I recently ran across a paper with the intriguing title Evolution based on Design-by-Contract: Origin of Life through an abiotic double-stranded RNA world by Albert De Roos.

Design-by-Contract is a computer science methodology for keeping software easily maintainable and changeable by reducing dependencies. Essentially, it advocates treating functionally distinct blocks of code as black boxes. These code blocks define a specific set of methods (interface) which are "public". Other code blocks interact with it only through these specific methods. As long as the interface remains intact, the internals of the code are free to change radically without fear of introducing bugs.

The author draws an analogy to origin-of-life research, noting that while many people believe single-stranded RNA was the first self-reproducing molecule, the transition from single-stranded RNA to DNA faces significant problems:

It is difficult to imagine ssRNA to have a dual function since the catalytic properties of RNA depend on the three-dimensional structure, while the informational capacity would require a simple linear structure that can be replicated (Taylor, 2005). The folding of an RNA molecule would prevent its own replication, while for replication a folded ribozyme would be necessary... From a system perspective, a dual function in a single entity would create a dependency that would reduce evolvability of the system.

The author goes on to explain how double-stranded RNA might be changed into DNA through a process that maintains existing interfaces and requires fewer radical changes. Central to his thesis is the idea that RNA started out as an information-carrying molecule. This makes information a pre-requisite for any self-replication.

The paper doesn't make any mention of a designer, however. In fact it speculates about how self-replicating double-stranded RNA might have arisen on the early earth, and explains the gradual steps which the author claims are sufficient to transform double-stranded RNA into DNA. Does it count, then, as an ID paper? I think so. Modeling biological systems with engineering paradigms is an obvious application of ID. If this approach is fruitful, then ID will be a successful research program.