Ethics

Mike Gene Admits Matzke was Right

By Ed Brayton

The bacterial flagellum is such a central argument to the ID movement that during the Dover trial, it resulted in the funniest moment in the trial. After Michael Behe had spend nearly two full days on the witness stand, much of it talking about the flagellum, Scott Minnich took the stand and was going to talk about the same thing. When he put up a slide of the flagellum, Judge Jones said, "We've seen that." Minnich deadpanned, "I kind of feel like Zsa Zsa Gabor's fifth husband. I know what to do, I just don't know how to make it new and exciting for you."

Nick Matzke, who was the single most important person in the trial, responsible for educating the attorneys about science and ID and poking holes in the other side's arguments, had already by that time co-authored an article proposing that the flagellum had evolved from a more primitive and simple cellular apparatus and providing the evidence for that argument that was known to that point. That article was later published in the journal Protein Science.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on September 25, 2008 (boomark / email).