Scott Minnich

Scott Minnich holds a Ph.D. from Iowa State University and is currently a professor of microbiology at the University of Idaho and is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture.

Previously, Dr. Minnich was an assistant professor at Tulane University. In addition, he did postdoctoral research with Austin Newton at Princeton University and with Arthur Aronson at Purdue University. Dr. Minnich's research interests are temperature regulation of Y. enterocolitca gene expression and coordinate reciprocal expression of flagellar and virulence genes.

Biochemist Michael Behe used the flagella to illustrate the concept of irreducible complexity and Minnich takes the argument to the next level crediting the design paradigm to leading to new insights in his lab research at the University of Idaho.

In 2004 Minnich served as part of the United State's Iraq Survey Group (ISG) tasked with reviewing captured mobile weapons laboratories, and determining what role if any they played in microbial weapons production.

Minnich is widely published in technical journals including Journal of Bacteriology, Molecular Microbiology, Journal of Molecular Biology, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal of Microbiological Method, Food Technology, and the Journal of Food Protection.

Archives

Hitting the Brakes on ‘Rapid Evolution’

_{Scott Minnich
December 13, 2023}

On this episode of ID The Future, host Eric Anderson concludes his Why It Matters interview with microbiologist Dr. Scott Minnich. In Part 2, Dr. Minnich critiques Lenski's famous Long Term Evolutionary Experiments. Through experiments of his own, Minnich has shown how the practical results of Lenski's project on E. coli are easily repeatable under different conditions, and how some key changes to E. coli are even reversible, both of which speak more to an organism's pre-existing capabilities than to a Darwinian explanation. This is the conclusion to a two-part interview.

A Microbiologist’s Journey to Intelligent Design

_{Scott Minnich
December 11, 2023}

On this episode of ID The Future, host Eric Anderson continues his occasional interview series Why It Matters, this time with microbiologist Dr. Scott Minnich. In Part 1, Minnich shares how he first learned about intelligent design, met Dr. Stephen Meyer, and eventually became involved in the well-known documentary, Unlocking the Mystery of Life. Minnich also reflects on his childhood upbringing, his interest in the big questions, and how a run-in with a professor changed everything. This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation.

Is Antibiotic Resistance Evidence for Darwinian Evolution?

_{Scott Minnich
June 15, 2007}

This episode of ID The Future features the audio of a short video segment from the Icons of Evolution curriculum modules DVD. Antibiotic resistance is an example of natural selection acting on random mutation and is often referred to as one of the hallmark pieces of evidence for Darwin’s theory of evolution. Is it truly strong evidence supporting modern evolutionary theory? Biologist Scott Minnich and other biologists think not and explain …