The peacock spider v. Darwin

A Tiny but Mighty (and Dancing) Example of Design: The Rainbow-Colored Peacock Spider
Evolution News | @DiscoveryCSC

The peacock spider was relatively unknown till Jurgen Otto began photographing them and posting videos of their elaborate, colorful dances. If these spiders were bigger, they would have been a sensation in the animal world long ago. It’s hard to believe such a tiny critter could put on a show like this.

Otto’s YouTube videos get millions of hits. This past September, when five new species were revealed, he told Australia’s ABC News how he became known as Peacockspiderman.

“I took a photograph and then later I went home, looked at it on the computer and was just blown away,” Dr Otto said.

“When I started with all this, there was not a single picture or video of a peacock spider on the Internet.

“Nine years later now, you get many thousand hits when you type ‘peacock spider’ into Google.”

The reaction of people when they see the latest finds remains the same.

“One could think that the novelty of this would all have worn off by now, but people still get excited when they see them,” he said.

We talked about peacock spiders  three years ago, focusing on how much information is packed into their tiny brains. But when it comes to peacock spiders, there’s no such thing as too much. Dr. Otto estimates there are about sixty species and subspecies, all native to Australia. If you only have time for one video, watch “Peacock Spider ‘Stayin’ Alive.’” It features 51 species, showing off their costumes and dance moves put to some familiar disco music (which you can always mute, but don’t).

Peacock spiders are back in the news again, because a new study shows that they have another claim to fame: they are the only animals known that can produce the entire rainbow in structural colors as opposed to pigments. This motivated the researchers to study how they do it, with the expectation that the answer could lead to new technologies.

As with birds and some other animals, it’s the males who are the most colorful and beautiful. Darwinians have their theories about why this is so (e.g., sexual selection), but the number of exceptions to the rule (e.g., in humans) hardly makes it qualify as a law of nature. For our purposes, that’s a side issue. Let’s think about how many ways this spider makes a case for design.

For one thing, as we noted before, there’s a lot of functional design packed into an animal less than 5 millimeters in size! As you watch how fast they move, shaking their legs, wagging their abdomens, and jumping all over the place, think of all the systems required to make that happen. Try packing all this into a 5-millimeter animal with a brain the size of a poppy seed:

Eight eyes and other senses that can find the female, evaluate her readiness to mate, and prepare for the show.

Articulated limbs able to cling to twigs without falling.

Muscles that can twitch faster than Spiderman can fire his web slinger.

Nerves that can activate the muscles, using rapid waves of ions traveling down neurons.

Reproductive organs that are synchronized with the mating dance in both sexes.

Numerous support systems for life, including digestion, circulation, excretion, and more.

Another design consideration concerns how all the higher-order systems sprout from a linear code in the spider’s DNA, and other support codes in its epigenetic systems. As with all multicellular life, the entire higher-order animal develops from a single zygote.

We might further talk about superfluous design. The artistic patterns on the males’ abdomens seem gratuitously beyond anything necessary for mating. Drab animals get by just fine; why the excessive color and beauty? And why the dozens of variations among different species? We could be forgiven for imagining a designing intelligence with an artist’s eye.

Aesthetic considerations, furthermore, lead us to ask why human beings are the only ones who get excited about the mating dances of an unrelated species. Does that speak to human exceptionalism? We don’t see any other animals, except the female spider, watching the performances, but people by the millions are fascinated by these tiny animals that have nothing to do with their own “fitness.” What is the evolutionary explanation for the quality of charm? Of humor? Or enchantment? We don’t eat them or train them to do our work. How did our curiosity, sense of humor, and love for beauty “evolve”?

Already we see that peacock spiders can channel our design intuition in many fascinating directions. And now the news: a study in  Nature Communications with Jurgen Otto as a co-author describes two species of peacock spiders that can produce a whole rainbow spectrum of colors — the only animals known to do so in a mating display. News from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography explains why this is interesting:

Brightly colored Australian peacock spiders (Maratus spp.) captivate even the most arachnophobic viewers with their flamboyant courtship displays featuring diverse and intricate body colorations, patterns, and movements — all packed into miniature bodies measuring less than five millimeters in size for many species. However, these displays are not just pretty to look at. They also inspire new ways for humans to produce color in technology.

