Yay! Lets bring back astrology and teach that, too! That's just as scientific as ID! ID still isn't science. It still doesn't have a research program, and still doesn't have any testable theories.
I agree that mainstream bio departments withhold funding for research in this topic, and thus I agree that the imagination of scientists is being truncated regarding developing theories regarding this issue. I also suspect that you'd believe SETI has no bearing what so ever on this topic either. But that aside:
"Dr. Leroy Hood is one of the most successful of modern scientific entrepreneurs. Among other accomplishments, he invented the DNA sequencer, the machine that made the Human Genome Project possible. Hood has an instinct for knowing where the action is, so he can establish himself in promising new research areas ahead of the pack. Now he has decided that universities are not suited to solving the problems of contemporary biology, because their departmental structure makes interdisciplinary work difficult. According to the New York Times:
So now, at 62, Dr. Hood is starting over. He has formed a nonprofit research center, the Institute for Systems Biology, which he hopes will transform the study of biology. Systems biology is a loosely defined term, but the main idea is that biology is an information science, with genes a sort of digital code.
Moreover, while much of molecular biology has involved studying a single gene or protein in depth, systems biology looks at the bigger picture, how all the genes and proteins interact.
Ultimately the goal is to develop computer models that can predict the behavior of cells or organisms, much as Boeing can simulate how a plane will fly before it is built. But such a task requires biologists to team up with computer scientists, engineers, physicists and mathematicians.
" from http://www.arn.org/docs/pjweekly/pj_weekly_010430.htm ... (but of course, anything Johnson has to say is useless, right?)