At FSU we had an Origins ‘09 event, with a series of speakers on evolution, all in remembrance of Darwin. See this link for the main page: http://origins.fsu.edu/. Then look at the schedule link from that page. Also from the main page you can see a retrospective video of all the events.

GEOSET has the full talks of three of the speakers: E. O. Wilson, Sean Carroll, and Don Johanson, in two screen set-up so you can see the Powerpoints and the speaker on different screens, and the audio is excellent. Go to this link: http://www.geoset.info/. Then go to the presenters’ list, and find the name, then click on Find Lectures, and then select the talk you want to hear. You need Silverlight to see the presentations (but the program is free). All three talks are excellent.

As well, Gilmer recommends visiting the Wilson Biophilia Center, near Niceville, FL, online, at http://www.eowilsoncenter.org/welcome.html, which she reports just opened in September, and presents interesting research on gophers, among other things. The Center describes itself as follows.

The E.O. Wilson Biophilia Center is an environmental education facility, serving students, teachers and professional audiences. Its mission is to educate visitors on the importance of biodiversity, to promote sustainable balanced ecosystems, and to encourage conservation, preservation and restoration.

Developed by Walton County Conservationist and Resident, M.C. Davis, on his 48,000-acre conservation land named Nokuse Plantation, The E.O. Wilson Biophilia Center is named after world renowned scientist Dr. Edward O. Wilson, Pellegrino University Professor Emeritus and Honorary Curator in Entomology at Harvard University, for his life-long contributions to public education about the importance of conserving the world’s biodiversity. This two-time Pulitzer prize winner spent his formative years and performed his earliest scientific investigations in NW Florida and SW Alabama, and developed “biophilia—the connections that human beings subconsciously seek with the rest of life.”

Visitors at the E.O. Wilson Biophilia Center will have an opportunity to learn about
the natural environment through interpretive exhibits as well as an extensive trail
system through natural areas undergoing ecological restoration on the nature preserve. In addition, this facility will be promoted as a gathering place for local and regional scientists to conduct ecological research and participate in symposia that disseminate this research to the public. By offering weeklong curriculum that coincides with the Florida Sunshine State Standards, our young citizens will have a better understanding and knowledge for science portions of the FCAT, while promoting
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematic (STEM) subjects, and providing opportunities for inquiry, investigation and innovation so that in long-term we all may become better stewards during our journey on this planet.

Are you interested in evolution, but unable to attend this year’s National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT) conference in Denver? Would you and your students like to learn more about how life evolves, adapts and flourishes in some of the most extreme environments on Earth, such as high altitude, in the deep-sea, or in caves? If so, you will be excited to learn that for the first time, the annual NABT Evolution Symposium will be accessible via live webcast on Friday, Nov. 13th from 8:30 am to 12:30 pm, MST. Teachers and students are encouraged to tune in to all or part of the webcast for an opportunity to hear internationally renowned researchers discuss their fascinating, cutting-edge work in “extreme” evolutionary biology. Classrooms all over the world will even be able to submit their questions online and have the speakers respond in real time!

For more information, including speaker names, talk titles and times, and the link to view the live webcast, please see http://www.nescent.org/NABT09Webcast.php or contact eog@nescent.org for more information.

Blog posts have been slow in coming lately—there’s one coming up about Philip Kitcher’s recent talk at Yeshiva University about the evolution of ethics.

It’s clear what this image is supposed to represent: the progressive evolution of the human species, starting with the monkey-like creature at the left, and ending on the right with the figure recognizable as a modern human being.

The problem with this image is that it doesn’t reflect current—and correct—thinking about how evolution works. The “ascending monkey” image suggests that the monkey is at the base of a linear progression from less advanced to more advanced. This seems to be the sense that the Smith-Cotton Marching Band wants to convey, as does the creator of the Burning Man festival poster. Evolution does not have a general direction and cannot properly be said to progress. Species or local populations adapt to the conditions of their environment. They become optimal with respect to their environment only insofar as they do the best that they can given chance events, the nature of their particular genetic endowment, and the constraints of their development. Long-term progress does not occur, even if one species evolved from another because of the former’s better adaptation to a shared environment. Should the environment change, the new species might find itself faced with extinction.

