Fireflies and Bioluminescence

One of the joys of the summer season is the sighting of fireflies, sometimes called “lightning bugs.” This post was inspired by our recent first sighting of fireflies outside our Eastern Iowa home. The firefly phenomenon holds many pleasant memories. “Lightning in a bottle” could refer to capturing these amazing creatures in a jar for young children as long as we adhere to the principle of catch and release.

The light organ producing the visible light from a firefly is called the lantern. The visible light glows from the translucent exoskeleton of the insect at the rear of the abdomen. Light generating cells in the lantern contain the enzyme luciferin. Another enzyme, luciferase, acts as a catalyst on luciferin to generate an “excited” chemical state when  oxygen is supplied. Oxygen is the element necessary for oxidation, defined as the loss of one or more electrons (charged electrical particles).

Sometimes oxidation results in combustion—rapid burning. At other times oxidation is slow. In firefly bioluminescence the oxidation is a slow process. Firefly bioluminescence is exothermic: Energy is released, but the energy is in the form of light—not heat.  The light generated by lightning bugs is termed “cold light.”

Our research affirmed the complex subject of taxonomy whereby bioscientists describe and categorize living animals according to characteristics distinguishing them from all other living animals. Taxonomists developed a hierarchical system beginning with major categories of animals and expanded the system to describe more specific and detailed information highlighting the wondrous diversity among living creatures. This hierarchy proceeds from about 35 major phyla to several million named species according to the traditional hierarchy. Fireflies are beetles. Surprisingly, about 25% of all recognized species on Earth are beetles. They are included among insects which represent 80% of recognized animal species on Planet Earth.   

There are about 2 million different animal species classified so far on Earth. Millions more have yet to be formally classified. Bioluminescent fireflies exemplify the remarkable diversity of characteristics among Earth’s living species.

 

Bioluminescence is merely one of the astonishing characteristics of a small percentage  of living things on our planet. When we search, examine, and analyze this evidence and the characteristics of Planet Earth creatures, we perceive that God, the Creator of All Things had almost limitless ideas about what sorts of physical traits, behaviors, and operating systems He would create. Translation: God did not stop creating with only one species of fireflies. He created 2000 species of fireflies!

We conclude this post with a few more facts related to fireflies. Some species are diminishing in number because of habitat loss, pesticides, and light pollution. Fireflies use their bioluminescence to attract mates. They prefer almost complete darkness to demonstrate their light production ability. Three states have selected fireflies as their state insect—Indiana, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania.  Worldwide, there are roughly 2000 species in the family of lympyridae (fireflies). Most of these species are bioluminescent.

We link a past post: to expand upon our discussion of “taxonomy:”

https://jasscience.blogspot.com/2018/10/insect-profusion.html

Here is a link to our past post concerning our “sense of wonder:”

https://jasscience.blogspot.com/2007/11/sense-of-wonder.html

Finally, a link to our post on the “Science Wow Factor” as we marvel at one insect’s bioluminescence:

https://jasscience.blogspot.com/2008/07/wow-factor.html

 

 

        

  

  

 

Texas Tragedy

 This post is dedicated to the memory of several hundred lives lost in the Texas flash flood over the July 4, 2025 weekend. We submit to the omniscient Creator of All Things, confessing our weakness, frailty, and lack of ability to explain tragic events beyond our control. We read in scripture a detailed account of the righteous Old Testament figure Job who experienced incomprehensible fatal tragedies relating to his large family. Job 1:22 states, “In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.”

After searching through our blog archive, we uncovered a past post that deals in much greater depth with the issues raised in the above paragraph. We link it here:

https://jasscience.blogspot.com/2011/05/what-we-dont-know.html

The subject of this post is appropriate with respect to our inability to comprehend such a horrific disaster. As of this writing, about 300 people have perished or are missing. Several dozen were young children at Camp Mystic, inundated along the Guadalupe River in an area known as “flash flood alley.” We cite several excerpts from the above linked post:

“The Book of Job deals with natural tragedies—what they mean, why they occur, and perhaps broader questions of why discomfort, grief, tragedy, and sin could even exist at all.

“Job confessed he did not understand many of the wonders described and could not answer the questions posed.

