by An Irreducibly Complex Party Trick
[Via The Panda’s Thumb]
Wanna demonstrate how evolution and scaffolding can produce irreducibly complex structures at your next ivory tower wine and cheese party or evil atheist conspiracy kitten roast? Just repeat the demonstration see in this clip.
(HT: Nick Matzke.)
[More]
One aspect of evolution often talked about is that some current processes seem like they are too complex to have evolved,especially since the intermediary steps would not easily be useful.
But we have examples of so-called scaffolds – part of the process that existed previously and helped the structure/process evolve but then were lost after the structure/process no longer needed them
This video shows what we mean. The final structure is actually almost impossible to produce on its own. but with certain scaffolds, it forms quite easily and is very strong even after the scaffolds are removed.
Same things often happens in evolution.
A Man With A Ph.D. 