trees that fuel it grow orare We the Grower? We have made it to be a
reminder and a comfort for travellers in the wild.So glorify the name
of your Lord, the Magnificent! (Surat al-Waqi 'a, 71-74)
One of the chemical substances mainly responsible for the structure of
wood is "lignocellulose." This substance is a compoundof the materials
known as "lignin" and "cellulose" that give wood its hardness. In
terms of chemicalstructure, woodis made up of 50% cellulose, 25%
hemicelluloses and 25% lignin.1An analysis of these substances'
chemical formulae reveals three vital elements: hydrogen, oxygen and
carbon.
Hydrogen, oxygen and carbon are the building blocks of millions of
substances in nature. Butas a miracle from Allah, these three also
combineto give rise to the substance "lignocellulose" found inplants.
Although scientists know that theycontain these substancesthey are
unable to reproduce this special material in plants. Although these
elementsfound in large amounts in nature can easily be obtained,
scientists havebeen unable to obtain a single piece of wood by
artificial means, despite having countless examples before them. Yet
all the trees we see around us have been ceaselessly producing this
compound for millions of years by combining oxygen, carbon, water and
sunlight.
One of the compounds inlignocellulose is water, expressed by the
formula H2O. The fact that wood is one of the most flammable materials
despite containing a large amount of water is a most special state of
affairs. The above verse is very wise in noting that wood cannot be
made by human beings, by fire. Thanks to these compounds and the water
it contains, wood is one of the most important fuels of fire.
Trees are an important sphere of scientific research, and inspire
scientists, who are still struggling to grasp all the details in their
creation, in a number of areas. The complex structures of the cells
that constitute trees have still not been fully unraveled, despite
advances in technology and intensive research. The Forestry Commission
of Great Britain, one of the world's leading forestry research
institutions, says the following under the heading "Lack of
Information on the Chemistry and Structure of Wood Fibres":
Despite the knowledge resulting from earlier and ongoing research,
there still exists a lack of information on the chemistry and
structure of wood fibres. Large variations can be found within a
single tree, from the pith to the bark and from the base to the top of
a tree. Often the chemistry and structure of a wood cell are extremely
heterogeneous and difficult to investigate with conventional
techniques.2
A paper in the scientific journalPlant Physiologytitled "Our
Understanding of How Wood Develops is not Complete" describes the
limited knowledge of the subject that scientists possess:
Considering the important role that wood is foreseen to playin the
near future, it is surprising to see that our understanding of how
wood develops is far from complete. With a few exceptions, very little
is known about thecellular, molecular, and developmental processesthat
underlie wood formation. Xylogenesis represents an example of cell
differentiation in an exceptionally complex form. This process is
controlled by awide variety of factors both exogenous (photoperiod and
temperature) and endogenous (phytohormones) and byinteraction between
them. It is driven by the coordinated expression of numerous
structural genes (some of known function) involved in cellorigination,
differentiation, programmed cell death, and heartwood (HW) formation
and by virtually unknown regulatory genes orches trating this ordered
developmental sequence. The presence of gene families and the extreme
plasticity of the metabolism involved (as exemplified by the unusual
behavior of plants with transformed cell walls; for review, seeFagard
et al., 2000) add a further complexity to our understanding of the
process of wood formation.3
The extraordinary creation in wood is emphasized thus in another
scientific journal, Annals of Botany:
Wood formation is a highly complicated process involving an
unbelievable variety of metabolic steps in the roots, stem and crown
of shrubs and trees. At the centre of these processes is cambial
activity which results in the release of young woody cells that
undergo maturation until autolysis of the protoplast, indicating the
final developmental stage. Later on, in various tree species, woody
cells become further modified by an additional process calledheartwood
formation. The properties of wood that make it an appropriate raw
material for many purposes are largely determined by the specific
architecture of the cell walls. Difficulties in investigating these
many developmental stages appear when routine techniques, which work
well for soft plant tissues, are applied. Therefore, in most cases,
these techniques need modification or the use of completely revised
protocols to yield good results for woody tissues.4
These details in the creation of wood remind us, as set out in Surat
al-Waqi 'a, that wood cannot be made by human beings. Just a few of
the inimitable features of wood, which cannot be produced
artificially, are as follows:
Wood, a Resistant Material
The hard and resistant nature of wood is the result of the cellulose
fibers it contains. Because cellulose is hardand insoluble in water.
