New design innovations from biomimetics
by Chris Ashcraft
© iStockphoto/JackJelly
The exquisite designs of the organisms on Earth have served as inspiration to countless
engineers and scientists. Important inventions, such as Velcro or the airplane,
owe their inceptions to those who first observed these qualities in God’s
handiwork and then sought to mimic these abilities. Although an ancient practice,
biomimetics has grown in modern times as a form of reverse engineering.1 In practice, designs or processes in nature are
studied for the purpose of finding practical applications and/or with the hope of
designing artificial imitations. Recently the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) has funded biomimetic research that led to the development of an imaging device
that can literally see through walls.
Lobster eye design
… the new handheld imaging system can see through walls of various thicknesses
and materials, and identify contents.
The unique design of the eye of the lobster is one such example that has been intensely
studied to help understand how it allows some organisms to see in low light and
murky waters. Rather than bending (refracting) the light to focus the image on the
retina, several of the long-bodied decapod2
crustaceans (shrimps, prawns, crayfish and lobsters) possess reflecting
compound eyes. Unlike the more common compound eyes of insects, which have hexagonal
facets, the lobster eye design incorporates square facets that are arranged radially
to form an optic array with a 180° field of view.3 The geometric assemblage of facets has all of the
hallmarks of intelligent design and defies attempts to explain it through natural
mechanisms.4
LEXID lobster eye imaging device.
Science & Technology Directorate, Department of Homeland Security
Simply put, these facets are tiny square-shaped tubes with walls that act as mirrors
to reflect the incoming light. The walls of each facet are perfectly aligned so
that the reflected light is flawlessly focused toward the receptor layer so that
they all merge at the same point (see diagram). The design creates an intensified,
superpositioned image because the light from many facets combines to form a single
image.5 As many as 3,000
reflective facets are found in some species such as the Norway lobster (Nephrops
norvegicus), and increases in sensitivity up to 1,000-fold above that of
the more common apposition type eye (where light remains within a single facet/ommatidium).6 Truly amazing!
Ears that hear and eyes that see—the Lord has made them both. (Proverbs 20:12)
Biomimetic applications
The decapod’s eye has the ability to intensify a low brightness image that
is captured from a broad field of view using the technique of reflective superpositioning.
Developing a system similar to that possessed by the lobster has intrigued engineers
since the mechanism was first made known.
In a 2006 press release, UK researchers at the University of Leicester announced
that they were developing an X-ray telescope that draws from the design features
of the lobster eye. The “Lobster All-Sky X-ray Monitor”, which was originally
proposed by Roger Angel of the University of Arizona in 1977, replicates the eye’s
ability to focus images from all around without turning. Dr Nigel Bannister, University
of Leicester, stated: “The great advantage of the Lobster design is an almost
unlimited field of view”. The device may be used aboard the International
Space Station or perhaps mounted on a free-flying satellite.7
Illustration of the decapod reflective compound eye. Adapted from Denton, M., Nature’s
Destiny: How the laws of biology reveal purpose in the universe, ch. 15, The Free
Press, New York/London, 1998.
More recently, the Physical Optics Corporation in Torrance, CA, operating under
the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate
has implemented the design of the lobster’s eye to create an imaging device.
Known as LEXID (“lobster eye x-ray imaging device”), the new handheld
imaging system can see through walls of various thicknesses and materials, and identify
contents. The tremendous potential of the device has sparked interest from the U.S.
Coast Guard, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the Transportation Security
Administration, which are organizations responsible for scrutinizing what is coming
into the country.8
LEXID works by emitting low-level X-rays, which the lobster eye optics focuses into
a collector. It then produces an interpretation of the returning X-rays on a small
liquid crystal display, which is currently clear enough to reveal weapons or the
presence of humans behind concrete walls. Although still in the developmental and
testing phase, the prototype produced with just under one million dollars of Homeland
Security money is expected to be ready for on-the-job DHS testing in the near future.
In addition to DHS-intended applications, the inventors also envision a virtually
unlimited number of alternative uses for the device, in fields ranging from construction
to archaeology.9 Who would
think that research revealing the incredible design of the lobster eye might someday
safeguard nations or lead to other potential discoveries of historical significance?
Evolution or design?
