In 1910, Major General George Owen Squier developed a technique to increase the efficiency of data transmission along telephone lines that is still used today in telecommunications and computer networks. This technique, called multiplexing, allows multiple signals to be combined and transmitted along a single cable, making it possible to share a scarce resource (available phone lines, in Squier’s day).

Today, there are a number of ways to carry out multiplexing. One of them is called time-division multiplexing. While other forms of multiplexing can be used for analog data, this technique can only be applied to digital data. Data is transmitted as a collection of bits along a single channel separated by a time interval that allows the data groups to be directed to the appropriate receiver.

Researchers from Duke University have discovered that neurons employ time-division multiplexing to transmit multiple electrical signals along a single axon.¹ The remarkable similarity between data transmission techniques used by neurons and telecommunication systems and computer networks is provocative. It can also be marshaled to add support to the revitalized Watchmaker argument for God’s existence and role in the origin and design of life.

A brief primer on neurons will help us better appreciate the work of the Duke research team.

Neurons

The primary component of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and the peripheral system of nerves), neurons are electrically excitable cells that rely on electrochemical processes to receive and send electrical signals. By connecting to each other through specialized structures called synapses, neurons form pathways that transmit information throughout the nervous system.

Neurons consist of the soma or cell body, along with several outward extending projections called dendrites and axons.

Image credit: Wikipedia

Dendrites are “tree-like” projections that extend from the soma into the synaptic space. Receptors on the surface of dendrites bind neurotransmitters deposited by adjacent neurons in the synapse. These binding events trigger an electrical signal that travels along the length of the dendrites to the soma. However, axons conduct electrical impulses away from the soma toward the synapse, where this signal triggers the release of neurotransmitters into the extracellular medium, initiating electrical activity in the dendrites of adjacent neurons.

Sensory Neurons

In the world around us, many things happen at the same time. And we need to be aware of all of these events. Sensory neurons react to stimuli, communicating information about the environment to our brains. Many different types of sensory neurons exist, making possible our sense of sight, smell, taste, hearing, touch, and temperature. These sensory neurons have to be broadly tuned and may have to respond to more than one environmental stimulus at the same time. An example of this scenario would be carrying on a conversation with a friend at an outdoor café while the sounds of the city surround us.

The Duke University researchers wanted to understand the mechanism neurons employ when they transmit information about two or more environmental stimuli at the same time. To accomplish this, the scientists trained two macaques (monkeys) to look in the direction of two distinct sounds produced at two different locations in the room. After achieving this step, the researchers planted electrodes into the inferior colliculus of the monkeys’ brains and used these electrodes to record the activity of single neurons as the monkeys responded to auditory stimuli. The researchers discovered that each sound produced a unique firing rate along single neurons and that when the two sounds were presented at the same time, the neuron transmitting the electrical signals alternated back and forth between the two firing rates. In other words, the neurons employed time-division multiplexing to transmit the two signals.

Neuron Multiplexing and the Case for Creation

The capacity of neurons to multiplex signals generated by environmental stimuli exemplifies the elegance and sophistication of biological designs. And it is discoveries such as these that compel me to believe that life must stem from the work of a Creator.

But the case for a Creator extends beyond the intuition of design. Discoveries like this one breathe new life into the Watchmaker argument.

British natural theologian William Paley (1743–1805) advanced this argument by pointing out that the characteristics of a watch—with the complex interaction of its precision parts for the purpose of telling time—implied the work of an intelligent designer. Paley asserted by analogy that just as a watch requires a watchmaker, so too, does life require a Creator, since organisms display a wide range of features characterized by the precise interplay of complex parts for specific purposes.

Over the centuries, skeptics have maligned this argument by claiming that biological systems only bear a superficial similarity to human designs. That is, the analogy between human designs and biological systems is weak and, therefore, undermines the conclusion that a Divine Watchmaker exits. But, as I discuss in The Cell’s Design, the discovery of molecular motors, biochemical watches, and DNA computers—biochemical complexes with machine-like characteristics—energizes the argument. These systems are identical to the highly sophisticated machines and devices we build as human designers. In fact, these biochemical systems have been directly incorporated into nanotechnologies. And, we recognize that motors and computers, not to mention watches, come from minds. So, why wouldn’t we conclude that these biochemical systems come from a mind, as well?

