Thursday, May 21, 2009

Mutations-to-Marvels

How do ants know where they are going? As the Discovery Channel reports, they have their own built-in GPS system.* It seems that tiny magnets in the ant antennae provide a "biological compass needle." And the system has a low carbon-footprint. Ants are not responsible for global warming.

The presence of magnetic material, as part of a navigational system, is nothing new in biology. It has been observed in a wide array of organisms including, of course, homing pigeons. Nonetheless, we still do not fully understand the inner workings. Figuring out how these magnetic marvels work is a worthy challenge, as the Discovery Channel article explains:

Nanotechnologists have their eye on such ant, bird and other nature-made GPS systems, as they could in future lead to more accurate drug targeting in humans, and might even serve as tiny data storage devices. While insects and animals seem to either get their magnetic materials from dirt or otherwise produce them, the crystals apparently aren't so easy to recreate in a lab. According to Fleissner and her team, "Even though birds have been producing these particles for millions of years, the main problem for scientists who want to find benefits from their use will be the technical production of these particles."

Biology is full of these high-tech devices which leave evolution in the dust. Sadly, evolutionists have no choice but insist on the non-scientific mutation-to-marvels creation story.

* This navigational system in ants actually bears little resemblance to the Global Positioning System, aside from the fact that both systems fall under the broad category of Navigation.