Science Is Constantly Evolving
Discover the latest in climate change and evolution education news.
Last week, I discussed the misconception that everything is adaptive. This week, I want to talk about ways we can help our students see and appreciate the wonder of life without their adaptation-everywhere goggles on. At the younger grades, I’d simply try to watch how I present characteristics…
A new report from Ipsos MORI includes data on public opinion about the causes of climate change from twenty nations — and the United States led the world in the rate of climate change denial, as assessed by answers to two questions. The United States and India were tied, at 52%, for agreement…
This week on Fossil Friday, I bring you another great fossil (or set of fossils) from Dan Phelps, the president of the Kentucky Paleontological Society. This photo has two different species in it, one stacked over the other. They were found in Kentucky and date from the Upper…
Asteroid 249530 Eugeniescott was named in honor of NCSE's founding executive director Eugenie C. Scott, according to the Minor Planet Circulars for July 12, 2014 (PDF, p. 324). She is described there as "an American physical anthropologist who served as the executive director of the…
While rereading Ray Ginger’s Six Days or Forever? Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes (1958) recently, I was struck by what even I considered to be a plethora of unusual, obscure, and confabulated words in the book. This isn’t intended as a criticism of the book: it’s highly readable,…
Josh, Steve, and I just returned from spending 8 days with a group of 21 NCSE members on NCSE’s Grand Canyon raft trip. Steve regaled us with the actual geological history of Grand Canyon, and Josh supplemented with a tongue-in-cheek presentation of the creationist view – with me helping a bit…
In order to prepare for a talk about the Scopes trial, I was recently rereading Ray Ginger’s Six Days or Forever? Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes (1958). It isn’t a bad book, although if I were to recommend a single book about the Scopes trial, it would have to be Edward J. Larson’s …
According to the Centers for Disease Control, drug-resistant bacteria cause more than two million infections, and kill at least 23,000 people every year in the United States. At the same time, the development of new antibiotics has slowed to a trickle, partially because pharmaceutical…
Last week, we got into the distinction between natural selection and evolution. In my post, I tried to express the importance of exposing students to other mechanisms of evolution, namely genetic drift, gene flow, and mutation. This week’s misconception is closely related to the erroneous idea…