The science of the 21st century
There is no room for doubt that biology will be the science of the 21st century. One only needs to consider the developments in blastocytes or cloning. So it is necessary for children to acquire the appropriate foundations for that science. (Imagine if physics had not been properly taught over the past century, the century of the growth of technology, telecommunications, the century of the nuclear bomb…) If there is one basic law in biology that supports it and unites it with the other sciences, it is the theory of evolution. Without it, one cannot see biology as a whole. With it, we can understand how a cell works, a gene, even a community of animals. It is a unifying principle that unfortunately is not taught in Greek schools. Yet the phenomenon of evolution can no longer be questioned. All the evidence from every science confirms it. It is clear that the authorities simply don’t want to look at the problem directly and are simply getting around it. The reasoning is that «we don’t need to cause unpleasantness, let them learn it at university.» It would be far more honest to invoke reasons of tradition or faith. For every other argument is doomed to collapse. Eleftherios Zouros is professor emeritus of biology at Crete University.
