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In a nutshell:
*Upcoming Hays Science Cafes will include Dr. Robert Musil on September 21^st, and Alien/ET/UFO myths on October 5^th.

Bob Musil is a member of Nobelist group Physicians for Social Responsibility. He’s also the author of “Hope For A Heated Planet,” and will discuss sustainability issues with us. In particular, he’ll outline what ordinary citizens can do to help fight global warming.

The first week of October is Space Week, hence the short 2-week gap between September’s and October’s Cafes. Previous discussion of woo-ey topics have brought in some very, um, interesting people, and I’m looking forward to hearing what some members of the general public hold as truths.

Ken Miller, Brown University biologist, is the author of “Finding Darwin’s God” and “Only A Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America’s Soul”, and was a principal witness in the Kitzmiller v. Dover case which found that teaching intelligent design as science in public schools is unconstitutional. Most impressively – as far as my college-age kids are concerned, anyway – he’s been a guest on the Colbert Report. Twice. Our eldest, a biology major, read “Finding Darwin’s God,” and his comment was “Wow, this guy gets it. He really gets it.”

The evenings’ topic will be “God, Darwin, and Global Warming: Does Science Really Matter in America Today?”

July 25, 6:30 pm – Public Lecture Eisenhower Middle School
2901 N 72nd St
Kansas City, Kansas

July 26, 7:00 pm – Public Lecture
Johnson County Community College
GEB 233

July 27, 6:30 pm – Science Cafe Coaches Bar and Grill
14893 Metcalf
Overland Park, Kansas

July 28, 6:00 pm – Science Cafe Kyoto Asian Buffet
2711 N. Broadway
Pittsburg, Kansas

July 29, 7:00 pm – Science Cafe Cafe Semolino
110 W 11th
Hays, Kansas

Science Cafes are monthly gatherings of community members who learn a bit about a relevant science topic, then engage in civil-but-lively discussion. Kansas’ first Science Cafe started up in Hays (yay!) in September of 2008, and has featured such topics as global warming, wind energy, the Large Hadron Collider, 2012, Pelicans in Kansas, Wonder Drugs Gone Bad, Academic Freedom, Bioethics, and other timely, relevant topics.

Kansas now has Science Cafes running in Manhattan, Johnson County, and Pittsburg. Hopefully Wichita will have one up and running soon. Science Cafes are sponsored by Kansas Citizens for Science. Sigma Xi supports the Manhattan Cafe, and Hays’ Cafe is also sponsored by FHSU’s Science & Mathematics Education Institute as well as Cafe Semolino.

Poster Design by Brendan Arnold

At Hays’ next Science Cafe, Sternberg Museum’s outreach coordinator Brian Bartels will lead us in a discussion of “Why Fear Snakes? – What’s Fact, What’s Fiction, and What’s Evolution.” We’ll meet as usual at 7 pm-ish Tuesday, July 13th, at Cafe Semolino in Hays.

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Yes, I’ve been truant. After spending a couple of weeks in Italy, I returned home to the usual busy summer-shuttling-kids-around schedule plus some teaching, some class-taking, and committee work. It’s thrilling not to have to worry about having to fight to get a pro-science state school board member elected from this district!

It’s probably just as well that we were in Pisa IT between their weekly Science Cafes because I wouldn’t have been able to follow much of the verbal presentation or discussion . . . but it’s still cool to see how Science Cafes are a world-wide phenomenon!

Today’s Voice of America’s “Our World” – VOA’s weekly science and technology program – has a great interview with the organizer of the 4-year-old Science Café in St. Louis, MO. You can listen here, or read the transcript after the jump. The gist, though, is that

. . . there is a movement to bring scientists out of the lab and into the community — for a dialogue, over food and drink.

That’s right – Science Cafés are all about getting scientists and their science out of the lab and into the community. Research shows that most of what a person learns about science in their lifetime occurs outside the science classroom through informal venues like TV programs, sound bites from news reports, the internet, and visits to museums.

Unfortunately, the resources also include such anti-science sources as the Creation Museum in Kentucky and the websites of Answers in Genesis, the Institute for Creation Research, and the Discovery Institute. These entities have invested heavily in marketing their ideas to the general public. It’s only common sense that scientists work to try to get REAL science into the public eye as well. Along the way, the public can learn that scientists aren’t scheming to destroy humanity, aren’t hopeless nerds, and are actually quite human.

Here’s a map to help you find the nearest Science Café. Can’t find one in your area? – email me and I can give you a few tips on getting one started in your area.

Hey, if a small town Science Café halfway between Denver & Kansas City can draw 47 people each month, just imagine how you could help even more folks in your area learn about REAL science!

Just an FYI: Hays’ next Science Café – Tuesday, May 11 – 7:00 pm. Ish.

Hundreds of thousands of birds make an impressive migration twice a year. Many people do not realize that many of these birds fly through the middle of Kansas and stop at Cheyenne Bottoms. What types of birds do this? And, why do they do it?

Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a discussion panel featuring Eugenie C. Scott, Francisco Ayala, and Denis Lamoureux on the intersection (and collision) of faith and evolution.

The NCSE reports that the latest anti-evolution bill in Kentucky has died in committee.

Sometimes, things like this just happen. It’s the circle of life, you know.

Interestingly, the bill would have allowed teachers to discuss the “advantages and disadvantages of scientific theories.” That’s the first time that particular phrase has been used in anti-evolution legislation.

I understand how scientific theories could be described has having “advantages.” After all, theories like evolution allow us to experimentally predict future events. However, I wonder what exactly they had in mind when they asserted that scientific theories can have “disadvantages?” The only disadvantage of scientific theories that I can think of is that they are incomplete, as expressed in this famous quote from Albert Einstein:

Somehow, I don’t think that’s what the Kentucky legislators had in mind.

Ooooh, I can’t wait!

A couple of years ago, “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” told the tale of college professors supposedly persecuted by the mainstream science establishment for supporting intelligent design/questioning evolution. Narrator Ben Stein accused scientists of holding an irrational commitment to what he called “Darwinism,” equated the science establishment to the Communist Party, conflated philosophical and methodological naturalism, and blamed the Holocaust and Stalin’s purges on evolution theory.

With such alarming consequences, Ben Stein and the Discovery Institute must be keeping their ever-vigilant eyes open for more instances of persecution caused by a professor’s views on evolution.

Lo and behold, Stein and company are right: just yesterday, a leading expert in his field resigned under fire after making his views on evolution evident in a YouTube video.

Dr. Bruce K. Waltke’s, a world-reknowned Old Testament scholar at formerly of the Reformed Theological Seminary of Orlando, made the mistake of stating publicly that

“if the data is overwhelmingly in favor of evolution, to deny that reality will make us a cult . . . some odd group that is not really interacting with the world. And rightly so, because we are not using our gifts and trusting God’s Providence that brought us to this point of our awareness.”

EXPELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLED!!!!1111

Now granted, Jeremy & I have noted similar incidents, where evolution supporters have been terminated or harassed: Chris Comer and the ongoing ruckus within the Seventh-Day Adventist universities.

How long before I can get tickets to “Expelled: The Sequel” from TicketMaster? I hope they film it in digital 3-D so we get the full effect of the Expulsion! I’ll get the popcorn started . . . [/sarcasm]

The National Academies Press offers entire PDF books that you can download for free in their entirety. One of their latest releases concerns human evolution and is entitled “Understanding Climate’s Influence on Human Evolution.”

Here’s part of the description of the book from the NAP website: