Discotute's Crazy Uncle Escapes Again

The Discovery Institute's (aka Discotute) Geoffrey Simmons has apparently escaped from his cage and gotten access to a computer again to pimp his fantasy novel, Billions of Missing Links (BOML), which finds just about everything in nature to be amazing. The Discotute has no problem with just a little bit of evolution, something they call microevolution or variations within kind. So, they really shouldn't have a problem with the little bit of evolution it takes to affix a barnacle or mollusk firmly to its perch. Simmons, on the other hand, finds this phenomenon simply amazing.

Billions of Missing Links: Barnacles and Mussels
Mussels have a similar glue, which sets underwater and has enormous strength. It takes about five minutes for the mussel to create a “dab” of this glue beneath its foot on a piling or rock. Twenty dabs will do it, and the job can be completed overnight. Imagine the consternation of intermediate species when they secreted what they thought was glue, but kept being washed away by the waves. Or the species that couldn’t store their glue and found their bivalves stuck together.

The adhesives that we produce today work really well on dry land, however we have yet to invent a compound that will form an adhesive underwater. Mussels, mollusks, and barnacles do this rather well - in fact, incredibly well. For barnacles, their "glue" is made by combining proteins together, much the same as we make epoxy from two different parts. Mix the two parts together, and they can solidify or create a fast curing adhesive. The barnacles have two separate glands to keep these proteins separate.

Mussels, on the other hand, create a gelatinous compound that streams out beneath their "foot" as an adhesive strand called a byssus and mussels use them not only to anchor themselves down, but also to permanently weld predators where they are.

Now all this sounds like I might be supporting Simmons' "that's incredible" way of thinking. Indeed, it is incredible. Nature is amazing. But that doesn't mean it's inexplicable. Just because Simmons can't imagine how barnacles evolved with two separate glands to keep epoxy components apart doesn't mean it didn't happen. Discotute might tell us the odds of this happening are a longshot, but I don't think that even they would say microevolution couldn't account for it. After all, they are trying to put intelligent design on some sort of scientific foundation, so they can't adopt Simmons' way of thinking otherwise their arguments would all boil down to incredulity.

So why even give Simmons a platform? Why doesn't Behe criticize Simmons? Why not Luskin or Dembski? They have to see Simmons as a liability, so why keep him on? My guess is that they need his credentials, whatever those are. They can't afford to lose PhDs otherwise they lose a bit of that "air of legitimacy" that they've tried to craft for themselves. No, it really sounds like Simmons is the Discotute's crazy old uncle that they keep locked away in the attic. Someone obviously left the door unlocked after feeding time.

References:
Underwater adhesion: The Barnacle Way
The Chemistry of...Glue
Chemists Crack Secret of Nature's Super Glue
Salty Water Makes Barnacles Stick