Scientists have learned quite a bit about iridescence in butterflies and birds, even in some beetles and tarantulas. Layers of protein crafted into patterns at microscopic scales can interfere with light, intensifying some wavelengths and absorbing others. Deciphering the peacock spider’s optical secrets required an interdisciplinary team of biologists, physicists, and engineers, led by Bor-Kai Hsuing, using cutting-edge imaging technology. Once they had a model and a hypothesis, they used 3D nanoscale printing to test it.

In the end, they found that the intense rainbow iridescence emerged from specialized abdominal scales on the spiders. These scales combine an airfoil-like microscopic 3D contour with nanoscale diffraction grating structures on the surface. It is the interaction between the surface nano-diffraction grating and the microscopic curvature of the scales that enables separation and isolation of light into its component wavelengths at finer angles and smaller distances than are possible with current engineering technologies.

“Who knew that such a small critter would create such an intense iridescence using extremely sophisticated mechanisms that will inspire optical engineers,” said Dimitri Deheyn, Hsuing’s advisor at Scripps Oceanography and a coauthor of the study.

Even so, they only explained the physics, not the aesthetics of how the intricate patterns arise. One team member, faced with high technology in a spider, could not extricate himself from Darwinian thinking:

“As an engineer, what I found fascinating about these spider structural colors is how these long evolved complex structures can still outperform human engineering,” said Radwanul Hasan Siddique, a postdoctoral scholar at Caltech and study coauthor. “Even with high-end fabrication techniques, we could not replicate the exact structures. I wonder how the spiders assemble these fancy structural patterns in the first place!”

The other team members apparently did not need evolution to do their work, because the word does not appear in the paper. The word “design” does, though, some twenty times. Their own engineering designs sprang from the “design principles” of this lowly spider:

[O]ur nano-3D printed prototypes demonstrate that the design principle of the peacock spiders’ scales could inspire novel, miniature light-dispersive components.

By understanding biological design principles and emulating them through engineering, our research may allow light-dispersive components to perform under irradiances, and millimetre length scales, not possible before.

It would be instructive for these researchers if they sat back for a moment and just contemplated the implications of their own words. Or come to think of it, maybe they’ve already done so, but are too prudent and self-protective to go the extra step and spell it out really clearly. So we take the liberty of doing that for them.

And still yet more civil war?

Bob Carter v. settled science.

A clash of Titans. LXVI

Isaiah ch.1-5 New World Translation 2013 edition.

1 The vision that Isaiah*+ the son of Aʹmoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uz·ziʹah,+ Joʹtham,+ Aʹhaz,+ and Hez·e·kiʹah,+ kings of Judah:+

 2 Hear, O heavens, and pay attention, O earth,+

For Jehovah has spoken:

“Sons I have brought up and raised,+

But they have revolted against me.+

 3 A bull well knows its buyer,

And a donkey the manger of its owner;

But Israel does not know me,*+

My own people do not behave with understanding.”

 4 Woe to the sinful nation,+

The people weighed down with error,

A brood of wicked men, corrupt children!

They have abandoned Jehovah;+

They have treated the Holy One of Israel with disrespect;

They have turned their backs on him.

 5 Where will you be struck next as you add to your rebellion?+

The whole head is sick,

And the whole heart is diseased.+

 6 From the sole of the foot to the head, nothing is healthy.

There are wounds and bruises and open sores

—They have not been treated* or bound up or softened with oil.+

 7 Your land is desolate.

Your cities are burned with fire.

Foreigners devour your land right in front of you.+

It is like a wasteland overthrown by foreigners.+

 8 The daughter of Zion has been left like a shelter* in a vineyard,

Like a hut in a cucumber field,

Like a city under siege.+

 9 Unless Jehovah of armies had left us a few survivors,

We should have become just like Sodʹom,

And we should have resembled Go·morʹrah.+

10 Hear the word of Jehovah, you dictators* of Sodʹom.+

Pay attention to the law* of our God, you people of Go·morʹrah.+

11 “Of what benefit to me are your many sacrifices?”+ says Jehovah.

