Bees, Shells and Design in Nature

7th July 2008, mgh,hej

This Article: (8 Pages)

1) Honey Bees challenge Evolution

The bee is a challenge to any evolutionist, even from the times of Darwin. It is an extraordinary example of a case for creation and intelligent design. From the plant to the beehive there exists an intricate network of operations, each depending on one another for the bee to survive at all.

The complex Design of the Beehive

Bees construct combs of wax cells that are used to store the honey they produce. They are very efficient storage facilities that are used for food for the bee colonies during times when flowers are not available. The bee constructs consistent hexagonal wax cells of exactly the same shape in the beehive. Each comb contains two sets of cells, one opening on each side of its faces. A clever design technique is used to join the cells on each side to strengthen the overall comb, and prevent honey flowing from one side to the other. This is achieved by an offset between the cells on each side, and so the middle of each cell abuts against the point where the walls of the three cells meet, strengthening the partition that separates the cells. The partition consists of three planes which meet at a particular angle, to make the centre of the cell its deepest part.

The honeycomb has a remarkable construction with row upon row of these hexagonal tubes. The honeycomb is vertical with horizontal storage tubes, which are two faced with different tubes on each side. Two of the six sides of the tubes are always vertical and each tube slopes slightly downwards towards the middle of the comb, to prevent the honey from running out.

The remarkable thing about the complexity of the beehive is the simplicity from a design point of view, even though this would be a very hard design to come upon by chance. In human terms, it is like the construction of a very well designed building, fit for exactly the purpose it is used for and with nothing extraneous. Architects know that this is hard to achieve and those architects who can achieve this simplicity are venerated in their profession. This is the work of an intelligent designer who knows the full end-use from the time of design. In comparison, an evolutionary approach to building would be the sequence of home-owners who have each in an ad-hoc manner extended the house over the years. Such a design is simple in its construction procedures, but results in a complex yet inefficient result when seen overall. This is exactly the opposite of what has been achieved by the bee's designer. This shows that the honeycomb was designed with the complete overall effect in mind, rather than being worked out over time. It is only when the design is fully complete that any of its elements are useful.

Bees teach Engineers

For two thousand years written records show that mathematicians and architects have studied the geometry and engineering skills displayed in the honeycomb. The only patterning that would allow all walls to be shared would be triangular, square or hexagonal. Of these three, hexagonal tubes use less wax in construction for the volume of honey stored, which displays economy of resources, a characteritic of all intelligent design. Each tube ends in three rhombuses that come to a point. The corner angles of these end walls measure approximately 70 and 110 degrees to give the maximum volume for this configuration. Again here, there appears to be a strong suggestion of intelligent design to achieve the best possible outcome in the production process.

2) Bees are Irreducibly Complex

Not only is the honeycomb an amazing feat of engineering, but the bee itself is an insect that displays an intricate design. The wax in the cells in the honeycomb is made from special glands in the abdomen of the bee. They chew the wax, which is mouldable to make the cells. The design of the hair on the bee's body allows them to collect an electrostatic charge when they fly. This helps in the pollen collection process, showing how well integrated the overall design is.

A Complex Social System

There are about 16,000 species of bee. Despite differences all bee colonies have a very complex social system. The queen bee in a colony of about 50,000 bees is the only fertile female. The males are the drones and the females are known as worker bees and they all have specific roles to play and it requires the work of all classes of the bees to maintain the production of honey. Worker bees are sterile females. They build the nest, maintain it, collect food, make honey and raise the young. Drones mate with the queen and the queen rules the nest producing a chemical that suppresses the reproductive system of the workers. Worker bees live for about six weeks, during which time they undertake different roles. Firstly they act as nurse bees, then they maintain the hive and make their first flights. Finally they become foragers, collecting nectar and pollen from flowers.

Designed to survive

The bees detect air pressure and know it will rain when there is a fall in air pressure. They will then stay in their hives, thus ensuring their survival. If this had been an evolutionary process, the most likely outcome would have been the demise of the honey bee through the elements of the weather.

The bee has two stomachs, one for its food to supply it with its own food source and to give it energy to fly long distances at an estimated speed of 20mph/32kph, and, the other stomach is the honey stomach which stores the nectar that will ultimately be converted to honey after undergoing a number of chemical processes in the stomach and the removal of additional water from the honey in the hive through the work of the bees. Not only is the pollen collected by the bees, but work follows by the networking of the bees and chemical processes to convert it to honey This production chain again is a sign of intelligent design and not a result of mere chance. The hive is subject to climate control. The worker bees control temperature. By fanning their wings, cool air is blown into the hive. Honey bee larvae die if the temperature in the hive rises above 36 degrees/ 97 degrees fahrenheit. If overheating does occur the worker bees spread drops of water over the cells to cool them down. The bee is specifically designed to carry out very complex functions which do not argue for the result of pure chance or an evolutionary process.

