Science Is Constantly Evolving
Discover the latest in climate change and evolution education news.
This week’s fossil may be way too easy to identify. It looks identical to something we see today—a winged samara (that is a fruit) from some…mystery…tree. The shape of the samara today helps the wind carry the seeds further, which one could guess was the purpose of this fossil back in the day as…
Working at NCSE inevitably leads to lots of discussion about the nature of science literacy. All of us, and just about all of our supporters and allies, are pretty passionate about promoting science literacy. And yet, when you start digging around, the whole question of what science literacy even…
In his pamphlet “Monkeyshines: Fakes, Fables, Facts Concerning Evolution” (1926), the creationist Harry Rimmer claims that he studied “under men who were strong believers in the theory of monkey ancestry of man,” yet “it is quite common today to meet folks who will say that the evolutionists…
Not so long ago, when I was writing about the original Science League of America’s essay contest in 1925, I digressed in order to discuss a lawsuit launched in 1940 by William Floyd, the freethought writer who proposed the topic of the contest (“Why Evolution Should Be Taught in Our Schools…
One of the common objections to evolution goes something like this: “If evolution is true, then every living thing got here by random chance. But I’m too awesome (or this tree is too awesome, or this animal is too awesome, or this bacterial flagellum is too awesome, etc.) to have been brought…
The Darwin Day Roadshow is returning! The Roadshow is a project of the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, in which NESCent staff shares their enthusiasm for evolutionary science with students, teachers, and the general public on the occasion of Charles Darwin's birthday, February 12.…
Last week on Fossil Friday, I gave you a nearly full skull! Surely you could figure this one out in no time. It was a Borealosuchus sternbergii, an early crocodile. From the Prehistoric Wildlife site: “Borealosuchus was a mid-sized genus of crocodile, with the largest…
On October 6, 2014, the Supreme Court of the United States declined (PDF, p. 10), without comment to hear John Freshwater's appeal of the Ohio Supreme Court's decision to uphold his termination as a middle school teacher. The decision brings the long and complicated controversy over Freshwater's…
This week’s Fossil Friday features the skull of an animal that is a little scary to me—let’s just say I wouldn’t want to come face to face with this fellow. According to my sources, this species was one of the lucky few to survive the K-T extinction. Though you may hear the ticking of a clock…