“I have had enough of your burnt offerings of rams+ and the fat of well-fed animals,+

And I have no delight in the blood+ of young bulls+ and lambs and goats.+

12 When you come to appear before me,+

Who has required this from you,

This trampling of my courtyards?+

13 Stop bringing in any more worthless grain offerings.

Your incense is detestable to me.+

New moons,+ sabbaths,+ the calling of conventions+

—I cannot put up with the use of magical power+ along with your solemn assembly.

14 I have* hated your new moons and your festivals.

They have become a burden to me;

I am tired of bearing them.

15 And when you spread out your palms,

I hide my eyes from you.+

Although you offer many prayers,+

I am not listening;+

Your hands are filled with blood.+

16 Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean;+

Remove your evil deeds from my sight;

Stop doing bad.+

17 Learn to do good, seek justice,+

Correct the oppressor,

Defend the rights of the fatherless child,*

And plead the cause of the widow.”+

18 “Come, now, and let us set matters straight between us,” says Jehovah.+

“Though your sins are like scarlet,

They will be made as white as snow;+

Though they are as red as crimson cloth,

They will become like wool.

19 If you show willingness and listen,

You will eat the good things of the land.+

20 But if you refuse and rebel,

You will be devoured by the sword,+

For the mouth of Jehovah has spoken it.”

21 How the faithful city+ has become a prostitute!+

She was full of justice;+

Righteousness used to lodge in her,+

But now murderers.+

22 Your silver has become dross,+

And your beer* is diluted with water.

23 Your princes are stubborn and partners with thieves.+

Every one of them loves a bribe and chases after gifts.+

They do not grant justice to the fatherless,*

And the legal case of the widow never reaches them.+

24 Therefore the true Lord, Jehovah of armies,

The Powerful One of Israel, declares:

“Ah! I will rid myself of my adversaries,

And I will take revenge on my enemies.+

25 I will turn my hand against you,

I will smelt away your dross as with lye,

And I will remove all your impurities.+

26 I will restore your judges as in the beginning

And your advisers as at the start.+

After this you will be called City of Righteousness, Faithful Town.+

27 With justice Zion will be redeemed,+

And her people who return, with righteousness.

28 The rebels and the sinners will be broken together,+

And those leaving Jehovah will come to their finish.+

29 For they will be ashamed of the mighty trees that you desired,+

And you will be disgraced because of the gardens* that you chose.+

30 For you will become like a big tree with withering leaves,+

And like a garden without water.

31 The strong man will become tow,*

And his work a spark;

Both of them will go up in flames together,

With no one to extinguish them.”
2 This is what Isaiah the son of Aʹmoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem:+

 2 In the final part of the days,*

The mountain of the house of Jehovah

Will become firmly established above the top of the mountains,+

And it will be raised up above the hills,

And to it all the nations will stream.+

 3 And many peoples will go and say:

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah,

To the house of the God of Jacob.+

He will instruct us about his ways,

And we will walk in his paths.”+

For law* will go out of Zion,

And the word of Jehovah out of Jerusalem.+

 4 He will render judgment among the nations

And set matters straight* respecting many peoples.

They will beat their swords into plowshares

And their spears into pruning shears.+

Nation will not lift up sword against nation,

Nor will they learn war anymore.+

 5 O house of Jacob, come,

Let us walk in the light of Jehovah.+

 6 For you have forsaken your people, the house of Jacob,+

Because they have become full of things from the East;

They practice magic+ like the Phi·lisʹtines,

And they abound with the children of foreigners.

 7 Their land is filled with silver and gold,

And there is no limit to their treasures.

Their land is filled with horses,

And there is no limit to their chariots.+

 8 Their land is filled with worthless gods.+

They bow down to the work of their own hands,

To what their own fingers have made.

