This post was written by Stephanie Keep and Peter Hess. When comforting our children at the doctor’s office after a shot, we can say, “I know it hurts, but it’s better than getting sick.” Unfortunately, there are a lot of people out there who don’t feel the same way. California has just…
The Discovery Institute’s Evolution News and Views blog was recently pleased that there are now five hundred reviews on Amazon.com for Stephen C. Meyer’s screed Darwin’s Doubt (2013). I don’t begrudge the anonymous author his or her pleasure. There wasn’t much in the legislative season…
Last week on Fossil Friday, I gave you a fickle footprint fossil to figure out. What could have left those tiny impressions? Turns out it was a prehistoric spider! Wired magazine has the scoop: "These are footprints left behind when a tarantula-size arachnid crawled over the sand of…
Eugenie C. Scott Eugenie C. Scott, the former executive director of NCSE and the current chair of its Advisory Council, will receive a Presidential Citation for Science and Society from the American Geophysical Union at a reception in Washington DC on June 17, 2014. The award…
My family has had a long relationship with England. My grandmother did theater with Vivian Leigh and Lawrence Olivier in the late 1930s and left only when she had to due to the approach of WW II. She and my grandfather bought a house in Kent in 1960 and my dad more or less grew up there. My…
Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology, Claremont, California. This week on Fossil Friday, I bring you, by special request, a trace fossil. What is a trace fossil? Well, it's a fossil that doesn't show the organism's structure itself, but rather its activity. Trace fossils …
A new Bloomberg News National Poll included (PDF) questions about whether climate change is a threat, whether it is worth increasing energy costs to prevent, and whether scientists are to be trusted about climate change. Asked, "Do you believe climate change is a major threat, a minor threat,…
A friend recently drew my attention to a newly reposted essay from Answers in Genesis’s Ken Ham, asking, “Where was the Garden of Eden located?” No answers, alas: according to Ham, Noah’s Flood so transformed the geography of the earth that there’s no telling where the Temptation of Eve and the…
“In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.” -Alfred, Lord Tennyson What’s a young man to do when plotting a spring science fair project? If he is fourteen and male, the chances are his mind will turn to thoughts of fire, explosions, and…