Rockets & Wristbones: Optimal Engineering in Biology
Is life the result of purposeful design or unintended evolutionary accidents? It’s an ongoing debate that’s about to be impacted by new scientific evidence that suggests living things are full of optimal engineering. On this ID The Future, host Andrew McDiarmid concludes his conversation with award-winning British engineer and designer Stuart Burgess about his new book Ultimate Engineering. In it Burgess gathers together compelling examples of advanced structures and systems in the human body and other vertebrates that go far beyond what humans have produced and point to intelligent design, not the cobbled-together results of a blind, purposeless process.
In Part 1, we discussed Burgess’s day job as a mechanical engineer and his motivation for writing the book. We also dove into some examples of optimal engineering in human joints, the mouth and throat, the design of the eye, the biomechanics of the ear, and more.
In Part 2, Burgess compares his professional work on European Space Agency satellites to the far more sophisticated systems found in biology, such as the human nervous system and joints. He argues that biological mechanisms are irreducibly complex and show signs of optimal engineering that cannot be explained by the gradual steps of Darwinian evolution. Burgess explains how his engineering background provides a unique perspective for identifying purposeful design over shoddy evolutionary accidents. He also shares his experiences navigating academic skepticism, noting that many biologists are very forthcoming in expressing their doubts about macro-evolution.
Across this conversation, an obvious point emerges: who better than a mechanical engineer—someone who is trained and intimately acquainted with the planning and building of functional and beautiful systems and objects—who better to answer the claims of bad design that come from certain proponents of Darwinian evolution?
This is Part 2 of a two-part conversation. Listen to or watch Part 1.
Dig Deeper
- Order a copy of Burgess’s new book Ultimate Engineering for yourself and a friend!
- Watch Part 1 of this conversation on our YouTube channel: