Douglas Axe

Maxwell Professor of Molecular Biology at Biola University

Douglas Axe is the Maxwell Professor of Molecular Biology at Biola University, the founding Director of Biologic Institute, the founding Editor of BIO-Complexity, and the author of Undeniable: How Biology Confirms Our Intuition That Life Is Designed. After completing his PhD at Caltech, he held postdoctoral and research scientist positions at the University of Cambridge and the Cambridge Medical Research Council Centre. His research, which examines the functional and structural constraints on the evolution of proteins and protein systems, has been featured in many scientific journals, including the Journal of Molecular Biology, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, BIO-Complexity, and Nature, and in such books as Signature in the Cell and Darwin’s Doubt by Stephen Meyer and Life’s Solution by Simon Conway Morris.

Archives

Axe’s Not-So-Secret Guide to Making Cookies and Dragonflies

Douglas Axe
December 8, 2021
This ID the Future brings in protein scientist Douglas Axe to discuss his contribution to a new book, The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith. Axe and host Casey Luskin discuss Axe’s thinking on the design intuition, the evidence that it’s triggered almost universally in small children when they observe things like dragonflies or fresh-baked cookies, and why he’s convinced that this intuition is a rational one rooted in our true sense of what sorts of things require know-how for their creation. For those who retort “Science!,” Axe has some of that to offer as well. As he tells Luskin, he led an experiment at a lab in Cambridge, England, on the abilities and limits of an enzyme to evolve. The research findings Read More ›

New Douglas Axe Intelligent Design Course: A Sneak Peek

Douglas Axe
April 21, 2021
Today’s ID the Future offers a 20-minute sneak peek at a new online course: Douglas Axe Investigates Molecular Biology and Intelligent Design. In this podcast excerpt from the course, Dr. Axe explains why Darwinism’s idea of evolution through a series of small stepping stone mutations meets several serious problems, why the need for cleverness is inescapable for creating clever things, and how his published work in the Journal of Molecular Biology shows that the Darwinian mechanism is helpless to construct new functional protein folds, never mind whole new organisms. In the full course, he investigates proteins and how they work, the genetic code, gene recruitment, population genetics, natural selection, and much more. Along the way, he explains why natural selection Read More ›

Protein Scientist Douglas Axe at the Dallas Area Science and Faith Conference

Douglas Axe
February 3, 2020
On this episode of ID the Future, guest host Jonathan Witt sits down with molecular biologist Douglas Axe at the recent Dallas Science and Faith Conference. Axe, author of Undeniable: How Biology Confirms Our Intuition That Life Is Designed, had his research on protein folds published in the Journal of Molecular Biology, work showing that random mutations are not up to the task of building fundamentally new protein folds from old, a finding that poses a major challenge to modern evolutionary theory. After all, if evolution can’t build something as basic as a new protein fold, how could it build whole new organs and body plans in the history of life? But Witt presents Axe with an objection: Axe couldn’t Read More ›

The Human Element in Science, Pt 2: Douglas Axe on The Eric Metaxas Show

Douglas Axe
July 19, 2017
On this episode of ID: The Future, author Douglas Axe continues his conversation with Eric Metaxas about Axe’s book Undeniable: How Biology Confirms Our Intuition That Life is Designed and his account of how he lost his position at a Cambridge research lab because of the implications of his research findings. Axe also talks about the currently polarized atmosphere in science, the reliability of the design intuition, and the larger implications of living in a designed universe. For more from The Eric Metaxas Show, visit www.metaxastalk.com

The Human Element in Science: Douglas Axe on The Eric Metaxas Show

Douglas Axe
July 17, 2017
On this episode of ID the Future, listen in as Eric Metaxas interviews Douglas Axe on The Eric Metaxas show. Axe, author of Undeniable: How Biology Confirms Our Intuition That Life is Designed, shares how he lost his research position in Cambridge over the evolution controversy. For more from metaxastalk.com.

Douglas Axe On His Return to Cambridge U for the Beyond Materialism Conference

Douglas Axe
November 24, 2016
On this episode of ID the Future, Douglas Axe reflects on the recent Beyond Materialism conference in London. Axe notes, “I think these temperature checks give us hope that the tables are turning and that design is growing as a way of thinking and there could be a breaking point where a whole lot of people come out in favor of design.”

Doug Axe: Lignin & the Coherent Design of the Ecosystem

Douglas Axe
August 27, 2012
This episode of ID the Future features part of a lecture given by Biologic Institute scientist Doug Axe on his recent research on the molecule lignin. Lignin provides a paradoxical case for the Darwinian method of evolution, but fits perfectly into a design oriented scientific paradigm. Thirty percent of non-fossil organic carbon on the planet is lignin, so in a Darwinian world, something should have developed the ability to consume lignin — but it hasn’t. Lignin binds together and protects plant cellulose, which is vital to all types of large plant life; “The peculiar properties of lignin therefore make perfect sense when seen as part of a coherent design for the entire ecosystem of our planet.”

Science & Human Origins: Interview With Dr. Douglas Axe

Douglas Axe
July 25, 2012
On this episode of ID the Future, Biologic Institute director Dr. Douglas Axe discusses his contribution to the new book Science and Human Origins. How efficient is the Darwinian mechanism at inventing new things? Could it really be responsible for the development of human beings, as Darwinists claim? Axe reviews his recent studies on mutation rates and the ability of Darwinian evolution to create new proteins. Tune in and discover what he found out!