Science Is Constantly Evolving
Discover the latest in climate change and evolution education news.
In Part 1, I told you about my work with the 1918 influenza virus, and promised to tell you more about why the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza H5N2 (HPAIH5) influenza strain that is currently rampaging through chicken farms in the Midwest is unlikely to jump to humans. I ended Part 1 by…
For our last Fossil Friday, we took a look at a particularly graceful little specimen rising out of the rock: But what was it? A crinoid, as many of you probably guessed, but not just any crinoid. This particular fossil is a holotype specimen for the species Cupulocrinus crossmani, as…
This week on Fossil Friday, we have a beautiful little specimen collected in Stewartville, Minnesota. Dating from the Middle Ordovician, this specimen is 460 million years old—give or take twenty million. What is it? Guess right and win bragging rights for the week…
A few months ago, I devoted a two-part post (part 1; part 2) to a particular argument and counterargument concerning the age of the world in David Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (1779). I’m returning to the Dialogues now to discuss a different passage, with two…
A friend asked me recently why I kept calling out scientists on their public comments. They’re scientists, my friend said, they’re on your side, so stop being so nitpicky and mean! Am I being mean? I certainly don’t intend to be mean, so perhaps it is worth a few lines to reiterate the point of…
Those are pretty shocking words to read in a classroom, and even more so when coming from a student. But that is exactly what S.K. saw scrawled across the last page of a biology exam she graded last year. S.K. teaches middle school biology in a diverse community with a strong Christian base in…
NCSE is pleased to offer a free preview (PDF) of Stephen H. Jenkins's Tools for Critical Thinking in Biology (Oxford University Press, 2015). The preview consists of chapter 8, "From Causes to Consequences: Considering the Weight of Evidence." Causation in biology often takes place…
Back in the day, when I was the kind of scientist who worked in a lab, I spent seven years deciphering the genetic sequence of the 1918 influenza virus at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) in Washington D.C. The pandemic caused by this virus, which erupted in three distinct waves…
Last week we looked at a pretty old, pretty big fossil. I suppose if you think on the dinosaur scale it wasn’t that big. But I’m more of a microbiologist, so bear with me—to me, any organism you have to measure in meters is huge. Readers had lots of ideas about what this creature might be, but…