SECRETS OF THE CELL (Episode 3): Check Out the Wondrously Precise and Purposeful Machinery in Nature
Ever hear of the tiny bug named the “Plant Hopper”? Probably not, but the Plant Hopper has an amazing ability to leap multiple feet with great precision. Multiple feet doesn’t sound like much until you realize how small is the Plant Hopper. One might even be tempted to describe this ability as miraculous.
The gears of the Plant Hopper’s rear legs (Screenshot from YouTube).
Miracle or not, scientists have learned that the key to the Plant Hopper’s tremendous leaping ability are the power and precision of it’s two large rear-ward facing legs. That power and precision is made possible by gears. That’s right, gears. You know the notched teeth of two separate pieces that integrate to create a turning motion.
As biochemist Dr. Michael Behe explains in the following 5:39 Part Three of the “Secrets of the Cell” series from the Discovery Institute, the Plant Hopper is far from alone in being an example in nature of amazingly complicated, precision machinery. That machinery raises a logical question: Did it come about by chance or by purpose?