I Am A Terrorist
Posted By Caulimovirus on August 31, 2005
“How I Threatened To Burn My Professor At The Stake”
.: Many of you by now have heard this story. Either I told you over the phone, through AIM, or in person. It’s a long story, and for the first time I’m going to write down as much of it as I can.
.: It all starts with a lecture in my Introduction to Neuroscience class. The professor, Dr. Patton, made a demonstration with two very important and influential books: The Bible and the Origin of Species. The lecture can be summarized in these four lines:
Holding up the Bible: “This is not a science book.”
Holding up the Origin of Species: “This is.”
Holding up the Bible again: “This is a book about relationships with God.”
Holding up the Origin of Species again: “This isn’t.”
.: This is a very basic idea that many people, unfortunately, do not yet grasp or are unwilling to understand. As Dr. Patton informally stated later: “The Bible says nothing about how I should repair my car. That’s not why it exists.” However, a student in the class did not agree with Dr. Patton and was deeply offended by his remarks. In a show of defiance, he walked out of the class mid-lecture in front of everybody. His name is Christopher Stone.
.: Later that evening, I received an email by Mr. Stone. He had sent it to almost everybody in the class, with the exception of the professors. (Intro to Neuroscience is a team-taught course; there are five professors.) I now reproduce his email in full:
Hi,
Most of you have no idea who I am, though some of you I know personally. To identify myself better, I am the guy who walked out of class today. In fact, that is why I am emailing all of you.
I realize many of you will not like or even agree with what I am about to say so feel free to delete this now if you’d like, but if you have a few moments I have something to say that you might like to hear.
The reason I walked out of class today is because I am a Christian. Unashamedly so. And after Friday’s performance by Dr. Patton I had prepared myself to do just that very thing if my beliefs were once again attacked. Sure enough they were, so I left.
I don’t know if anyone else has been deeply offended by some of the things Dr. Patton has said, but my guess is yes because of the usual make-up of Baylor Students. I’ve been thinking about what I should do in response — I can’t very well let my faith be trampled upon and I have no intention of doing so, but as a student I’m not given a lot of options.
According to our syllabus we can miss 11 classes before we fail, and Dr. Patton is responsible for 5 more. I plan on attending the first few minutes of Wednesday’s lecture, but beyond that I intend to boycott by being absent from his lectures. This may be crazy or irrational, but it is the only recourse I have.
I’d like to invite any and every one to do the same. Any who are interested in joining me, I will remain in the hall outside of the classroom for the remainder of his lectures. If you would like to join me, I’d like to hear from you and you may email me at my Baylor address. If you have any other ideas, I’d love to hear those as well.
Thanks for your time. God bless you and please pray for Dr. Patton.
Christopher Stone
.: Amazed and amused by such staunch stupidity, I wrote a parody email and sent it to everyone in the class, including the professors. At this point, I had not yet realized that Christopher Stone did not send his email to everybody. I now reproduce my letter in full:
Hi,
Most of you have no idea who I am, though some of you I know personally. To identify myself better, I am the guy who walked out of class today. In fact, that is why I am emailing all of you.
I realize many of you will not like or even agree with what I am about to say, but rest assured if you delete this email Jesus will frown on you.
The reason I walked out of class today is because I am a Christian. Zealously so. And after Friday’s performance by “Dr.” Patton I had prepared myself to do just that very thing if my beliefs were once again attacked by logic and reason and scientific claims that can be proven. Sure enough they were, so I left.
I don’t know if anyone else has been deeply offended by some of the things “Dr.” Patton has said, but my guess is yes because of the usual make-up of Baylor Students (70% Christian, 20% Adamantly Christian, 5% Fundamentalist Christians, 4% Fingers-In-The-Ears-La-La-La-La-I-Can’t-Hear-You Christians, and Me.) I’ve been thinking about what I should do in response — I can’t very well let my faith be trampled upon and I have no intention of doing so, but as a student who accidentally signed up for a science course instead of the seminary I’m not given a lot of options.
