The Design in Sea Shells

When investigating the shells of the living things classified as mollusks, which live at the bottom of the sea, the form and the structure of the internal and external surfaces of the shells attracted the scientists' attention:

The internal surface is smooth, the outside one is fluted. The mollusk body is inside shell and the internal surface of shells should be smooth. The outside edges of the shell augment a rigidity of shells and, thus, increase its strength. The shell forms astonish by their perfection and profitability of means spent on its creation. The spiral's idea in shells is expressed in the perfect geometrical form, in surprising beautiful, "sharpened" design. (8)

The shells of most mollusks grow in a logarithmic spiral manner. There can be no doubt, of course, that these animals are unaware of even the simplest mathematical calculation, let alone logarithmic spirals. So how is it that the creatures in question can know that this is the best way for them to grow? How do these animals, that some scientists describe as "primitive," know that this is the ideal form for them? It is impossible for growth of this kind to take place in the absence of a consciousness or intellect. That consciousness exists neither in mollusks nor, despite what some scientists would claim, in nature itself. It is totally irrational to seek to account for such a thing in terms of chance.

Growth of this kind was described as "gnomic growth" by the biologist Sir D'Arcy Thompson, an expert on the subject, who stated that it was impossible to imagine a simpler system, during the growth of a seashell, than which was based on widening and extension in line with identical and unchanging proportions. As he pointed out, the shell constantly grows, but its shape remains the same. (9)

One can see one of the best examples of this type of growth in a nautilus, just a few centimetres in diameter. C. Morrison describes this growth process, which is exceptionally difficult to plan even with human intelligence, stating that along the nautilus shell, an internal spiral extends consisting of a number of chambers with mother-of-pearl lined walls. As the animal grows, it builds another chamber at the spiral shell mouth larger than the one before it, and moves forward into this larger area by closing the door behind it with a layer of mother-of-pearl. (10)

The scientific names of some other marine creatures with logarithmic spirals containing the different growth ratios in their shells are:

Haliotis Parvus, Dolium Perdix, Murex, Fusus Antiquus, Scalari Pretiosa, Solarium Trochleare.

Haliotis brazieri	Dolium perdix

Ammonites, extinct sea animals that are today found only in fossil form, too, had shevlls developing in logarithmic spiral form.

Growth in a spiral form in the animal world is not restricted to the shells of mollusks. Animals such as antelopes, goats and rams complete their horn development in spiral forms based on the golden ratio. (11)

The Golden Ratio in the Hearing and Balance Organ

The cochlea in the human inner ear serves to transmit sound vibrations. This bony structure, filled with fluid, has a logarithmic spiral shape with a fixed angle of ?=73°43´ containing the golden ratio.

Horns and Teeth That Grow in a Spiral Form

Examples of curves based on the logarithmic spiral can be seen in the tusks of elephants and the now-extinct mammoth, lions' claws and parrots' beaks. The eperia spider always weaves its webs in a logarithmic spiral. Among the micro-organisms known as plankton, the bodies of globigerinae, planorbis, vortex, terebra, turitellae and trochida are all constructed on spirals.

THE GOLDEN RATIO IN THE MICRO WORLD

Geometrical shapes are by no means limited to triangles, squares, pentagons or hexagons. These shapes can also come together in various ways and produce new three-dimensional geometrical shapes. The cube and the pyramid are the first examples that can be cited. In addition to these, however, there are also such three-dimensional shapes as the tetrahedron (with regular four faces), octahedron, dodecahedron and icosahedron, that we may never encounter in our daily lives and whose names we may never even have heard of. The dodecahedron consists of 12 pentagonal faces, and the icosahedron of 20 triangles. Scientists have discovered that these shapes can all mathematically turn into one another, and that this transformation takes place with ratios linked to the golden ratio.

Three-dimensional forms that contain the golden ratio are very widespread in micro-organisms. Many viruses have an icosahedron shape. The best known of these is the Adeno virus. The protein sheath of the Adeno virus consists of 252 protein subunits, all regularly set out. The 12 subunits in the corners of the icosahedron are in the shape of pentagonal prisms. Rod-like structures protrude from these corners.

Adeno virus

Three-dimensional forms that contain the golden ratio are very widespread in micro-organisms. Many viruses have an icosahedron shape. The best known of these is the Adeno virus. The protein sheath of the Adeno virus consists of 252 protein subunits, all regularly set out. The 12 subunits in the corners of the icosahedron are in the shape of pentagonal prisms. Rod-like structures protrude from these corners.

