Of Honeybees, Rhinos, And Babies
By MARY D. MASTRANGELO
“Follow the science,” a well-known doctor recently lectured the entire world. “The science is settled.”
But is it settled? In this famous — some would say, infamous — case, it would seem in retrospect that the good doctor may have pontificated too soon. With the passing of over three years of experience and the continuing findings of further results, it would seem this particular science was not settled.
This situation is not my subject now, but a means of introduction to a proper understanding of the natural world and our relationship to it.
What is settled regarding scientific inquiry are the properties of a thing, those particulars which are encoded into the thing’s DNA, so to speak, at its creation. These properties are what make the thing what it “is,” rather than some other thing.
Science evolves as understanding of these inherent properties advances. The learning and application of such knowledge may change, not the “thing” itself. The properties of the specific thing which is being studied remain constant. A virus isn’t an oak leaf, and neither will become the other tomorrow.
If such a thing did happen, science would become untenable. In fact, it wouldn’t exist at all. Thankfully for us, “thingness” is immutable. Therefore, further knowledge and understanding are able to advance on secure underpinnings.
Every field of human endeavor is the better for the proper development under unchanging natural laws. Humans can even intervene to rescue animals that are endangered, providing they respect and follow the applicable laws and particulars properly.
The following is one example of scientists progressing in lifesaving knowledge from what “is,” to what could be. Let’s start with an insect, the beautiful honeybee.
Honeybees have existed on Earth for millennia, living in colonies often numbering thousands of individuals. Foraging behavior is immutably in the species’ DNA, so worker bees leave the colonies to forage in their environment and return with their food, which for bees is flower nectar. This food search behavior results in the pollination of many food-bearing plants. Obviously, this result is essential to life for both humans and many animals.
Since they bring nectar from outside back into the communal nest, it would be reasonable to conclude that bees protect themselves in some way against naturally occurring viruses or bacteria they may pick up outside, so each colony member isn’t potentially infected.
In recent years, a nasty bacterial disease began to spread throughout bee colonies, utterly destroying them. Up to then, scientists had considered that insects don’t have antibodies, which are the proteins that exist in humans and animals that allow their bodies to detect and combat bacteria and viruses, and so concluded that insects couldn’t be vaccinated. The only defense beekeepers had against the killer bacteria was to burn the destroyed hives and anything connected to them, or by attempting to treat after infestation with antibiotics.
A recent headline in the San Diego Union Tribune read: “USDA Grants Approval to 1st Vaccine for Honeybees.” When I read this, my first thought was, “How do you hang onto a honeybee long enough so you can poke its little leg with a hypodermic needle?” I couldn’t help but smile at my whimsical vision.
Actually, it isn’t necessary to give each bee a sore little leg. As recently as 2015, honeybee researchers discovered that the insects’ bodies contained a protein called Vitellogenin. This protein is delivered through the queen bee to her eggs. Since in bee society the only fertile female is the queen bee, and only one queen bee is the mother of every individual in each colony, it is therefore possible to protect every bee from infection.
In the case of the recent killer bacteria, scientists placed a dead bacterium of the type causing the bee die-offs into Royal Jelly, the special food that workers feed the larvae that will grow into queens. The bees’ Vitellogenin binds to the dead bacteria placed in the jelly the queen eats. It is then stored in the queen’s equivalent of the human liver, and eventually passes to her eggs. Instant immunization for the entire colony.
Humans observed what “is”: honeybees exist without the proteins necessary for immunization to succeed. We studied and researched until we found that bees had their own special protein for the species’ protection. So, after discovering this always-existing truth within bee biology, humans could act to save them when possible worldwide bee extinction loomed through a deadly bacterium.
Another example of humans acting to save animals through continued discovery and application of what “is” concerns a much larger creature. This mammal is well-known to every person who visits a zoo, and is part of the official logo of a beloved institution.
Not far from my Southern California home is an expansive safari park operated by a world-famous zoological society. Important to the society’s goals at both the safari park and its parent zoo is the preservation of species, both zoological and botanical. Society scientists and researchers in both disciplines carry out fieldwork and experimentation in many countries worldwide.
An important research project now concerns the preservation of the Northern White Rhinoceros. This rhino subspecies is literally two individual animals away from total extinction. Since both are elderly females living out their lives in an African wildlife preserve, and since rhinos cannot change sexes in a same-sex environment as some types of frogs are capable of doing, the end would appear inevitable.
Or would be, if the zoological society had not for several years maintained what has been called the “Frozen Zoo.” Similar to the famous Svalbard Seed Vault, which stores frozen seeds against the possibility of a global food catastrophe, the “Frozen Zoo” contains male and female reproductive materials, and even frozen embryos, from endangered animals. At present, there are 12 Northern White Rhino cell lines in the “Frozen Zoo,” which will be used to develop stem cells. From the stem cells, rhino sperm and egg cells can be made.
