Anatomical Artistry at its Best

Would anyone like to identify the subject of this unusual but elegantly beautiful photograph? I’ll give you a clue: it’s the rear end of something. Dennis Kunkel makes stunning colorized scanning electron micrographs of just about anything under the sun, both animate and inanimate. Electron microscopes, because they use beams of electrons rather than light, can’t do color; but Dr. Kunkel colorizes them by a process that transforms them into works of art more than mere scientific data. See his work at: www.denniskunkel.com

With the invention of the electron microscope our knowledge of the complexity of living organisms, especially of the fine structure of individual cells, has exploded. Light microscopes are limited in their resolution by the length of the light waves. Anything smaller than a half wavelength of light is invisible to the light microscope. Electron microscopes, on the other hand, throw out beams of electrons hundreds of times closer together than the length of light waves. So they can “see” objects that are far smaller than can be resolved by visible light.

Most of the structures in a living cell are seen as specks or can’t be seen at all under the light microscope. In Darwin’s day, even a large cell looked like a blob of jelly with a few marbles and specks visible inside. I am convinced that Mr. Darwin, had he been able to see even one electron micrograph of the internal structure of a cell, would have been tempted—even forced by the clear evidence—to toss aside his theory of evolution by natural selection.

The Kunkel photograph is not of an individual cell, but of a complex--irreducibly complex--anatomical structure. Give up? OK, it’s the spinneret of a spider—the organ than makes and spins out silk. What a marvel of design (very intelligent design) it is. It can produce several kinds of silk, each for a different purpose: sticky silk for capturing prey; non-sticky for walking on without getting stuck. If this mechanism hadn’t been perfectly designed from the start, it would be a disaster, the tiny openings clogging, or the silk not drying at the correct rate, etc. etc. For more information about the incredible characteristics of spider silk and how it's made, go to: http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v23/i2/webspinners.asp

So don't be deceived into believing that living things are not intelligently designed, down to the most minute detail, by the omnipotent, omniscient Creator of all things, the One who sent His Son to save His people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21)