Premium Only Content

The Pentadactyl Whale Flipper: An Engineering Masterstroke
Does the five-digit design of the whale flipper, curiously akin to the five-digit design of so many different kinds of animal limbs, point to evolutionary common descent? That was Charles Darwin’s argument, and the argument is a staple of high school and college biology textbooks. But no, says distinguished British engineer Stuart Burgess on today’s ID the Future in his conversation with host Eric Anderson. The repeated recurrence of the pentadactyl form is better explained by reference to the idea of common design. That is, a master designer reused the pentadactyl design theme because it achieves an optimal trade-off between strength on the one hand (no pun intended) and suppleness or dexterity on the other. And yes, Burgess says, the giant flipper on a whale needs to be not just incredibly strong but also supple to allow the whale to maneuver adroitly through the water. This reuse of a good design concept shouldn’t surprise us, Burgess says. Just as human engineers reuse the concepts of the wheel, axle, nut and bolt, or pulley, so too the designer of life reuses shrewd engineering solutions in widely different applications, in each case adapting the design concept for the particular use. Burgess also rebuts the claim that whales have vestigial pelvic bones from a land-dwelling ancestor. He then moves from the big to the small, pointing to more positive evidence in favor of common design (over Darwinian common descent) in marsupial and placental rats and in a protein machine best known for one job but that has been found to “moonlight” doing a very different job in a very different biological context. Tune in to hear Burgess unpack the full argument. The conversation took place at the 2023 Conference on Engineering in Living Systems (CELS) in Denton, Texas.
-
1:23
Intelligent Design
1 year agoThe New Design Inference: William Dembski Updates a Classic
961 -
LIVE
JimmmyChaCha
1 hour agoLIVE - HALO 2 CAMPAIGN
115 watching -
2:28:22
TheSaltyCracker
4 hours agoWelcome to WW3 ReeEEeeStream 06-13-25
85.5K185 -
14:59
T-SPLY
6 hours agoKilmar Is Facing Trafficking Charges / Lawyer Demands His Release!
11.8K12 -
2:04:42
TimcastIRL
4 hours agoU.S. Enters Israel Iran War In Defense Of Israel, Deaths CONFIRMED After Iran Strikes | Timcast IRL
153K252 -
1:25:04
Laura Loomer
4 hours agoEP126: OPEN BORDERS INTIFADA
31.1K12 -
LIVE
Spartan
10 hours agoPro Halo Player | Scrims vs FaZe @ 3 EST then Ranked and/or SWTOR
137 watching -
1:39:47
AlaskanBallistics
8 hours ago $0.02 earnedI Love this Gun Podast #44 Best 10mm Bear Protection Rounds!
8.94K -
3:25:09
Barry Cunningham
6 hours agoHERE'S THE NEWS AND SCHEDULE FOR AN AMERICA FIRST WEEKEND!
56.1K55 -
LIVE
I_Came_With_Fire_Podcast
11 hours agoISRAEL STRIKES IRAN | PADILLA ARREST | CA SUES PRES. TRUMP
247 watching