Is evolution really essential for science? 'The subject of evolution occupies a special, and paradoxical, place within biology as a whole. While the great majority [of] biologists would probably agree with Theodosius Dobzhansky's dictum that "nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution", most can conduct their work quite happily without particular reference to evolutionary ideas. "Evolution" would appear to be the indispensible unifying idea and, at the same time, a highly superfluous one.' [Emphasis added.] Wilkins, A.S., Evolutionary processes: a special issue,
BioEssays22:1051-1052, 2000.
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