Science Is Constantly Evolving
Discover the latest in climate change and evolution education news.
Dear Buzz, Don’t you just hate it when people reject settled science and mountains of evidence? Oh, wait, I know you do.You once decked a moon landing denialist who was pestering you to swear on a Bible that you really did go to the moon. So isn’t it just a tad ironic that you cavalierly reject…
This week on the fossil Friday, I bring you a bone from the Hemphillian North American Stage (about 5-10 million years ago) found in what is now Nevada. If I was a gambling lady, I’d say that this animal was a lightweight runner, possibly even an herbivore prancing across the plains. But who…
As Associate Director for Science at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Dr. Jo Handelsman “helps to advise President Obama on the implications of science for the Nation, ways in which science can inform U.S. policy, and on Federal efforts in support of scientific…
In 1995, the governor of Alabama, Fob James, spoke before the state board of education, which was then considering a proposal to insert a disclaimer about evolution in all biology textbooks used in the state. In The Creationists (2006), Ronald L. Numbers primly writes, “The Republican…
The issue of whether Sherlock Holmes is science literate led to some fascinating discussion in the comments section, though not, I fear, to a consensus. But let’s turn to a matter closer to my own heart and examine what we can learn about someone’s science literacy based on whether they reject…
Religious News Service reports on comments Pope Francis made in unveiling a new bust of his predecessor: The pope was addressing the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, which gathered at the Vatican to discuss “Evolving Concepts of Nature.” “When we read about Creation in…
I’ve been meaning to write about William Bell Riley (1861–1947), a Baptist preacher who was as responsible for the flourishing of the antievolution crusade of the 1920s as anyone. In some ways, Riley wasn’t a stereotypical creationist. He wasn’t in the Bible Belt, for example: he spent forty-…
When we last left off, a lab had accidentally mated two mice that had been exposed to harmful chemicals in the womb. (Quick note! In last week’s post, I incorrectly called these two mice siblings—they weren’t! Sorry! They were unrelated mice born to different parents that were part of this…
Stephanie Keep, who normally leads Misconception Monday, is kindly allowing me to guest-spot while she's up to her eyeballs in epigenetics. I thought I’d take this opportunity to highight one of the most common mix-ups involving climate change: conflating the human-caused…