People have long understood the basics of mammalian reproduction. Ask any rancher or farmer: bull plus cow equals calf; boar plus sow equals piglets. The biological details were discovered over time.
Regarding the rhinos, wild animal veterinarians and other specialists had to learn the fine points of rhino ovulation, the details of how healthy baby rhinos gestate to term, and how to successfully remove an embryo and transplant it to a healthy female. They must also be able to physically monitor rhino fetal development, which requires monitors such as an ultrasound device placed directly upon the mother rhino’s belly.
Obviously, if the rhinos didn’t cooperate with all the human activity focusing on them, nothing would succeed. Anyone who works with wild animals must do so with great caution, even if the creature is acclimated to human caretakers, as in a zoo setting. Any contact is made with fences or bars between humans and animal. Thus the question: How does a 150-pound person get a 3,000-pound rhinoceros to cooperate?
Here’s how: As is common practice in modern zoos, behaviorists and keepers train animals with reward-based conditioning so the animals allow keepers to closely monitor their health. This learning also provides mental enrichment for the creature. For example, given a specific hand gesture, the animal should present its head with wide-open mouth so the keeper can monitor its dental health. The animals learn that if they respond properly to specific signals, like certain hand gestures or sounds, they will receive some highly valued reward, like a juicy watermelon. No appropriate response simply means no watermelon. Animals aren’t stupid when it comes to getting prized treats.
In fact, at the safari park there already have been successful rhino births from implanted embryos, and the calves are growing up normally. Not Northern Whites, so far; scientists need more research and practice before a Northern White embryo is implanted.
One might say that humans assist honeybees to stay healthy because bees pollinate necessary food plants. That’s what bees “do.” What they “are” is honeybees: a specific insect creation which happily fly without knowing that their bodies aren’t particularly aerodynamic. Likewise, Northern White Rhinos “are” specific mammals living as they were originally created to live.
The offspring of every species remains true to its parentage, whether it be “animal, vegetable, or mineral.” Because scientists know that what “is” remains as it “is,” they don’t worry that the honeybees they vaccinate might turn into dragonflies, and the rhinos won’t become giraffes in the middle of the embryo research. In the same way, the physical items they use in the research won’t alter themselves tomorrow, unless the experimenters employ different chemical and biological means in their studies.
Humans use their intelligence, ingenuity, and willingness to build upon what is, and always has been present in the natural world, to be true stewards of our world and its creatures. Of course, this statement assumes that the human beings who steward creation have already been born.
The well-known doctor referenced earlier was criticized recently for monetarily supporting scientific research that consisted in “torturing puppies,” according to the inquiries. Every state has laws on the books forbidding cruelty to animals, with fines/imprisonment for convicted offenders. Anti-cruelty organizations receive millions of dollars in donations, although whether the monies actually hit the front lines to help animals is another question.
Some persons treat personal pets as their “fur babies,” and cherish them almost as much as human children, or even as substitutes for children. Even aside from the already discussed efforts to protect them and hopefully save them from extinction, animals obviously hold a high place in human regard.
However, ever since the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision of 1973, the federal mandate of which was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2022, unborn babies of our own human species have been and still are regarded by many people as little more than medical waste. The slogans are familiar: “Abortion on demand and without apology”; “Keep your rosaries off my ovaries”; “My body, my choice”; and more. Abortion for any and/or no reason took on an almost religious significance for some, even to some Satan worshippers declaring the act to be part of their “worship” ceremonies.
Medicine and science know that the chromosome count immediately identifies the species. Human babies in the womb contain 46 chromosomes; 23 from the mother and 23 from the father. An advanced student would fail the exam if he thought 46 chromosomes did not identify a member of the human species, Homo Sapiens.
So the newly conceived embryo, though tiny and amorphous in form at this time, is one of us, one of our species. There are no science-fiction horror scenarios here: man plus woman equals baby. Why is it easy for some to cast the child off? Their own fears and traumas? A “me first” attitude that advances one’s desires over any other concern? Ignorance; mis-education; mal-education; a social throwaway culture? Hatred of one’s own person, perhaps cultivated by schools and society? Many possibilities may be advanced; many answers may be offered.
Animals can be cute and cuddly, especially when young. They offer their humans unconditional love and companionship. Our fellow humans can be rude and prickly, or even downright offensive. They’ll demand our time, our attention, our money, our notions of what we thought our future might be. But they are ours. Our species, our family, the ones destined by our Creator to join us in eternal life if we live on this Earth justly, humbly, and walking with our God.
