Brussels media briefs

theory of evolution. The exhibition, three years in planning, appears at a time when evolutionary theory is again the subject of debate. While the exhibition has received strong backing from scientists and many of New York’s influential intellectual elite, organisers have had to battle with a broader conservatism. Last month in Kansas, the state board of education voted to adopt standards for schools that say the theory is flawed. On the other side, voters in Pennsylvania ousted every member of a local school board who supported the inclusion of the concept of intelligent design in the curriculum, replacing them with members who opposed the mandate. Opponents of evolution have also latched onto the recent film, March of the Penguins, an extraordinary natural history film about the rigors of life for the Antarctic emperor penguins, which has been championed by the Christian right as evidence of intelligent design. The film has proved enormously popular in the US and is set for similar success in Europe this winter. But the French makers claim no higher motive for the film than to show the extraordinary life cycle of these birds and, in Europe, little is expected to be read into the film other than that. The anti-evolution current in the US was initially a problem for the New York exhibition organisers as corporate sponsors shied away. But the scale and eventual support for such an in-depth celebratory exhibition marks a triumph for the organisers. Niles Eldridge, the exhibition’s curator, confirmed that the exhibition was intended to redress the balance in the battle between scientists and creationist Christians being fought across the country. “This is for the schoolchildren of America,” he said. “This is the evidence of evolution.”