Science Is Constantly Evolving
Discover the latest in climate change and evolution education news.
Buzz Aldrin paused and looked out over the audience. It was July 25, 2009, just five days after the fortieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing. On that day four decades earlier, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong became, with one small thud on the lunar surface, the first humans ever to…
Writing in the July 2014 issue of the American Geoscience Institute's magazine Earth, Scott K. Johnson relates his experience in engaging in evolution outreach in a not-so-usual venue: at his local county fair. In 2012, he explains, he became aware of a booth "pitching the ideas and…
There was a minor anniversary recently: June 19, 2014, was the twenty-seventh anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in Edwards v. Aguillard, establishing the unconstitutionality of teaching creationism in the public schools. I opened the box of materials in NCSE’s archives on the…
NCSE is pleased to announce that the latest issue of Reports of the National Center for Science Education is now available on-line. The issue — volume 34, number 4 — features Adam Benton's "Creationist Ministries Present a Distorted View of Human Evolution" and Alexandra Contosta's "A Land…
NCSE is pleased to offer a free preview (PDF) of Brandon Haught's Going Ape: Florida's Battles over Evolution in the Classroom (University Press of Florida, 2014). The preview consists of chapter 1, "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea," which details the "red-hot anti-evolution…
In Part 1 of this post, I introduced my new series, Misconception Monday, and let you in on the secret to my misconception know-how: student test papers. In this conclusion, I want to get into some ways that this misconception—that natural selection eliminates all bad variations—could be…
This is going to be the first in what I hope will be a series of posts devoted to common misconceptions about evolution, climate change, and the nature of science. I’ve already talked about one of the most pervasive evolution misconceptions, that evolution occurs to serve a particular purpose, but…
Last week on Fossil Friday, I presented you with a tricky identification task. This egg-shaped rock was far afield from the jaws, spines and shells you've been used to. So what was this unique rock? It was a dinosaur gastrolith from the late Jurassic! What is a gastrolith? From the UCMP: "Lots…
The Friend of Darwin Award recognizes the Kitzmiller v. Dover legal team and a stalwart evolution writer. The new Friend of the Planet award recognizes an outspoken climate scientist and a revered writer It was the final legal nail in the coffin of creationism. In 2005, lawyers at Pepper…