Unlike my last specimen, this one does not give me the willies. However, fossils of this thing can be fairly creepy, perhaps because it’s so alien-looking. But what is it? Plant? Animal? It’s definitely made of minerals. Is it bigger than a breadbox? Or, my grandfather’s favorite Twenty…
In September 2015, something amazing happened. It isn’t what we traditionally think of as ground-breaking or life-changing, but to millions of young people in one southern state, this will be the first step toward a new lens on science. What was it? That Alabama adopted a new set of science…
Can language help you tell the difference between scientists and science deniers? That’s what researchers Srdan Medimorec and Gordon Pennycook sought to test in the article summarized here, which presents some analysis about the language used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC…
Explore the Grand Canyon with NCSE! Reservations are still available for NCSE's next excursion to the Grand Canyon — as featured in the documentary No Dinosaurs in Heaven. From June 30 to July 8, 2016, NCSE will again explore the wonders of creation and evolution on a Grand Canyon river run…
When the Alabama state board of education voted to approve a new set of science standards on September 10, 2015, in which evolution was described—correctly—as “substantiated with much direct and indirect evidence,” I immediately wondered what would become of the evolution disclaimers that…
A recent study published in Environmental Research Letters, “The climate change consensus extends beyond climate scientists,” offers encouraging data, while at the same time perpetuating many of the errors that plague the public understanding of climate science. First, the good news. The…
In honor of National Fossil Day (yep, it’s a thing), there’s going to be a live twitter Q&A, October 14, 2015, 2–3 p.m. EST* with me and a couple all-star paleos**: Evolutionary anthropologist, fossil maven, & science writer @paleophile Science writer, author, & omg! he…
Scott Hatfield was one of NCSE’s Grand Canyon Teacher Scholarship winners. He teaches biology at Bullard High School, in Fresno, California. Teachers can apply for a scholarship on next year's trip, and you can donate to the scholarship fund or sign up for the trip now. Crack. A short,…
Here’s a look at our specimen from last Friday with scale: This fossil was collected from the Niobrara of Kansas. This wonderful American fossil site was first explored in the 1870s, and has yielded many excellent and dramatic vertebrate specimens: everything from mosasaurs to pterosaurs. This…