The bacterial flagellum has amazed observers because of its intricate and minute design. It exhibits remarkable efficiency, construction, and function in the tiny cells where it serves as a motorized propeller, moving single cells almost frictionlessly through the fluids they live in.¹

It is too early to assess with any degree of confidence the true import of recent finds by Richard Leakey near the east shore of Lake Rudolf in Kenya. Nevertheless, the impact on evolutionary theories related to the origin of man is potentially so explosive, these reports merit, even at this early date, a tentative evaluation.