 9 So man bows down, he becomes low,

And you cannot possibly pardon them.

10 Enter into the rock and hide yourself in the dust

Because of the terrifying presence of Jehovah

And his majestic splendor.+

11 The haughty eyes of man will be brought low,

And the arrogance of men will bow down.*

Jehovah alone will be exalted in that day.

12 For it is the day belonging to Jehovah of armies.+

It is coming upon everyone who is haughty and lofty,

Upon everyone, whether exalted or lowly,+

13 Upon all the cedars of Lebʹa·non that are lofty and exalted

And upon all the oaks of Baʹshan,

14 Upon all the lofty mountains

And upon all the high hills,

15 Upon every high tower and every fortified wall,

16 Upon all the ships of Tarʹshish+

And upon all desirable boats.

17 Man’s haughtiness will be brought down,

And the arrogance of men will bow low.*

Jehovah alone will be exalted in that day.

18 The worthless gods will completely disappear.+

19 And people will enter into the caves of the rocks

And into the holes in the ground,+

Because of the terrifying presence of Jehovah

And his majestic splendor,+

When he arises to make the earth tremble in terror.

20 In that day men will take their worthless gods of silver and of gold

That they had made for themselves to bow down to

And throw them away to the shrewmice* and to the bats,+

21 In order to enter into the holes in the rocks

And into the clefts of the crags,

Because of the terrifying presence of Jehovah

And his majestic splendor,

When he arises to make the earth tremble in terror.

22 For your own sakes, quit trusting in mere man,

Who is only the breath in his nostrils.*

Why should he be taken into account?
3 For look! the true Lord, Jehovah of armies,

Is removing from Jerusalem and Judah every kind of support and supply,

All support of bread and water,+

 2 Mighty man and warrior,

Judge and prophet,+ diviner and elder,

 3 Chief of 50,+ dignitary, and adviser,

The expert magician and the skilled charmer.+

 4 I will make boys their princes,

And the unstable* will rule over them.

 5 The people will oppress one another,

Each one his fellow man.+

The boy will assault the old man,

And the lightly esteemed one will defy the respected one.+

 6 Each one will take hold of his brother in his father’s house and say:

“You have a cloak—you be our commander.

Take charge of this overthrown pile of ruins.”

 7 But he will protest in that day:

“I will not be your wound dresser;*

I have no food or clothing in my house.

Do not make me commander over the people.”

 8 For Jerusalem has stumbled,

And Judah has fallen,

Because in word and deed they are against Jehovah;

They behave defiantly in his glorious presence.*+

 9 The expression of their faces testifies against them,

And they proclaim their sin like Sodʹom;+

They do not try to hide it.

Woe to them,* for they are bringing disaster on themselves!

10 Tell the righteous that it will go well for them;

They will be rewarded for what they do.*+

11 Woe to the wicked one!

Disaster will befall him,

For what his hands have done will be done to him!

12 As for my people, their taskmasters are abusive,

And women rule over them.

My people, your leaders are causing you to wander,

And they confuse the direction of your paths.+

13 Jehovah is taking his position to accuse;

He is standing up to pass sentence on peoples.

14 Jehovah will enter into judgment with the elders and princes of his people.

“You have burned down the vineyard,

And what you have stolen from the poor is in your houses.+

15 How dare you crush my people

And grind the faces of the poor in the dirt?”+ declares the Sovereign Lord, Jehovah of armies.

16 Jehovah says: “Because the daughters of Zion are haughty,

Walking with their heads high,*

Flirting with their eyes, skipping along,

Making a tinkling sound with their anklets,

17 Jehovah will also strike the head of the daughters of Zion with scabs,

And Jehovah will make their forehead bare.+

18 In that day Jehovah will take away the beauty of their bangles,

The headbands and the crescent-shaped ornaments,+

19 The earrings,* the bracelets, and the veils,

20 The headdresses, the ankle chains, and the breastbands,*

The perfume receptacles* and the charms,*

21 The finger rings and the nose rings,

22 The ceremonial robes, the overtunics, the cloaks, and the purses,

23 The hand mirrors+ and the linen garments,*

The turbans and the veils.

