Scientists at the University of Edinburgh are busy imitating nature’s design by building nanomachines.

Two things to note: First, these new designs are not perfect, and yet they were clearly designed by intelligence. I hope ID critics will finally put to rest the inane charge that if a system has a flaw in any sense—that is, if it is not optimal in every sense (which is impossible)—then that system was not designed. As the scientists note, the nanomachines they are making are not even as good as nature’s nanotechnology.

Second, if nature is full of such poorly designed systems, why is it that some of the best scientists in the world keep looking to nature for lessons in design?

It’s one thing to steal an idea. It is another to add insult to injury.