Science Is Constantly Evolving
Discover the latest in climate change and evolution education news.
NCSE is pleased to offer a free preview (PDF) of Michael E. Mann and Lee R. Kump's Dire Predictions: Understanding Climate Change (second edition, DK Publishing, 2015). The preview includes chapters on "Taking action in the face of uncertainty," "Greenhouse gases on the rise," "How does…
I admit, I thought more of you would get the locality! To me “famous locality” plus light sandy color could only be the Solnhofen limestone. These extremely fine-grained limestone deposits from Germany were formed in warm, calm, shallow, and quite likely anoxic (oxygen-free) lagoons in the…
We covered the Burgess Shale in my last Fossil Friday, and this week keeps up the theme of famous localities. Anyone recognize the distinctive color of this rock? Where is it from? And what is the UFO-looking thing preserved in it? No hints this week—it’s too easy. After all, you can see…
With the release, and huge success, of Jurassic World, dinosaurs are certainly on everyone’s mind this summer. Being a lover of the original Jurassic Park, but none too impressed by the series that followed, it’s been hard for me to go see the newest edition. But that…
In part 1, I described how I responded to an interesting question about the extinction of the Neanderthals. My correspondent was perplexed. Although he could see how competition, disease, interbreeding, and hunting might have reduced the population of the Neanderthals appreciably, he didn’t see…
Climate change education is suddenly under discussion in the United States Senate, the National Journal (July 9, 2015) reports, with the introduction of dueling amendments to a bill to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. A proposed amendment (SA 2144) from…
Lindsay Miller was an intern in spring 2014 at NCSE, where she worked with Minda Berbeco on the Understanding Global Change project. She is a student at Colorado College. Last spring I had the pleasure of working on the Understanding Global Change (UGC) project as an intern for NCSE…
This month’s evolution resource comes from a marvelous site full of great stuff and with deep ties to NCSE: the Evolution and the Nature of Science Institutes (ENSI) web site. From the “About” page: In February 1987, the [ENSI] “founders” (and faculty-to-be) met for the first time at the Field…
I return at last to “And Thereby Hangs a Tail,” a sketch based on the Scopes trial that appeared in The Garrick Gaieties, a revue that originally ran in 1925. (There were sequels of the same name in 1926 and in 1930.) The lyrics in the sketch are by Lorenz Hart (1895–1943), while the…