Second Thoughts about Peppered Moths
Every student of biological evolution learns about peppered moths. The dramatic increase in dark forms of this species during the industrial revolution, and experiments pointing to differential bird predation as the cause, have become the classical story of evolution by natural selection. The same careful scientific approach which established the classical story in the first place, however, has now revealed Read More ›
Is Intelligent Design Testable?
Eugenie Scott is a physical anthropologist who as director of the National Center for Science Education travels the United States warning audiences about the threat of creationism and unmasking its various guises. Intelligent design, according to her, is currently the most sinister of these guises. Scott has developed a standard shtick, which includes not only some well-worn arguments against creationism Read More ›
An Evaluation of Ten Recent Biology Textbooks And Their Use of Selected Icons of Evolution Evaluated
Scopes Trial Symbolism Holds Today
If a deeply entrenched academic truth is challenged by new scientific insights and discoveries, should authorities allow classroom discussion of such challenges? That was the question many people believe was placed on the national stage by the famous Scopes Trial in Dayton, Tennessee in 1925. This week is the 75th anniversary of the famous trial over the freedom of a Read More ›
Analytical Science at the Center of Chemistry and Beyond its Frontier
Award Address American Chemical Society Division of Analytical Chemistry Award for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Analytical Chemistry, Sponsored by Waters Corporation (Appendix on Natural Selection and References added September 26, 2000) Roland F. Hirsch, Medical Sciences Division, SC-73Office of Biological & Environmental ResearchOffice of ScienceU.S. Department of EnergyGermantown, Maryland 20874-1290 U.S.A. Introduction In accepting this award I would Read More ›
Irreducible Complexity And Darwinian Pathways
It’s official. Behe’s concept of irreducible complexity (IC) has found itself in the peer-reviewed scientific literature. Ironically, it was introduced by two critics of ID attempting to formulate non-teleological mechanisms for spawning IC. The article is: Thornhill, R.H., Ussery, D.W. 2000. “A classification of possible routes of Darwinian evolution.” J. Theor. Bio. 203: 111-116. First of all, this article shows Read More ›
Conversion of a Darwinist
DNA and Other Designs
For two millennia, the design argument provided an intellectual foundation for much of Western thought. From classical antiquity through the rise of modern science, leading philosophers, theologians, and scientists — from Plato to Aquinas to Newton — maintained that nature manifests the design of a preexistent mind or intelligence. Moreover, for many Western thinkers, the idea that the physical universe Read More ›
Disbelieving Darwin — And Feeling No Shame!
Science, we are told, is tentative. And given the history of science, there is every reason for science to be tentative. No scientific theory withstands revision for long, and many are eventually superseded by theories that flatly contradict their predecessors. Scientific revolutions are common, painful, and real. New theories regularly overturn old ones, and no scientific theory is ever the Read More ›
Science vs. Science
Darwin’s Hostages
In 1995 the National Academy of Sciences, through its National Research Council arm, issued a set of national science education standards calling for “dramatic changes” in the way science is taught in grade schools and high schools. Several years later the Kansas State Board of Education appointed a panel of scientists and academics to advise it on bringing state guidelines Read More ›