According to the bible, “Thou shalt not suffer a Witch to live.” (Exodus 22:18) I feel strongly that “Dr.” Patton’s heretical teachings in the voodoo field of neuroscience constitutes witchcraft. Therefore, next Wednesday before lecture, I call on my fellow Christians to gather rope and kindling so that we may burn “Dr.” Patton at the stake. It is my firm belief that we must set fire to ALL heretics who seek to destory our most cherished Christian beliefs. This may be crazy or irrational, but it is the only recourse I have that might actually accomplish something. Sure, I could boycott class all semester, but who else aside from me would care?
I’d like to invite any and every one to attend the burning. If you would like to join me, I’d like to hear from you and you may email me at my Baylor address. If you have any other ideas (I already considered stoning, drowning, and drawing & quartering but feel fire to be more practical), I’d love to hear those as well.
Thanks for your time. God bless you and please pray for “Dr.” Patton.
Cody Cobb
P.S. If you don’t have any kindling, your textbooks should work just fine.
.: Almost immediately I received praise from fellow students. Most people understood the joke.
.: Most people.
.: Several people did not understand it. My email was sent after Mr. Stone’s so, following the law of stratification, it appeared on the top of many people’s inbox. Naturally, they read that one first. Some read only my email and not Mr. Stone’s; some read both my email and Mr. Stone’s at face value and disagreed with both of us; and some read both my email and Mr Stone’s at face value and agreed with both of us.
.: About this time I noticed my email was sent to certain email addresses that did not receive Mr. Stone’s original email. This led to some confusion. I forwarded Mr. Stone’s email to everyone I could–including the professors–but the damage was already done. At first I was told two students–presumably freshman girls who’ve never had an original thought in their quaint, conservative lives and who were tragically born without irony-detectors–sent a complaint to the Baylor DPS. Later, I was told the other professors in the class also alerted the DPS. They thought I seriously wanted to burn Dr. Patton at the stake. My guess is, in a place like Baylor, that kind of thing goes on all the time.
.: The next morning, after my first class, two Baylor police officers were waiting for me. They escorted me to their office and proceeded to interrogate me. Here is part of the conversation that I can remember:
(The two police officers would trade turns in speaking, but for all intents and purposes they are the same person.)
We received two complaints from students in your neuroscience class about an email you sent to everyone.
-Yes?
You are aware that what you have done is a felony? You have committed a terrorist act.
-Have you read the original email?
No, we have not received any original email.
-My email is a parody. Christopher Stone wrote the original email and sent it to almost everybody in the class. I wrote a line-by-line parody.
Well we got messages from people who thought it was real. In this day and age you cannot do things like this. We have Columbines and 9/11’s all over the place, and we can’t risk this kind of thing.
-It’s a joke. I emailed the professor and told him that.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a joke. I myself figured it out, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is what’s written on the paper, and you said you were going to burn your professor.
-At the stake. It’s satire. I engaged in hyperbole to make a point. You need to read the original email.
We’ll get to that. You need to understand that this is no laughing matter. Smirk all you want, but what you’ve done isn’t a joke.
-In all honesty I did not think anyone would take it seriously. But some have, so I think I’ve learned a lesson here.
Let me get this straight, this is a parody, right?
-Yes.
Why didn’t you put a note at the bottom telling everyone it was a parody?
-In retrospect that would’ve been the smart thing to do.
The smart thing would have been not to send this stupid thing out in the first place. Now let me ask you a question: is this an English class?
-No.
So what are you doing writing stories?
-It’s not a story.
Yes it is. You said it was a short story parody.
-No I didn’t; I said it was a parody.
Well don’t you write that in English class?
-No.
.: The whole time I thought to myself, “Are these guys eventually going to arrive at some kind of a point in the near future? I can’t believe I’m missing Economics for this.” Alas, they never did go anywhere with their line of reasoning. When I told them that my email was a parody and that they needed to read the original email, they should have stopped what they were doing and let me show them what I was talking about. But they didn’t. The rest of the interrogation proceeded in the same vein. I suppose the two officers were just trying to scare me (“You can seriously go to jail for what you have written, and that’s no joke” x 15), but the whole time I was simply astonished by their utter lack of logical reasoning. Had Socrates been present, he would have weeped.
.: “It doesn’t matter that it was a joke,” they told me. “What matters is that your joke could be read a certain way that indicates a terroristic threat.”
.: In my affidavit, I used the introductory paragraph to explain and diagram the definitions of Satire, Hyperbole, and Irony–they never read those things anyway, do they? After I signed my confession, they told me that I could not go to class tomorrow. Otherwise, I was free to go.
