In part 1, I explained that to commemorate the 134th anniversary of Darwin’s funeral in Westminster Abbey, April 26, 1882, I thought that I’d say a little about each of the ten men who carried the coffin. (By the way, it was the second of Darwin’s coffins! John Lewis, a carpenter in Downe whom…
NCSE is pleased to announce that the latest issue of Reports of the National Center for Science Education is now available on-line. The issue — volume 35, number 3 — is a special book review issue, containing a round dozen reviews of books on various topics in biology. And for his regular…
In the first installment, I left you with the assignment of coming up with a response to a “skeptical” scientist who thinks current climate change might just reflect a natural cycle. I suspect that, like me, your first instinct would be to begin building the case, using the scientific evidence,…
John Cook A just-launched first-of-its-kind massive open online course on climate change denial, "Making Sense of Climate Science Denial," is already reaching over ten thousand people around the world — and NCSE is represented. The course material contains interviews with…
Photo by Brian via Flickr When you see the letters “PTA,” what do you think of? Bake sales? School dances? Arguments over whether to sell soda in the lunchroom? What about hot lunches for schoolchildren, early child development initiatives, and education as a fundamental human right? It turns…
If it had been his paternal grandfather, the reason would have been clear: Erasmus Darwin was immensely fat, and reportedly had a semicircle removed from his dinner table to accommodate his belly. If it had been his father, the reason again would have been clear: Robert Darwin was about the size…
We’ve all been there: Thanksgiving dinner with that uncle—the outspoken climate-change-denier (“Please, it was so cold this winter!”); a phone call with an anti-vaxxer friend (“Everyone knows that vaccines contain dangerous chemicals!”); or an attempt to impress by a daughter’s…
Let me admit it: I do not like cells. Or at any rate, I do not like studying cells. I found “little bio” so tedious that in college I invented a major to avoid having too many classes in it. I don’t like little bio because I couldn’t see what was going on. “Um. Have you ever heard of a…
Hey Friday Flicks Fans, I’m letting my good buddy, friend of NCSE, lover of science, and movie blogger, Max Yip, pick this month’s Friday Flick! Max had a million ideas, but I was able to convince him to select just one video (not a conventional ‘flick’, but definitely worth a watch.)…