“These (tragic) events were permitted by the Lord. If God, the Creator, is in sovereign control of our universe, we must acknowledge that any event is under his purview. 

“Earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, and floods have occurred….. along with the far more common tranquil events. The latter outnumber the violent, tragic events by orders of magnitude…..The events of Job 1-2 could now be said to have led to fulfilling God’s higher purpose. We may speculate on what that higher purpose was, but we may never understand it from a human standpoint. Job was not vindicated by his righteousness, but by his recognition of God’s sovereignty. God triumphs over Satan. God triumphs over evil. At the end of time, the triumph is not only in the hearts of believers, but also in an ultimate sense as outlined in the Book of Revelation 21-22.”

The Old Testament Book of Job is a favorite for many Christians. It has many science and faith commentaries and insights. In its final chapter, the author confesses and repents: “I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted. You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’ My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. (Job 42:1-6 NIV).

The Texas tragedy reminds us that our Sovereign God’s ways are not our ways. We may say that a “just” God should do this, or shouldn’t do that. Old Testament prophet Isaiah states, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord” (Isa. 55:8).

  

     

   

 

Time Scale of the Universe

 Our recent post dealing with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) launched in 1990 and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) launched in 2021 help clarify our beliefs about when our universe was created. Cosmologists have dated the beginning of the universe at about 13.7 billion years.

Theologians have discussed the time scale of the creation event for many years. Creationists are categorized as “Old Earth Creationists” (OEC) or “Young Earth Creationists” (YEC). Young Earth Creationists experienced a revival since the mid-20th century. Henry Morris and John C. Whitcomb authored a popular book entitled “The Genesis Flood” in 1961. It was followed by other volumes, such as “Scientific Creationism” by Henry Morris in 1974. Morris and Whitcomb were staunch believers in a young universe, not a 13.7 billion year old universe. Their scientific interpretations were substantially different from mainstream scientists of the 21st century with respect to the age of the universe and Planet Earth. 

It is our view that the telescopes mentioned in our opening paragraph reveal scientific proof that God’s initial creative act occurred 13.7 billion years ago at the moment of the “Big Bang.” This event marked the beginning of time, space, matter, and energy. It was a true beginning of all things. We have used the following description of God: THE CREATOR OF ALL THINGS. One of the four dimensions mentioned above—time—is mentioned several times in scripture: I Cor. 2:7, II Tim. 1:9, Titus 1:2, and Eph. 1:4. These passages contain phrases such as before time began, before the beginning of time, or before the ages began.

For Young Earth Creationists (YEC) the age of Planet Earth is only six to ten thousand years based on their interpretations of both science and Hebrew scripture. It is our belief that science discoveries concerning the enormous age of our universe are correct beyond any doubt. Exegesis of the Hebrew word “YOM” (day) permits various time scales. 

God could have produced our universe in a brief instant. Instead, astrophysicists have discovered the extended timeline of many events which took place in our vast universe since time began to produce the unique life-plentiful planet we enjoy today. cThe JWST is able to look back in time even farther than the HST. We look back in time when we view distant objects through the JWST, HST, and other telescopes. We are able to visually perceive events from the past and calculate how long ago the events occurred in Earth years. For example, Andromeda galaxy is visible to the naked eye as a faint, fuzzy patch in the heavens. It is visible through a fine telescope as a beautiful spiral galaxy. It is roughly 2.5 million light years away and is composed of billions of stars. When we view Andromeda Galaxy we see an event that happened 2.5 million years ago. Therefore, we conclude that the universe existed 2.5 million years ago.

The Creator is not confined to human time frames. He creates, however, within human time frames. We may better understand verses such as II Peter 3:8b: “…with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” This passage suggests that the Creator of All Things acts creatively over long time scales. Our post of 11/13/17 entitled “Our Miracle Immersed Planet” listed three types of miracles—transcendent, transformational, and sustaining. We copy our definition of transformational miracles here:

“…(Transformational miracles involve) God’s direct action to refashion a particular aspect of his created realm to produce something of much higher complexity and functionality. These miracles took place within the laws of physics and space-time dimensions of the universe.”

The HST and JWST telescopes are able to look back in time to dozens of past events where transformational miracles occurred.   

