Greetings, esteemed elder FReeper.
You seem to have been fortuitously exposed to Science at both ends of the physical size spectrum. How intriguing that must be!
Speaking of intriguing, I decided just on a hunch, to take a look at the "bacterial flagellum motor" from your post (to which I'm responding).
I found this relatively short, considering the complexity of the subject matter, description of both the structure and variations within bacterial flagella, and a plausible conjecture as to how it may have arisen.
The flagellum certainly is complex, even irreducibly complex in this canonical form, but can it evolve? Well, there is still a lot unknown about eubacterial flagella, but we can get some ideas, and a plausible pathway from the literature.Interestingly, the author suggests quite seriously, that the bacterial flagellum motor may be an entirely accidental construct. From his descriptions, I get the impression that bacteria, in their teeming billions, are like sets of tinker-toys, getting assembled time after time with missing and extra parts that make them really, really odd.
And yet, an oddity such as a steering oar could be a useful contraption for a minuscule fluid-dwelling organism.
Apparently authored by Ian Musgrave, the article continues to hypothesize that bacterial flagella came about as a variation of normal secretory structures. I get the picture of Han, Luke, and Princess Leia stuck in the waste-disposal system, trying to assemble a device to assist them.
Evidently, some archaic proto-bacteria got its instructions mixed up and turned its trash into treasure in becoming marginally more motile.
It's also interesting that varieties of bacteria have developed different mechanisms for doing essentially the same thing. One wonders why, if the bacterial flagellum motor is so irreducibly complex, do countless different species use different tools, assembly procedures, and materials to do the same thing?
Here's a link to the short but interesting article. Evolution of the Bacterial Flagella
OK, from the link.....SECOND paragraph, mind you....
I recently ran across some material that bears directly on this question. In this article I'll outline the construction of eubacterial flagella, it's relationship to other systems, and end with a speculative scenario for the evolution of eubacterial flagella
Could you provide something a little more substantial with which to try to shoot down ID and IC?
Maybe; if it knew where it was steering to!
Or..
...to where it was steering. (Fer the spelin' poltice.)