An Amazing New Fabric

Two scientists from the University of Maryland have engineered a fabric that is capable of both cooling the body and insulating its heat.

Dr. YuHuang Wang and Ouyang Min believe this is the first textile to automatically change properties to trap or release heat depending on conditions. They’ve developed this fabric from a synthetic yarn with a “carbon nanotube coating.” This coating is activated by temperature and humidity. It releases heat in warm humid conditions and traps heat when conditions are cool and dry.

When the fibers of this new material are cold, they contract and straighten. They tighten up into almost impervious insulation. But in the presence of moisture and heat, they expand and warp. This creates a “gating reaction,” allowing the heat and moisture to escape.

Many a soldier has been on patrols, carrying a heavy pack. During movement, the body heats up and perspires. Then, when taking a knee or getting in the prone position, the body cools down. The sweating stops, but the soldier is left shivering is soaking-wet clothing. Clothing made from this new fabric promises to be a godsend.

The ScienceDaily.com article which announced this new development made the following statement. “Despite decades of innovation in fabrics with high-tech thermal properties that keep marathon runners cool or alpine hikers warm, there has never been a material that changes its insulating properties in response to the environment. Until now.”

Natural Thermoregulation

This is an amazing achievement. However, articles like this overlook the science that has already gone into our body’s natural covering—our skin. Our skin performs this same function of thermoregulation. When our bodies overheat two things take place in our skin—sweating and vasodilation. The blood vessels beneath the skin open up to help release the body’s heat. Plus, the sweat glands release sweat, which cools our skin as it evaporates.

Then, when the environment cools, something called vasoconstriction takes place. The blood vessels beneath the skin constrict, restricting the flow of blood to the skin to maintain the body’s core temperature. The body also generates heat through shivering as well as through the thyroid’s release of hormones to speed up metabolism. If intelligent and deliberate effort went into this amazing new fabric, didn’t they also go into the skin that covers our bodies?

For some strange reason, people assume that if science can mimic or duplicate a complex process in the lab that we’ve first observed in nature, then humanity has proved that God is unnecessary. We assume that “science has replaced God.”

God’s Intelligence

How stupid can we be? Science has not replaced God. Science has conclusively demonstrated that an amazing amount of intelligence has gone into all the complex design features of all living things. Further, science has demonstrated that nothing well-ordered and complex ever results from mindless, haphazard processes. It takes brains, thinking, and a lot of deliberate work to produce information and technology. And our natural world abounds with information and technology.

Only the infinite intellect of our Creator could produce the vast and complex biosphere of this planet. And only He can keep it all going. Just think of your own body. How much of it do you consciously manage? Very little. None of us has to give a thought to making our hearts beat 115,000 times each day. But it happens—every day. The heart continuously pumps one and a half gallons of blood through 60,000 miles of veins, arteries, and capillaries.

God Sustains

None of us must worry about the survival of the 37.5 trillion cells that make up each of our bodies. Nor do we need to remember to inhale and exhale. None of us has to think about digesting the food in our stomachs, or ensuring that its nutrients are absorbed by the rest of the body. We have no control over the functions of our kidneys, spleen, liver, and brain.

Fortunately, Somebody far more capable than any of us is managing it all on our behalf. God cares for it all, relentlessly and faithfully, because He loves us. He upholds the structure of every molecule that makes up our body—so that we can go about the task of living, loving, and serving.

He takes care of all those details so that we will not be distracted from the most important task of all—coming to know Him personally. “This is eternal life,” Jesus declared, “to know You—the only true God—and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3). “Behold, I stand at the door and knock,” said Jesus. “If anyone opens the door, I will come into him and have fellowship with him and he with Me” (Rev. 3:20). Jesus takes care of the trillions of details of our existence and survival, so that we may give Him our heart, soul, and lifetime allegiance.

PRAYER:

Dear Lord Jesus, I’ve been so oblivious to the blessings and wonders that fill my life—all of which You have freely given me. But Lord, I also acknowledge that my life has a divine purpose. For You made me capable of intimacy with God. You yearn for my company and fellowship. Yet despite all the blessings You’ve given me, I’ve overlooked them. Worst of all, I’ve ignored You. Lord, I don’t want to ignore You any longer. So, as much as I know how, I open my heart to You. Please, come into my heart. Make my heart Your home. Forgive and cleanse all my sins. Heal my soul and make me a brand new person on the inside. Save me, dear Lord I pray, and help me to live henceforth for You. Amen.