Creation Moments

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Just how smart are bacteria? Learn about it next on today's Creation Moment. And now, here's our Creation Moments host, Ian Taylor.

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How smart do bacteria need to be? You might be surprised. Scientists were intrigued by the behavior of bacteria, as some swim towards things that they like and away from things that they don't like. That may seem simple enough to us, but it's not that simple for a bacterium.

E. Coli swims through liquids using whip-like hairs called flagella. However, because they are so tiny, their movement through water is like a human trying to swim through molasses. They only move when they rotate their flagella. When rotated counterclockwise, their six or eight flagella wind together, forming a propeller that rotates at 140 revolutions per second. This moves the bacterium along in a straight line.

However, a bacterium will reverse its propeller, causing the flagella to unwrap and spinning the bacterium into a tumble. This led scientists to wonder how a bacterium ever got to where it wanted to go. Scientists also realized that for a bacterium to get something that attracts it, it must have sensors and a memory. A bacterium must be able to say to itself, "It smells better here than where I was a moment ago. I'll keep moving in this direction."

In other words, scientists are trying to figure out what makes bacteria so smart and gives them so many unexpected abilities. The intelligence and abilities of bacteria are no mystery to those who know that we have an intelligent creator. We would expect everything he made to reflect his great abilities.

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