Just when we thought we knew all the basics about the human body, anatomists made three surprising discoveries in 2016. The newfound human body complexity borders on science fiction.
The first find: Special cells transport germs from a mother's gut to her baby's gut system through the mother's milk.1 The germs, or intestinal microbes, help both mother and baby digest food. The transport system includes elaborate cross-checks. It's like going through customs during international travel. The microbes get chaperoned through the mother's blood stream into mammary tissues to become incorporated in mother's milk.
Not only that, a healthy mother's body also selects the right germs to help her baby digest the particular nutrients the mother's milk will be supplying that day. Obviously a super-genius was at work when He designed this real-time mother-baby interactive biology.
The second find: A separate team discovered that a unique class of cells transports signals from guts to brains to enhance learning.2 Healthy mammals have unique cells that communicate between the digestive, immune, and nervous systems. Mice with sterilized intestines underperformed in learning tests, but those with normal intestinal flora learn and remember more efficiently. There's every reason to suspect the human body also transports unique information from gut to brain.
The third find: Researchers already determined a few years ago that the human visual system is optimized to channel the most photons of the right wavelength to the appropriate light-sensor cells embedded in the retina. In 2016, a team was stunned to learn that the human eye can sense an individual photon.3 The most sensitive man-made photon detectors only approach that level of resolution using sub-freezing and dry conditions that reduce signal noise. Nobody knows what microscopic marvels enable the human visual system to detect single photons and carry their signals all the way to consciousness in the warm and wet environment inside our human heads.
These three 2016 discoveries of stunning human body design clearly imply an even more stunning Designer, and the God of the Bible fits that bill perfectly.
References
- Thomas, B. Mother's Milk Could Save a Million Lives. Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org February 17, 2016, accessed November 29, 2016.
- Thomas, B. Special Cells Help Brain and Gut Communicate. Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org June 16, 2016, accessed November 29, 2016.
- Thomas, B. Human Vision Can Sense a Single Photon. Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org August 8, 2016, accessed November 29, 2016.
*Mr. Thomas is Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.
Article posted on December 29, 2016.
