Stephen C. Meyer | Page 21 | Discovery Institute

Antibiotic resistant bacteria inside a biofilm, 3D illustration. Biofilm is a community of bacteria where they aquire antibiotic resistance and communicate with each other by quorum sensing molecules

^{Scott Minnich and Stephen C. Meyer
September 1, 2004
Intelligent Design

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Genetic Analysis of Coordinate Flagellar and Type III Regulatory Circuits in Pathogenic Bacteria

_{Scott Minnich and Stephen C. Meyer
September 1, 2004
Intelligent Design

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Abstract: The bacterial flagellum represents one of the best understood molecular machines. Comprised of 40 parts that self-assemble into a true rotary engine, the biochemistry and genetics of these systems has revealed an unanticipated complexity. An essential component to assembly is the subset of parts that function as a protein secretory pump to ensure and discriminate that the correct number of protein subunits and their order of secretion is precisely regulated during assembly. Of further interest is the recognition of late that a number of important plant and animal pathogens use a related protein secretory pump fused to a membrane-spanning needle-like syringe by which a subset of toxins can be injected into target host cells. Together, the flagellar and virulence protein pumps are referred to as Type III Secretion Systems (TTSS). The archetype for TTSS systems has been the pathogenic members of the genus Yersinia which includes the organism responsible for bubonic plague, Y. pestis. Our interest in the Yersinia centers on the coordinate genetic regulation between flagellum biosynthesis and virulence TTSS expression. Y. enterocolitica, for example operates three TTSSs (motility, Ysa, and Yop), but each is expressed under defined mutually exclusive conditions. Y. pestis has lost the ability to assemble flagella (the genes are present on the chromosome) and expresses only the Yop system at 37oC, mammalian temperature. Using a combination of microarray analysis, genetic fusions, and behaviors of specific engineered mutants, we demonstrate how environmental factors influence gene expression of these multigene families, where the influence is exerted within each system, and propose why segregating these systems is critical for the organism. Our model further offers an explanation as to why an important subset of human pathogens has lost motility during their histories. Read More ›

fossil trilobite imprint in the sediment

^{Stephen C. Meyer
August 4, 2004
Intelligent Design

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The Origin of Biological Information and the Higher Taxonomic Categories

_{Stephen C. Meyer
August 4, 2004
Intelligent Design

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On August 4th, 2004 an extensive review essay by Dr. Stephen C. Meyer, Director of Discovery Institute's Center for Science & Culture appeared in the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington (volume 117, no. 2, pp. 213-239). The Proceedings is a peer-reviewed biology journal published at the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. Dr. Meyer argues that no current materialistic theory of evolution can account for the origin of the information necessary to build novel animal forms. He proposes intelligent design as an alternative explanation for the origin of biological information and the higher taxa. Read More ›

^{Stephen C. Meyer
March 8, 2004
Intelligent Design

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DNA by Design

_{Stephen C. Meyer
March 8, 2004
Intelligent Design

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This paper will develop a design hypothesis, not as an explanation for the origin of species, but as an explanation for the origin of the information required to make a living system in the first place. Whereas Darwinism and neo-Darwinism address the former question, theories of chemical evolution have addressed the latter question of the ultimate origin of life. This essay will contest the causal adequacy of chemical evolutionary theories based upon “chance,” “necessity,” and their combination. Instead, a third type of explanation — intelligent design — provides a better explanation for the origin of the information present in large biomacromolecules such as DNA, RNA, and proteins. To paraphrase Sober, this paper will present a version of the design hypothesis that disagrees with strictly materialistic theories of chemical evolution and provides a better explanation for the observed complexity of the simplest living organisms. Read More ›

Amazing bird Kingfisher. Diving bird. Colorful nature background. Bird: Common Kingfisher. Alcedo atthis

^{Stephen C. Meyer
December 18, 2003
Intelligent Design

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Teleological Evolution

_{Stephen C. Meyer
December 18, 2003
Intelligent Design

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It is difficult to see what empirical content Lamoureux's teleological evolution has or how it differs in substance from standard Neo-Darwinism with its denial of any evidence of actual, as opposed to merely apparent, design. Read More ›

^{Stephen C. Meyer
October 3, 2003
Intelligent Design}

Qualified Agreement

_{Stephen C. Meyer
October 3, 2003
Intelligent Design}

^{Stephen C. Meyer
September 11, 2003
Intelligent Design

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We Are Not Alone

_{Stephen C. Meyer
September 11, 2003
Intelligent Design

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Since early this century, scientists working in origin-of-life research have repeatedly tried to demonstrate that life’s simplest organisms could have evolved from simpler, nonliving molecules. This theory, known as chemical evolution, has dominated thinking about the origin of life for most of this century. So when Charles Thaxton, Walter Bradley, and Roger Olsen decided to critique chemical evolution, they didn’t expect their scientific audience to be ready to listen. Their audience has surprised them. Read More ›

^{Stephen C. Meyer
September 10, 2003
Intelligent Design

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Laws, Causes and Facts

_{Stephen C. Meyer
September 10, 2003
Intelligent Design

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A response to “Darwinism: Philosophical Preference, Scientific Inference, and Good Research Strategy” by Michael Ruse, Darwinism: Science or Philosophy, Chapter 2, Proceeding of symposium entitled Darwinism: Scientific Inference or Philosophical Preference (March 26-28, 1992). I appreciate very much the opportunity to respond to Professor Ruse. Though it is in the nature of a response to disagree, I must say that Read More ›

^{Stephen C. Meyer
September 10, 2003
Intelligent Design

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Scientific Tenets of Faith

_{Stephen C. Meyer
September 10, 2003
Intelligent Design

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On January 10th, 1985, Louisiana District Court Judge Adrian Duplantier entered a summary judgement against the Creation Science Legal Defense Fund. Judge Duplantier forbade instruction of creation-science under the United States Constitution. He ruled the concepts of creation and a Creator originate in religious conviction and are, thus, implicitly unconstitutional-and unscientific. This decision echoed the highly publicized result rendered in Read More ›

^{Stephen C. Meyer
July 2, 2003
Intelligent Design

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The Methodological Equivalence of Design & Descent:

_{Stephen C. Meyer
July 2, 2003
Intelligent Design

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Reprinted from The Creation Hypothesis, ed. by J.P. Moreland (InterVarsity Press, 1994) During the last thirty years the idea of design has undergone a renaissance in some scientific and philosophical circles. Developments in physics and cosmology, in particular, have placed the word design back in the scientific vocabulary as physicists have unveiled a universe apparently fine-tuned for the possibility of Read More ›

^{Multiple Authors
June 27, 2003
Uncategorized

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Getting Rid of the Unfair Rules

_{Multiple Authors
June 27, 2003
Uncategorized

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The Battle of Beginnings: Why Neither Side is Winning the Creation-Evolution Debate by Del RatzschDowner’s Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1996, 248 pp. The casual reader of Del Ratzsch’s The Battle of Beginnings: Why Neither Side is Winning the Creation-Evolution Debate (hereafter, Battle) may be excused for casting Ratzsch in the role of a philosophical and scientific referee — perhaps even Read More ›