Page 122 - For Men of Understanding

CHEMICAL WEAPONS
Some living beings can produce within their organisms quite complex
chemical compounds, which if humans tried to make them would require very
high technology and laboratory precision; the animals make them quite easily.
Here are some of them:

Bombardier Beetle
The name of the animal you see in the picture is the "Bombardier Beetle".
The defence method of this beetle is not like that of other animals. In moments
of danger, a mixture of two chemicals (hydrogen peroxide and hydroquinone)
that is previously stored in a storage chamber is transferred to an explosion
chamber. With the accelerative
effect of a special catalyst (peroxi-
dase) secreted from the walls of
the "explosion chamber", the mix-
ture turns into a horrible chemical
o
weapon at 100 C. Scalded by the
boiling chemical substance squirt-
ed with pressure, the enemy pan-
ics and gives up the hunt.
If we look for an answer to the
question "how did this extremely
complex defence mechanism
come into existence?", we see that
it is impossible for this insect to
have developed this mechanism
"by itself".
How could an insect make the formulae for two different chemicals that
explode on contact? Let us assume it did, how could it secrete and store these
in its body? Let us assume it did, how could it form a storage chamber and an
explosion chamber in its body for these chemicals? Even if it "achieved" all of
these, how could it devise the formula of a catalyst that would speed up the
reaction of these two chemicals? It must also, after all, insulate the walls of the
"explosion room" and the walls of the channel through which it squirts the mix-
ture with a flame-resistant alloy so as not to burn itself.
The operations "performed" by the beetle cannot even be performed by
human beings, with the exception of chemists. Unquestionably, chemists can
perform such an operation not within their bodies, but only in laboratories!
It is certainly unreasonable to think that the beetle is such a specialised

120 For Men of Understanding