Why Human Skeletal Joints Are Masterpieces of Engineering

One of Britain’s top mechanical engineers, Stuart Burgess explains how the skeletal joints in the human body are masterpieces of intelligent design. He also responds to claims by some that human joints are badly designed.

This presentation was taped at the 2022 Westminster Conference on Science and Faith in the greater Philadelphia area, which was jointly sponsored by Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Westminster Theological Seminary.

Dr Stuart Burgess has held academic posts at Bristol University (UK), Cambridge University (UK), and Liberty University (USA). He has published over 180 scientific publications on the science of design in engineering and biology. In the last two Olympics he was the lead transmission designer for the British Olympic Cycling Team, helping them on both occasions to be ranked in first place for track cycling. For the last two decades his gearboxes have been used successfully on all the large earth-observation satellites of the European Space Agency. He has received many national and international awards for design, including from the Minister of State for Trade and Industry in the UK. In 2019 he was given the top mechanical engineer award in the UK out of 120,000 professional mechanical engineers.