Science Is Constantly Evolving

Discover the latest in climate change and evolution education news.

The Devil’s Lexicographer on the Devil’s Chaplain, Part 2
The devil’s lexicographer is Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914?), the author remembered for his compilation of satirical definitions, The Devil’s Dictionary (1911). The devil’s chaplain is Charles Darwin, who in a 1856 letter to Hooker, exclaimed, “What a book a Devil’s chaplain might write on…
Supporting Science Education: Not Just for the Rich, Urban, or Liberal
  Last week I visited two very different schools.     On Monday I hosted a community science night at a rural school in a relatively low income area. The community is so religious that I was asked not to host anything on Wednesday evenings because that’s church night. You…
Carl Zimmer to receive Gould award
Carl Zimmer NCSE congratulates Carl Zimmer for winning the 2016 Stephen Jay Gould Prize from the Society for the Study of Evolution. A recipient of NCSE's Friend of Darwin award, Zimmer is a prolific science journalist whose writing on evolution includes Evolution: The…
Answer Monday
It’s Cloudina hartmannae! The genus is named for the legendary paleontologist Preston Cloud Jr. (1912–1991), a pioneer in the study of the Precambrian, while the species is named for the polychaete specialist Olga Hartman (1900–1974). As Andrew H. Knoll writes in Life on a Young…
What We're Reading
A well-rounded selection of articles this week, with research findings from evolution, climate change, and education. Enjoy! Exquisitely Detailed 520 Million-Year-Old Fossil Shows Individual Nerves, The Washington Post, March 1, 2016  — Submitted by regular reader Steve Bowden,…
Fossil Friday
Again with the enigmatic fossils from the Ediacaran! Well, I guess that it’s true what they say: you can take the boy out of the Ediacaran, but you can’t take the Ediacaran out of the boy. (Isn’t that what they say?) In any case, fame and fortune—for suitably small values of fame and fortune—will…
Congratulations to Bill Nye
NCSE is pleased to congratulate Bill Nye ("The Science Guy") for receiving the National NASA Space Grant Distinguished Service Award for 2016. The award "was established to recognize individuals whose life and career have had a long[-]lasting impact in a science, engineering or education field…
“New” RNCSE is Finally Here!
If you’re a member of NCSE (and if you’re not, why not? You can join our mission here), you recently found in your mailbox the entirely redesigned Reports of the National Center for Science Education (affectionately known as RNCSE). I thought you might like to know the…
The Devil’s Lexicographer on the Devil’s Chaplain, Part 1
Over a recent weekend I was reading Paul Fatout’s Ambrose Bierce: The Devil’s Lexicographer (1951), a rather dated but still readable biography of the American journalist remembered for his macabre short stories and the compilation of satirical definitions acknowledged in Fatout’s…

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The National Center for Science Education is the only national organization that specializes in defending the teaching of controversial issues (such as evolution and climate change) in public schools. Because of our special expertise and experience, NCSE is often cotacted by members of the press who are writing about the evolution/creationism controversy, or about the teaching of global warming and other climate science issues that have come under political attack. Our staff can provide reliable information about creationism, evolution, climate change, and the state of science education in the United States.

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