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...prominent member of the Institute for Creation Research, Duane Gish, who holds a doctorate in biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, contends the beetle would not have any use for its storage, temperature and aiming facilities until they were completely formed. Says he: "I would challenge Dr. Eisner to sketch out how an ordinary beetle could evolve into a bombardier beetle. I want to know how natural selection has done that...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Science: Drafting the Bombardier Beetle ^ | 2/25/1985 | See Source »

...fact, Eisner had considered the matter long before that gauntlet was thrown down. To begin with, he says, "the bringing together of appropriate chemicals at appropriate times is the basis of all biology. It's as old as life itself." So why single out the bombardier for harboring dangerous chemicals in its body? he asks. Why not the human digestive tract, for example? There the stomach walls are protected from the hydrochloric acid within by a layer of mucus, which, if damaged, would allow the potent acid to attack the stomach walls and be released into the body...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Science: Drafting the Bombardier Beetle ^ | 2/25/1985 | See Source »

Going further, Eisner points out that none of the bombardier's chemicals are unique to the insect. Hydrogen peroxide is often a by-product of metabolism in the cell. Phenols, the chemical group to which hydroquinones belong, are employed by many plants and primitive animals to heal and disinfect wounds. "The beetle didn't invent anything," says Eisner. "It just found novel uses for existing elements...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Science: Drafting the Bombardier Beetle ^ | 2/25/1985 | See Source »

Even in producing its separate chambers, Bomby did nothing extraordinary. It descended from a family of ground beetles that have single internal chambers and merely added the second compartment by subdividing the first. Eisner also offers strong evidence, in the form of "living fossils," that the bombardier did indeed evolve: proto-bombardiers have been found in Africa, California and Australia. One of the variations that he has studied can spray a burst of benzoquinones, but it lacks the bombardier's aiming mechanism and ends up with a repellent froth on its back. The bombardier's nozzle arrangement is obviously...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Science: Drafting the Bombardier Beetle ^ | 2/25/1985 | See Source »

Having contributed to what he thinks is compelling evidence confirming that Bomby evolved, Eisner sees no reason to choose Darwin at the expense of God. Says he: "Why not think of a supreme deity who devised the scheme of evolution...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Science: Drafting the Bombardier Beetle ^ | 2/25/1985 | See Source »

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