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John Clayton
As a kid I used to hear stories about a man who was shot at close range and was saved from injury because a silk scarf
around his neck "caught" the bullet. Although
the veracity of that story cannot be proven, scientists do know
that the drag line of the golden orbweaving spider (Nephilia
clavipes) has a strength and toughness unmatched by any
synthetic fiber.
Studies of spider dragline silk show that it has more than 22,000
base pairs and is structured in a glycine rich polymer. This
is arranged genetically by the spider and scientists are trying
to reproduce it. All kinds of sophisticated genetic engineering
techniques are being used to produce the artificial spider web,
but so far nobody has been able
to do it.
Some spiders produce as many as seven different kinds of silk
using different genes in different glands. It will be a long
time before artificial spider silk will be able to be produced
to make shoes, clothes, and the hundreds of other items that need
a fabric of great strength, light weight, and high durability.
The design is of such complexity that man's greatest minds and
machines are challenged by the task. The mind of God is complex
and His designs match the needs of His creatures beautifully.
We see a wonder-working hand has gone before in every area of
the creation we investigate.
This article taken from: Does God Exist?, Nov/Dec 1996
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