Suspect: Dr. Curt Conners AKA The Lizard
Paging Spiderman
Posted on 08/18/2005 6:15:15 PM PDT by wagglebee
You know that TV crocodile hunting team Steve and Terri Irwin? Well those two can expect some competition in days to come. Scientists in northern Australia have been collecting blood from crocodiles in hopes of saving humans.
Studies in the late 90s showed that several antibodies in croc blood killed penicillin-resistant bacteria. More recently it has been discovered that crocodiles’ immune systems can kill the HIV virus. American scientist Mark Merchant says the reptiles “tear limbs off each other, [but] they heal up very rapidly and normally, almost always without infection.” Aussie scientist Adam Britton adds: “The crocodile has an immune system which attaches to bacteria and tears it apart and it explodes. It’s like putting a gun to the head of the bacteria and pulling the trigger.”
These two scientists draw blood from wild and captive crocs, saltwater and freshwater species. After capturing the donor, they strap its jaws and go for a vein. The vein, Britton says, is “called a sinus, right behind the head, and it’s very easy just to put a needle in the back of the neck and hit this sinus and then you can take a large volume of blood very simply.”
It’ll be years, of course, before croc blood is ready for human use. Their antibodies are so powerful they may have to be diluted. But this is pretty remarkable on two fronts. Once again, proof that embryonic stem cells aren’t the only “miracle” cure for all that ails us. And more importantly, understanding how crocodiles heal points to a pretty intelligent design in nature. Now when are the animal rights people going to start complaining to stop all of this?
Actually, there isn't any proof that embryonic stem cells are of any value.
Intelligent Design Ping!
Stupid me!
Can you say "non sequitur"? I knew you could!
I see nothing there indicative of intelligent design, just the results of a vertebrate having adapted for life in an environment where there is possibility of extreme infection (a swamp). In fact, what I see is the result of natural selection, ie, those croc with stronger immune systems lived to breed and those with weaker systems died. Most mammals never emerged from swamp dwelling creatures and thus never had need to develop such resistant immune systems.
Interesting article, though.
Pick up "A Case For A Creator". Intelligent design is fully investigated.
Do some reading is my suggestion. Pick up A Case For A Creator. Get back to me.
Maybe you should, too. I suggest the Creationism Debunked website.
Not just Crocs. Komodo Dragons have so many varieties of nasty bacteria in their mouths that they can normally give a deer, pig or human one good bite, and if the prey escapes they just hand around and wait for it to die of disease. The Komodos, meanwhile, are immune to all these nasty bugs.
As far as intelligent desgin theory, why do people insist on separating the Creator from Creation?
I take that as a challenge.
Who would have thought to look there?
As an example, what separates Homo sapiens from Homo ergaster, or more appropriately, what separates hominids from other primates? Basic characters. Not brain size, but walking erect. What separates Homo from Australopithecus? Various characters such as dentition, brain capacity, and most of all tool making ability (cultural factor). Species divisions are essentially arbitrary....a 200,000 year old Homo sapiens skull from China is different in detail from a 200 year old skull from France, but there is enough similarity statistically to place them in the same species. Fact, not faith.
I've heard every creationist argument you can think of and they all boil down to misrepresenting paleontology, physics, anthropology (both physical and cultural), biology, genetics, history and every other science and academic discipline you can think of.
If you want a board fight, you can go somewhere else because you aren't getting one from me. I have my faith in God and Jesus Christ, but I also know that Genesis is about the power and the majesty of God, and to reduce God's word to a simple fable about where man came from, rather than being a message about God's authority strikes me as blasphemous. I won't belittle my God by doing that. I respect and worship Him too much to take His work and make it as simple as these frauds would do.
Just to point out who these folks are:
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/2437/whoare.htm
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/2437/aims.htm
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/2437/design.htm
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/2437/diagenda.html
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/2437/wedge.html
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/2437/doctor.htm
These are lengthy, but also very informative.
SPOTREP - ID
Speaking of Genesis, read "Genesis And The Big Bang" and "The Science Of God", both by Dr. Gerald L. Schroeder, former MIT Prof. now teaching in Israel.
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