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Discovery Magazine 11/1/2007

Sniffing out Design

Thoughts about sinus drainage and mucus are not the most pleasant. Who hasn’t been frustrated by the feeling of a raw nose caused by lots of nose-blowing during a cold? Have you ever wondered why mucus in your nose is there anyway? It just so happens that mucus provides a vital tool that enhances your body’s ability to smell.

For many years, researchers have tried to design electronic “noses” that can tell the difference between smells. Such noses have a host of potential uses, including being used in airports to identify chemicals used in explosives. Researchers, however, have failed to master the art of smell. The e-noses simply cannot perform to the level of a real nose. Recent research, however, is sniffing out new ways to make the e-nose more useful.

Researchers from the University of Warwick and Leicester University came up with a new idea. They made a substance that copies the properties of nose mucus. This fake mucus “substantially improved the performance of their electronic nose, allowing it to tell the difference between smells such as milk and banana which had previously been challenging smells for the device.” Furthermore, the artificial mucus helped the electronic nose process the information quicker.

Intelligent men and women from campuses across the world spend thousands of hours to design electronic noses. They base much of their research on real noses. But the electronic noses do not work as well as real noses. What does that tell us? It tells us that whoever designed the real nose is much more intelligent than the humans who are building electronic noses. Even people who believe in evolution have to admit that electronic noses have intelligent designers. They should also be able to see that real noses that are much better than electronic noses have an Intelligent Designer as well. In truth, it is simple to sniff out the divine design of the nose.



“Artificial ‘Snot’ Enhances Electronic Nose” (2007), [On-line], URL: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070430093948.htm.

Copyright © 2007 Apologetics Press, Inc. All rights reserved.



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