Community Magazine August 2017

88 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE both be on the ground, but landing on each spells a very different consequence. The echolocation system is so accurate that bats can detect insects the size of gnats and objects as fine as a human hair. They then proceed to determine what it is, where it is, and what it’s doing. The question is: How do they do that? The Reconstruction Of Sight While the answer to this is not a hundred percent known, one theory is that the mind of the bat works in a similar way to the mind of the human. We normally think of our senses in simplistic terms. We see. We hear. We smell. We feel. We taste. But what’s actually going on is far more complex. Let’s take color as an example. Light travels in waves similar to sound. The length of the wave determines the color. The color blue is light with a short wavelength. The color red is light with a long wavelength. If you were to approach the average person and ask, “Quick, what wavelength is the color purple? How about yellow? What about violet?” I doubt you’d get an accurate response. We see purple. We see yellow. And we see red. But what actually happens is that light enters through the cornea, is focused by the lens, and then hits the retina in the back of the eye. The photoreceptor cones and rods convert the different wavelengths of light into distinct electrical impulses that travel along the optic nerve. These impulses are then sent to various parts of the brain for decoding and interpretation. Through a complex process that is still largely not understood, the mind then constructs what is almost a “computer model” of red, green, or yellow. We don’t actually see color. Our minds create something that we experience as color. For that reason, there is no universal red. What you perceive as red and what I perceive as red may be different. This same process happens with shapes, motion, and distance. The raw data is fed into the brain, sent to various nerve centers for analysis, and then a unified image is created. What Bats See The current theory is that bats “see” in a similar manner as we do. The echoes entering their ears are converted into raw data, and then their brains construct an image. They “see” an image brought to them by sound. A bat can determine an object’s size, shape, direction, andmotion because it creates a mental image of the object. It “sees a gnat.” It can gauge landscape because it forms a topographic picture – it “sees a rock ledge.” It can judge distance and motion because it compares the image of the gnat against the image of the rock. Those images are being constantly updated up to 200 times a second, so it “sees” the wings of a fly beating up and down. Of course, this is all without the bat thinking about it – the bat just sees. Why Aren’t They Distracted? Brown bats typically live in colonies. Within a cave, there are many, many bats. So here is the question: if you have a hundred bats Fruit Bat and all of them are echolocating any time they move, there should be a babel of bats’ cries bouncing of the cave walls in every direction. How does a bat not get utterly confused in the mayhem of thousands of conflicting messages? Zoologists believe that bats are able to focus on their cries to the exclusion of all the other bats in the cave through ‘mental filtering.’ The theory is that each bat creates a unique sound and is able to distinguish between its cry and that of its neighbors. So when a bat sends out a sound, it will zone in on its own voice coming back to the exclusion of any other sound. It hears the other bats, but its radar doesn’t get jammed because it ignores the other calls. It processes only those from its voice. This is rather interesting because bats tend to live in very large groups. Some caves might house thousands of bats, some tens of thousands. The Monfort Bat Cave in Samal is home to over 1.8million fruit bats! These tiny bats are living in a cacophony of thousands and thousands of different cries bouncing all around. Their minds are so sophisticated that each one actively ignores the thousands of other cries and only focuses on its own. In the words of a world-renowned scientist, “ Bats are like miniature spy planes, bristling with sophisticated instrumentation, and their brains delicately-tuned packages of miniaturized electronic wizardry, programmed with the necessary software to decode a world of echoes in real time. ” Why Is This Significant? The Rambam explains that the most assured way to come to love Hashem is by studying nature. When a person looks out at the wonder and splendor of the physical world, he sees such beauty and wisdom that he begins to gain some sense of Hashem. If this is the creation, what does it tell me about the Creator? Look at this world. Study its enormity and complexity. Look at its harmonious systems, all integrated, all perfectly in balance. When you do, you will see the greatness of Hashem. Before long, not only will you come to know Him, but you will come to love Him. Monfort Bat Cave The Monfort Bat Cave in the Mindanao region of the Philippines is home to approximately 1.8 million fruit bats. In fact, there are so many bats, it is estimated that for every square meter of cave wall there are 640 bats.