.: After I was released, I immediately called my sister, my brother, my mother, my girlfriend, my dad, my grandmother, and my grandfather. Three of those people got in touch with my great uncle, who was the head coach of all athletics at Baylor. It’s nice to have connections.
.: After communicating with all of those people, I received an email from Dr. Patton. He called the Baylor DPS and told them to let me back into class. My short term as a terrorist was finally over.
.: This morning, I returned to Intro to Neuroscience, somewhat sick to my stomach. Dr. Patton explained the whole situation to the class without naming names, but it was pretty obvious that the guy slouching way down in his seat on the front row was me. He made a joke to me before class started:
“If you want I can go get my coat tree and we can use that as a stake.”
.: What a great guy.
.: And now, with all that said, I have a few reflections I’d like to share with you:
~Some people are not college material. They do not know how to think critically nor are they willing to learn. They are everywhere.
~American entertainment is sorely lacking in irony and subtlety. Everything is too loud and too obvious. At least, that’s my assessment. When people cannot discern that I am joking when I say I am offended by “logic and reason and scientific claims that can be proven,” I am simply amazed.
~If Jonathan Swift were alive in America today, would he be accused of eating babies?
~Black & White thinking is terrible and dehumanizing, as exemplified by the police officers who interrogated me. When someone with authority tells you, “Well, we can’t let you do this, otherwise we’ll have to let everyone do it too,” they are basically admitting that their argument is crap. They cannot explain why what you did in a particular situation is bad, only that such actions could conceivably be bad. This is not acceptable.
~I do not feel more secure.
UPDATE: More interesting comments to be found here
That’s amazing, on all counts. Wow.
I was so enjoying your OBVIOUS satire and thinking that you had SUPPORTED your professor in such a hilarious manner–then I read the outcome and nearly dropped my coffee cup. What happened to you is the kind of bullshit one encounters in a fascist theocracy. It looks as though Baylor harbors the humorless, insecure, misguided leadership which spells the end of intellectual growth for an educational institution. Mark Twain, H.L.Menken, Dorothy Parker and your fellow satirists at the ONION and the HARVARD LAMPOON show that you are in good company in both your excellent writing skills and your subequent scapgoating by morons on whom all irony and epistolary genius is as pearls before swine. Please do not let this setback change you–society has enough sheep like your misguided classmate.
Like Plato describes in The Republic, only the best men should study philosophy and all the related stuff that falls into the category of a satire, irony, and literature in general. MR. Stone actually deserves to be a policeman.
I sometimes laugh at the irony that our policemen, judges, and other law enforcers are ignorant of binding norms of our society, other than the hate.
All intelligent replies are taken, so I will resort to petty name-calling.
Assbastards.
Codine,
The QW! has your back. Fight for you rights. Also, if you fight for your right to party, I think the Beastie Boys will rally behind your cause.
Don’t let the bastards get you down, kid. Maine is right, you’re a bright and witty sonuvabish that is a great writer. Keep it up, boy.
I wonder if that kid thinks he’s ever going to get laid before he graduates?
Maine, the weird thing is, he doesn’t want to.
Came here through Maine. Scrolled to check to length of he post… and found it long. But since Maine recommneded you, I thought i read a few paragraphs at the very least… the whole thing if it was a good story.
What a great story! I’ve met some of the biggest dumbasses in college… Maybe it’s becuase we expect a higher level of reasoning in an institution of learning, I don’t know.
How anyone can become so wrapped up in “faith” that they refuse to discuss other ideas is beyond me. That’s prety much what turns me off from most religions… I refuse to check my brain at hte door.
Fabulous post, and thanks to maine for linking you from his blog. Cheers!
In response to Vincent:
I think the problem here was due to our society’s crummy emphasis on literature and its respective fields. Rather than abandoning the practice to the intelligensia, which would polarize them from the masses even further, I propose that we redouble our efforts and revamp the educational process, especially in the areas of history and literature.
In other words, Plato is wrong.
Rachael,
In Hitchens’ “Letters to a Young Contrarian”, he talks about visiting a trendy Buddhist monastery in California with those exact words (Well, almost: check your mind at the door) on the welcome mat. It’s almost like it’s becoming a virtue in some religions….
opps.