Analogies between human machines and biological systems are not confined to biochemical systems. We see them at the biological level as well, as the latest work by the research team from Duke University illustrates.

It is fascinating to me that as we learn more about living systems, whether at the molecular scale, the cellular level, or the systems stage, we discover more and more instances in which biological systems bear eerie similarities to human designs. This learning strengthens the Watchmaker argument and the case for a Creator.

Resources

• The Cell’s Design: How Chemistry Reveals the Creator’s Artistry by Fazale Rana (book)
• “Biochemical “Turing Machines ‘Reboot’ the Watchmaker Argument” by Fazale Rana (article)
• “A Biochemical Watch Found in a Cellular Heath” by Fazale Rana (article)
• “Increasing the Torque on Intelligent Design” by Fazale Rana (article)
• “Manufacturing the Case for Intelligent Design” by Fazale Rana (article)

Getting heat to cold places, especially during winter, ranks as a great human concern and source of comfort. And though we may not ever think about Earth’s giant interior furnace, humans exist due to the benefits of its fine-tuned flow.

Recent research shows that Earth is likely to be the universe’s heat flow champion for rocky planets of its size and age. In spite of Earth’s small size and age (4.6 billion years), the flow of heat from the interior to the surface is 42,000,000,000,000 watts.¹ Approximately 70,000 measurements show that, on average, every square meter of Earth’s continental surface is warmed by 92 milliwatts as a result of heat flow from Earth’s interior. Meanwhile every square meter of ocean surface is warmed by 67 milliwatts.² (Heat flows more readily through continental silicates than it does through oceanic basalts.)

At Earth’s surface, incident radiation from the Sun dominates heat flow from Earth’s interior. The Sun warms every square meter of Earth’s surface on average by 340.2 watts.³ That is, internal heat flow accounts for only 0.024 percent of Earth’s surface warming. However, incident radiation from the Sun does not penetrate very deeply. Any deeper than several tens of meters into Earth’s crust and internal heat flow dominates solar heat.

Sources of Interior Heat Flow
There are two major sources of heat flow from Earth’s interior. Heat produced through the radioactive decay of long-half-life radioisotopes in Earth’s interior (radiogenic heat) accounts for about 58 percent of the present total heat flow.⁴ Primordial heat—that is, heat lost as Earth continues to cool from the heat generated by the accretion processes that formed it—accounts for the remaining internal heat flow.

Earth has a remarkably high level of primordial heat because of its unique formation process. Like all rocky planets, it formed through the accretion of planetesimals, dust, and gas. The gravitational collapse that occurred through this accretion generated a lot of internal heat. However, Earth’s accretion history did not end there.

Earth experienced three other major accretion events. The most significant of these was the merger event that led to the formation of the Moon a little less than 100 million years after Earth’s initial formation. Earth and Theia (a planet 15–45 percent of Earth’s original mass) merged, increasing Earth’s mass, producing the Moon, and substantially augmenting Earth’s heat of accretion.⁵ Shortly after the Moon-forming event Earth received a “late veneer”—a bombardment by large asteroids and comets.⁶ Then, about 3.9 billion years ago, Earth received the Late Heavy Bombardment of large asteroids and comets.⁷ Consequently, Earth’s primordial heat from accretion was boosted far beyond what is typical for other rocky planets of its size.

Earth possesses an even more remarkable level of radiogenic heat. Compared to the average abundance levels in rocky exoplanets, Earth possesses 90 times as much potassium, 340 times as much uranium, and 610 times as much thorium.⁸ One reason why Earth is so super-endowed with these elements is due to the timing of the solar system’s formation and the unique manner in which the solar system formed. Thus, all the solar system planets are enriched with these three elements. For a number of reasons, Earth is super-endowed with these elements far beyond the levels in other solar system planets. (I go into further detail in my books Why the Universe Is the Way It Is⁹ and Improbable Planet.¹⁰)

It is not only the amounts of potassium, uranium, and thorium that matter for potential life on a planet but also where within a planet these elements reside. On Mars, measurements show that the weight of the polar ice cap has not depressed (pushed down) the underlying lithosphere (crust). The observed upper limit on this depression shows that the present-day mantle heat flow must be less than 7 milliwatts per square meter.¹¹ This implies that most of Mars’ potassium, uranium, and thorium resides in its crust and that its mantle is depleted of these elements. Such a lack explains why the planet’s magnetic field, tectonic activity, and volcanism shut down about 4 billion years ago. Meanwhile these features have been sustained on Earth.

