From East Congo to the tropical sparse-trunk grassland in South Africa, you can often see a weaver bird called the grey-headed finch. They use grass and many fibers with different flexibility to weave nests, hanging from branches like strange fruits. Weavers choose strong animal hair-most commonly zebra or antelope hair, tie their nests firmly to branches, and wrap their hair into a knot with their mouths as a sign. Such a bird's nest can bear the full weight of a pair of adult birds and several young birds living in it, and it will not fall off regardless of wind and rain.
At the beginning of this century, a natural science enthusiast, Irving Murray, found that young birds did not imitate their older partners when building nests. In order to rule out the possibility of young birds being trained, Yi Yen took some eggs from the weaving nest and secretly put them in the nest of canaries raised by his family to hatch. When the chicks hatch and grow up, they are moved to another specific place, where they can form "partners" and have children. At the same time, they are not allowed to get any suitable materials for nesting, but they are allowed to lay their eggs directly at the bottom of the cage. The laid eggs were taken away again, and then the canary was hatched ... This repeated experiment made the fourth generation of weaver birds not only cut off contact with their predecessors and nature, but also be completely domesticated by human beings.
now, he puts a handful of grass, some slender branches and fibers in the birdcage. The weaver bird began to work with these materials in the cage. Soon, the birds made up their nests hanging in cages, and their styles were no different from those built by their free previous generations. They are familiar with construction technology, and their knowledge in this field is by no means inferior to that of their great-grandparents. They also know how to pad the bottom of the cage with soft but not strong horse hair, and will never weave it into the nest wall by mistake. If there is leftover material, they will use the leftover material to reinforce the connection between the nest and the tree strips on the cage, and use it to tie a special knot with a "trademark".
Marley concluded that the nesting ability of birds is hereditary.
As we all know, the only task of transmitting information to the new generation is to have a DNA chain that can translate genetic records into codes. However, in order to realize nesting activities, it is necessary to have a record of nesting passwords, and then read these passwords, and finally realize them through the movement of the bird's beak. Compare the lathe machining parts with bird nesting: the problems encountered by automatic CNC lathe machining exactly the same metal section are far less complicated than those faced by weaver nesting. Every time a weaver bird nests, the situation is different. Take materials such as wood, branches and other things, and the work will be interrupted due to various problems, and the damaged buildings must be maintained frequently. It is not feasible to explain it here from the point of view of genetic transmission instruction.
In this regard, Polish scholar Machel Couzinet King put forward his opinion: there may be some fragile, subtle, conceptual behaviors and external reference objects that are omnipresent and have inherent resonance with organisms.
—— Spider Weaving Web
The same conclusion can be drawn by analyzing spider weaving activities. Most young spiders don't have much contact with their parents after breaking their shells. It can be said that they don't know their parents. And they always avoid their parents as much as possible, so as not to become things in their bellies. They grow up alone, without any role models for reference, but at a certain age they still know how to weave a web, even though they have never seen it once. Unlike birds, spiders can't grasp their own works through sight, and its difficulty is not difficult to imagine. But they still quickly weave the same nets that have existed since ancient times.
when a spider starts, it first fixes a silk to a tree, and then pulls the other end to an adjacent tree to make it at the same height. This silk is thick and can bear its whole weight. Then, pull a wire from the midpoint of this wire and fix it on the ground to form the shape of the letter "Y". Its node is the center of the network. Then the spider takes the center as the benchmark and gradually unfolds clockwise at a constant angle to form a spiral web. Spiders can also weave webs with different patterns according to the characteristics of their prey. Its operating procedures are quite standardized. In order to pull the Y-shaped scaffold of the web, the spider must make a series of measurements: angle, distance, tension of silk threads with different thicknesses ... < P > The researchers believe that to explain this phenomenon, we can only admit the existence of internal factors, because there are no spider web samples for reference in the surrounding environment. This means that the spider has the overall idea of the web, the form of the web and the construction scheme at different working stages, and there is a process-manipulating factor responsible for the ongoing or future work. But this operation "software" can't exist in the egg. The example of the nest-building of the finch proves that the bird's genes can never bear the role of passing on information from generation to generation. You have to admit that there is an immaterial form that "resonates" with the nerves of all living things and controls their behavior. Unfortunately, many biologists still cling to the hope of finding spider web specimens in eggs.
-amoeba tower
Amoeba, also known as amoeba, is a unicellular protozoa that is almost invisible to the naked eye, and its maximum diameter is no more than .6 cm. Amoeba can stick out a prosthetic foot in the brain pulp to move in all directions. Academically called "amoeba movement", this behavior is the most primitive form of animal movement. Amoebas often crawl on the bottom of the water and wet forest soil. They devour bacteria and eat every three or four hours. Although it has only a single cell, it can do what human beings, a species that formed a brain after more than 1 billion years of slow evolution of cell tissue and 4 million years of equally slow evolution, can do.
