Science Is Constantly Evolving

Discover the latest in climate change and evolution education news.

I Stand with Ahmed Mohamed
Ahmed and us at the Robotics Competition in Dallas #IStandWithAhmed pic.twitter.com/SkI3I8DDo8 — مرام (@sudanibae) September 16, 2015 When I was in middle school, I was way into model rocketry. My best friend and I would build these elaborate rocket kits, then (having researched the…
2.3 Million Species in One Tree…A Descent Start!
Just published yesterday in the early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is a tour de force of thinking big, working together, and demonstrating that even science that is messy and incomplete can be incredibly useful and worthy of publication. In an article…
Homo naledi—Another Awesome Twig on the Human Family Tree, Part 3
In Part 1 of this post, I described the unlikely discovery and pretty fantastic recovery of a major cache of heretofore-unknown hominin bones. In Part 2, I laid out the mosaic traits of the new species, Homo naledi, and talked about how the consensus came to be that despite its tiny…
Answer Monday
Last Friday I showed you a section of a fossil that stumped not only me, but an intern working in the museum, too. Here, take a look at the whole thing with a scale bar; see if that helps. Did it? I’ll admit that it didn’t help me! But apparently, if you really know what you’re doing, it’s…
Fossil Friday
This week on Fossil Friday we have a specimen that totally stumped me. Take a look! What is this thing? This thing confused me. When the intern took it out of its case, I couldn’t even tell what sort of Giant Sloth artifact it might be. With all those swirls and whorls and spikes, it had to be…
Homo naledi—Another Awesome Twig on the Human Family Tree, Part 2
In Part 1, I described the totally serendipitous discovery of an unprecedented hominin fossil haul. More than 1,500 bones of at least fifteen individuals (representing both genders and ages ranging from infant to elderly) of a new hominin species were pulled from an extremely difficult-to-get-to…
Huxley’s Paley, Part 3
I’ve been discussing Thomas Henry Huxley’s attitude toward and use of William Paley’s Natural Theology (1803). So far, I’ve noted (in part 1 and part 2) that Huxley apparently came to Paley earlier, and stayed with him longer, than Darwin; that in the 1880s Huxley repeatedly invoked a…
Epic Climate Change Textbook #FAIL
Is our children learning science? If those children are being taught about climate from Florida’s 5th grade science textbook from publisher Scott Foresman (Pearson), then those children are learning from a text so riddled with glaring and obvious errors that it’s hard to know how such a book…
Chew On This: A Story For Your Ears Only, Part 1
A basic understanding of evolution lets us know that we are all descended, with modifications, from a common ancestor. If we trace our lineage back far enough we will find our kinship with fish over 400 million years ago (mya). Moving forward in time from our formerly fishy selves, we find…

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