Interior Heat Flow Pathways
In 1862, Britain’s famous physicist Sir William Thomson, Baron Kelvin, calculated that Earth could not be older than 98 million years.¹² His calculation was based on estimates of Earth’s internal heat flow at the time. It assumed all of Earth’s internal heat flow came from the residual heat from a single accretion event (the condensation of Earth from planetesimals) and that heat flow from Earth’s interior occurred strictly as a result of conductive cooling. As already noted, his first assumption was incorrect. His second assumption was also incorrect.

Convection plays a far more important role in heat transport than does conduction in both Earth’s mantle and liquid core (see figure 1).¹³ For Earth’s crust the dominant heat transport mode is volcanic advection. The dominant heat transport modes in the liquid outer core and mantle are convection. The dominant heat transport mode in the solid inner core is conduction. As a transport mechanism, convection is an important reason why Earth’s internal heat flow has been sustained for several billion years.

History of Earth’s Interior Heat Flow
Interior heat flow from both primordial (accretional) heat and radiogenic heat changes over time. The heat left over from accretion gradually dissipates as it flows from Earth’s deep interior through the mantle, through the crust, and to the surface and beyond.

When Earth was younger than about 100 million years, its radiogenic heat was dominated by short-half-life radioisotopes, such as aluminum-26, cesium-135, hafnium-182, iron-60, neptunium-237, technetium-97, and plutonium-244. For the past 4 billion years just four radioisotopes–potassium-40, thorium-232, uranium-235, and uranium-238–have accounted for more than 99 percent of Earth’s radiogenic heat. Figure 2 shows the relative contributions of potassium-40, thorium-232, uranium-235, and uranium-238 to Earth’s internal heat flow throughout the past 4.5 billion years.¹⁴

Benefits of Earth’s Interior Heat Flow
The present temperature of the mantle just under Earth’s oceanic crust is 1,410°C.¹⁵ The current high temperature of the upper mantle means that the upper mantle material has a low viscosity (flows more easily). A familiar analogy would be the difference between a cold stick of butter and a stick of butter that has been melted in a saucepan.

It is thanks to the mantle’s low viscosity that tectonic plates in Earth’s crust are able to move relative to another—a feature of Earth for the past 3.8 billion years. This tectonic activity transformed Earth from a waterworld, where only water existed on its surface, to a planet possessing both surface oceans and surface continents. The combination of surface oceans and continents and enduring, strong tectonic activity established the biogeochemical cycles that allowed Earth’s surface temperature to be sustained at an optimal level for life in spite of the ongoing brightening of the Sun.¹⁶ The same combination has been recycling many of Earth’s life-essential nutrients. Without Earth’s enduring, strong interior heat flow, at best, only microbial life could have existed on Earth and for only several million years. In that event, microbial life never would have been able to physically and chemically transform Earth’s surface environment so that plants, animals, and humans could exist.

The current cooling rate of Earth’s mantle is 70–130°C per billion years.¹⁷ This cooling is slow enough to pose no short-term threat to any current life-forms. The cooling does imply, however, that Earth’s mantle will become more viscous. Eventually, it will be so viscous that plate tectonic activity will shut down. When that happens, advanced life and, eventually, all life will go extinct.

It is thanks to Earth’s unique strong, enduring interior heat flow that it has both a solid inner core and a liquid outer core. Earth’s liquid core is almost entirely comprised of the ferrous elements iron, cobalt, and nickel. These easily magnetized elements driven by convection currents in the outer core explain why Earth has sustained a powerful magnetic field throughout at least the past 3.7 billion years.¹⁸

This powerful, enduring magnetic field has shielded Earth’s surface life from deadly high-energy particles flowing in from the Sun and equally deadly high-energy cosmic rays. Without the shield, solar radiation would have sputtered both Earth’s atmosphere and Earth’s surface water into interplanetary space.