Hittin’ your spot via Maine. Is the Pen Mightier Than the Sword? Rhetoric as an art form. Writers seem to have had the same sort of attitude to rhetoric as some people have to the combustion engine: they’re not happy unless they’re taking it apart. High five to you for speaking your mind at whatever cost. I agree with Maine – it was worth my time to read this.
Your first point is dead on target. Some people are NOT college material. Yet there they are.
holy SMOKES. I ….
whoa. I was speechless reading this, I can only imagine how you felt when you were listening to the cops. Have we become so paranoid and politically correct in this society that we fail to see satire for what it is?
the terrorists have won!
unbelieveable.
by the way, I think you’re a helluva good writer. Please consider a career in writing, as I really think we need someone to educate the masses!
Hi. I came across your site on the Facebook. I thought your email was brilliant and well-written. (Are you a Noze brother? You might consinder “unrushing”.) Several thoughts came to my mind as I read through the entire post. 1)I have to seriously question whether or not I want to receive an education from a professor (presumably someone with a PhD) who cannot recognize satire, even without seeing the original email. 2)Baylor is producing a number of people who will simply be blown away by the real world. Kudos to the professor for attempting to enlighten your class, though I suppose it doesn’t do much good if people are not willing to listen. 3) People are getting raped and robbed on and around campus, and this is where DPS focuses its attention?! (Well, that and writing parking tickets.)It’s ridiculous!
You call that satire?
First, I’ve never seen a good example of satire which resorted to blatant childish name calling.
Second, you really should have paid attention to who you were sending the email to.
And finally, just because the world may have turned it’s back on Christ doesn’t mean we aren’t prepared for it. We’re very prepared to go out and work in a world that we have the power to change. Christ’s love is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The same kind of junk people are dealing with now, they were dealing with it back then.
Of course, I don’t believe for a minute that you’ll let this comment stand. Guess your tolerance doesn’t extend that far, does it?
Nope, I guess not.
i couldve sworn number 15 was full of satire… i think i need to pay more attention in my lit class. i keep getting satire and sarcasm terribly confused.
This was read in my World Cultures III class by one of your classmates–I found it freaking hilarious.
I’m Christian and I think this is hilarious. Good for you dude.
Came here through a link in a Fark thread. Good read, and sorry about your hassle.
I think one of the reasons Christian kids do this kind of thing in college is that they are trained to be wary of the “evil college professor” who hates religion and is lurking around every corner, waiting to discredit your faith. As a Christian, I heard this campfire tale frequently, to an extent at church but even more so at the parochial school I attended through the 8th grade. Like racism, Christian college paranoia is one of those things where if you’re told it abounds, and you look hard enough, you’re going to find it, regardless of whether or not its really there.
It’s also probably worth pointing out that conservative Christians hardly corner the market on illogical and irrational behavior. There are plenty of people who blindly hate or mock things (Christianity, for example) that they understand only partially and have heard described only anecdotally. It’s frustrating, but part of putting up with our fellow humans.
Found you via Fark. The whole situation is hilarious and sad at the same time. I have to wonder if #15 is Mr. Stone, but apparently whoever it is was too scared to even give their real name. Hopefully one day everyone will learn how to think for themselves and debate, rather than ignore, viewpoints that they don’t agree with.
Aside from this article being freakin’ hilarious, I’m curious if the guy in the picture is “the” Christopher Stone…
Amazing, simply amazing. It’s on the list of Baylor lows. Way to do what I wish I had the opportunity to do with style. :)
ur a douche.
Not uh!
Hey I’m a conservative Christian. I’m also open minded, lover of science (biochem, bio major), a staunch socialist, and I greatly appreciate satire and parody, especially if it is aimed at me or my beliefs; it really allows you to appreciate the humor of it more : ) If somone disagrees with my beliefs, that’s okay with me. I don’t impose my lifestyle choices on anyone else and am not offended by others’ actions or attempted refuations of the Bible or anything else regarding my sect (SDA).
I’m just here to break the stereotype…
All I can say is, “Well done!” Keep the faith! Throughout human history, it’s always been the rational, intelligent minority, like yourself, that drag the rest of the brain-dead peasantry kicking and screaming into progress. Just whatever you do, find a nice girl with a similarly fully-functional brain and have kids! Our cerebrally-depleted gene pool needs you!!