Bees communicate in a sophisticated language

Bees work as a highly organised team. If a bee finds a good place to forage, it returns to the hive and communicates to other bees the location of the source of food. It uses a special dance to indicate where the food is and the distance to the food source. The bee employs not one but at least two dances. A round dance indicates that the food is close by and the faster the dance, the more food there is available. A figure of eight dance indicates distance through the speed of the dance and the angle of its waggle shows the direction of the flowers in relation to the sun. They are dependent upon each other and any break down in the society's structure and methods of communication would lead to the failure of the whole network in the production of honey.

The development of communication has always been troublesome to evolutionists. The reason being that communication relies on both parties having a shared understanding, common receptive processes and fully developed physical characteristics. In the context of a bee, it had to develop both eyes and a brain capacity to understand visual signals and interpret them simultaneously. In terms of probability the development of two separate features is unlikely. Therefore it seems more likely that the bee was created fully developed.

3) Non-Reducible Interdependence

This intricate and complex system makes the honey bees one of the most efficient food gatherers on the earth. This highly organised system requires all participants to operate in their sphere simultaneously, and communicate to others, or the whole operation cannot function. It is an amazing network of interdependence, where the failure of one unit would lead to the failure of the entire system.

In this regard it would be most difficult to apply an evolutionary theory. Without the worker bees the larvae don't survive and without the foragers the whole hive cannot function. Where would the evolutionary process begin? Each operator in the system is essential as each has a very specific function. If we take the starter motor out of a car, it does not go. In the same way, take away any of the players in a hive and it will soon perish. This immediately leads us to the conclusion that all features of the hive had to be designed simultaneously.

If the irreducible complexity of the hive is not enough of a challenege to the idea of their occurrence by chance, nectar and pollen also had to be available at the same time. This argues for intelligent design for the survival of, not only the honey bees, but also for many plants.

Humans's dependence on the bee

The bee's activity is essential for pollination of the crops for staple human foods. Some farmers keep bees purely for pollination purposes. The degree to which bees are essential is shown by the fact that in the U.S.A. bees pollinate approximately 130 crops, such as fruit, fibre, nut and vegetable. Cultivated crops in the U.S. benefit to the value of about $10 billion from bee pollination.

Honey itself is also an amazing substance. Being so sweet, bacteria does not grow in honey. It is a nourishing food source for humans. There is a curious incident recorded in the Bible in Judges 14, where Samson eats honey from a honey-comb in the carcase of a lion. It is the peculiar property of honey that even in the presence of corruption it remains bacteria and contaminant free.

The bee presents to us an amazing example of intelligent and complex design, which incorporates the interdependence of a network of plants, insects, crops and ultimately man's survival. If there is a breakdown in any element of this network, the production of food for man and animals is at risk.

4) Arguments for Intelligent Design

The beehive displays complex mathematics and engineering. The precision of the angles in the honeycomb have long stunned experts. The economy shown in the choice of the hexagonal shape of the cells rather than a triangular or square shape surely displays thoughtful planning and design to gain the maximum volume and value of honey for the amount of wax required in the construction process of the comb. The slight slope of the tubes prevents unnecessary loss of the honey. The society in the hive is complex, with every bee assigned its special role. Not only does the bee collect nectar, it produces wax and proceeds to build the wax cells with utmost skill and accuracy.

The bee interacts with the requirements of the human race by pollinating crops to enable the production of essential food to ensure the survival of the human race. This creates a complex interdependence between this insect and humans. The bee is perfectly designed for its role, even to the design of appropriate features that will create an electrostatic charge that enables the ease of collection of pollen. Whether he/she knows it or not, each person is very dependent on bees in the production of our food. Bees have an inner barometer by which they know when it will rain, thus ensuring the survival of this species, which is so important to man's survival. In time of drought the survival of the bee is threatened as it depends on plant life, demonstrating the inter-dependence of insect and plant. If one fails, the other is threatened.

Darwin found the bee a difficult issue to deal with and had no answer to offer. The whole network and process involved in the production of honey and fertilisation of plants is beyond the replication of the brightest and best of the brains of mankind. It demonstrates a brilliant and intelligent design process to ensure the existence and survival of life on this earth.

