On this ID the Future from the archive, host Jonathan Witt speaks to molecular biologist and professor Dustin Van Hofwegen about his research into the engineered complexity in microbial life. Hofwegen shares his research on the famous decades-long E. coli evolution experiment conducted by Richard Lenski, which showed the sudden appearance of an ability to utilize citrate after many generations. However, Van Hofwegen's own experiments demonstrated that this "evolutionary innovation" actually points to the intelligent design built into living systems instead of an undirected process like natural selection.