If it were not for Earth’s astoundingly powerful and enduring internal heat flow from the furnace in its core, there would be no civilization. In fact, there would be no humans on Earth. Nor would there be animals, trees, large plants, oceans, or atmosphere. It is thanks to the amazingly fine-tuned designs of Earth’s formation and of its interior structure and heat flow that billions of humans can thrive on Earth, enjoy high-technology civilization, gain an enormous amount of knowledge and understanding and use them to fulfill the purpose and gain the destiny for which our Creator made us.

Featured image: Earth’s Interior Structure
Image credit: Kelvinsong, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike

The Counterpoints series produced by Zondervan Publishing “provides a forum for the comparison and critique of different views on issues important to Christians.”¹ Notable theologian Stanley Gundry is the series editor. The format for each book in the series is for three or four Christian leaders or scholars who are divided on an important Christian issue to each write an essay where they explain their position and briefly describe what they believe to be the best evidences for their position. Each essay is followed by responses from the other essayists and a brief rejoinder.

The Counterpoints series has featured books on creation, evolution, the early chapters of Genesis, and biblical inerrancy before. In these previous books the Reasons to Believe perspective was not presented. Consequently, over the past three decades we have had to continually deal with misunderstandings and misrepresentations of our positions and missions. Therefore, I jumped at the offer to participate in the latest book in the series, Four Views on Creation, Evolution, and Intelligent Design.² I saw my contribution as an opportunity to set the record straight on our mission and vision and on what we believe at Reasons to Believe and why we believe it.

The four authors for the book were the presidents of Answers in Genesis (Ken Ham), BioLogos (Deborah Haarsma), Discovery Institute (Stephen Meyer), and Reasons to Believe (Hugh Ross). Ken Ham (bachelor of applied science in environmental biology and diploma in education) defended young-earth creationism, Deborah Haarsma (PhD, astrophysics) defended evolutionary creationism, Stephen Meyer (PhD, history and philosophy of science) defended intelligent design, and I (PhD, astronomy) defended old-earth creationism.

The general editor for the book, James Stump (PhD, philosophy), is the senior editor for BioLogos—thus, he obviously favors the evolutionary creationism position. I was impressed, however, by how impartially Stump fulfilled his role as the book’s editor and how fairly and charitably he treated each author.

Originally, the four authors were to describe and defend their positions on creation, evolution, and the early chapters of Genesis. This assignment proved difficult for Meyer since the Discovery Institute and the intelligent design movement as a matter of policy “does not offer an interpretation of the book of Genesis, nor does it posit a theory about the length of the biblical days of creation or the age of the earth.”³ Thus, the book morphed into four views on creation, evolution, and intelligent design. Nevertheless, the other three authors did engage one another on their respective interpretations of Genesis 1–11.

I applaud Stump for requiring each of us authors to close our opening essays with what we considered to be the most significant biblical and scientific challenges to our respective positions. The subject of creation, evolution, and Genesis for the past two centuries has been typified by Christian leaders holding rigidly to their positions and refusing to consider any possible modifications or adjustments. By admitting and addressing both possible biblical andscientific challenges, we were all encouraged to go where the evidence goes.

I also applaud Stump for doing everything in his power to encourage a charitable dialogue among the authors. Readers will probably note that Stump’s objective was only partially achieved. However, as an insider I can attest that whatever lack of charity remains in the book is of no fault of Stump.

As for my own hopes for the book, I am grateful that the all-too-typical false dichotomy of young-earth creationism versus theistic evolution was countered. I was encouraged that I had the opportunity to correct the misunderstandings the other authors had about my views and motives. I was encouraged, too, that for the first time in print the four predominant positions on the science-faith spectrum were accurately and fairly presented. In particular, I was pleased that each author stated where they stood on the issue of biblical inspiration and inerrancy, especially the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy affirmations and denials, and why. While space prohibited laying out all the evidences for the respective positions, each of the authors had written several other books and articles where that had been done. We cited these other works in our contributions to enable any reader who wants to dig deeper to do so.

At 235 pages, the book is short enough to quickly provide both Christian and non-Christian readers an understanding of the scope and the passions of the science-faith debate within the Christian community. At the same time, it is long enough to be a useful textbook for Christian seminaries and colleges and for youth and adult classes in churches and Bible studies.

