When it comes to evolution, the nation’s attention is focused these days on Dover, Pennsylvania, where parents are suing the local board of education for introducing creationism into the classroom. It’s certainly an important case, but if you really want to get a sense of what’s at stake in the struggle over evolution, I suggest you turn your attention south, to the sunshine state. Florida is trying to have it both ways when it comes to creationism, and sooner or later something’s going to have to give.

Two weeks ago, governor Jeb Bush broke ground on what he has called “a defining moment in Florida’s future.” The Scripps Research Institute, one of the world’s premier biomedical institutions,