Was It Designed?
The Beetle’s Pressure-Spray System
▪ Though less than an inch in length [2 cm], the bombardier beetle is noted for its unique defense mechanism. When threatened, the insect sprays boiling, foul-smelling liquid and steam from its posterior, warding off spiders, birds, and even frogs.
Consider: This beetle is equipped with “a pair of glands which open at the tip of [its] abdomen.” Each of these has a reservoir that stores an acidic compound and hydrogen peroxide as well as a reaction chamber filled with enzymes dissolved in water. To protect itself, the insect can squeeze the solution from the reservoirs into the reaction chambers to trigger a chemical reaction. The result? Noxious chemicals, water, and steam
Researchers have studied the bombardier beetle to learn how to develop more effective and ecologically-sound mist systems. They have discovered that the beetle not only uses one-way inlet valves to allow chemicals into the reaction chambers but also has a pressure-relief valve to expel them. Engineers hope to use spray technology based on the bombardier beetle in car engines and fire extinguishers, as well as in medical drug-delivery devices, such as inhalers. Professor Andy McIntosh of the University of Leeds, England, says: “Nobody had studied the beetle from a physics and engineering perspective as we did
What do you think? Did the bombardier beetle’s complex system of valves, combustion, and explosion develop by chance? Or was it designed?
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Oxford Scientific/