If there is food shortage, the hungry amoeba will start to send out a chemical signal, telling the same kind to gather at a central place. It didn't take long for 4, to 6, single cells to gather together to form a team. The whole body was named "Rieks", which was shaped like a shell-shedding snail and continued to move at a speed of one centimeter per hour, and something puzzling happened.
these amoebas can remember the order of their arrival at the assembly site, although they have no memory organs. The first to arrive is always ahead of the team, leading the big team forward. If they are transferred to the end of the team, they will quickly return to the head of the team. On the way to search, if they find nothing, they will change their original ideas and build a building that looks like a sphere on a tall tower together.
this is a great project, which requires a clear division of labor and professional level. But you can't see who is giving orders to direct the progress of the whole project. Amoebas have no sense of touch, no language, and no ideology. It is impossible for them to realize their respective spatial positions. But the amoeba seems to have these abilities: those who are late will use their "bodies" to build a disc-shaped pedestal, and the roots that are high on the pedestal are made up of the first arrivals. The last batch of amoebas who come to report for duty will climb up along the roots and form protruding balloons at the top. Some amoebas, like passengers in a carriage, got into the sphere one by one, where they began to change shape and form cysts. Then shrink the volume, get rid of water, and secrete a coating as a protective outer membrane, stop your metabolism, and finally become a little big "seed" Those amoebas that are made of "flesh and blood" into spherical structures are doomed to push themselves to death, and they will die soon for lack of food. However, amoeba that drilled into the balloon to form "seeds" will be scattered after a period of time due to the rupture of the balloon. If a gust of wind blows, they can get a chance to land on the wet land, come back to life, eat again, decompose and form a team ...
Now let's observe their construction activities from a human perspective: for example, there are 1, people running along the playground with colorful hats in their hands, and they are holding a celebration. Suddenly they stopped and quickly put a flowered hat on their heads. At this time, an accurate portrait composed of various colors is strangely presented to the audience. Who can say that this is human instinct? Obviously, someone drew up a design performance plan beforehand, then cut the portrait into 1 thousand points of different colors, then positioned the young men and women one by one, and finally prepared them to accept the instructions of time, place and hat color. The key here lies in the password and transmission mode of the instructions. Each participant should remember the instructions and act according to them.
what about amoeba? They don't know anything about informatics, cybernetics and management theory. Strictly speaking, it is impossible to "build" without the overall plan, command center and architectural drawings. Humans are like this, and so are other animals in nature. There are no goals and cooperative intentions in amoebas at all, so what is directing their actions? How does an amoeba without a brain receive a command signal? So it reminds people of genes.
Theoretically, the genes of amoeba can record the necessary information. Like other animals, its DNA is a long chain. In order to translate the genetic code into action, and to make every amoeba arriving at the assembly site receive the signals and establish its position in the "building" accordingly, someone or something must have these signals in advance and be able to manipulate the actions of 6, insects at the same time. Those amoebas who climbed on their compatriots later have to be able to determine their orientation with reference to the origin of three-dimensional coordinates, so as to know whether they should continue to climb or move left and right.
how can amoeba do all this? There is no distance measuring organ on it, and it is impossible to compare and analyze the changing situation with the plan. Machel Couzinet King believes that the reason is not internal but external, and it is an external factor that affects the "staff". There is a draft plan to control each individual's action, which determines the division of labor of tens of thousands of single cells, and determines the diameter and height of each base according to the diameter and weight of the balloon in the future. Physics as we know it at present can't accept these problems. Any kind of physical field-magnetic field, gravitational field and electric field-can't store complex and ever-changing plans or forms, and can't determine the programming of biological improvisation behavior. So it is reasonable to assume that the so-called "instinct" belongs to another space. It exists in the whole universe and works on all amoebas. This is a kind of immaterial thing, but the living thing is "easy to read" its instructions and act on them.
editing this paragraph, the use of animal instinct
1. A very strange small gas analyzer was successfully copied from annoying flies. It has been installed in the cockpit of the spacecraft to detect the composition of the gas in the cabin.
2. From fireflies to artificial luminescence;
3. electric fish and volt battery;
4. The windward ear of jellyfish, imitating the structure and function of jellyfish ear, designed a jellyfish ear storm predictor, which can predict the storm 15 hours in advance, which is of great significance to the safety of navigation and fishery.
5. According to the visual principle of frog eye, people have successfully developed an electronic frog eye. This kind of electronic frog's eyes can accurately identify objects with specific shapes like real frog's eyes. The anti-jamming ability of radar is greatly improved after the electronic frog eye is installed in the radar system. This radar system can quickly and accurately identify aircraft, ships and missiles with specific shapes. In particular, it can distinguish between true and false missiles and prevent the fake from confusing the real.
electronic frog eyes are also widely used in airports and traffic arteries. At the airport, it can monitor the take-off and landing of aircraft, and give an alarm in time if it is found that the aircraft is about to collide. On the main roads, it can direct the driving of vehicles and prevent vehicle collisions.
6. According to the principle of bat ultrasonic locator, people also copied the "pathfinder" for the blind. This pathfinder is equipped with an ultrasonic transmitter, with which blind people can find poles, steps, people on bridges, etc. Nowadays, "ultrasonic glasses" with similar functions have also been made.
7. By simulating the incomplete photosynthetic apparatus of cyanobacteria, a bionic photolysis device will be designed, so that a large amount of hydrogen can be obtained.
8. According to the study of human skeletal muscle system and bioelectricity control, a human strength enhancer-walking machine has been copied.
9. The hook of modern crane originated from the claws of many animals.
1. The corrugated roof imitates animal scales.
11. The paddle imitates the fin of a fish.
12. Saws learn mantis arms, or saw grass.
13. Xanthium was inspired to invent the velcro.
14. Lobster with a keen sense of smell provides people with ideas for making odor detectors.
15. Gecko toes provide an encouraging prospect for making sticky tapes that can be used repeatedly.
16. The colloid generated by shellfish with its protein is very firm, and such a colloid can be applied to everything from surgical suture to ship repair.
17. Bat's radar
18. Frog's swimming method
19. Bird's wings-airplane.