The compound eye is one of the most complex and diverse organs. Crustaceans can
be found with nine of the ten types of compound eyes, and four distinct types are
present in the decapod subgroup. Apposition eyes (where each lens element contributes
a unique part of each total image) are more common in crustaceans, but the reflecting
superposition type discussed here is typical in the decapods (crayfish, lobsters,
etc.).6
Evolutionists have attempted to construct phylogenies (evolutionary family trees)
by comparing the types of compound eyes present in existing groups.10 They generally assume that the apposition eyes
evolved first, since they are the most common type of compound eye. They are also
present in larval stages of all decapods, and possessed by all ‘lower crustaceans’,
such as the trilobite. The advanced reflecting superposition optics that inspired
the LEXID are assumed to have developed by Darwinian processes in an ancient common
ancestor of the decapods. However, no specific mechanisms for such a development
have yet been put forth and experts admit that the overall structure of the eye
would have to be radically transformed at once, or non-functioning intermediates
would result.6
According to Edward Gaten, University of Leicester:
“The evolution of superposition eyes from the apposition eyes found in primitive
crustaceans poses a particular problem. The apposition eye produces multiple inverted
images whereas in the superposition eye a single erect image is present. To make
this transition without going via non-functioning intermediates requires a continuing
correction of the focusing properties of the dioptric apparatus so that light leaving
the crystalline cone is either afocal or is focused onto the rhabdom layer.”6
While LEXID and other devices based on the lobster eye are indeed ingenious technological
innovations, they are but crude copies of the real thing.
Instead of recognizing the rather obvious implication, that a masterful intellect
is responsible for the engineering wonders possessed by the organisms on Earth,
the materialistic worldview causes many to naïvely accept that blind natural
processes have given these amazing creatures the “appearance of having been
designed for a purpose.”11
But the discipline of biomimetics speaks loudly against such materialistically derived
fallacies. Engineers attempt to copy biological structures and processes because
their designs are superior to those devised by the human mind. While LEXID and other
devices based on the lobster eye are in-deed ingenious technological innovations,
they are but crude copies of the real thing.
Designs offer clear testimony of the existence and creativity of the One who created
them, and the biological realm contains countless novelties that scientists struggle
to comprehend, and in many cases they remain a mystery. Although we may never fully
understand certain aspects of the creation, the qualities of the Creator are revealed
through what is made, thereby leaving those who would deny His existence without
any excuse (Romans 1:20).
Related articles
Further reading
References and notes
- What is biomimetics? How have designs
in nature inspired human designers? creation.com/biomimetics.
Return to text.
- Decapods are a taxonomic Order (Decapoda) of 10-legged animals
(deca = 10; poda = foot) in the Phylum Arthropoda, Subphylum Crustacea, Class Malacostraca.
Return to text.
- Land, M., Eyes with mirror optics, Journal of Optics A:
Pure and Applied Optics 2(6):R44–R50, 2000.
Return to text.
- Sarfati, J., Lobster eyes brilliant geometric
design, Creation 23(3):12–13, 2001; creation.com/lobster.
Return to text.
- Land, M., Superposition images are formed by reflection in
the eyes of some oceanic decapod Crustacea, Nature 263(5580):764–765,
1976. Return to text.
- Gaten, E., Optics and phylogeny: is there an insight?
The evolution of superposition eyes in the Decapoda (Crustacea), Contributions to
Zoology 67(4):223–235, 1998; dpc.uba.uva.nl/ctz/vol67/nr04/art01.
Return to text.
- University of Leicester, Lobster telescope has an eye for
X-rays, ScienceDaily, sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/04/060404194138.htm,
5 April 2006. Return to text.
- U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Eye of the Lobster,
S&T Spotlight, 1(7), November 2007; www.dhs.gov/xres/programs/gc_1217615132821.shtm.
Return to text.
- Hall, M., Lobster serves as model for new X-ray device,
USA Today, poc.com/pressroom/new/new_LEXID_usatoday.asp, 20 December 2007.
Return to text.
- Bergman, J.,
Did eyes evolve by Darwinian mechanisms? Journal of Creation 22(2):67–74,
2008. Return to text.
- Dawkins, R., The Blind Watchmaker, W. W. Norton
& Company Inc., New York, 1996; p. 1. Return to text.
| Julie I. wrote: “Thank you so much for this site! I am very blessed already. I appreciate you sharing all these helps and resources. Especially the free ones. We are grateful!” Keep the free stuff coming.  | | |
|
