Chapman’s News & Ideas Detective Columbo of Chemistry: “I Don’t Understand Evolution”
A renowned chemist says he doesn’t “understand” evolution. What he means, he subsequently makes clear, is that Darwin’s theory doesn’t make sense to him. His humility, like that of Lt. Columbo in the famous TV detective series, covers a tough, analytical mind.

Dr. Tour
“The answer he inevitably receives, Tour explained, is: ‘no.’
“’Every time that I have sat with people who are synthetic chemists, who understand this, they go, ‘Uh-uh. Nope.’ Tour said. ‘And if they’re afraid to say ‘yes,’ they say nothing. They just stare at me, because they can’t sincerely do it.”

Detective Columbo
However, Tour doesn’t seem to have been hurt. Is that possibly because chemists are more open-minded than biologists? Or is the dirty little secret about Darwinism–that it has more public advocates in science than private believers–becoming more apparent?
James Tour photo: www.jmtour.com
Peter Falk as Columbo: Flickr/Ana Jenny