Intelligent Design at SMU

Last Thursday night the Discovery Institute (DI) and their "research" wing known as the Biologic Institute sponsored an event entitled "4 Nails in Darwin's Coffin" on the campus of Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas. The DI are obviously the main proponents of Intelligent Design (ID). Knowing people who had attended SMU I knew that there would be a fair sized group of people who don't think the same things as DI. It turns out I was right, yesterday the school paper, the Daily Campus, published an article signed by several of the faculty of SMU saying that what DI said was not what the science said. The article included a link to a page that, while still a work in progress, shows all of the errors in the ID idea. This webpage also links to a webpage that shows how SMU truly feels about Darwin's theory of evolution.

It also turns out that the event was recorded, I will embed the first video here but will include links to the others below, it looks like it was a long event.



Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

Thank you C0nc0rdance for putting all of these videos up

Poor Science Eduation = Poor Economy

As PZ pointed out an update to a 2005 report was issued on Thursday which shows that as our science education has gone down so has the economy. This report should help show the importance of science education but if it will happen is questionable at best.

"Our nation's outlook has worsened," concludes the report panel headed by former Lockheed Martin chief Norman Augustine. The report "paints a daunting outlook for America if it were to continue on the perilous path it has been following":

•U.S. mathematics and science K-12 education ranks 48th worldwide.

•49% of U.S. adults don't know how long it takes for the Earth to circle the sun.

•China has replaced the United States as the world's top high-technology exporter.

Although U.S. school achievement scores have stagnated, harming the economy as employers look elsewhere for competent workers, the report says that other nations have made gains.

If U.S. students matched Finland's, for example, analysis suggests the U.S. economy would grow 9%-16%.

This is worrying news but at least some think that it is overrated.

In 2007, however, an analysis led by B. Lindsay Lowell of Georgetown University found U.S. science education worries overstated. It saw three times more science and engineering college graduates than job openings each year. Other reports have found top science and engineering students migrating to better-paying jobs in finance, law and medicine, since the 1990s.

There is of course potential that the jobs just aren't being offered because the companies don't trust in the science being taught in the U.S. As far as the science individuals moving into these other industries that might just imply that these other individuals are in even worse shape education wise, but that is just speculation and I would like to see more data on that.

Next-Gen Tech

So normally I don't post anything about genetics but this video by C0nc0rdance (see a prior post about him here) is worth the watch to see how quickly our technology in genetics has grown.



The point he makes at the end is a good one and I agree with him completely. Part of the reason why I say stuff against creationists etc is because of the dangers that they pose to the real world.

Kiski River Fossil

So while cleaning out my inbox today I came across this story that my father in Pittsburgh, PA had sent me, sorry I don't just embed the video I couldn't figure out how to from the WTAE page. The gist of the story is that a kayaker was going along the Kiski River in Armstrong County, not far from Pittsburgh, and saw something that looked like something he had seen before and it turned out to be the remains of an ancient tree which ended up being a Lepidodendron tree.

The 45-year-old, who said he grew up watching "Land of the Lost," told Channel 4 Action News' Jennifer Miele that he knew he had found something special.

"It's not too often you find something 300 million years old in your own backyard," Blackham [the discoverer] told Miele.

If you watch the video they end by implying that the climate in Pittsburgh used to be a lot warmer and more humid than it is today when this fossil was alive. This is because of the shifting of the continental plates over time. 300 million years ago Pittsburgh was located closer to the equator and the climate was much more like that of present day Louisiana, hot and humid. This period is known in North America as the Pennsylvanian, in Europe it is combined with the Mississippian and together are known as the Carboniferous. You can probably guess where the name comes from but just in case. The period is named after the state of Pennsylvania, during this period large swamps that covered most of PA. The organic matter that settled in the boggy conditions of the swamp were slowly compressed over time and form the vast coal fields that helped make Pittsburgh the Steel City.

National Park Service Series

Edit: I have now moved this to a more permanent page so this particular page won't be updated anymore

So I am planning on starting a new series of posts similar to my museum posts. This series will be written whenever I go and visit a new park and have the time to actually write about the trip. I will try to do a little research on the geology and fossils of the National Park before I write the post. The reason I am writing this post is that it will serve as the home page for this series so that all the posts for this series will link back to here and from here you will be able to navigate to all of the individual posts. This will help prevent every post from having a long list on the bottom of it and will require a lot less editing for me and lets not kid ourselves I am lazy.

