Editing Specified complexity (section)

===Orgel's terminology===
The term "specified complexity" was originally coined by [[origin of life]] researcher [[Leslie Orgel]] in his 1973 book ''The Origins of Life: Molecules and Natural Selection'',<ref name="NCSE Orgel">{{cite web | title=Review: Origins of Life | website=NCSE | url=http://ncse.com/rncse/27/3-4/review-origins-life | access-date=1 June 2016| date=2015-12-15 }}</ref> which proposed that [[RNA]] could have evolved through Darwinian [[natural selection]].<ref name="Salk Institute for Biological Studies 2007">{{cite web | title=Salk Chemical Evolution Scientist Leslie Orgel Dies | website=Salk Institute for Biological Studies | date=30 October 2007 | url=http://www.salk.edu/news-release/salk-chemical-evolution-scientist-leslie-orgel-dies/ | access-date=1 June 2016}}</ref> Orgel used the phrase in discussing the differences between life and non-living structures:

<blockquote>In brief, living organisms are distinguished by their ''specified'' complexity. Crystals are usually taken as the prototypes of simple well-specified structures, because they consist of a very large number of identical molecules packed together in a uniform way. Lumps of granite or random mixtures of polymers are examples of structures that are complex but not specified. The crystals fail to qualify as living because they lack complexity; the mixtures of polymers fail to qualify because they lack specificity.<ref>Leslie Orgel (1973). ''The Origins of Life'', p. 189.</ref></blockquote>

The phrase was taken up by the creationists [[Charles Thaxton]] and [[Walter Bradley (engineer)|Walter L Bradley]] in a chapter they contributed to the 1994 book ''The Creation Hypothesis'' where they discussed "design detection" and redefined "specified complexity" as a way of measuring information. Another contribution to the book was written by [[William A. Dembski]], who took this up as the basis of his subsequent work.<ref name="NCSE Orgel" />

The term was later employed by physicist [[Paul Davies]] to qualify the complexity of living organisms:

<blockquote>Living organisms are mysterious not for their complexity per se, but for their tightly specified complexity<ref>Paul Davies (1999). ''The Fifth Miracle'' p. 112.</ref></blockquote>