Well, your blog is now linked to from James Randi’s website, so be prepared for a lot of hits and a lot of support! I think everyone with a brain needs to read this blog entry. Nice going!!!
The selection criteria for law enforcement recruitment do not include acerbic wit and acute analytical mindset, neither is the knowledge of 1st Amendment included in the test.
However, once you enter the station and they start their usual laughable routine aimed at “softening up the perp”, it is good to ask a few questions: Am I under arest? What statutes have I violated, or if that’s too verbose for them, “What am I charged with?” show me the specific code please. “Am I just being given a stern talking to?” Do NOT be afraid! Anyone (except diplomatic personnel) can be arrested. An arrest alone does not leave any blemish on your record… conviction does.
Having read and re-read your story, I must say that for a first timer, you have performed well. This experience (in the long run) probably benefitted you better than the Economics you missed.
As for our dear Christian cousin, he performed as he was trained to perform. Suffering for Christ-on-a-stick is what they many of them want to do, if only to repay an alleged favor in a small silly way.
Not everyone in these here Dumbed-Down Federated States is capable of grasping the concept of satire. Mocking anyone on e-mail can be a double-edged sword, the more cutting the more eloquent it is.
Bottom line, I am exceedingly worried for my beloved country… 80 years past, seems like Monkey Trials are a-coming back. http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/scopes.htm
Take heart young man, you have done nothing wrong!
It’s unfortunate something like this happens in todays world. Especially in a University setting. Where things are supposed to be open minded and there should be a quest for knowlege and experimentation. As a University Police Officer I find myself in situations like this all too frequently. I am one of the few in my profession that sees past the obvious and can see the subtle. Everyone today is in such a state of fear that anything, no matter how remote or rediculous, that can be thought of as offensive or threatening is treated with extreme over reaction. I don’t want to put down police officers, but many of them don’t know what hyperbole is.
Let me get this straight – the professor calls the Bible a “book about relationships with God” and a Christian says it offends his faith?? What the h*** does his faith say about the Bible then?
I don’t see why the professor even brought it up at all, really. I went to a a private Christian college, and the only classes I had where the Bible was even referred to were Philosophy, and, get this, Intro to Religion. And in the religion class, we were taught quite explicitly that the Bible was not meant to be a “scientific textbook”. I guess times have changed.
As for the letter, well, let’s just say cops aren’t known for their sense of humor. And college admissions standards don’t require one either. :-D
Bravo! Your point that some people aren’t college material is well taken; It is a sad fact that to many such people the concept of critical thinking is tantamount to heresy, and they cling to their doma like barnacles. If Jonathan Swift were alive today he’d be rolling in his grave.
Oops! That should be “dogma”.
Interesting experience you’ve had there… Would love to know when it occurred, but guess that’s what research on the ‘net is for… Glad to hear you didn’t let yourself get bullied into backing down from your stance on the parody e-mail…
Sue W-
The class is an introductory freshmen course: these students need to know right off the bat what science is and what it isn’t.
I think that the guy got offended not because the professor said the Bible wasn’t a book of science, but because the student had actually been using the Bible as a reference to fix his car. Jesus (Hay-soos not Geez-us) was not a Jewish carpenter like most believe, but a Mexican guy who while preaching love and forgiveness was also into tricking out his ride with hydraulics, etc. He even had a really cool painting of Guadalupe (Mexican Virgin Mary) on the hood.
Read your Bible, people! That student had a right to be offended!
Christ. (Ahem.) Your story makes me want to go to Baylor and punch all the idiots involved right in their humorless faces. I’m glad there are kids like you to balance out all the idiots that will eventually try to run this country. You know, like the idiots running this country now. (Have I typed the word “idiots” enough times?)
I’d have turned the tables on ’em- possibly bringing about an even more unfortunate outcome.
But I can imagine a dialogue like this:
-It’s a joke. I emailed the professor and told him that.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a joke. I myself figured it out, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is what’s written on the paper, and you said you were going to burn your professor.
-You think I’m going to burn my professor?
-I doesn’t matter what I think. What matters is what’s written on the paper, and you said you were going to burn your professor.