National Park Posts
Carlsbad Caverns National Park
Fort Sumter National Monument
Guadalupe Mountains National Park
Mammoth Cave National Park

Just to clarify

A few days ago I posted about how walruses were spending more time ashore this summer due to the lack of sea ice. In case I wasn't clear this video by Greenman3610 (prior posts involving Greenman3610, here, here, here, and here) should clear up any questions that I might not have been clear enough about.

National Fossil Day CD

So this year the National Park Service (NPS) and Geological Society of America (GSA) are having a National Fossil Day with the mission of:

National Fossil Day is a celebration organized by the National Park Service to promote public awareness and stewardship of fossils, as well as to foster a greater appreciation of their scientific and educational values.

Well today a CD came out that provides teachers with some resources to help them teach about fossils. Teachers can go here to purchase the CD for $4 which includes all shipping and handling (while supplies last).

The Texas Governor Candidates stance on Evolution

The San Angelo Standard Times has an article out that discusses the two governor candidates views on education, I recommend that everyone voting in the next governor's election should read it. Most of what they say is pretty standard stuff that governor candidates will say during an election year about education. You know stuff like, "Public education will remain a priority." The distinction comes when both candidates were asked about their views on evolution. As PZ pointed out Governor Perry says this:

I am a firm believer in intelligent design as a matter of faith and intellect, and I believe it should be presented in schools alongside the theories of evolution. The State Board of Education has been charged with the task of adopting curriculum requirements for Texas public schools and recently adopted guidelines that call for the examination of all sides of a scientific theory, which will encourage critical thinking in our students, an essential learning skill.

Governor ID and creationism aren't allowed to be taught in science class in the USA due to violation of the 1st amendment's separation of church and state. Don't believe me see Kitzmiller v Dover.

Bill White, the Democratic nominee, is less straight forward with his answer:

Educators and local school officials, not the governor, should determine science curriculum.

While I don't disagree with his stance in saying the governor should stay out, that is after all not in their job description, but the question didn't ask for what he thinks about evolution. I know he is a rational person and in the state of Texas saying the wrong thing about evolution can be the difference between getting elected and not so I am sure he said the right thing politically but I would like to see someone in politics in this state say what they really think about evolution.

Wait someone has, and they are running for school board no less. Rebecca Bell-Metereau has actual experience teaching as well. You can vote for her to get some money from the Democrats here.

The Walruses are feeling the heat as well

It is becoming all too familiar to hear stories like this one where a polar bear wanders further south than normal (NWF on climate change and polar bears). Unfortunately global climate change is threatening every one's favorite long toothed piniped the walrus as well. Now most people see walruses at zoos and other places similar to Sea World and this is probably how most people picture them:



However, as people who have seen the BBC production Planet Earth (avaliable from Amazon here) have seen these animals are an important part of the Arctic ecosystem. They, as with the polar bears, depend on large expanses of sea ice to rest especially for the young who are not yet physically able to swim long distances that are need if they are resting on shore. Apparently they are resting more and more on shore last year with large numbers in Russia and now this year in large numbers on the North American shore. As I mentioned this is bad for the young (from article above):

Before the young walruses can haul-out onshore, they must survive an extended period offshore without sea-ice to rest on and must successfully make the long voyage with their mothers to the coast. As sea ice has receded over the last decade, young walruses are increasingly separated from their mothers, drifting in the open-sea.

[...]

Where the young walruses survive the ordeal offshore, they find new perils along the coastline. When walruses congregate in large numbers onshore, they may stampede into the water if frightened. The smaller females and young may be trampled to death. This has occurred along the Russian shoreline in recent years; and was documented last year along the Alaskan shore.

There is no doubt that climate change is happening and we have reached the point where talking about it is doing nothing we need to act!

Falsifying Phylogeny II

The last time I posted about AronRa he made a video talking about what it would take to falsify phylogeny (post here, video here, my other post on him here). This video discusses the scientific laws that are part of the theory of evolution. It was very well done as always so enjoy:



If you want to go to the video to leave a comment go here.

Wait what?

So a lot of people have probably heard about the new dinosaur find that the paper discussing it came out yesterday named Concavenator corcovatus. If you haven't let me recommend these three posts to get you caught up, Tet Zoo, Not Exactly Rocket Science, and Dinosaur Tracking. It is cool in what it represents with the potential of having feathers on its arms but this represents one of the questions we have about this dinosaur. Did it really have feathers? WTF is the use of that hump/bump thing over the hip? This, however, was a new one to me, emphasis mine:

The exact purpose of the hump, which stood at least 16 inches tall, is not yet known but ideas include temperature regulation and fat storage.

