The Incredible Design of Muscles
To understand the limitations of evolutionary mechanisms, we have to “bite the bullet of complexity,” as biochemist Michael Behe writes. And to appreciate complexity, we have to experience it. On this ID The Future, Dr. Jonathan McLatchie takes host Andrew McDiarmid on a deep dive into the structure and biochemistry of muscles to gain a better understanding of their incredible design properties.
Dr. McLatchie provides an overview of the key parts of muscles, including muscle fibers, connective tissue, and tendons. He describes the two different types of muscles — antagonists and synergists — and provides examples of each. Then he explains the functional integration of muscle function: how muscle contraction involves the nervous, respiratory, circulatory, and skeletal systems all working together in tandem.
Did you know our brain predicts and corrects discrepancies between our intended and actual muscle movements? McLatchie explains this remarkable feature and also describes muscle sense and muscle memory. He also gives us a taste of the complexity of muscle function at the biochemical level. And while we’re reeling from all that, he explains why all this engineering prowess is fiendishly difficult to explain through evolutionary mechanisms but hardly surprising within an intelligent design framework.
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