Pondering the 'benefits' of intelligent design.
I have returned to my graduate lab to keep my project moving along and to pass along the scientific torch. Today was a rough one at work and a news report I caught this evening only worsened my mood. It was news from Kansas and it was not pretty. The state's board of education voted to change the science curriculum so that it casts doubt on evolution and includes the teaching of 'intelligent design'. To most scientists, it is a tragedy. To me, it's personal.
I earned my undergraduate degree in biochemistry at the University of Kansas. During those years, I embraced the scientific method with ferocity and moved in the direction of teaching science. Now, this decision in Kansas stands contrary to the principles of science and it feels like a kick in the teeth.
It also inspires some playful mocking and melts away my stress about postdoctoral projects. Let us imagine science free of any burden of evidence. My life would be so much easier! Suddenly, I can come up with sweeping conclusions without doing boring experiments. I am fascinated by fine mechanistic questions in biology and I previously thought such enquiries required rigorous research methods. Now, I realize that biochemical reactions occur because some 'designer' said that's how they should happen.
This could really work in our favour, fellow scientists. Since the news from Kansas, I have finished two 'scientific' manuscripts! I think I can do about ten per week and never have to go to the lab! There's bad news, however. I will scoop all of Nature's readership by next Christmas. Wink. Nod.
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Jason Underwood completed his PhD in molecular biology at the University of California, Los Angeles, in June.
- Jason Underwood
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Underwood, J. Who needs evidence?. Nature 438, 528 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nj7067-528c
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nj7067-528c