sydney

The conflict about the competing claims of evolution and the fundamentalist interpretation of the biblical account of creation is due for another burst of public attention in Australia. Last week, Ian Plimer, the geologist who lost his main legal challenge to the creationist Allen Roberts just over three weeks ago (see Nature 387 540; 1997), lodged an appeal to the Full Bench of the Federal Court.

Plimer's lawyers will claim that Justice Ronald Sackville erred in deciding that Roberts had not acted in trade or commerce in raising funds for “archaeological research” on the supposed remains of Noah's Ark in Turkey.

A campaign to help Plimer with his crippling legal costs has also been launched at a public meeting at which the Anglican Archbishop of Adelaide spoke in his support. Plimer, a former Australian Humanist of the Year, has been campaigning against the teaching of so-called “creation science” in schools.

This week, the world's oldest association of geologists, the UK Geological Society, announced it had made Plimer an Honorary Fellow “for his courageous stand against ‘creation science’”. Richard Selley of Imperial College, London, writes: “Most geologists ignore creationists, and do not believe that it is worth joining them in serious debate. This is an extremely dangerous attitude and we are already seeing the price that must be paid by adopting it both in the USA and Australia. Professor Plimer is a man of enormous courage, who has put his money where his mouth is.”