Updates
UPDATE 28 12 24
A cascades of hormones Gallery 16
UPDATE 9 1 25
The Spiderverse
Towards the end of the last century, a famed German engineer named Frei Otto designed a number of revolutionary structures which owed a lot to his study of spiders' webs. Among them was the Munich Olympics Stadium (see below), site of the infamous massacre of 1972.
The work of an agenelopsis spider glistens in the morning dew.
(Note: to see the spider at work, go to You-tube and search for 'spider builds web").
The spider is not an engineer– its tiny brain knows nothing of mechanics or tensile strengths. But its amazing skills are instinctive, written into its genetic makeup, to be handed on to the next generation.
Where did these skills come from?
The spider has an advantage over the human engineer – the material it uses, spider silk, is stronger than steel and tougher than Kevlar. It is made from hugely complex protein molecules which are generated by glands in the spider's abdomen. These feed up to four pairs of spinnerets in each of the 34,000 different species of spiders.
In an evolutionary scenario this spinneret has no 'purpose'. It is just another collection of happy accidents, sifted and preserved by 'natural selection' if they advance the spider's development. But what value is a partly-formed, not yet working spinneret? How can such an organ possibly be put together accidentally, one small increment at a time?
And how did its protein source material just happen to be available?
Each spinnerret can produce different varieties of silk, with properties to suit different functions in the web. The spider knows where to use each type (up to eight different types of silk in some spiders).
We have not yet succeeded in copying spider silk.
If and when we do, it will simply confirm what we know already – that intelligence is essential, blind chance simply will not do!
The amazing spider defies any conceivable evolutionary expectation, and Instead displays the supreme wisdom of its Creator:
"You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honour and power,
for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being."
Revelation 4: 12
Electron Microscope view of part of a spider's spinneret, showing the silk emerging from the ends of each filament
We do not use cookies on this website. We do not collect any of your personal details, and our list of subscribers is not shared with any third party.
Intelligence and purpose in the natural world
We need your consent to load the translations
We use a third-party service to translate the website content that may collect data about your activity. Please review the details in the privacy policy and accept the service to view the translations.