Science Is Constantly Evolving
Discover the latest in climate change and evolution education news.
At a meeting in Washington DC last spring in the offices of the US Global Change Research Program, Anthony Leiserowitz—the driving force behind the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication—brought up the fact that the word "consensus" has two meanings. One is 100% unanimous agreement,…
Last week we looked at some of the reasons why creationists can’t stop talking about the Cambrian explosion. Today let’s look at a new paper published in Science1 that explores possible causes of the Cambrian explosion, the seminal diversification of animal life that began about 530…
"Why can't science teachers simply teach science?" was the reaction of a columnist for the Charleston, South Carolina, Post and Courier (October 13, 2013), in the wake of the state board of education's discussion of the revised state science standards at its October 9, 2013, meeting.…
Last week, on the Fossil Friday, I asked you to come up with the scientific names and common nicknames for one fossil. KC came up with the most names in the shortest amount of time. Go KC! So, who did this skull belong to? From Eric Meikle (one of NCSE's anthropologists): "This specimen is…
Well, you might have seen it coming. In my post about the National Academy of Sciences’s 1923 statement on evolution, approved but never used, I asked, “And what about the Smithsonian’s statement on evolution?” and answered, “Well, as with the NAS statement, [Ellis] Yochelson provided only a…
This week on Fossil Friday, we're bringing you another skull. Eric Meikle, one of our house anthropologists, says that guessing this week's skull might be too easy. But this skull has had several scientific names and nicknames over the many years. Choosing which one to…
I’ve always liked Tim M. Berra’s books, ever since, in college, I read his Evolution and the Myth of Creationism (1990), a wonderfully clear and succinct refutation of creationism. Berra focused mainly on young-earth creationism, since “intelligent design…
A recent paper in Current Biology1 offers some important insights into a question creationists have long raised about the Cambrian explosion, the grand diversification of animals that occurred between about 530 to 520 Ma (millions of years ago). To wit: Was the geologically fast…
What if they gave a conference and everybody (except the hosts) came? That was my surreal experience at a tri-agency confab for 100 climate educators organized by professionals from NASA, NOAA, and NSF. Thanks to the federal shutdown, the organizers couldn't legally attend the meeting held at a…