Question for Self-Proclaimed tree of life “expert” David Hillis
Looks like David Hillis, the self-proclaimed “world’s leading expert” on tree of life phylogeny didn’t get the memo.
Media experts who prepare business leaders, public figures and so on to meet the press always remind their charges to read the newspaper. Never go before the media, or a state board of education, not having at least read the headlines of the day. I’ve seen very accomplished CEO’s literally spill their coffee on themselves at an important press conference when confronted with a late breaking headline they’re not prepared for.
It’s too bad that yesterday when Hillis stepped arrogantly to the microphone and artlessly asserted his alleged expertise, that no one presented him with just these two headlines:
Charles Darwin’s tree of life is ‘wrong and misleading’, claim scientists (The Guardian)
and
Evolution: Charles Darwin was wrong about the tree of life (The Telegraph)
The debate before the board of course is whether or not there are any weaknesses with modern Darwinian theory. Hillis, Skoog, and Wetherington, amazingly refused to admit any weakness whatsoever, even when presented with evidence showing that there are weaknesses and that scientists robustly debate them and what they mean for the theory.
Hillis asserted that the traditional Darwinian tree of life is just fine the way it is, and he should know after all ,as he explained, he is the world’s expert on the tree of life. Except that he doesn’t know, and it looks like he isn’t quite the expert he claimed.