Itis this property of cellulose that makes the use of wood in
construction so advantageous. Cellulose, described as a "contractible
and incomparable substance," has for centuries been used a great deal
more than other materials in keeping wooden buildings standing, other
buildings, bridges and many other structures.
Wood consists of parallelcolumns made up of convex cells laid end to
end. These are surrounded by cellulose fibers in spiral form. In
addition, these cells are contained in "lignin," a substance made from
a complex, polymer structure resin. These spirally enclosed layers
make up 80% of the thickness of the cell wall and are the part
bearingthe main load. When a wood cell collapses internally it absorbs
the shock of a blow by detatching itself from the surrounding cells.
Even when such collapses causes a crack along the length of the fiber,
the wood remains unharmed. That is why wood is strong enough to bear
specific loads even if it is broken.
In terms of absorbing the energy of low-speed blows and reducing the
damage therefrom, wood is a most important material. The Second World
War planeknown as the "Mosquito" was made bycompressing wood between
strips of fiber board, making it the most damage-resistant plane of
its time. The hardness and resistant nature of wood make it a very
reliable material. Because wood breaks or cracks slowly enough to be
visible from the outside, and that gives people enough time to take
the necessary precautions .5
A material based on the structure of wood can be up to 50 times more
resistant than other synthetic materials in use today.6This unique
structure of wood is today used in materials developed to protect
against the impact of high speed and destructive fragments such as
bombs and bullets. But scientists have never been able to replicate a
piece of wood with all its many attributes. Every detail inthe
creation of wood, - the thickness of the internal layers, their level
of compression, thenumber of vessels, their layout and the materials
inside it, have been specialy created to resultin that resistance.
The Hydraulic System That Raises Water Many Meters against the Force of Gravity
The dead part of wood, the "xylem," contains hollow channels. These,
also known as "wood vessels," consist of inanimate cells that
gradually lose their nuclei and cytoplasms piled one on top of the
other. Long, thin wood vessels form when the membranes between
thecells dissolve and disappear.
Roots spreading out beneath the soil carry the water and minerals the
plant needs upward through these tissues and transmit them as far as
the leaves. The way the roots absorb the water in the ground is
literally reminiscent of the test bore technique. The roots have no
engines to initiate the water absorption process. Neither do they have
any technical equipment with which to pump water and minerals for
distances of up to several meters. Butthe roots absorb the water in
the depths of the soil by spreading over a very wide area.
This lifting process that the plant performs so flawlessly is in fact
an exceedingly complex one. Yet this system has still not yet been
fully understood, even in these days of high technology and space
travel. The present of a "hydraulic system: in plants was determined
some two centuries ago. But we still do not know how this action in
defiance of the force of gravity takes place. The superior technology
squeezed into such a confined space is just one of the examples
demonstrating the incomparable knowledge of our Lord the creator of
the system. Like everything in the universe, AlmightyAllah created the
transportation system in trees.
7
As seen in the picture to the left,wood consists of tube or
straw-shaped cells. By combining one on top of the other, these cells,
which make up the roots and trunks of plants, serve as channels that
carry water and minerals right through the plant. This tisue, known as
"xylem," also constitutes a powerful structure that enables the plant
to remain upright. To the right can be seen a slice of dry wood in
cross-section. Whendried out, the tube-like channelsbecome hollow, as
shown in theillustration.
Roots Capable of Selecting Minerals from the Soil:
Plants draw all the mineral nutrients they need, such as
potassium,phosphorus, calcium, magnesium and sulfur, from the soil.
Since the substances are not found seprately in the soil, they absorb
them asions (positive/negativelycharged atoms). Of all the many
inorganic ions in dissolved state in the soil, plants absorb only the
14 they need.
