Biology, cosmology, physics, mathematics, computer engineering, chemistry… You could have an interesting argument among proponents of intelligent design about which field of science will ultimately clinch the argument for ID. Famed chemist Marcos Eberlin claims the honor will go to chemistry. Chauvinism, you say? Perhaps. You could take that up with the three Nobel laureates who endorsed his recent book, Foresight: How the Chemistry of Life Reveals Planning and Purpose.

“The molecules speak for themselves,” says Dr. Eberlin here. “The molecules will speak louder and louder and louder and finally we will have to surrender to the message that the molecules are sending to us. They say clearly, ‘Intelligent design is the source of life.’”

Eberlin’s specific field is mass spectrometry, which, as he has explained to me, is the powerful scientific tool that finally unlocked Darwin’s “black box,” in biochemist Michel Behe’s phrase. Eberlin jokes that “evolution hopes you don’t know chemistry,” whereas the case for intelligent design is built upon it.