Brian Miller

Dr. Brian Miller is Research Coordinator for the Center for Science and Culture at Discovery Institute. He holds a B.S. in physics with a minor in engineering from MIT and a Ph.D. in physics from Duke University. He speaks internationally on the topics of intelligent design and the impact of worldviews on society. He also has consulted on organizational development and strategic planning, and he is a technical consultant for TheStartup, a virtual incubator dedicated to bringing innovation to the marketplace.

Archives

Critics Respond to Stephen Meyer’s New Book (Without Mentioning Him by Name)

_{Brian Miller
October 16, 2021}

The critics, including Ethan Siegel, appear to see Meyer much like Voldemort in the Harry Potter series.

Studies on Stickleback Fish Further Validate Engineering Models for Adaptation

_{Brian Miller
October 15, 2021}

Cichlid and stickleback fish are two of the most iconic examples of adaption that biologists present as evidence for the plausibility of evolutionary processes.

Studies on Cichlid Fish Demonstrate the Predictive Power of Engineering Models for Adaptation

_{Brian Miller
October 14, 2021}

Cichlid variation do not primarily originate from random mutations but from engineered systems.

Studies on Labrid Fish Confirm Operational Gravity Well Model for Adaptation

_{Brian Miller
October 13, 2021}

The extent to which the authors recognize the implications of their conclusions is difficult to say.

Studies on Insect Wings Validate Engineering Models for Adaptation

_{Brian Miller
October 4, 2021}

The “long-winged” phenotype is generated if the environmental conditions deteriorate due to reduced food supply or overpopulation.

The Design Connection in Biological Tracking Systems

_{Brian Miller
September 25, 2021}

If organisms resulted from haphazard undirected processes, their design constraints would be few and highly flexible.

Nearly All of Evolution Is Best Explained by Engineering

_{Brian Miller
September 24, 2021}

Transposable elements modify gene regulation in maize to confer drought tolerance, alter flowering time, and enable plants to grow in toxic aluminum soils.

Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection Has Left a Legacy of Confusion over Biological Adaptation

_{Brian Miller
September 20, 2021}

Our ability to adapt to fantastically diverse circumstances did not result from the happenstance of environmental conditions.

Physicist Brian Miller Talks Nanotech, Origin of Life, and Area 51

_{Brian Miller
September 8, 2021}

On today’s ID the Future physicist Brian Miller and host Eric Anderson continue their exploration of a recent conversation between origin-of-life investigators Jeremy England and Paul Davies on Justin Brierley’s Unbelievable? radio show. Miller begins with a quick flyover of the many nanotechnologies essential to even to the simplest viable cell. A minimally complex cell is vastly more sophisticated than our best human nanotechnology. What about England’s insistence that real progress has been made in origin-of-life studies since the 1950s? True, Anderson says, but the progress has been principally in better understanding how the simplest cells function, and in figuring out what doesn’t work to blindly evolve life from non-life. That is, the direction of discovery has been to throw Read More ›

Dissecting an Unbelievable Conversation about Abiogenesis

_{Brian Miller
September 1, 2021}

On today’s ID the Future physicist Brian Miller and host Eric Anderson explore a recent conversation between physicists Jeremy England and Paul Davies on Justin Brierley’s Unbelievable? radio show. Davies admitted he doesn’t want the origin of life to require divine design, while England argued that his work on non-equilibrium systems offers a promising avenue for explaining the origin of the first life in naturalistic terms. Miller and Anderson demur on both counts. They hold out hope that Davies, having recognized his philosophical bias, will eventually decide to follow the evidence wherever it leads, even if doing so has theistic implications. And as for Jeremy England’s approach, Miller says it’s fascinating work but fails to solve the origin-of-life challenge in Read More ›

Engineering Better Explains Adaptation than Evolutionary Theory

_{Brian Miller
August 31, 2021}

The genetic variation in any species is confined to a limited set of variables such as a finch beak’s thickness.

How Engineers Helped Save Biology from Evolutionary Theory

_{Brian Miller
August 30, 2021}

Design motifs such as four-bar linkages and control systems must meet exacting requirements whether implemented in a space shuttle or a fish.

