Science Is Constantly Evolving
Discover the latest in climate change and evolution education news.
Which is more amusing: the fact that a geocentrist was actually considered to testify for the defense in the McLean v. Arkansas trial, or the fact that a flat-earther wanted to be considered to testify for the prosecution in the Tennessee v. Scopes trial? True, in the twentieth…
When someone says, “the science isn’t settled yet—it’s too soon to make a decision,” why are we suspicious? Yes, sometimes the science isn’t settled yet—you can pick up any copy of Science or Nature and find scientists debating issues—but I’m not talking about scientists,…
Jack Friedman, a past president of NCSE's board of directors, died on July 31, 2014, at the age of 88, according to Newsday (August 2, 2014). As a master biology teacher, Friedman viewed the surge of antievolution activity in the 1970s with alarm, and consequently helped to mobilize…
I have a three-year-old daughter who is obsessed with Curious George. I think I can recite every word to every one of the 102 episodes, which means that I know roughly 102 scenarios in which the Man with the Yellow Hat tells George, “Be a good little monkey,” which in turn means my daughter is…
This week on Fossil Friday, I gave you what looked like a plate full of ramen noodles—or maybe it was plain old spaghetti. Nope. Raymond King knew it almost right away: it was a slew (a herd? a flock? a murder?) of brittle stars. Meanwhile Dan Coleman guessed that it came from…
You almost never hear about the most important thing in science. In previous posts, I’ve looked at how Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Cosmos series treated science literacy and inspiration. Today I explore how Cosmos delved into something rare: the process of science. In Cosmos’s…
This week on Fossil Friday, I have a terrible head cold—achoo! In my delirium, between sneezes, hot tea, and blowing my nose, I was able to scrounge up a fossil that is a perfect represention for exactly how stuffed up my head feels right now. This picture is stuffed to the brim with one type…
Let’s face it. When you think of journalists covering the Scopes trial, you don’t think of Joseph Wood Krutch writing for The Nation, you don’t think of Frank Kent writing for the Baltimore Sun, you don’t think of Westbrook Pegler writing for the Chicago Tribune. You…
Chances are, if you’ve been in the same house or apartment for many years, you’ve probably accumulated stuff that you don’t need. NCSE is like that, so before I retired, I promised to return to help sort out archival materials—helping to decide what to keep and what we no longer need. This is…