Boldly put, “facts are ventriloquists’ dummies. Sitting on a wise man’s knee they may be made to utter words of wisdom; elsewhere, they say nothing, or talk nonsense, or indulge in sheer diabolism” (quote attributed to Aldous Huxley). Science advances by postulating concepts and making assumptions, and then investigating to determine whether these concepts and assumptions are successful in explaining and predicting phenomena observed in nature or in the laboratory. As successful explanations grow, it becomes more and more plausible that the assumed concepts and ideas are basically correct and become scientific “facts”. In science, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical “fact” can only mean confirmed to such a degree

that it would be perverse to withhold Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical assent. I suppose it is possible that the theory of gravitation is false

and apples might stop falling to the ground and start rising, but the possibility does not merit any serious consideration. Steinberg further states that “it is important to distinguish between conclusions drawn from controlled experiments, and a theory, a speculation, or an assumption”. Consequently he charges that many of the premises of the evolution theory are unproved speculation: “evolution is only a theory; therefore, one can accept that which is fact and experimentally proven and Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical reject that which is an unsubstantiated hypothesis, or replace it by an alternative explanation”. It is important to emphasize here that facts and theories are not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world’s data, while theories are structures that explain and interpret data. Facts do not go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein’s theory of gravitation replaces Newton’s, but apples did not suspend themselves in mid air, pending Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical the outcome. Humans evolved from apelike ancestors whether they did so by Darwin’s proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered.3 Steinberg introduces

a list of creationist Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical claims but without being able to bring one single reference from the professional peer-reviewed literature, because creationist standards of scholarship are too low for publication in professional, reputable journals. For example, he challenges the fossil evidence, including the claim of a “JQ1 molecular weight missing link”, namely the lack of transitional fossils Cediranib (AZD2171) from lower to higher species. Even a cursory analysis of the professional literature would prove that these claims are incorrect. Based upon the consensus of numerous phylogenetic analyses, the chimpanzee is the closest living relative of humans. Thus, we expect that organisms lived in the past which were intermediate in morphology between humans and chimpanzees. Indeed, over the past century, many spectacular paleontological finds have identified such transitional hominid fossils. Or take the Ambulocetus (the “walking whale”), the transitional fossil that shows how whales evolved from landliving mammals. As S. J.