Not 'Just a Theory'

Science teacher Kurt Richter bristles when he hears someone say of evolution, "Oh, that's just a theory."

That statement, said the Gaithersburg High School teacher, reveals a misunderstanding of what the word "theory" means in science. What it is not: a simple guess or a hypothesis, he said.

"A theory is something that has been tested scientifically and so well supported that it can explain a broad range of observation," he said.

The theory of evolution is as true to most scientists, he said, as the theory of gravity or Einstein's theory of relativity.

That's why, he said, he spends time during the first day of every new class explaining what "theory" means.

-- Valerie Strauss