Effective Chemical Defence Systems
The most numerous species on earth are the insects. They outnumber humans by several hundred million to one.
For beetles alone, we've identified over 300,000 different species. Many beetles have a very versatile and effective defence system. Take for example, the bombardier beetle. Whenever the bombardier beetle is threatened by an enemy, it blasts its foe with a boiling hot mixture of stinging liquid and vapour. It fires this material out of a turret which can telescope and bend, allowing it to aim in any direction.
The bombardier beetle makes this explosive liquid by mixing together two hazardous chemicals, hydrogen peroxide and hydroquinone. In order to prevent themselves from becoming suicidal bombers who blow themselves up, they also add a stabilizing chemical known as an inhibitor. The lethal mixture is then stored in a reservoir located in the abdomen. When an enemy, say a frog, approaches, the bombardier beetle squirts the stored chemicals into two combustion tubes. At precisely the right moment, it adds an enzyme that neutralises the inhibitor, and it causes the chemicals to react explosively. The sequence of reactions is perfectly coordinated so that the explosion occurs right in the face of the attacker!
So next time you read about defence systems, think of beetles and marvel.
The bombardier beetle undoubtedly has a marvellous sense of timing. Without this accuracy, it would indeed become a suicide bomber, merely aiding its prey to finish off its job with expediency. However with precision timing the beetles’ resources are used as a means of self-protection.
Timing is important. I’m sure we can all think of situations where people just happened to be in the right place at the right time. As a child, I received a free bike from a store by being in a pre-selected aisle at a pre-determined time. (It was my one and only winning event.) Other people have put in a job application at just the right time when an opening became available. Sometimes the factor of timing has been critical in one’s dating relationships.
Of course, being in the wrong place at the wrong time is also a matter of timing - bad timing that is. We can all think of situations where accidents happened to one person and not another because the former just innocently happened to be caught there at the wrong time.
Timing, of course, may not account for the whole story, but it may be a significant part of it. It may open new doors for us or lead us down unforeseen paths. Timing in and of itself is neither good nor bad, although the outcome may be. We can usually see the fact of timing quite immediately, but the understanding or appreciation for it often isn’t fully apparent until later.
Timing is one of those issues which leads us to philosophical questions and conclusions. To what do I attribute my happenstance (be it good fortune or bad luck)? Was I in the right place (or the wrong one, for that matter) because of Fate, my personal style, intuition, foresight, by natural law or Providence?
A materialist worldview will cause one to stop at the level of the natural order. There is either a natural cause or no cause at all. That answer in and of itself is sufficient explanation for the person who believes that all there is in the world is the world.
A person who believes that there is another dimension to life, a spiritual one, will believe that the God who created the world is also involved in it. Such a person will see the hand of God in life circumstances and explains life events in light of this set of beliefs.
So we see then, with issues of timing as well as other matters, that the philosophical commitments we begin with shape the kinds of questions we are willing to propose and answers we accept.
Dr. David Humphreys and Debbie Hughes
© August 2004
