Antarctica, for example, there's a tiny plankton which kidnaps even tinier chemists for its protection.
The tiny shrimp-like creature has absolutely no defense of its own. But this creature is not a shrimp without a plan. As it searches about, it may find an even smaller snail-like pteropod that it will fasten to its back.
The pteropod makes a chemical which fish hate. Fish which have tried to eat one of the shrimp-like creatures with its chemist backpack have been seen to shake their heads violently and spit the pair out. But the shrimp's captive backpack slows down his foraging for food. So after several days, the shrimp releases the pteropod unharmed to search for more food and, hopefully soon, another pteropod.
It sounds rather silly to suggest that one day, many years ago, one of these tiny plankton noticed that fish never ate pteropods because they produce a chemical defense. Who would suggest that once he told his friends, all the shrimp-like plankton starting kidnapping pteropods? This strategy was obviously taught to the plankton by the Creator Himself.
Dear Lord, there is nothing that You have made that You do not care about. Fill me with the same love and concern for what You have created. Help me to love my fellow human beings as you do. Amen.
Photo: Sea angel was once known as a pteropod.
A FROG'S CREATIVE BROADCASTING SOLUTION
1 Corinthians 14:33
"For God is not [the author] of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints."
If you live in a large city, especially one that is surrounded by other large cities, you know that the radio dial can become very crowded. To prevent the radio dial from turning into incomprehensible gibberish, radio stations are assigned a frequency on which to operate.
This orderly arrangement is also found among many animals. Male birds will often stake out a territory so that their mating call does not interfere with other males of their kind. Frogs too, have mating calls, but often many species of frogs are found in the same swamp. They avoid interfering with each other by each using a unique frequency for their calls. Otherwise, no one's call could be clearly understood. This orderly arrangement is evidence enough of the Creator's hand.
But there are two South American frogs, often found in the same locations, which use the same frequency. How can they do that? One frog calls only above water while the other frog uses his call only under water. Since the surface of the water is an effective barrier for sound, neither call interferes with the other.
Frogs could have never gotten together and agreed on limiting themselves to unique frequencies. What should be clear, especially in our technological age, is that the Creator Himself set up this arrangement for the good of everyone.
Dear Lord, You know the value of order in our lives. Sin produces chaos and disorder and makes life difficult. Fill my life with Your order through the instruction of Your Holy Word and replace the chaos caused by foolishness with Your orderly instruction and help. Amen.
Illustration: Sinusoidal waves of various frequencies; the bottom waves have higher frequencies than those above. The horizontal axis represents time.
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