The first people to discover that viruses came in shapes containing the golden ratio were Aaron Klug and Donald Caspar from Birkbeck College in London in the 1950s. The first virus they established this in was the polio virus. The Rhino 14 virus has the same shape as the polio virus. (12)

Why is it that viruses have shapes based on the golden ratio, shapes that it is hard for us even to visualise in our minds? A. Klug, who discovered these shapes, explains:

My colleague Donald Caspar and I showed that the design of these viruses could be explained in terms of a generalization of icosahedral symmetry that allows identical units to be related to each other in a quasi-equivalent way with a small measure of internal flexibility. We enumerated all the possible designs, which have similarities to the geodesic domes designed by the architect R. Buckminster Fuller. However, whereas Fuller's domes have to be assembled following a fairly elaborate code, the design of the virus shell allows it to build itself. (13)

Radiolaria

Klug's description once again reveals a manifest truth. There is a sensitive planning and intelligent design even in viruses, regarded by scientists as "one of the simplest and smallest living things." (14) This design is a great deal more successful than and superior to those of Buckminster Fuller, one of the world's most eminent architects.

The dodecahedron and icosahedron also appear in the silica skeletons of radiolarians, single-celled marine organisms.

Structures based on these two geometric shapes, like the regular dodecahedron with feet-like structures protruding from each corner, and the various formations on their surfaces make up the varying beautiful bodies of the radiolarians. (15)

As an example of these organisms, less than a millimetre in size, we may cite the icosahedron based Circigonia Icosahedra and the Circorhegma Dodecahedra with dodecahedron skeleton. (16)

The Golden Ratio in DNA

The molecule in which all the physical features of living things are stored, too, has been created in a form based on the golden ratio. The DNA molecule, the very program of life, is based on the golden ratio. DNA consists of two intertwined perpendicular helixes. The length of the curve in each of these helixes is 34 angstroms and the width 21 angstroms. (1 angstrom is one hundred millionth of a centimetre.) 21 and 34 are two consecutive Fibonacci numbers.

The Golden Ratio in Snow Crystals

The golden ratio also manifests itself in crystal structures. Most of these are in structures too minute to be seen with the naked eye. Yet you can see the golden ratio in snow flakes. The various long and short variations and protrusions that comprise the snow flake all yield the golden ratio. (17)

The Golden Ratio in Space

In the universe there are many spiral galaxies containing the golden ratio in their structures.

The Golden Ratio in Physics

You encounter Fibonacci series and the golden ratio in fields that fall under the sphere of physics. When a light is held over two contiguous layers of glass, one part of that light passes through, one part is absorbed, and the rest is reflected. What happens is a "multiple reflection." The number of paths taken by the ray inside the glass before it emerges again depends on the number of reflections it is subjected to. In conclusion, when we determine the number of rays that re-emerge, we find that they are compatible with the Fibonacci numbers.

The fact that a great many unconnected animate or inanimate structures in nature are shaped according to a specific mathematical formula is one of the clearest proofs that these have been specially designed. The golden ratio is an aesthetic rule well known and applied by artists. Works of art based on that ratio represent aesthetic perfection. Plants, galaxies, micro-organisms, crystals and living things designed according to this rule imitated by artists are all examples of God's superior artistry.

References

8- "The 'Golden' spirals and 'pentagonal' symmetry in the alive Nature," online at: http://www.goldenmuseum.com/index_engl.html
9- D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson, On Growth and Form, C.U.P., Cambridge, 1961.
10- C. Morrison, Along The Track, Withcombe and Tombs, Melbourne.
11- "The 'Golden' spirals and 'pentagonal' symmetry in the alive Nature," online at: http://www.goldenmuseum.com/index_engl.html
12- J. H. Mogle, et al., "The Stucture and Function of Viruses," Edward Arnold, London, 1978.
13- A. Klug, "Molecules on Grand Scale," New Scientist, 1561:46, 1987.
14- Mehmet Suat Bergil, Doðada/Bilimde/Sanatta, Altýn Oran (The Golden Ratio in Nature/Science/Art), Arkeoloji ve Sanat Yayinlari, 2nd Edition, 1993, p. 82.
15- Mehmet Suat Bergil, Doðada/Bilimde/Sanatta, Altýn Oran (The Golden Ratio in Nature/Science/Art), Arkeoloji ve Sanat Yayinlari, 2nd Edition, 1993, p. 85.
16- For bodies of radiolarians, see H. Weyl, Synnetry, Princeton, 1952.
17- Emre Becer, "Biçimsel Uyumun Matematiksel Kuralý Olarak, Altýn Oran" (The Golden Ratio as a Mathematical Rule of Formal Harmony), Bilim ve Teknik Dergisi (Journal of Science and Technology), January 1991, p.16.
18- V.E. Hoggatt, Jr. and Bicknell-Johnson, Fibonacci Quartley, 17:118, 1979.