Darwinism and popular culture: Newsweek columnist fronts anti-Darwin inheritance theory

No one in recent memory has ever questioned Darwinism and got away without attacks by hordes of Darwinbots.

Remember that when you read Sharon Begley's "The Sins of the Fathers, Take 2 At tributes to Darwin, Lamarckism—inheritance of acquired traits—will be the skunk at the party" (Newsweek, Jan 17, 2009):

Some water fleas sport a spiny helmet that deters predators; others, with identical DNA sequences, have bare heads. What differs between the two is not their genes but their mothers' experiences. If mom had a run-in with predators, her offspring have helmets, an effect one wag called "bite the mother, fight the daughter." If mom lived her life unthreatened, her offspring have no helmets. Same DNA, different traits. Somehow, the experience of the mother, not only her DNA sequences, has been transmitted to her offspring.

I keep wondering why Darwin's heirs decided to hold a big blowout at exactly the point when we had ever more reasons to doubt. (But religious fanatics never think of things like that, do they?)

Find out why there is an intelligent design controversy: