While on a hike and photo taking expedition in the tropics I stopped to observe a spider spinning a web. How was this spider able to acquire the ability to carry out such a complex behavior? As I was walking along through thick underbrush I noticed a bee hive. How was it that these bees learned the complex behavior of being able to build a nest, and a nest made of mud and other tropical materials?
I looked at the wide variety of jungle life around me, including the trees, the flowers (which had a beautiful aroma) and other life forms. For such a variety of beauty and complex life forms the message for these to be able to develop was contained in the heritary material in the seed that gave life to the flower, the tree and the mushroom. But what about insects and other life forms like birds when it comes to building webs or nests?
In the case of new born spiders, there was not any other spiders around giving them instruction how to build a web. In bird behavior, birds are born well after the nest in which they came was built. So how is it these life forms have the ability to conduct these tasks without any parental instruction?
The only possible explanation that I could come up with was that these behaviors were a result of instinct. But, what is instinct? Where does instinct come from? Why does a bird build a nest instead of a web? And, why does a spider build a web instead of a nest? Do these abilities just pop out of thin air?
I think that instinct is an inheritable behavior. It must be. Where does this inheritable behavior come from? From the chromosomes, the genes and the genetic material they contain? It must be. I can not think of any other source from which these behaviors might originate. That leads to the next question. If my assumption is correct, what chromosomes or genes contain the genetic information that contains these memories that are passed down from one generation to the next?
The next question I had was if humans have specific knowledge or skills that are passed on from one generation to another. That is something I am still thinking about.
View my 300 blogs and more photos here on my Hubpages at
http://hubpages.com/hub/-Top-Ten-Google-Adsense-Earning-Websites
I looked at the wide variety of jungle life around me, including the trees, the flowers (which had a beautiful aroma) and other life forms. For such a variety of beauty and complex life forms the message for these to be able to develop was contained in the heritary material in the seed that gave life to the flower, the tree and the mushroom. But what about insects and other life forms like birds when it comes to building webs or nests?
In the case of new born spiders, there was not any other spiders around giving them instruction how to build a web. In bird behavior, birds are born well after the nest in which they came was built. So how is it these life forms have the ability to conduct these tasks without any parental instruction?
The only possible explanation that I could come up with was that these behaviors were a result of instinct. But, what is instinct? Where does instinct come from? Why does a bird build a nest instead of a web? And, why does a spider build a web instead of a nest? Do these abilities just pop out of thin air?
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| Photo by Steve Bass |
The next question I had was if humans have specific knowledge or skills that are passed on from one generation to another. That is something I am still thinking about.
View my 300 blogs and more photos here on my Hubpages at
http://hubpages.com/hub/-Top-Ten-Google-Adsense-Earning-Websites
