Missiles & Jackhammers: How Plants Spread Themselves Far and Wide

Intelligent Design the Future

Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture

Science, Philosophy, Astronomy, Society & Culture, Life Sciences

4 • 993 Ratings

🗓️ 26 March 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Host Andrew McDiarmid welcomes science reporter David Coppedge to the show to explore some fascinating examples of intelligent design in the plant world. They look so helpless tied to the soil, but plants and fungi have perfected technologies for spreading themselves far and wide. Coppedge and McDiarmid unpack the ingenious methods plants and fungi use to disperse their spores. The conversation also touches on the engineering principles behind plant root systems, and how studying these natural designs can inspire advancements in human technology through biomimetics. Source

Transcript

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0:00.0	ID the Future, a podcast about evolution and intelligent design.
0:12.0	Welcome to ID the Future. I'm your host, Andrew McDermott.
0:16.1	Well, today I'm welcoming back David Koppage to discuss fascinating examples of design technology in the plant world.
0:24.4	Mr. Koppage, in case you don't know him yet, or aren't familiar with his background,
0:28.7	is a freelance science reporter in Southern California.
0:32.5	He worked at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory for 14 years on the Cassini mission to Saturn until he was ousted in
0:39.9	2011 for sharing material on intelligent design, a discriminatory action that led to a nationally
0:45.9	publicized court trial in 2012. Discovery Institute supported his case, but a lone judge ruled
0:52.5	against him without explanation.
1:00.3	He has been a board member of Illustra Media since its founding and serves as their science consultant.
1:06.3	And if you haven't seen some of the videos that have been put out by Illustra Media in recent years,
1:07.7	you do need to do that.
1:19.5	A nature photographer, outdoorsman, a musician, David holds BS degrees in science education and in physics, and he gives presentations on ID and other scientific subjects.
1:22.6	David, welcome back to the show. Good to be with you.
1:33.9	So you write regularly at evolutionnews.org, our news and commentary site, that covers the debate over evolution and the evidence for intelligent design.
1:44.2	You cover examples of intelligent design in action, like scientists using AI to detect intelligently designed geoglyphs on the Nazca Plain in Peru.
1:46.6	I enjoy that discussion we had recently.
1:50.9	You also write about instances of design in the plant and animal worlds.
1:53.7	And a couple of those articles caught my eye recently.
2:00.0	One was about plant missile technology and explored the ingenious ways that some plants tend to send their spores out.
2:03.0	The other article looked at plant roots and how they function like jackhammers to penetrate
2:07.7	hard surfaces that greatly exceed their own strength.
	...

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