The ultimate Hollywood disaster movie would portray the catastrophic consequences of a nearby supernova eruption. If one were to occur within 1,000 light-years of Earth, it would be the end of civilization as we presently enjoy. A supernova eruption closer than 100 light-years from Earth would bring devastating health consequences for human beings.

Supernovae are the final titanic explosions of stars with initial masses that exceed 9 times the Sun’s mass. At peak brightness, a single supernova can outshine 100 billion ordinary stars. Figure 1 below shows a supernova outshining its host galaxy, NGC 4526.

Figure 1: Supernova 1994D in the NGC 4526 Galaxy. The supernova is to the lower left of the galaxy’s spiral arm structure. Image credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble Space Telescope

Supernovae are especially common in spiral galaxies. While our Milky Way Galaxy’s supernova eruption rate has been slowly declining over the past three billion years, it still averages about three supernova eruptions per century.

Not all spiral galaxies have supernova eruption rates as low as the Milky Way Galaxy (MWG). NGC 1559 is a barred spiral galaxy just like the MWG (see figure 2). Though it is a hundred times smaller than the MWG, NGC 1559 has had four supernova eruptions within the past 35 years. Taking into account NGC 1559’s much smaller size, its supernova eruption rate works out to 400 times greater than the average rate for the MWG!

Figure 2: The Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 1559. Image credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble/Mathias Jage

Even with a rate as low as three supernova eruptions per century for the MWG, one would wonder how humanity has escaped devastation. Part of the answer is that the MWG is large—about 100,000 light-years in diameter. The major part of the answer, however, is that humans are living on Earth at a time when very few nearby supernovae have erupted and those that have were not near enough to wipe us out.

Ice Age Supernovae
Astronomer Richard Firestone’s analysis of the radiocarbon and beryllium isotope ratio records established that within the last 300,000 years, 23 supernovae have erupted within 1,000 light-years of Earth.¹ This rate is more than four times below the normative rate.

Carbon-14 dating leaves little doubt that humans have been on Earth for at least the past 45,000 years. Firestone showed that the same “radiocarbon record for the past 50 kyr [50,000 years] is completely explained by the occurrence of four, powerful, near-Earth (<300 pc) [less than 980 light-years] cosmic ray events.”² Table 1 shows the dates and distances from Earth of these four past supernova eruptions.

Table 1: Recent Nearby Supernova Eruptions

For the supernova event that occurred 44,000 years ago, during the several months following the eruption, Earth’s surface life was exposed to about 40 times the current cosmic radiation dose. Over the next 1,500 to 3,500 years, the cosmic radiation exposure was 4 times the current dose level. In the months following the 37,000 and 32,000 years ago events, Earth’s surface life was exposed to about 15 and 19 times the present cosmic radiation dose.

The consequences for human exposure to cosmic radiation 40, 19, and 15 times more intense than the current level was enhanced mutation rates and incidences of cancer. The production of much greater amounts of NO_x compounds in the atmosphere caused respiratory health issues.

Beyond human health consequences, the much more intense cosmic radiation devastated the stratospheric ozone shield. This devastation dramatically increased the amount of ultraviolet radiation reaching Earth’s surface.

This increased ultraviolet radiation brought three major consequences. First, it dramatically lowered the food productivity of plants. Second, it brought global mean temperature increases of 3–4° Celsius, increases that are observed in the Antarctic and Greenland ice core records. Third, it devastated phytoplankton, thereby contributing to global warming and depleting fish stocks.

While not severe enough to bring about the extinction of the human species, each of the events listed in Table 1 would have made the maintenance of the current human population level and human civilization level impossible, not just for several months but for at least several centuries, if not for several millennia. For all four of the events listed in Table 1, it would not be possible to grow sufficient food to feed in excess of a billion human beings.

Interglacial Supernovae
For the past 10,000 years humans have been enjoying a warm interglacial period. It is an interglacial like no other. It is the only one where the global mean temperature has not changed by more than 2° Celsius. Because of this unprecedented period of extreme global stability, Earth is able to sustain more than 7 billion humans, where most of these humans have access to high-technology civilization.

