Science Is Constantly Evolving
Discover the latest in climate change and evolution education news.
A few months ago, I devoted a two-part post (part 1; part 2) to a particular argument and counterargument concerning the age of the world in David Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (1779). I’m returning to the Dialogues now to discuss a different passage, with two…
A friend asked me recently why I kept calling out scientists on their public comments. They’re scientists, my friend said, they’re on your side, so stop being so nitpicky and mean! Am I being mean? I certainly don’t intend to be mean, so perhaps it is worth a few lines to reiterate the point of…
Those are pretty shocking words to read in a classroom, and even more so when coming from a student. But that is exactly what S.K. saw scrawled across the last page of a biology exam she graded last year. S.K. teaches middle school biology in a diverse community with a strong Christian base in…
NCSE is pleased to offer a free preview (PDF) of Stephen H. Jenkins's Tools for Critical Thinking in Biology (Oxford University Press, 2015). The preview consists of chapter 8, "From Causes to Consequences: Considering the Weight of Evidence." Causation in biology often takes place…
Back in the day, when I was the kind of scientist who worked in a lab, I spent seven years deciphering the genetic sequence of the 1918 influenza virus at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) in Washington D.C. The pandemic caused by this virus, which erupted in three distinct waves…
Last week we looked at a pretty old, pretty big fossil. I suppose if you think on the dinosaur scale it wasn’t that big. But I’m more of a microbiologist, so bear with me—to me, any organism you have to measure in meters is huge. Readers had lots of ideas about what this creature might be, but…
A milestone: there are now over 100,000 fans of NCSE's Facebook page. Why not join them, by visiting the page and becoming a fan by clicking on the "Like" box by NCSE's name? You'll receive the latest NCSE news delivered straight to your Facebook Home page, as well as updates on evolution-related…
This week on Fossil Friday, we have a pretty sizable fossil from the Silurian period—about 430 million years ago. This specimen was collected in Eastern Iowa. It’s an unusual soft-bodied fossil from a site with many unidentified fossil organisms. The first person to identify this specimen wins…
Last month on the Friday Flicks, I got a little help from my friend Max, who recommended a Big Think video by Bill Nye. It turned out to be so wildly popular that I asked Max to give us another video suggestion. This time, Max went from Big Think to the entire Earth, offering a video by Canadian…