THE eye has long been an evolutionary battleground. Ever since William Paley came up with the watchmaker analogy in 1802 – that something as complex as a watch must have a maker – creationists have used it to make the “argument from design”. Eyes are so intricate, they say, that it strains belief to suggest they evolved through the selection and accumulation of random mutations.
Recently, evolutionary biologists have turned this argument on its head. They say that the “inside out” vertebrate retina – curiously structured so that its wiring obscures the light sensors and leaves us with a blind spot –…
