On a new episode of ID the Future, internationally distinguished chemist Marcos Eberlin, author of the new book Foresight: How the Chemistry of Life Reveals Planning and Purpose, talks about evolution’s “water gate” problem. Download the podcast or listen to it here.

As Dr. Eberlin explains to host Andrew McDiarmid, there’s no conspiracy here, just life’s astonishing solution for admitting water into cells through “gates” while keeping lethal acidifying proteins out. There’s also a chicken-and-egg problem involving proteins and molecular chaperones. That and more, Eberlin argues, add up to the conclusion that life required foresight.

Photo: The historic Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C., by Carol M. Highsmith [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.