 
The Biological Clock in Plants
A great many plants possess a biological clock that possesses
detailed information about their own structures and other
living things that assist in fertilizing them, and that literally
resembles a computer centre. The existence of this biological
clock points to one single truth; the truth of creation...
The ability to measure time is an ability that one does not
usually expect to see in other living things other than man.
It may be thought that this is limited to man, but both plants
and animals possess a time-measuring mechanism, or "biological
clock."
In the 1920s, when two scientists in Germany , Erwin Buenning
and Kurt Stem, were studying the movement of bean plant leaves,
they saw that the plants were moving their leaves towards
the sun throughout the day, and that at night they were gathering
their leaves vertically upwards and assuming a sleeping position.
Some 200 years before these two scientists published their
findings, the French astronomer Jacques d'Ortuous de Marian
had also observed that plants possessed such a regular sleep
rhythm. Experiments in a dark environment where temperature
and moisture were controlled showed that this situation did
not change, and that plants possessed systems inside themselves
which measure time.
Under natural conditions, plants select certain times for
certain activities. They do this in line with certain changes
in the sunlight. Because their internal clocks are tuned to
sunlight, they complete their rhythmic activities in 24 hours.
In other cases, there are some rhythms which are much longer
than 24 hours.
No matter how long the rhythmic motions last, there is one
point that does not change. These motions happen to ensure
the life of the plant and the survival of the generations,
and always take place at the most appropriate time. And in
order for them to be successful, several complicated processes
have to be completed in a flawless manner.
For example, in most plants flowers open at a particular
time of year, i.e. at the best possible time. Plants' clocks,
which regulate this time, also calculate the duration of sunlight
falling on the leaves. Every plant's biological clock calculates
this period in accordance with the plant's particular features.
No matter what the calculation, the flowers open at the most
appropriate time. As a result of research into the regulation
of time in the soya bean, it was seen that, at whatever time
these plants are sown, they open their flowers at the same
time of year.
It causes the time the poppy flower disperses its pollen
to coincide with the days and hours when pollinators are most
prevalent. And these days and hours vary from plant to plant.
But at the end of the day, with this time regulation, every
plant disperses its pollen in a manner guaranteed to give
the best results. Poppy flowers disperse their pollen in July
and August between 05:30 and 10:00 in the morning. That is
the time is that bees and other insects emerge to look for
food. At this point the flower has to include in its calculation
not just its own characteristics, but also those of other
living things, down to the finest detail. The plant must have
accurate knowledge of the time when the creatures which will
fertilize it emerge, the length of the journey they will undertake,
and the times they feed. In such a situation the following
question comes to mind: Where in the plant is this clock,
which possesses all this "information," which does
all the necessary calculations, analyses the features of other
creatures, and works in a way reminiscent of a computer centre?
Where the perfect time measuring system is in plants is still
a mystery to the scientists.
This clearly indicates a superior intelligence and power
which establishes and controls the timing of all plants' different
activities.
The subject of the biological clock in plants is just one
of the countless miracles of creation. The theory of evolution,
however, which propounds the nonsense that life came into
being by chance, is a theory that seeks to find support for
its claims by producing various scenarios. This is a fact
sometimes admitted even by evolutionists themselves. Dr. Robert
Milikan, a Nobel Prize winner and evolutionist, describes
the situation in which evolutionists find themselves in these
terms:
"The pathetic thing is that we have
scientists who are trying to prove evolution, which no scientist
can ever prove." (http://www.rmplc.co.uk/eduweb/sites/sbs777/vital/evolutio.html)
With His superior might and omniscience God shows us proofs
of creation everywhere, and wills us to draw conclusions and
reflect by seeing these. As stated in the Qur'an, only people
capable to using their reason can draw conclusions and reflect,
and thus find a path to our Lord:
It is He Who sends down water from
the sky. From it you drink and from it come the shrubs among
which you graze your herds. And by it He makes crops grow
for you and olives and dates and grapes and fruit of every
kind. There is certainly a Sign in that for people who reflect.
(Qur'an, 16:10-11)
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