The human hand is undeniably a work of wonder. Its layout and suite of design features enable mankind―the only possessors of this particular arrangement of bones, tendons, muscles, and nerves―to type faster than 60 words per minute or swing a heavy hammer while holding a delicate potato chip. What would it take to duplicate a human hand?

Darwinian evolution asserts that a single original organism morphed over countless generations into the modern known life forms. Each species alive today would therefore represent the tip of its own "branch" on a gigantic imaginary tree of life, with the hypothetical ancestor of all life forms situated at the base of the trunk.

When boring into wood in search of food, a woodpecker exerts so much force with each strike that its beak should crumble, its skull should crack, and its brain should be reduced to mush. However, a suite of design features absorbs the shock and ensures that these tragedies do not happen. How are these features able to provide such effective protection?

Certain repetitive DNA sequences have long been viewed as "confirmation" of evolution. Since they are not genes that code for proteins, they were considered to be unnecessary. Therefore, they were supposedly available for alterations that would eventually lead to a brand new function within the cell or body after all the "right" mutations had accumulated.