Design Watch has some good links about biomimetics, which is basically a field that tries to look to nature for design ideas.

• Here is an intro to biomimetics.
• Mercedes-Benz has released a streamlined bionic car that was inspired by a fish.
• Shark skin is being investigated as a possible way to prevent 'bio-fouling' on ships.

Evolutionists would say, "These are good examples of the dramatic power of the search process of evolution. It took millions of years for Nature to fine-tune and design such organisms!"

Designists would say, "Look at the design embedded in this fish -- design so marvelous that it is being mimicked by intelligent humans! This implies an intelligent cause."

Which perspective is more credible?

Christoph Schönborn, the cardinal archbishop of Vienna, has written an article in the New York Times titled "Finding Design in Nature," which flatly rejects the unguided process of neo-Darwinian evolution. Consider the final paragraph of the article:

Now at the beginning of the 21st century, faced with scientific claims like neo-Darwinism and the multiverse hypothesis in cosmology invented to avoid the overwhelming evidence for purpose and design found in modern science, the Catholic Church will again defend human reason by proclaiming that the immanent design evident in nature is real. Scientific theories that try to explain away the appearance of design as the result of "chance and necessity" are not scientific at all, but, as John Paul put it, an abdication of human intelligence.

The NYT has a follow-up article about the issue. Michael Behe, a Catholic, gives some thoughts at IDTF. I personally think that this recent statement by the Catholic church has monumental significance, in the same league as the news of Antony Flew's conversion to theism back in 2004.

The Privileged Planet (watch web clip) has been getting some attention lately in the news, partly due to the PP premiere at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History last month. What makes the PP hypothesis intriguing is its proposed correlation between habitability and discoverability. In other words, the PP hypothesis suggests that the necessary conditions for life are the same conditions that allow for the discoverability of the universe. According to PP, this correlation possibly implies design.

Here are some relevant links:

• Real Physics has a thoughtful critique of PP.
• Evolution News points to pictures of the Smithsonian premiere.
• Guillermo Gonzalez has written an open letter to colleagues about PP. HT: IDTF (BTW, thanks for the link last week!)
• Did you know that cosmologist Paul Davies, who was featured in the PP documentary, almost came to UCI? See Google. Too bad it didn't materialize -- we could have had a Privileged Planet Party at UCI!
• UCI has a new Center for Cosmology. Here is an interesting set of lecture slides (slide 32 proposes an estimate for the number of communicating civilizations in our galaxy).

Have a great Independence Day! Read Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence. Remember the immortal sentence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

iDesign @ UCI is already one month old! Recall that the blog started on June 1 and the club had its first meeting on June 2. Now might be a good time to ask our faithful readers, "How can we improve?" Does this blog have any technical glitches? I have only viewed the site through IE and Firefox, and I would like feedback from Safari users. Also, what sort of content do you want to see on this blog? Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email at 'idesignclub' at 'gmail.com'.

If you are a UCI student or faculty member, send me an email as well. Let me know if you would like to have a summer iDesign meeting.

According to a recent press release from Today, geneticist John Avise has joined UCI's faculty. UCI now has more NAS evolutionary biologists than any other university. Here is an interesting paragraph from the press release:

In his research, Avise uses molecular genetic markers to study the history, ecology and evolution of animal populations in nature. He has researched vertebrate groups – mammals, birds, fishes, amphibians and reptiles – and many invertebrates including marine, freshwater and terrestrial species. He is interested, too, in how evolutionary biology and genetics are relevant to issues traditionally reserved for mythology, theology and faith.