Intelligent Design Investigation

Explore the Evidence

Patterns of Design in Living Systems  •  12 evidence records
A Visit With Jesus

This investigation draws upon 12 related evidence records. They are grouped below according to the part of the investigation they help us examine. Select any record for a closer look at the observation, scientific background, significance, uncertainties, and its relevance to Intelligent Design.

Control and Stability in Living Systems

Feedback Control

Feedback Control in Living Systems

Living systems use feedback mechanisms in which information about the state of a system influences processes that regulate that state.
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Homeostasis

Homeostasis and Biological Regulation

Organisms maintain many internal conditions within functional ranges despite changes in their surroundings and their own activities.
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Robustness

Robustness Under Perturbation

Biological systems often continue functioning despite environmental variation, molecular noise, genetic changes, and damage.
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Reliability and Information

Redundancy

Redundancy and Backup Systems

Living systems sometimes contain overlapping components or pathways that allow important functions to continue when one component is impaired.
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Error Correction

Error Detection and Correction

Cells contain molecular systems that detect and correct some errors arising during DNA replication and other biological processes.
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Information Processing

Biological Information Processing

Cells receive molecular signals, distinguish among them, integrate information, and produce coordinated responses.
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Organization and Integration

Modularity

Modularity in Biological Systems

Biological systems are often organized into interacting subsystems whose components work together more closely with one another than with the system as a whole.
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Hierarchical Control

Hierarchical Organization and Control

Living systems are organized across interacting levels, from molecules and molecular complexes to cells, tissues, organs, organisms, and populations.
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Network Integration

Integration of Multiple Regulatory Networks

Biological functions often depend upon several regulatory networks operating together rather than upon isolated pathways.
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Trade-Offs, Constraints, and Failure

Biological Tradeoffs

Trade-Offs, Constraints, and Failure Modes

Biological systems are not perfectly optimized. Robustness, efficiency, flexibility, speed, accuracy, and resource use can conflict with one another.
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Assessing the Design Inference

Engineering Analogy

Engineering Analogies in Biology

Scientists frequently use concepts such as control, feedback, circuits, networks, error correction, robustness, and modularity to describe biological systems.
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Design Assessment

Do Engineering-Like Patterns Indicate Design?

Living systems contain feedback, error correction, robustness, modularity, information processing, and integrated regulation. The final question is whether these patterns provide evidence of purposeful organization.
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  Evidence records distinguish observations from proposed explanations and areas that remain uncertain.