-So you are threatening to burn my professor?…
And I would have proceded to make it a charge about them, and how I would callthe FBI and say that they were evidently planning to hurt my professor and use my joke e-mail as a pretext for doing so…
Hell, two can play the paranoid idiocy game, and when they have you like this, why not raise the stakes?
I once had a science teacher at my graduate school who returned from a two years eviction for teaching his last batch of students that the holy ghost was responsible for static electricity (!) (He also figured that the same ghost was responsible for the weather systems since he could not believe that sunlight alone could heat air enough to create motion between hot and cold areas of the earth. )
In this particular Norwegian west-coast school this apparently was forgiven pretty fast, and ours was his first students after the incident.
Myself, being quite the rationalist, was pretty sceptic about the whole situation, but apparently this school couldn’t get any one else to fill his position, so we had no choice but to follow his classes.
He turned out to be the darndest best teacher I’ve ever had. He was notoriously clear on which subjects that diverged from his personal believes and that he encouraged us to engulf in on our own.
In every other subject, i.e. sunlight/rays, electricity, lasers and the lot, he was spot on in his teaching, and he taught us in a way no one has ever done it to me. I’m not sure how it affected me, but meeting a devoted christian who allowed the rest of us to believe in other theories was quite an eye opener for me.
Persecution and satire
Second, it’s worth asking what has happened to our sense of humor. Yes, the line between reality and satire is becomming increasingly thin, but I think this one should have been obvious by the time “La-La-La-La-I-Can’t-Hear-You Christians” were ment…
I applaud you, sir!
Great job! I agree with your sentiments and your actions and I’m glad you did it. I wish I could have been a part of it.
“Why didn’t you put a note at the bottom telling everyone it was a parody?
-In retrospect that would’ve been the smart thing to do.”
Nope, nope, nope.
…and we all ate babies and had a great laugh.”
You know what kills a good joke?
Don’t you do it. Funny is funny, and if you have to explain it, then you might as well jump off a bridge
uhh,,,, i was kidding, don’t jump off a bridge or eat babies…..it was a joke.
Actually, Johnathon Swift’s contemporaries didn’t “get it” either. Many thought he seriously meant for people to eat babies. Humans don’t grow, or change much. Is that evidence for or against Darwin??? Evolution is VERY VERY SLOOOWWWW.
File under “Why, that’s NOTHING! I can top that!” — Keith Henson was arrested, “unarrested,” re-arrested, interrogated, stalked, harassed, sued, tried, convicted, and has had his life threated because he and others (such as myself) made a joke about “Tom Cruise Missiles.” The Scientology crime syndicate told the Riverside County DA’s office that they took Henson’s (and my) jokes as “serious threats.” Henson’s body and clothing were even searched for “cruise missiles!” When I protested (with picket signs) against the crime syndicate’s crimes and human rights abuses, the crime syndicate sent thugs out into the street to act like they were frightened of me— for later “fair game” use. Crooks (and Fundamentalists Christians) have an insane hatred of being laughed at and made fun of.
If “Law and Order” has taught us anything, it’s that unless one is under actual arrest, one is perfectly free to go walkies. Although in this case it looks as though deputies Dawg and Fife would have trumped up something under the “Patriot Act” in order to make sure you were suitably chastised.
Christian here.
Not sure what your prof’s context was for his comments, they certaintly seemed aim to offend guys like Stone. That doesn’t mean they weren’t completely true though. More christians need to learn to keep the bible out of the laboratory.
It’s only going to get worse though. I heard a pastor discussing the “liberal scientific mind” the other day, and he equated us with the “beasts” saying that a naturalist viewpoint denies the higher plane of knowledge and is no better an animal. To him, the scientific method was the lowest form of thinking, denying self-evident spiritual truths. (I assume he was talking about christianity and that muslims,jews,hindus,buddhists,etc, all deny self-evident spiritual truths, just like the liberal scientist.)
Yeah.. Ok. Nevermind that he owns a computer, drives a car, etc.
What offended Mr. Stone, exactly? He states that he felt that his beliefs had been attacked, but he doesn’t go into details. It is easy to assume that he believes the Bible IS a science book, but that’s not necessarily the case.
My guess is that he felt the credibility of the Bible was attacked by the claim that it wasn’t a science book. After all, if certain aspects of it contradict reality through the eyes of science, something must be wrong with the eyes of science.