Besides being incorrect as a representation of biological evolution, this image is pernicious because it has racist undertones. Some Internet research reveals that slurs and jokes aimed at humiliating people with black skin frequently make reference to the notion that they are monkeys, for the reason that a monkey is “more primitive.” Many of these jokes and slurs clearly explicitly draw on the themes of having black skin, being primitive, and being a monkey.

Consider the following racist jokes from http://www.racist-jokes.com/ (pages 5, 6, 1 and 1, respectively):

What’s the difference between a naked white woman and a naked black woman? One’s on the cover of Playboy and the other’s on the cover of National Geographic.

What do you call a white man in a group of twenty black men? Tarzan of the apes.

What does NAACP stand for? Now Apes Are Called People.

What do you call the million man march in the rain? “Gorillas in the mist.”

While these jokes are repugnant in the extreme, it is important to point out that they exist, and that the connection between race, primitiveness, and monkeys has real social currency and is rooted deeply in the cultural context of the US.

A recent controversy over an 18 February 2009 cartoon depicting President Barack Obama as a monkey illustrates that this racist subtext need only be barely concealed. Of central importance is the outrage expressed by many upon seeing the cartoon. The cartoon, which first appeared in the New York Post, shows two police officers just having shot a chimpanzee, which is on its back, dead, on the sidewalk. One of the police officers says “They’ll have to find someone else to write the stimulus bill.” On the one hand, the cartoon is meant to reflect a news item current at the time it appeared—police shot a chimpanzee which was threatening a woman in Connecticut. On the other hand, it’s hard to see what the connection between a chimpanzee and the stimulus bill might be. Someone might point out that the stimulus bill was in fact introduced in in the US Congress, and so President Obama should not be identified with the chimpanzee in the cartoon. Though this is correct, most people probably associate the stimulus bill most closely with Obama himself. The identification of a black man and a monkey is what is intended to stimulate whatever humor there is supposed to be in this cartoon, and there is a clearly racist interpretation of the cartoon. Again, the point is that the connection between race, primitiveness, and monkeys is a meaningful one.

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For a few days, this blog was not working. Now it does.

I will have to put up some new posts soon, I mean, some substantial ones, not just about the blog working or not working.

Look for a posting about a misleading pictorial representation of evolution, and one about the importance of studying human evolution, generated from some reflections on recent articles in EE&O.

Hi everyone:

Issue 1 has its newest piece:

Fisher, M., Goetz, A., Hill, S., Kruger, D., Michalski, R., Osipowicz,
K., Platek, S. M., & Salmon, C. (2009). Voices from the field: Current
trends and experiences in Evolutionary Psychology. EvoS Journal: The
Journal of the Evolutionary Studies Consortium, 1(1), 11-33.

While you are checking it out at (http:evostudies.org/vol1.html)
please also sign up for the RSS feed for EvoS Journal. Then you will
be first to learn of new articles!

Thanks,

Rose Chang
Editor, EvoS Journal: The Journal of the Evolutionary Studies
Consortium

This is sure to be interesting and controversial, since it’s on the topic of Evolutionary Psychology, which is often divisive—some people think its main ideas are virtually self-evident as an approach to human thought and behavior, while others think it’s an example of science run amok.

Regardless, take a look, so that when the EvoS journal is publishing its 101st article, you can say, “I remember when they published their 1st. . . . “

DOI: 10.1007/s12052-009-0158-8
Online Date: 8/8/2009
View article on SpringerLink

In 2000, Lawrence Lerner and the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation reviewed state science standards in 49 states and the District of Columbia, specifically with respect to the coverage of evolution. We repeat his survey for all current standards publicly available as of May 2009 and discuss the history and role of state science standards in American public education. Our survey indicates that science standards tend to cover evolution more extensively than they did a decade ago, and that the average quality of the treatment has increased. However, certain types of creationist language are also becoming more common in state standards. We also discuss the history and role of state science standards in American public education.

DOI: 10.1007/s12052-009-0155-y
Online Date: 8/7/2009
View article on SpringerLink

DOI: 10.1007/s12052-009-0160-1
Online Date: 8/7/2009
View article on SpringerLink