ABSTRACT
In 1958, Francis Crick coined the term “the central dogma” for the understanding that DNA gives rise to proteins by means of an irreversible chemical process. Though not intended, to call it a dogma was pejorative. It was to call it nonscientific even though the idea was grounded in science. There is much hand-wringing among educators about the importance of teaching students “critical thinking.” They complain that their students do not know how to analyze the world of ideas in a thoughtful and independent way. Most often ideas in biology, ideas about molecules, chemical reactions, cells, organisms, and even communities of organisms are presented as facts established for the ages, as certain as the rising sun. It is coming to appreciate that the greatness of science is not to be found in what we know or think we know about the world around us, but in our awareness of the tentativeness of our knowledge.