THE HUMMINGBIRD of America likes the nectar of the fuchsia. The bird's long bill probes deeply into the flowers narrow tube of petals and the pollen sticks to the bill and feathers and is carried off to fertilise the next blossom. Living on the nectar are tiny mites that hitch a ride on the bill of the bird to the next flower. The fuchsia plant's design generally excludes other nectar feeders such as bees because of its design. The bird and the flower are a perfect match and together with those tiny mites show a remarkable display of interdependence as an irreducibly complex system, by which all three survive.

In other places, where the plant is unsuitable for the bee, the nectar is the food source for other birds and animals, which can cross pollinate plants. The honeyeater in Australia, Pacific Islands and New Zealand is a small green, grey, brown, red or black forest bird that feeds from flowers by rolling their long tongues into tubes and sucking up the nectar. Travelling from flower to flower, the pollen can be dispersed. In a similar way the honeycreepers in Hawaii have long curved bills to probe plants for nectar.

The bee and honey eating birds show the interdependence that exists among species in the natural world, reflecting intelligent design. The bee and the honey eating birds, and also some animals not discussed here, combine to ensure the survival of plants in an increasingly complex network of intelligent design in the natural world.

5) Intelligent Design Supports a Creator's Existence

The discoveries of increasing complexity in nature are evidence that points to a compete one off creation by a powerful and intelligent force. The bee and its dependents can not be assigned to the realm of chance and an evolutionary process without the probablity factors pointing to zero, or impossiblity. The participants had to exist simultaneously. Plants had to exist and all types of bees were needed for the process of fertilisation of plants and the production of honey to proceed. When one in the network fails, all the others will fail. This has to support a creationist theory.

To a twenty-first century thinker, who values design in human endeavours, it has to be obvious that great skills in many fields have been employed in the design of the honey bee. There is evidence of the knowledge of engineering, mathematics, architecture, chemistry, biology, physics, electricity, horticulture and social order in this complex network. Humans may be proud of their great knowledge, inventions and discoveries, but one is forced to wonder if all human discoveries simply reflect what already in fact exists. We have merely learnt from nature.

The ultimate purpose for the existence of this amazing insect, seems only for the benefit of the human race and its survival. Without the bee and other nectar gathering birds, reproduction of plants would fail. Bees are essential in the cycle of life on this planet and we can only wonder in amazement at the mind that has designed and created this insect for our ultimate survival. We must, after a consideration of the honey bee surely agree with the Psalmist,

“Many O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou has done and thy thoughts which are to us-ward.” (Psalm 40: 5)

6) Design and Nature: by a qualified Architect

In my Architecture Course I learnt about the history of design theories and, most importantly, about the almost mystical 'Golden Proportion'. This is a rectangle where one side is a ratio to the other of 1 as to 1.618......(approximately). This geometrical proportion is supposed to look beautiful to the majority of the population. We carried out studies of classical buildings, scribing the approximate proportion on facades and designing our own facade. The point of the exercise was to teach us how to actively use our intellect to make beautiful objects using laws. The repetition of the proportion was to make buildings 'complete', where the parts are in the same proportion to the whole and exhibit self similarity. This technique of 'self-similarity' is recognised as a technique for producing structures that are generally more pleasing to the majority of the population. It is agreed by architects that their role is to incorporate beauty in a building as if it was a function, often expressed as "commodity, firmness and delight" (Turan 1990).

The Golden Ratio

According to Livio (2002) in his book The Golden Ratio this ratio was discovered by the Greek mathematician Hippasus of Metapontum in the 5^th century BC who was a a follower of Pythagoras. It is a ratio that cannot be expressed as a simple fraction. In fact, to millions of decimal places it never repeats. For the Pythagoreans, and, later Euclid in his Elements written around 300BC, the golden ratio was merely an oddity, discovered as a result of their study of the geometry of the pentagram.

As an aside Pythagoras gave us the word 'philosophy' and proposed the idea of the immortal soul. It is against this teaching Paul speaks when he writes “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ”. Col 2:8 KJV. Paul's reference to 'rudiments' or 'elements' of the world truly captures the Pythagorean interest in an idealised geometry expressing the “atoms” or basic building blocks of the world. Modern science has shown their theories were incorrect, through better instrumentation, not necessarily through more correct theories.

The golden ratio was found more recently to be the ratio of two Fibonacci numbers. The Fibonacci sequence is 1,1,2,3,5,8,13... where each number is the sum of the two previous numbers. The higher up the series, the closer the ratio of the two numbers approximates the Golden Ratio.

7) The Golden Ratio in Plants

The leaves along a branch rotate to allow the maximum exposure to sunlight and rain. This tendency in the growth of petals or leaves is called phyllotaxis. They tend to rotate around the stem in Fibonacci ratios.

