Page 34 - The Miracle in the Mosquito
P. 34

THE MIRACLE IN THE MOSQUITO


                 mm (0.43 inch) in diameter, can easily float on water. The hollows
                 under the eggs and the spaces between the eggs serve as an air pil-
                 low to keep the disc afloat. If such a clever method were not em-
                 ployed, the eggs would sink and die. However, the danger is avert-
                 ed right from the start and security provided by this design detail.
                     So how is it that a mosquito can think about a problem and
                 find the most appropriate solution? Is it possible for the mosquito
                 to know about the buoyancy of water? Where does it get the
                 knowledge of how to use this force?
                     However impossible it may be, let’s suppose that the mos-
                 quito comes up with the solution for itself by observing other eggs
                 and thinking about it at length. Even if that were the case, if there
                 was no air hollow under the egg from the time it was laid, the
                 mosquito’s raft would be useless.
                     What’s more, the mosquito is also created with an adhesive
                 for sticking the eggs together, which is not dissolved by water over
                 time. If it were not for this glue, there would be no meaning to the
                 airspace under the egg or the mosquito’s decision to make a raft.
                     Of course, there is also a reason for the raft made by the mos-
                 quito being disc-shaped. The disc shape is the most suitable for a
                 raft. If the mosquito used another geometric shape, for example, a
                 long, narrow rectangle, the raft could easily capsize. But the disc-
                 shape best protects the raft from capsizing if the water is rippled.

                     It is not possible to claim that the details, which together
                 make up such a harmonious system, could have evolved of their
                 own accord over time. Furthermore, if one of these details were
                 missing, it would not be possible to go back over the whole system
                 again and it would be destroyed. The mosquito makes a raft which
                 it cannot develop by means of “trial and error” and which cer-
                 tainly could not have been produced as a result of coincidence.
                 Thus the sole explanation for this system is that this creature,
                 which makes a raft just a few weeks at most after hatching from





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