More on James Tour’s Abiogenesis YouTube Series

_{Brian Miller
July 21, 2021}

On today’s ID the Future, physicist Brian Miller continues his review of James Tour’s origin-of-life YouTube series. As Miller explains, Tour, a world-renowned synthetic organic chemist and professor at Rice University, was inspired to create the series when YouTuber and evolutionist Dave Farina critiqued Tour’s critique of contemporary origin-of-life claims. In reviewing Tour’s video series, Miller and host Eric Anderson praise the Tour series and discuss the Levinthal paradox of the interactome, the ridiculously long odds of blind processes assembling the first living cell, and the challenge of cell death (think Humpty Dumpty and what all the king’s men couldn’t do). Also discussed: entropy, molecular machines, the challenges that Brownian motion and homochirality pose, the presence of intelligent design in Read More ›

The Origin of Life was the Origin of an Engineering Marvel

_{Brian Miller
July 19, 2021}

On today’s ID the Future, physicist Brian Miller touches on various challenges facing the origin of the first life. He and host Eric Anderson discuss Jeremy England’s origin-of-life ideas and the RNA World Hypothesis, and offer multiple reasons why they are convinced that various proposed mindless processes do not explain the origin of the first self-reproducing cell. Miller urges another approach, one that draws on engineering principles and embraces the evidence in even the simplest cell of highly intelligent engineering.

Brian Miller Distills the YouTube Debate between Dave Farina and James Tour

_{Brian Miller
May 24, 2021}

On today’s ID the Future, host Eric Anderson and physicist Brian Miller, research director for Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, discuss a recent debate between YouTube science educator Dave Farina and Rice University synthetic organic chemist James Tour. Tour has argued that no one—not even the most elite of origin-of-life scientists–has a clue how life could have arisen through blind natural forces on the early earth. Farina created a YouTube response on his channel arguing that Tour is wrong and that origin-of-life researchers are well on their way to solving the mystery of life’s origin. Tour then responded in his own YouTube video series. Now Miller and Anderson boil it all down and argue that Tour is right Read More ›

Brian Miller Talks Star-Crossed RNA Strands and the Origin of Life

_{Brian Miller
May 3, 2021}

On today’s ID the Future, physicist Brian Miller continues his conversation with host Eric Anderson. Here they explore more problems facing the idea that life began as strings of RNA. In their discussion of the RNA World Hypothesis and the origin of life generally, they touch on ideas advanced by Jeremy England, Jack Shostak, Nick Lane, Helen Hansma, and others. One of several big problems with the RNA-first hypothesis underscored by Miller and Anderson: For it to have even a slender chance of working, you need prebiotic Earth to generate not one but two information-rich RNA strands, and they somehow need to find each other before falling apart, and do so despite the fact that they aren’t looking for each Read More ›

Brian Miller on Life, Thermodynamics and Jeremy England

_{Brian Miller
April 14, 2021}

In today’s ID the Future physicist Brian Miller discusses fellow physicist Jeremy England’s book Every Life Is on Fire: How Thermodynamics Explains the Origin of Living Things. Has England made a significant step toward solving the mystery of how life first began? In Miller’s conversation with host Eric Anderson, he argues that while England’s laboratory work is fascinating and innovative, what’s happening in his experiments differs dramatically from what is required of even the simplest life, so much so that the experiments do not shed the kind of light on the mystery of life’s origin that some may hope they do. Moreover, life does certain crucial things with energy that are unknown outside of the biological realm, Miller says, and Read More ›

Tour and Miller Tackle Cells as Computers, Alien Life and More

_{Brian Miller
December 18, 2020}

Today’s ID the Future is Part 3 of a conversation between Rice University chemist/inventor James Tour and Brian Miller, research coordinator for Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture. In this concluding portion of their conversation, Miller fields questions Tour pulls from his mailbag. They cover everything from how simple can a cell get and still survive and reproduce to questions of design detection, bouncing cosmologies, the possibility of alien life, and the similarities between computers and cells in how they process information. The interview is borrowed, with permission, from Tour’s Science and Faith podcast, available here.

Tour and Miller on a Design Perspective in Origin of Life

_{Brian Miller
December 16, 2020}

Today’s ID the Future is Part 2 of an extended interview between synthetic organic chemist James Tour and physicist/engineer Brian Miller. Here the conversation turns to the challenge and necessity of quickly evolving error-correction mechanisms in origin-of-life scenarios and the way origin-of-life researchers slip information and design into their origin-of-life work in the lab. Miller also makes a case for the research benefits of studying cells from a design perspective.

James Tour and Brian Miller Talk Engines We Can’t Live Without

_{Brian Miller
December 14, 2020}

Today’s ID the Future features Part 1 of an extended interview that first appeared on a podcast show hosted by distinguished Rice University synthetic organic chemist James M. Tour. As he typically does, since it’s the Science & Faith podcast, Dr. Tour begins his show by asking his guest for a statement of faith. Miller, a Christian, gives his, and then they dive into origin-of-life science. In a surprisingly accessible discussion given the depth of the material, the pair cover a range of issues—thermodynamics and the origin of the first cell, entropy, free energy, order and disorder, molecular engines, non-equilibrium thermodynamics, and the need for engines and information to overcome the vicissitudes of entropy. Also in the mix—feedback loops, Jeremy Read More ›