Scientific American
Taking advantage of the April Fool’s Day publication date, editors at Scientific American published a tongue-in-cheek analysis of the magazine’s historically solid treatment of evolution.
“For decades, we published articles in every issue that endorsed the ideas of Charles Darwin and his cronies. True, the theory of common descent through natural selection has been called the unifying concept for all of biology and one of the greatest scientific ideas of all time, but that was no excuse to be fanatics about it …Blame the scientists. They dazzled us with their fancy fossils, their radiocarbon dating and their tens of thousands of peer-reviewed journal articles. As editors, we had no business being persuaded by mountains of evidence.”
To read the full article, “Okay, We Give Up,” go to http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?SID=mail&articleID=000E555C-4387-1237-81CB83414B7FFE9F&chanID=sa004.
The Washington Post
On April 5, Jay Mathews from The Washington Post responded to the massive amount of feedback he received from an earlier article that—in his own sardonic fashion—challenged schools to “…enliven [science class] with a student debate on contrasting theories?” The April 5 article, “Intelligent Design, Unintelligent Me,” reveals his surprise at the number of readers who agreed with his ideas that he calls “off color humor.” To read the April 5 article, go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27793-2005Apr5.html.
Education Week
Education Week addressed the recent actions taken by the National
Academy of Sciences’ President Bruce Alberts to encourage Academy members
to work in their communities against the growing anti-evolution movement. The
April 6 article also reported on the NSTA Express survey conducted
last month on the topic of evolution. To read the full article, “Scientists
Offer Ground-Level Support for Evolution,” go to
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2005/04/06/30evolve.h24.html?querystring=evolution.
(free registration required)
Kansas City Star
“Intelligent design is not going to get its forum, at least not
one in which they can say that scientists participated.”
This statement made by Harry McDonald from the Kansas Citizens for Science sums up the current state of affairs in Kansas where the Board of Education, led by a conservative majority, is holding hearings to address the treatment of evolution in Kansas science standards. Calling the hearings a “Kangaroo Court,” scientists have boycotted the hearings tentatively scheduled for May 5-7 and May 12-14. As of the April 7 deadline, the Kansas Department of Education reports only one scientist has agreed to testify and indicated that his appearance has not been confirmed. To read the article, “Evolution backers to boycott Kansas hearings,” go to http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/11339782.htm.