This same time period is unprecedented in another way. During this period there has not been a single supernova eruption closer to Earth than 5.080 light-years. Table 2 lists all the detected supernovae during the last 10,000 years. Since a supernova as close to Earth as 5,000 light years would be as bright to human observers as the full Moon, we can be confident that no such event would have escaped human attention. Thus, the past 10,000 years must have been free of any supernova events closer to Earth than 5,000 light-years.

Table 2: Known Supernova Eruptions in the Past 10,000 Years

Supernova eruptions as distant as the ones listed in Table 2 pose no health threat to humanity. Neither do they pose any limitations on food productivity and, thus, on human population levels. Some of the more nearby supernova events in Table 2 could damage satellite electronics.

As my sons remind me, any damage to the GPS system of satellites would be the end of civilization as we know it. Fortunately for my sons and other members of their generation, there has not been a single supernova eruption closer than 10,000 light-years during the past 400 years. At that distance, supernova eruptions pose no threat to electronics and technology we currently possess or conceivably could develop within the next several decades.

It seems evident that God has had his supernatural hand on the MWG’s supernova events. At the same time that he has blessed us with an unprecedented period of extreme climate stability, he also has blessed us with an unprecedented period of no supernova eruptions that could possibly limit our population, technology, or capability to take the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ to all the people groups of the world.

This week’s book, Our Triune God, is by Christian theologian Peter Toon and is, in my estimation, a contemporary treasure on the doctrine of the Trinity. Toon’s work is by far the best contemporary book I’ve read concerning the triune nature of God. This sophisticated yet readable book provides a biblical, theological, and historical presentation of orthodox Trinitarianism.

Why Is This Author Notable?

Peter Toon (1939–2009) was an evangelical Anglican priest and theologian. Earning his doctorate from the University of Oxford, Toon was an expert in historical theology and lectured at more than 50 Christian institutions worldwide. He was an able defender of historic Christianity and promoted a traditional or theologically conservative form of Anglicanism. Toon was especially well known for his promotion of the Book of Common Prayer.

What Is This Book About?

A prolific author of more than 30 books, Toon’s work Our Triune God presents, explains, and defends the orthodox view of the Trinity. Divided into four parts and twelve individual chapters, this book offers a general biblical and theological introduction to all things Trinitarian.

Toon begins by exploring the understanding of God offered in Judeo-Christian theism (Hebrew: Yahweh-Elohim). He skillfully explains the biblical basis of the Trinity (appealing to both the Old and New Testaments) and discusses how this critical doctrine was understood and defined within Christian church history. Crucial to Toon’s theological discussion is how the various church councils and creeds understood and defined Trinitarian theology.

In a clear and careful manner, Toon provides a biblical, theological, and apologetic portrayal of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. This work also distinguishes how the Trinitarian view of God differs from other popular conceptions of deity. Lastly, Toon draws together a theological orthodoxy with a rich devotional commitment to knowing and worshiping the one God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Peter Toon reflects concern on how little today’s Christians have learned about the triune nature of God:

Apparently most people who attend church services today have never heard a sermon expounding the doctrine of the Blessed, Holy, and Undivided Trinity—the transcendent, living God, Yahweh-Elohim, worshiped by Christians through the centuries. Further, they have had either little or no instruction in the importance, or the actual content, of this doctrine of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—the Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity.¹

Why Is This Book Worth Reading?

Our Triune God is unique among books about the Trinity for its clarity, theological sophistication, historical understanding, and faithfulness to the teachings of Scripture. Both laymen and scholars will receive a lot from reading and studying this rich theological volume. I hope many Christians will use this work to grow in their understanding of and devotional commitment to the triune God of the Bible.

Resources

• “My Three Favorite Books on the Trinity” by Kenneth Samples (article)

Mosquitoes are the deadliest creatures on Earth, killing over half-a-million people annually and sickening hundreds of millions more.¹ So why on earth would we celebrate World Mosquito Day? And why would a good God create bloodsucking, disease-ridden insects responsible for such extensive suffering?

