|
REAL Science Blog
|
Friday, February 5, 2010 Antievolution Legislation Update The Mississippi anti-evolution bill that would have required public schools to present "scientifically sound arguments by protagonists and antagonists of the theory of evolution" has died in committee. 
| Monday, January 25, 2010 Surprise, suprise, surprise!  Once again, the DI is promoting its so-called "Academic Freedom Day" for February 12th, the birthday of Charles Darwin. The DI is pimping this movement based on this ostensible quote from Darwin: A fair result can be obtained only by fully stating and balancing the facts and arguments on both sides of each question. Jeremy laid bare the DI's deception at about this time last year. It's telling that a movement that loudly claims to be concerned with freedom and truth has to resort to quotemining and deliberate deception to gain and retain its followers. Can the DI's bad tree of behavior really be expected to produce good fruit? Matt 7:16-20
| Thursday, January 21, 2010 2012 - Science Cafe in Hays What fun! Although she said she did not believe the world would end Dec. 21, 2012, Adams admitted she had a slight ulterior motive: her 21st birthday is Dec. 22, 2012. She said even the end of the world could not keep her from celebrating. "If the world ends on the 21st, I'll hang on and survive and still celebrate on the 22nd." (*in interests of full disclosure, yes, I am proud to be Megan's mother!)
| Monday, January 18, 2010 Missouri Loves Company Last week, Cheryl reported that Mississippi is the first state this year to be visited by the Ghost of Intelligent Design known as "Academic Freedom" legislation.
| Wednesday, January 13, 2010 Mississippi is dah loser! Sweet! (added in edit: Because it's not Kansas this time!) "The lesson provided to students ... shall have proportionately equal instruction from educational materials that present scientifically sound arguments by protagonists and antagonists of the theory of evolution." "proportionally equal" ???? Hmmm. If the time devoted to the evidence supporting evolution is "proportionately equal" to the amount of evidence supporting evolution, and the time devoted to the evidence against evolution is "proportionately equal" to the amount of evidence against it, then the lesson becomes easy to plan: 99.99% of the time would be devoted to the evidence supporting evolution, while 0.01% of the class time would be devoted to . . . well, since there's no credible evidence against evolution, that time could be used to discuss the anti-evolution movement in the US. That 0.01% of class time could be used to point out the uniformly religious motivations of the anti-science movement, like the quote from the bill's sponsor: "Either you believe in the Genesis story, or you believe that a fish walked on the ground," and adding, "All these molecules didn't come into existence by themselves." - Gary Chism (R-District 37), to the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal (January 24, 2009) Somehow, I doubt Chism recognizes what the word "proportionately" means.
| Tuesday, January 12, 2010 2012: The End of Time?  Collision with rogue planet Nibiru. The end of the 13th Baktun of the Mayan calendar. The alignment of the equators of Earth, Sun, and the Milky Way Galaxy. Earth passing through the Galactic Plane. Earth spinning wildly out of control. Disastrous geomagnetic reversal. Solar storms. Global consciousness shift, a reincarnated Quetzalcoatl, and Timewave Zero. NASA's Ask an Astrobiologist Web site, for example, has received thousands of questions regarding the 2012 doomsday predictions—some of them disturbing, according to David Morrison, senior scientist with the NASA Astrobiology Institute. "A lot of [the submitters] are people who are genuinely frightened," Morrison said. "I've had two teenagers who were considering killing themselves, because they didn't want to be around when the world ends," he said. "Two women in the last two weeks said they were contemplating killing their children and themselves so they wouldn't have to suffer through the end of the world." Hays' Science Cafe is sponsored by the FHSU Science & Mathematics Education Institute, Kansas Citizens for Science, and Cafe Semolino's.
| Friday, January 8, 2010 A Very Worthy Cause to Support Put down that spoon.
| The Cambrian Explosion: No Dilemma for Darwin I have been home from work for three snow days in a row. Along with scooping snow and playing with the girls, I've had some unexpected free time. The Cambrian Explosion was one of the most important episodes in the history of life. Over some 20 to 25 million years, beginning about 543 million years ago, life in the oceans diversified. Today, we find abundant fossils of hard-shelled animals of this age in many parts of the world. The famous Burgess Shale of western Canada formed after the Cambrian Explosion but its unusually preserved fossils give paleontologists a glimpse of a nearly complete Cambrian community. These extraordinary fossils also show the wide range of animals that must have evolved earlier in the Cambrian Period. In this presentation, Westrop takes a look at recent research that gives us a new understanding of this evolutionary "explosion" of ocean life.
