Science Is Constantly Evolving

Discover the latest in climate change and evolution education news.

Fossil Friday!
You know what makes a Friday better? A fossil. Here is one from a very famous assemblage…but what is it? Here’s an ironic tidbit to help you to identify it: no one knows what it is. Any guesses? If you can’t identify the particular organism, perhaps you can at least get the locality? You can…
Friday Flicks: What Makes a Scientific Achievement?
This month on Friday Flicks, Flickmaster Max Yipp brings us a great video from PBS’s Idea Channel. The featured video asks the question: Was the discovery of global warming humanity’s greatest scientific achievement? This is an extremely compelling question, and it hinges on the host’s…
Fact, Theory, and Path Again, Part 2
The question that I was addressing in part 1—and before that in “Whence Fact, Theory, and Path?”—concerned a familiar threefold distinction between evolution as fact, evolution as theory, and evolution as path. The question is easy enough to state: Who thought of it first? But the answer is hard…
How Science Students Helped End Segregated Blood Banks
In 1939, the great African American physician and surgeon Charles Drew organized a massive blood bank, shipping thousands of pints of plasma from New York City to Britain. The shipment saved lives as German bombs shredded English cities. The Red Cross soon brought Drew on board to coordinate its…
A glimpse of Domestication
NCSE is pleased to offer a free preview (PDF) of Richard C. Francis's Domesticated: Evolution in a Man-Made World (W. W. Norton, 2015). The preview consists of chapter 3, "Cats," in which Francis concludes, "The vast majority of cats have escaped artificial selection. They are self…
Reflections on the 2015 NCSE Grand Canyon Rafting Trip
Alyson Miller was one of NCSE’s Grand Canyon Teacher Scholarship winners. She teaches biology, zoology, physical science, and plant science at Nashua High School North, in New Hampshire. Teachers can apply for a scholarship on next year's trip, and you can donate to the scholarship fund or…
NCSE: Science Party!
This past Saturday the Iowa City Science Booster Club held its first public event. Everyone had a great time, and it’s clear from the turnout that people want more opportunities to engage in science in their communities. More than two hundred and seventy people came by during our two-hour event.…
Answer Monday
Last Friday we took a look at a couple of patterned fossils. I was hoping to trick you into thinking they were plant specimens, maybe some kind of tree bark, but the location tipped you off. These specimens are, of course, aquatic, like most of those collected in the quarries in eastern Iowa.…
Fossil Friday
This week on Fossil Friday we have a pair of interestingly textured specimens.   What could they be? Animal, vegetable, or mineral? Okay, most certainly mineral at this point. But what were they originally? They date from the Devonian and were collected in a quarry in North Liberty, Iowa…

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