The iron concentration inside plant cells is 1,000 times greater than
that in the soil outside.8Under normal condition, an exchange of
matter from a high density region to a lower density one will take
place. But exactly the opposite happens in plant roots, and the ions
in the soil are easily ableto pass into the root cells.9
Because of this state of affairs that operates contrary to the
pressure system, the plant uses a high level of energy in the pumping
process. In addition, in the plant roots' taking up ions from the
soil, there needs to be an identification system that attracts only
the wanted ions and repels the unwanted ones. This shows that the ion
pumps in the root cells are no ordinary pumps, but possess the ability
toselect between ions. Bearing in mind that thecell in the plant roots
aremade up of atoms devoid of any intelligence or consciousness, one
can better see what an extraordinary process ion selection truly is.
Photosynthesis: The Superior Technology in aMiniature Factory
It is not only the wood and root parts of trees that cannot be
obtained by artificial means, but also the leaves. Most important of
the features that make leaves inimitable is their ability to make
photosynthesis. Photosynthesis, one of the systems that scientists
still do not fullyunderstand, may be summarized as plants
manufacturing their own nutrients. Thanks tothe structure in plant
cells that makes them able to make direct use of solar energy, they
store solar energy, at theend of various complex processes, in the
form of energy that can be used by human beings and animals. In
addition, the photosynthetic energy stored in trees is also given off
during burning. For example, the energy emitted by wood burned to heat
a house is actually energy from the Sun stored during the formation of
wood.10
The photosynthesis system, which operates like a miniature factory,
takes place in an organelle known as the "chloroplast" inside the
plant cell that gives the plant its green color. Chloroplasts are just
one-thousandth of a millimeter in size, for which reason they can only
be seen under the microscope. When solar energy falls on the leaf they
transmit it to the layers inside it. Chlorophyls inside the
choloplasts in the leaf cells convert this light energy into chemical
energy. The plant obtaining this chemical energy immediately usesit in
obtaining nutrients.It took scientists until the mid-20thcentury to
obtain this information summarized in just a fewlines here. Pages of
chain reactions are written to describe the whole process of
photosynthesis. But some links in the chain are still unknown. Yet
plants have been performing these processes uninterruptedly for
hundreds of millions of years, thus providing theEarth with food and
oxygen.
The chloroplast shown magnified in the illustration above is in fact
just one-thousandth of a millimeter in size. It contains many
organelles that assist with the process of photosynthesis.
Photsynthesis, which takes placein many stages, not all of which are
yet understood, takes place at high speed in these microscopic
factories.
The fact that not a singlecell constituting wood can be made by
artificialmeans, and human beings' helplessness in the face of dead
wood cells, shows the presece of a sublime Creator. Theproperties of
wood, about which many volumes could be written, their countless
aspects that so inspire scientists, all reveal the sublime knowledge
and intellect behind the creation of wood. This intelligence and
knowledge manifested in wood belongs to Almighty Allah, the Creator
and sole Lord of all things.
___________________________________________________
1 http://www.forestpathology.org /wood.html; Wood Chemistry and Anatomy, 2005.
2 http://www.forestresearch.gov. uk/fr/INFD-6FMCUS; The
ResearchAgency of the Forestry Commission, 2007.
3 Christophe Plomion, Gregoire Leprovost, Alexia Stokes, "Wood
Formation in Trees",Plant Physiology, December 2001, Vol. 127, pp.
1513–1523.
4 Uwe Schmitt, "Chaffey, N.J. ed. Wood formation in trees—cell and
molecular biology techniques",Annals of Botany, 2002, Vol. 90, no. 4,
pp. 545-546.
5 Julian Vincent, "Tricks of Nature",New Scientist, 17 August 1996,
Vol. 151, no. 2043, p. 39.
6 Julian Vincent, "Tricks of Nature",New Scientist, 17 August 1996,
Vol. 151, no. 2043, p. 40.
7 http://www.smddrums.com /woodcell.htm
8 Malcolm Wilkins,Plantwatching, Facts on File Publications, New York,
1988, p. 119.
9 William K. Purves, Gordon H. Orions, H. Craig Heller, Life,The
Science of Biology, 4th edition, W.H. Freeman and Company, p. 724.
10 http://www.montana.edu /wwwpb/pubs/mt8405.html; Michael Vogel,
"Heating with Wood: Principles of Combustion", 2003.
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