Page 34 - The Miracle in the Mosquito
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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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