Creation Moments

Jonathan Cotton: Stop singing. How knife fish silence each other? That's next on today's creation moment. And now, here's our creation moment host, Ian Taylor.

Ian T. Taylor: The brown ghost knife fish, popular in many aquariums, generates a weak electric signal that it uses for navigation and communication. The electric field they generate is too weak to stun prey. However, the electric organs that run along the sides of their bodies can pick up any changes in the field when the field encounters something with a conductivity that is different than water. The communication aspects of the field are even more amazing. Male knife fish have been recorded singing to females by modulating their electric field. Researchers reported that the males will sing like this for hours at night.

However, when two knife fish who are hostile to one another encounter one another, they will raise the frequency of their electric field to jam their rival's signal. Researchers confirmed their conclusion that the knife fish were attempting to jam an enemy's signal by using a dummy knife fish, and so they rigged the dummy to generate signals that mimicked a knife fish. Then they placed two male knife fish in the tank with it. The two males were rivals to the dummy, and both male knife fish quickly raised their frequencies to jam the rival's signal. Some people believe that mindless evolution gave the knife fish the ability to generate and control electric fields for communication, as well as the ability to receive those signals.

That credit clearly belongs to God, the creator.

Jonathan Cotton: To read thousands of short radio scripts like the one you heard today, ask us about our popular line of devotional books, Letting God Creates Your Day. Call us toll-free at 1-800-42 Bible.