Page 52 - Biomimetics: Technology Imitates Nature

Biomimetics: Technology Imitates Nature

plants and other organisms display cannot, of course, be explained away
as coincidences. As proofs of creation, they represent a serious quandary
for evolutionists.

Plants that Give Off Alarm Signals

Nearly everyone imagines that plants are unable to combat danger,
which is why they easily become fodder for insects, herbivores, and oth-
er animals. Yet research has shown that on the contrary, plants use amaz-
ing tactics to repel, even overcome their enemies.
To keep leaf-chewing insects at bay, for example, plants sometimes
produce noxious chemicals and in a few cases, chemicals to attract other
predators to prey on those first ones. Both tactics are no doubt very clever.
In the field of agriculture, in fact, efforts are going on to imitate this very
useful defense strategy. Jonathan Gershenzon, researching the genetics of
plant defenses at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology,
believes that if this intelligent strategy can be imitated properly, then in
the future, non-toxic forms of agricultural pest control could be provid-
ed. 42
When attacked by pests, some plants release volatile organic chemi-
cals that attract predators and parasitoids, which lay their eggs inside the
living body of pests. The larvae which hatch out inside the pest grow by
feeding on the pest from within. This indirect strategy thus eliminates
harmful organisms that might damage the crop.
Again, it is by chemical means that the plant realizes that a pest is
eating its leaves. The plant gives off such an alarm signal not because it
“knows” it’s losing its leaves, but rather as a response to chemicals in the
pest species’ saliva. Although superficially, this phenomenon appears to
be quite simple, actually quite a number of points need to be considered:
1) How does the plant perceive chemicals in the pest's saliva?

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