24 Instead of balsam oil,+ there will be a rotten smell;

Instead of a belt, a rope;

Instead of a beautiful hairstyle, baldness;+

Instead of a rich garment, a garment of sackcloth;+

And a brand mark instead of beauty.

25 By the sword your men will fall,

And your mighty men in battle.+

26 Her entrances will mourn and grieve,+


And she will sit on the ground desolate.”+
4 And seven women will grab hold of one man in that day,+ saying:

“We will eat our own bread

And wear our own clothing;

Only let us be called by your name

To take away our disgrace.”*+

2 In that day what Jehovah makes sprout will be splendid and glorious, and the fruitage of the land will be the pride and beauty of the survivors of Israel.+ 3 Whoever remains in Zion and is left over in Jerusalem will be called holy, all of those in Jerusalem written down for life.+


4 When Jehovah washes away the filth* of the daughters of Zion+ and rinses away the bloodshed of Jerusalem from her midst by the spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning,*+ 5 Jehovah will also create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over the place of her conventions a cloud and smoke by day and a bright flaming fire by night;+ for over all the glory there will be a shelter. 6 And there will be a booth for shade by day from the heat,+ and for refuge and protection from storms and the rain.+
5 Let me sing, please, to my beloved

A song about my loved one and his vineyard.+

My beloved had a vineyard on a fruitful hillside.

 2 He dug it up and rid it of stones.

He planted it with a choice red vine,

Built a tower in the middle of it,

And hewed out a winepress in it.+

Then he kept hoping for it to produce grapes,

But it produced only wild grapes.+

 3 “And now, you inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah,

Please judge between me and my vineyard.+

 4 What more could I have done for my vineyard

That I have not already done?+

Why, when I hoped for grapes,

Did it produce only wild grapes?

 5 Now, please, let me tell you

What I will do to my vineyard:

I will remove its hedge,

And it will be burned down.+

I will break down its stone wall,

And it will be trampled on.

 6 I will make it a wasteland;+

It will not be pruned or hoed.

It will be overgrown with thornbushes and weeds,+

And I will command the clouds not to send any rain on it.+

 7 For the vineyard of Jehovah of armies is the house of Israel;+

The men of Judah are the plantation* he was fond of.

He kept hoping for justice,+

But look! there was injustice;

For righteousness,

But look! a cry of distress.”+

 8 Woe to those who join one house to another house+

And who annex one field to another field+

Until there is no more room

And you live by yourselves on the land!

 9 Jehovah of armies has sworn in my ears

That many houses, though great and beautiful,

Will become an object of horror,

Without an inhabitant.+

10 For ten acres* of vineyard will produce but one bath measure,*

And a hoʹmer measure* of seed will produce only an eʹphah.*+

11 Woe to those who get up early in the morning to drink alcohol,+

Who linger late into the evening darkness until wine inflames them!

12 They have harp and stringed instrument,

Tambourine, flute, and wine at their feasts;

But they do not consider the activity of Jehovah,

And they do not see the work of his hands.

13 So my people will go into exile

For lack of knowledge;+

Their glorious men will go hungry,+

And all their people will be parched with thirst.

14 So the Grave* has enlarged itself*

And has opened its mouth wide without limit;+

And her splendor,* her noisy multitudes, and her revelers

Will certainly go down into it.

15 And man will bow down,

Man will be brought low,

And the eyes of the haughty will be brought low.

16 Jehovah of armies will be exalted by his judgment;*

The true God, the Holy One,+ will sanctify himself through righteousness.+

17 And the lambs will graze as in their pasture;

Foreign residents will feed on the desolate places of well-fed animals.

18 Woe to those who drag along their guilt with ropes of deception

And their sin with wagon cords;

19 Those who say: “Let Him speed up his work;

Let it come quickly that we may see it.

Let the purpose* of the Holy One of Israel take place

That we may know it!”+

20 Woe to those who say that good is bad and bad is good,+

Those who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness,

Those who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!