    

     

     

     

 

   

Deep Space Telescopy

 When my granddaughter was two or three years old she once observed the night sky at our home in rural Illinois. Her family lived in an urban area near Chicago. When she first observed our dark skies, she inquired, “Grandpa, are those stars?” In our modern day it is sometimes difficult to observe the wonders of the sky by looking overhead at night. A minority of our population lives in rural areas and might be able to perceive the full panoply of visible stars at night. However, a majority of our urban residents have seldom been able to view the wonder of the nighttime heavens owing to the problem of “light pollution.” Illumination from street lights or even from outdoor house lights may be a benefit for security and safety issues in the suburbs, but a detriment to folks interested in astronomical wonders. 

Treasured memories from my science teaching experience were “star watches” we offered to students. These observational sessions took place several hours after the sun had set. We made sure the students arrived for the event after astronomical twilight arrived—the darkest time of the day. Observations of the night sky were made when the sky was darkest in order that stars and planets appeared at their brightest.

After our naked eye observations and a few telescopic views of the night sky, our students were sent home and instructed to return to the school’s soccer field, our observational venue, in total darkness after a few hours of sleep. While students slept the earth continued to rotate. The stars they observed the following morning had apparently moved to a different position in the sky. Thoughtful students were startled by what happened in the sky overnight. Each star moved in a circular path around Polaris, also called the North Star. The circular star paths traced out a sort of mirror image of Earth’s rotation. We hoped our public school students would contemplate the beauty of creation as manifest in the sky. 

The Bible refers to human emotions of worship when we observe the glory of creation in the skies above us. Many Old Testament Scripture writers were observers of the sky. Psalm 8:3-4 exults, “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of him?” Or Isaiah 40:26: “Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name.” Old Testament observers were some of the earliest naked eye astronomers as well as believers in a divine Intelligent Designer. Telescopic astronomy would not be instituted for another two thousand years. For many years scientists had speculated that other planets orbited around distant stars. 

In the early 17th century, the first primitive telescopes were developed. Since then telescope technology has advanced significantly, but we still appreciate the naked eye astronomy of divinely inspired scripture authors. Modern cosmology focuses on the entire universe in its totality. We close with a discussion of two of the most famous modern telescopes of hundreds of instruments produced since World War II.

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was launched on April 4, 1990. The HST was launched into low earth orbit about 360 miles above Earth’s surface. It was a public relations boon for people interested in astronomy. One of its finest achievements came in 1995—the discovery of the first proven exoplanet—a planet orbiting a star similar to our sun. The telescope revealed startling images of the distant universe. Some pictures revealed what became known as the “pillars of creation,” attractive plumes of hydrogen gas and dust enhanced by color filters. Objects in deep space such as galaxies are clearly visible. Proof of the expanding, accelerating universe is evident. Its achievements, however spectacular, were overshadowed by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). 

The recent JWST was launched December 25, 2021. Its cost was $9.7 billion and took 25 years to complete with some assistance from international agencies. It does not replace the HST. Rather, it exponentially amplifies the mission of the Hubble telescope. Astrophysicist Hugh Ross explains: “The JWST has already provided evidence of the structure and history of the early universe that carries big bang implications.

“The JWST is as tall as a 3-story building and as long as a tennis court. The diameter of its main mirror is 6.5 meters (21 feet). The JWST’s main mirror has more than seven times the light collecting area as the HST…..Unlike the HST the JWST is designed to detect the infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Hence, it is ideally suited to explore…that part of the universe that reveals the first few billion years of cosmic history.”

 

The huge telescope was not placed in orbit around our Earth. It was launched to remain almost one million miles from the Earth at what is known as the L2 Lagrange point. At this point several natural forces balance each other and very little energy is needed to keep the huge telescope in an ideal location. The L2 Lagrange point is a region of space which revolves around the sun in one year in tandem with Planet Earth. At this location the JWST is shielded from extremely hot or cold temperatures which would disable the telescope.

There are a number of YouTube videos available dealing with the astonishing capabilities of the JWST. In our opinion the building and successful launch of this telescope may have been a divine miracle enabled by the Creator of All Things to instruct humanity concerning the divine creative act described in Genesis 1:1. God has enabled scientists to invent telescopic means of looking back into the distant past to view creation events close to the “Beginning of Time.”