[Nebullis]

...growing realization that the cell may be "designing" itself.

It's an idea older than Darwin. Lamark, and others before him, promoted these type of transformation ideas.

[AndrewC]

It's an idea older than Darwin.

Yes, and even Darwin had something to say on the subject in his 1859 revision.

...by the direct action of external conditions, and by variations which seem to us in our ignorance to arise spontaneously. It appears that I formerly underrated the frequency and value of these latter forms of variation, as leading to permanent modifications of structure independently of natural selection.

[gore3000]

"It's an idea older than Darwin. Lamark, and others before him, promoted these type of transformation ideas. "

Much older than that even. At least as far back as Lucretius who has atoms arranging themselves and creating the universe.

It is quite ridiculous to say, when you think about it, that non-thinking matter can design what even man today cannot.