SUMMARY: It is well known that a gecko when in danger can detach its tail, which will flip and flop around on the ground to confuse the predator. Now a study published in the journal Biology Letters has reported some amazing new revelations.Using high speed video, researchers have studied what happens to the left-behind tail. The tail will not only do acrobatic flips, it can change direction and speed depending upon what it bumps into. This is the first study to show that a gecko tail can respond independently to its environment.
"That tail is buying the animal that shed it some time to get away," says lead researcher Anthony Russell. "If the tail simply moved rhythmically back and forth, predators would quickly recognize a pattern and realize they'd been duped." At least in the leopard geckos (picture from Wikipedia) which Russell studied, fat is stored in the tail, and if the tail itself is able to get away, the gecko can come back later to eat it for nourishment.
The researchers don't understand what's controlling the gecko tail's movements but think networks of neurons called central pattern generators, which program motions like walking and chewing, may be involved. This study could help researchers who work on human spinal cord injuries. Paralyzed muscles often exhibit spontaneous uncontrolled bursts of activity like gecko tails.
To read the entire article, click on this link to DISCOVER.
COMMENT: Here we have more examples of intelligent design. First, the ability of a gecko to shed its tail in order to escape an enemy. Then the ability of the tail to act on its own to further distract a predator. The reader will have to ask himself/herself if these are just cases of happy accidents or whether it is far more reasonable to believe the plans for a gecko were formed in the mind of an Intelligent Designer.
Hopefully, this study will indeed lead to some breakthroughs when it comes to the treatment of spinal cord injuries. Even more important, we pray that studies like this one might lead to more skeptics eventually becoming believers. Open-minded people impressed by the gecko's abilities ought to search for the One who created geckos. They will discover Him and His plan of salvation clearly described in His Holy Word. Believers in Jesus as our Savior are privileged to be able to look forward to the ultimate in design, a heavenly home designed and prepared just for us.
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QUESTION OF THE DAY
What foods may reduce wrinkles?According to the book, The Green Pharmacy Guide to Healing Foods, isoflavones in soybeans (picture) may combat wrinkles. Soybeans can be eaten or added to one's facial routine. Other foods thought to be wrinkle-fighters include most other beans, tofu, dark chocolate, fish, green tea, carrots, and pineapples.
Source: USA Weekend (August 28-30, 2009)
1 comments:
It was God's plan BEFORE creation that His Son should be our Savior in a sin/death world. Therefore, the gecko would need a tail such it has to survive. Thus it was Designed. Therefore, there's no justice in the argument that God could not have created all fossil geology (a witness to "death") as such. Thus the only science that you need to do is to prove how a totally chaotic Flood could have "deposited" specificity everywhere in the fossil record. And please show HOW springs could have watered Earth (what made them go), and finally tell the world WHY you join the fundamentalists in NOT listening to the witness of Job 28:25-28 on a CREATED hydrology including lightning storms! God help you. GLL
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