| Wednesday, January 6, 2010 Bringing Tiktaalik Home The Unbroken Thread Monday, December 28, 2009 What Darwin Never Knew  One hundred and fifty years later, scientists decode nature's greatest mysteries in a two-hour NOVA special.
| Saturday, December 19, 2009 The Known Universe Thursday, December 17, 2009 Laugh of the Day  The Discovery Institute whines, "Why Are Darwinists Scared to Read Signature in the Cell?", Stephen Meyer's latest ID promo. Wanted: Research Scientist. Duties: Communicate our vision of science to the public through church lectures, popular books published by religious publishers, opinion pieces, and staged debates. Perks: No long hours in the lab. No submissions to peer-reviewed science journals required. No presentations of data at science conferences necessary. Requirements: Good hair & smile. Ability to utter contradictory and absurd statements without flinching is a must. Education: B.A. in Marketing, Leadership Studies or Political Science preferred. Will accept a J.D. if we get really desperate. Previous Experience: Positions in used-car sales, ambulance chasing, or advertising are helpful. Salary: Commensurate with experience, and dependent on the generosity of our donors. Contact:1-800-BUL-LSHI
| Monday, December 14, 2009 Infestation, part II  A few weeks ago, I noted an upcoming Campus-Ministry-sponsored pro-ID lecture at Indiana University-Purdue University, Ft. Wayne (IPFW) to be presented by IPFW associate professor of science education Dr. Jeffrey Nowak. A colleague informed me that Dr. Nowak requested that the CATV 56 (campus cable network) destroy all copies of his talk because he felt that some of his colleagues would misrepresent his talk. I called CATV 56 and they confirmed that they no longer have any copies and do not intend on broadcasting the talk on CATV 56. One would think that if Dr. Nowak is concerned about the content of his talk being misrepresented he would want the tape of the talk to be widely available so that others could judge the content for themselves. Funny how he - unlike other scientists and scholars - isn't willing to have the public scrutinize his ideas . . . I always thought that the academy and scholarship were all about? Ah, but when a movement's primary goals are political and religious, not scientific, censorship is *exactly* what you'll find as we've found time and again. Now Nowak can spin the experience any way he wants regardless of the accounts of onlookers; not exactly a new tactic for the DI's supporters. Pity poor Dr. Nowak, who has evidently learned he's not even competent to carry water for the Discovery Institute. It does make one wonder why he's entrusted with training trusting young souls who'll soon be teaching science to elementary kids. It's sad that a young professor has chosen to place his ministry ahead of his conscience. Strange how a scholar is so intent on persuading the public that ID should infest science education that he's ready to exterminate any evidence of his attempt at persuasion. On the other hand, for an example of someone doing REAL science and communicating it to the public, meet Dr. Richard C. Sutter:
| Tuesday, December 8, 2009 Crystalline Precipitation!  This image of a freshly-fallen snowflake was captured with Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy. As snowflakes form, air is trapped within the lattices of the crystal. If the snow doesn't melt, and instead accumulates and packs down, the structure of the snowflakes changes in all kinds of interesting ways. By drilling into Arctic & Antarctic glaciers and examining the ice cores brought up, researchers can look at snow that has built up over tens of thousands of years. The air that was trapped can be analyzed to help figure out what the climate was like at the time the snow fell. The evidence is there, regardless of how nasty a few scientists get toward denialists. (Those scientists have since received "torrents" of death threats.) Here in semi-arid western Kansas, we usually don't have to worry about that much snow. In fact, we're grateful for whatever precipitation we get - except for ice.
| Archives December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008 September 2008 October 2008 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 April 2009 May 2009 June 2009 July 2009 August 2009 September 2009 October 2009 November 2009 December 2009 January 2010 February 2010
|
Blog Contributors What is REAL science?  Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions expressed on this blog are solely our own. They do not necessarily represent the views of our employers or any other organization with which we are affiliated. Comment Policy: One of the goals of this website is to foster constructive dialogue concerning science and science education. Comments not in line with this goal may be deleted. Recent Comments: Our Visitors:
|