Pineapples show this feature. Each hexagonal lump on the surface is part of three different spirals. It has been shown that new leaves on a plant advance at roughly the same angle each time and this angle is 137.5 degrees, which is the angle formed by the golden ratio. It has been shown that to most efficiently close-pack points the best arrangement is in opposing spirals based on 137.5 degrees such as that shown by the the sunflowers florets.

The number of spirals formed by florets of the sunflower, following this angle, most commonly are 34 one way and 55 the other. Even if the number of spirals varies they are all in numbers found in the Fibonacci series. The number of petals on daises, 13, 21 or 34 are also in the Fibonacci sequence. The position of the petals of a rose are located by angles that are based on a fraction of the golden angle. If they grew at an angle that was a simple division of 360 degrees then at some point a petal would end up opposite and gaps would open up. The fact that the golden angle will never precisely meet itself as it rotates, or in other words its irrationality, means that it produces close packed circular structures most efficiently.

Self Similiarty

It is not just plants that grow using 'self-similarity', mollusks do also. By using a logarithmic spiral that can be inscribed in a rectangle formed by a the golden rectangle the spiral always looks the same. It seems the stars of galaxies also form comparatively flat logarithmic spirals, which is curious, as it seems they should not retain spiral shapes. Of passing interest is that Falcons also use the spiral to attack their prey, to maintain speed while keeping their prey in sight out of the eyes which are on the side of their heads. This seems a logical behaviour of optimisation. Whereas the Falcon may have an intelligence to learn this behaviour, the optimisation in the structure of plants, mollusks, and galaxies seems an inherent and inexplicable property.

Livio (2002) asks the question, “why are the successive leaves separated by the golden angle?” He points out it has been shown this is the most efficient. But this is not a reason why something happens. Livio quotes researchers who in studies generating patterns, found that where there is 'self-similarity' in growth of structures there is a limit to the number of different types of structures. Again, there may be a limit to the number of structures, but the plants and mollusks seem to have 'chosen' their specific structure above the infinite possibilities of other structures. Livio also reports recent experiments with charged oil drops randomly dropped eventually formed this pattern, and researchers have suggested that this phenomena could be caused by minimal energy states for a system of mutually repelling buds.

They don't know why the buds repel, or in other words, they still do not know what causes this phenomena. The explanation for the location of petals based on the charged oil drop experiment, which suggests that the location is determined by mutually 'repelling' buds, ignores the fact that perfect repulsion would leave the new bud as far away as possible from the previous bud, or directly opposite, not at a fraction of the angle of 137.5 degrees about their centre. In the oil drop experiment they used magnetic forces and they had to wait for the pattern to emerge. In the plant and mollusk, from their very first growth the pattern is there.

8) The Golden Ratio an argument for design in nature

The following can be reasoned. Neither a rose bush or a mollusk would die if they did not exhibit self-similarity, therefore, the characteristic is not related directly to function, but is rather one of efficiency of form. The rose need not even have petals at all. There is no reason for a plant to make an efficient form if it is not a matter of survival. A galaxy may take on another form, it does not 'need' to be a spiral. This form does not seem directly related to characteristics of the stars, as it requires scientific explanation for its form.

If an event does not come from necessity, it still seems logical that something caused it. Though we have no idea what the cause of the phenomena of self-similarity is, we could examine the effect or what benefit the phenomena is. The greatest benefit, or effect, of this phenomena is on humans, who admire efficiency and beauty and study the patterns. If a cause could be deduced from an effect, we could conclude that the universe and plants grew this way because humans love efficiency and beauty. But plants and the universe in all accounts, including the creation account of the Bible, come before the arrival of humans. A neat relationship between cause and effect, however, is fulfilled if there is an intelligent designer of the universe who has a need to see and appreciate efficiency and beauty. If the plants, mollusks and stars are self-similar because their function is to be beautiful we have a logical cause for the phenomena of self-similarity.

The beauty that humans see in the efficient self-similarity of nature speaks of design. It takes the ingenuity of the world's best mathematicians and designers to achieve perfect 'self-similarity' for objects humans make. The plant and mollusk pattern of growth tends to want to achieve self-similarity. The most logical conclusion is that they are 'programmed' or designed to do this by a designer.

It is therefore with interest we note the scriptures say:

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more you...? (Mat 6:28-30 KJV)

References:

Livio, Mario (2002) The Golden Ratio, Headline Book Publishing, London. Livio is head of Science division of the Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute.

Turan, M. 1990. Vernacular Architecture. Aldershot Avebury.

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