The Surprising Relevance of Engineering in Biology

Scientist Brian Miller explains the intriguing story of how biology is beginning to adopt more design-based models in its research. Although it’s true that many biologists still offer lip service to unguided evolution, engineers and biologists are actually working together to change the way we view how life developed.

Dr. Miller is Research Coordinator at Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture. He holds a Ph.D. in Physics from Duke University.

This talk was presented at the 2022 Dallas Conference on Science and Faith in January 2022

Slide Credits

• Slide 7a: Peter Miller, https://www.flickr.com/photos/pmillera4/16441170107, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/)
• Slide 7b: Rhcastilhos. And Jmarchn., CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0), via Wikimedia Commons
• Slide 49a: Thomas Shafee, CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), via Wikimedia Commons
• Slide 49b: Eric Anderson, Operational Gravity Well
• Slide 55: Epipelagic, CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0), via Wikimedia Commons
• Slide 56: Molecular and cellular evolution of corticogenesis in amniotes. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Vertebrate-phylogeny-Simplified-phylogenetic-tree-of-vertebrates-illustrating-the_fig1_336121009 [accessed 20 Jan, 2022]
• Slide 61: Diablanco, CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0), via Wikimedia Commons
• Slide 77: LadyofHats, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
• Slide 85: Robert A. Freitas and William P. Gilbreath, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
• Slide 86: See page for author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
• Slide 94: The evolution of the mammalian middle ear, Everything Dinosaur 
• Slides 1, 4, 7, 13, 24, 37, 70, 74,75, 83, 84, 93: Images used under license from Shutterstock.com