I enjoyed Dr. Gnidovec’s enthusiasm for geology. I didn’t know before his talk that North America was the place of so many fossil discoveries, so that exciting for me to learn about. As a hands-on learner, I enjoyed getting to see the items he passed around, especially the amenite. I’m studying materials science so I usually see materials from an engineering perspective, asking questions about it’s applications, strength, and other properties. Seeing items from the natural world was interesting for me because I still looked at them with the materials engineer’s thought process, but with the added excitement of evolution being the reason for the structures these animals developed for their teeth, shells, etc.
Engineers are some of the most likely scientists to reject evolution. It s possible that they see design in the features you discuss in your post.