Avi Blizovsky
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The threat from the conservatives, who received a boost from President Bush, on the study of evolution in schools, forced the scientists to come out of the ivory tower and defend the theory that was proven already 156 years ago.
Harvard University enters the age-old debate about the theory of evolution through a comprehensive study of the beginning of life. A team of researchers has received funding totaling $XNUMX million per year from Harvard for the next few years. The project will begin with the researchers admitting that some of the mystery surrounding the origin of life cannot be explained.
My expectation is that we can reduce the process to a simple series of logical events that could have occurred without divine intervention." said David Liu, professor of chemistry and biological chemistry at Harvard.
"The Origin of Life in the Universe Initiative" is still in its early stages, scientists told the Boston Sunday Globe. Harvard turned to researchers with the goal of hiring faculty and staffing multimillion-dollar facilities.
Evolution, the basic scientific theory according to which species have evolved over millions of years, has been taught in schools for decades, but recently it is under renewed and sustained attack in several countries who are debating whether school children should also learn a theory called "intelligent creation", which holds that life on Earth is so are too complex to develop through evolution and therefore can only be explained by a higher power that must have helped in the creation process.
Harvard is not known as a leading university in the field of origin of life research, but the university's vast resources could change that perception. "We are satisfied that Harvard is going to find a solution to the problem and thus also be remembered 100 years from now." says Steve Benner, a scientist from the University of Florida who is also one of the world's top chemists in the field of life research."
In the meantime, the American Chemical Society, the largest scientific society in the world, also announced that it reiterates its call to include the study of evolution in school curricula according to the appropriate level for each age because it is central to the modern understanding of science.
"Evolution is a central and well-established scientific concept" says William Akroll, president of the association. "In the right context, students need to be exposed to the wide range of opinions to help them form their own attitudes, but they need to get a solid understanding of science from their science teachers, through a solid and complete curriculum. Evolution is the most proven model we need to teach in science classes in schools."
In a recently received policy document, the association stated that "evolutionary theory is not a hypothesis but an accepted scientific explanation for the origin of species, and is also explained by many and varied observations in chemistry, biology, geology and other scientific disciplines."
The American Chemical Society is a non-profit organization founded by order of Congress and has over 158 chemists and chemical engineers as members.
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