Marking the Day

World Mosquito Day, August 20, has been marked every year since 1897, when British doctor Sir Ronald Ross first pronounced it in light of his work and discoveries that female Anophelesmosquitoes carried and transmitted malaria parasites. Since then, mosquitoes have been identified as vectors of numerous other pathogens associated with familiar and obscure human diseases. In addition to malaria parasites of the genus Plasmodium,² mosquitoes carry over a dozen viruses including yellow fever; dengue; West Nile; Rift Valley fever; Jamestown Canyon; chikungunya; Japanese, St. Louis, La Crosse, and California encephalitis viruses; Venezuelan, Western, and Eastern equine encephalitis viruses; and most recently, Zika virus. The parasitic filarial worms (Wuchereria bancrofti, Brugia malayi, and Brugia timori) associated with elephantiasis are also transmitted to humans by mosquitoes.³

The “celebration” of World Mosquito Day is not a celebration of mosquitoes but really just an opportunity to heighten awareness and promote education about diseases spread by mosquitoes. Programs promote action items that people can do to help prevent mosquito breeding and biting, and transmission of the associated diseases. These include steps like covering or removing standing water where mosquitoes can breed, staying indoors, wearing long sleeves and pants, using mosquito repellent, using air-conditioning rather than open windows for cooling, and using mosquito nets when mosquitoes are active at night.⁴

Celebrating Mosquitoes?

There isn’t really a day set aside to celebrate mosquitoes, but maybe there should be. There are over 3,550 known mosquito species and only about 200 of these harass humans.⁵ Of the 112 identified genera of mosquitoes, only nine have been identified as harboring species that carry human pathogens. Eight of these genera (Anopheles, Aedes, Ochlerotatus, Culex,Mansonia, Coquillettidia, Psorophora, and Culiseta) are highlighted in the “Are Mosquitoes as Deadly as They Seem?” infographic. The ninth genus, Haemagogus (not shown), contains 28 species, of which 7 are associated with disease-harboring and transmitting the yellow fever virus.⁶

Well over 90 percent of mosquito species have no link to human disease.

A fossil of Burmaculex antiquus embedded in Burmese amber dates to the mid-Cretaceousera, indicating mosquitoes have been around for at least 90–100 million years.⁷ After millions of years of speciation they demonstrate extensive biodiversity today. Even though they have been around a very long time, we still have much to learn about mosquitoes. As we continually learn more, the taxonomic status of several mosquitoes has changed over time, making it challenging to stay abreast of which species is which. With so many species to explore, who knows what mosquito-related compounds may be awaiting discovery for beneficial human use!

But even without such future discoveries, mosquitoes serve significant roles and contribute significant biomass to the global food chain. Mosquitoes have a four-stage life cycle. (See “Mosquito Life Cycle” image below.) Mosquito eggs and larvae serve as food for many other aquatic larvae, amphibians, and fish. And adult mosquitoes provide food for many amphibians, spiders, lizards, birds, bats, and other insects, such as dragonflies. Mosquito larvae are also filter feeders, playing a critical role in scavenging organic matter from aquatic environments. As larvae consume organic particulates and microorganisms, they recycle organic resources into the food chain. And adult mosquitoes serve as pollinators, critical to flower and plant fertilization, as they feed on nectar. Only adult female mosquitoes from some species bite. They need amino acids present in the blood meal to produce mosquito eggs. Male mosquitoes never bite.

Mosquitoes can be found in very warm climates as well as in cold climates and are an intricate part of Earth’s biodiversity and God’s creation. The vast majority of mosquitoes are beneficial participants in complex ecosystems and play no role in human disease. We really don’t know how eradicating mosquitoes might result in significant unwanted and unimaginable effects on the environment. As scientists and good stewards of creation, we must patiently and diligently look for ways to prevent mosquito-borne diseases while protecting well-balanced ecological systems. One day soon, as we continue to learn more, we might have more to buzz about and even reasons to celebrate mosquitoes on World Mosquito Day!

Resources
“Viruses, Mosquitoes, and Suffering: Bad or Good?” by Anjeanette Roberts (article)

To discuss more about mosquitoes or mosquito-borne viruses, and stay current with my blog and related science-faith topics, connect with me on Facebook or Twitter.

This article is updated from a version first published on September 1, 2016, “Why All the Buzz about Mosquitoes?”