Page 85 - The Microworld Miracle

of relationship can be seen between bacteria and the pony fish
(Leiognathus Nuchalis), which has two glands filled with lumines-
cent bacteria at the rear of its throat. With the help of the bacteria
the fish can turn this light on or off when necessary, or else appear
totally bathed in light.
Clearly bacteria cannot reason that living inside another spe-
cies can bring them benefits. Nor can they select an appropriate fish

and install themselves in its body, coaxing it to make the needed an-
atomical changes. Yet what we are dealing with is only a bacterium,
and it would be useless to look for the source of this apparent intel-
ligence. Any cooperative system always indicates an intelligence
that produced it—namely, the superior mind and might of Allah,
Who created it and brought it into being.

MICROORGANISMS of Use to Man

Intestinal Bacteria
Your intestines contain a miniature ecosystem that includes
various species of bacteria. Each of these varieties performs a differ-
ent function, from digesting foodstuffs to absorbing vitamins. The

main species of bacteria that dwell in the intestine are known as
Escherichia coli. As you have already seen, E. coli possesses around
5,000 genes in a single-helix chromosome. That is the equivalent of
around 1 million codons consisting of three letters each. (Codons HARUN YAHYA
50
are meaningful "words" consisting of only four letters in the DNA
that consists of combinations of the letters A, T, C and G.) In other
words, 1 million special codes determine all the bacterium's fea-
tures and the activities it will perform. The extraordinary quantity (ADNAN OKTAR)
and nature of the information carried in E. coli's DNA is expressed

83