This exciting discovery has prompted more questions about dinosaurs, including whether humans and dinos lived together and how dinosaurs communicated.

Wait what? How does this in any way, shape, or form prompt the question of if humans and dinosaurs lived together? I welcome the author of this blog post or anyone for that matter to show me how this question is raised but while there are questions for sure this one is not one of them. Oh, and don't even get me started on the comments to the post itself.

New Creationist "Museum"

There are several creationist "museums" spread throughout the country, the most famous of which is the one in Kentucky. What might surprise people is the number in Texas. I know when I think of Texas I think of a state that is very much a part of the "Christian Right". This isn't completely accurate yes it is in the top 10 for the importance of religion it is actually tied for 10th with Kentucky, as of 2008 (source). There are 2 creationist museums within the state of Texas that are open right now. The most famous of the two is the Creationist Evidence Museum in Glen Rose (Official Site). The other one is the Mt. Blanco Fossil Museum in Crosbyton (Official Site), which I have mentioned before. Neither of these, however, are within a major metropolitan area, the Creationist Evidence Museum in Glen Rose is the closest but it is still a fair trip from the Dallas-Fort Worth Area to Glen Rose. Well it appears that a new one is about to open up within Dallas itself.



I have actually known about this for about 6 months or so and would like to point out that they have had the same status on their webpage for that whole time so I don't know how much progress they are making. I obviously would prefer if they don't build this because it perverts science and outright lies to people but it is perfectly within their rights to build it. If it is anything like the one they have in Arkansas (Official Site) they will be using the same creationist arguments that have been tried and refuted for the past 20+ years.

Museum Visit #3

Last Friday, September 3, I finally made a trip to go actually walk around the Museum of Texas Tech University (MoTTU) (Official website, Wikipedia article). The museum was open late due to being a part of the First Friday Art Trail here in Lubbock. It was nice to walk around the museum again. The museum itself is small kind of what you would expect from a museum on a university campus, in case you didn't catch on it is at Texas Tech University. The museum has full time exhibits dedicated to Lubbock history, Mesozoic life, and African art. There are also several exhibits that get replaced off and on through out the year. One of these that is running for a little while deals with pterosaurs and one of my fellow graduate students telling me about this is actually why I went. I am primarily going to focus on the Paleontology hall with maybe a slight mention on the Pterosaur exhibit.

The Paleontology Hall talks about changes in life through time. Starting with a brief exhibit on some of the first dinosaurs and talking about what paleontology is. The exhibit continues into the Triassic. Lubbock and Texas Tech are a hotbed of research in the Triassic Period due to the proximity to the Triassic aged Dockum Group. There are casts of phytosaur skulls and a bigger exhibit with a cast of an aetosaur and Postosuchus kirkpatricki, which was originally found near the town of Post, TX (about 40 miles from Lubbock). There is also a small exhibit on the evolution of birds which includes the possible bird possible chimaera Protoavis texensis. There is also discussion of some of the dinosaurs out of Big Bend National Park (Park webpage, Wikipedia article) and then some talk of some of the early mammals found both in the Dockum as well as some from the K/T boundary of Big Bend National Park.

The pterosaur exhibit, which you will be able to view through November 7, was interesting. Dr. Sankar Chatterjee has recently been doing a heavy amount of research into pterosaurs so many of the exhibits are casts that are being worked on and studied down in the basement. The exhibit is well put together and sums up a lot of the current researching going on in the study of pterosaurs including questions of how they would have moved while on the ground as well as what is the use of the massive crests that many of the, especially later, pterosaurs posses.

Overall the Museum of Texas Tech University is worth the quick visit to go see if you are in Lubbock. Some of the areas such as the Lubbock history as well as the art exhibits will be worth seeing if you are interested in that. The museum is small so the museum really appreciates visitors from out of town but I wouldn't make a special trip to Lubbock to see it. It also needs a little updating in some areas but with as small a budget as the museum has it is very well done. If you are interested in Triassic aged organisms the MoTTU is one of the few museums that contains a large amount of Triassic fossils.

Museum visits page

Michael Specter on the danger of science denial

It's a little long but Michael Specter does a great job talking about why denying science is dangerous



This can of course be applied to evolution and global climate change as well but medicine is obviously one of the things that effects us all and is easy to see in the short term.