In late December, U.S. district judge John E. Jones III struck down a Dover, Pennsylvania, schoolboard policy that science teachers must inform students of "gaps" in Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and share other theories, including one known as "intelligent design." ID holds that life is so complex that only the existence of a higher power, a "designer," can explain it all. Agog at the "breathtaking inanity" of the school board's position, Jones, whom President George W. Bush appointed to the bench in 2002, called ID "nothing less than the progeny of creationism." In doing so, he helped pull U.S. science education back from the brink--and maybe keep the country competitive worldwide over the next decade and beyond.
--Will Bourne