21 Woe to those wise in their own eyes

And discreet in their own sight!+

22 Woe to those who are mighty in drinking wine

And to the men who are masters at mixing alcoholic drinks,+

23 Those who acquit the wicked for a bribe+

And who deny justice to the righteous!+

24 Therefore, just as the tongue of fire consumes the stubble

And dry grass shrivels in the flames,

Their very roots will rot,

And their blossoms will scatter like powder,

Because they rejected the law* of Jehovah of armies

And disrespected the word of the Holy One of Israel.+

25 That is why the anger of Jehovah burns against his people,

And he will stretch out his hand against them and strike them.+

The mountains will quake,

And their corpses will be like refuse in the streets.+

In view of all this, his anger has not turned back,

But his hand is still stretched out to strike.

26 He has raised up a signal* to a distant nation;+

He has whistled for them to come from the ends of the earth;+

And look! they are coming very swiftly.+

27 None among them are tired or stumbling.

No one is drowsy or sleeps.

The belt around their waist is not loosened,

Nor are their sandal laces broken.

28 All their arrows are sharp,

And all their bows are bent.*

The hooves of their horses are like flint,

And their wheels like a storm wind.+

29 Their roaring is like that of a lion;

They roar like young lions.*+

They will growl and seize the prey

And carry it off with no one to rescue it.

30 In that day they will growl over it

Like the growling of the sea.+

Anyone who gazes at the land will see distressing darkness;


Even the light has grown dark because of the clouds.+

On Abbadon :The Watchtower Society's commentary.

ABADDON

A·badʹdon) [from Heb., meaning “Destruction”].

At Revelation 9:11 this Hebrew word is transliterated into the English text. There we read concerning the symbolic plague of locusts that they have “a king, the angel of the abyss. In Hebrew his name is Abaddon, but in Greek he has the name Apollyon.”

In Hebrew the word ʼavad·dohnʹ means “destruction” and may also refer to “the place of destruction.” It appears in the original Hebrew text a total of five times, and in four of the occurrences it is used to parallel “the burial place,” “Sheol,” and “death.” (Ps 88:11; Job 26:6; 28:22; Pr 15:11) The word ʼavad·dohnʹ in these texts evidently refers to the destructive processes that ensue with human death, and these scriptures indicate that decay or destruction takes place in Sheol, the common grave of mankind. At Job 31:12 ʼavad·dohnʹ designates the damaging effect of an adulterous course. Job declared: “That [adulterous course] is a fire that would eat clear to destruction [ʽadh-ʼavad·dohnʹ], and among all my produce it would take root.”—Compare Pr 6:26-28, 32; 7:26, 27.

Abaddon, the angel of the abyss—who is he?

At Revelation 9:11, however, the word “Abaddon” is used as the name of “the angel of the abyss.” The corresponding Greek name Apollyon means “Destroyer.” In the 19th century there were efforts made to show that this text prophetically applied to individuals such as Emperor Vespasian, Muhammad, and even Napoleon, and the angel was generally regarded as “satanic.” It should be noted, however, that at Revelation 20:1-3 the angel having “the key of the abyss” is shown to be God’s representative from heaven, and rather than being “satanic,” he binds and hurls Satan into the abyss. Commenting on Revelation 9:11, The Interpreter’s Bible says: “Abaddon, however, is an angel not of Satan but of God, performing his work of destruction at God’s bidding.”


In the Hebrew scriptures just considered, it is evident that ʼavad·dohnʹ is paralleled with Sheol and death. At Revelation 1:18 we find Christ Jesus stating: “I am living forever and ever, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.” His power with regard to the abyss is shown at Luke 8:31. That he has destroying power, including the power of destruction over Satan, is evident from Hebrews 2:14, which says that Jesus partook of blood and flesh in order that “through his death he might bring to nothing the one having the means to cause death, that is, the Devil.” At Revelation 19:11-16 he is clearly represented as God’s appointed Destroyer or Executioner.—