the power of goo

It just came to my attention that Leslie Orgel is dead. He died on October 27th 2007 as an 80 year old scientist who has certainly left a great impression, was recognized as a great mind and a generous human being.

Leslie Orgel was also known for his “second rule”, which states that “evolution is cleverer than you are”, meaning that the trial-and-error methods of evolution can produce better results than centralized human planning, an argument often used to counter creationist arguments.

Source

There is not much I can write about him here that hasn’t been written better elsewhere. I was lucky to have spent some weeks in his lab as a student — precious memories of a different time.

Good luck to you, Leslie, wherever you are now.