Blog For Darwin

Blog for Darwin began as a "blog carnival" in 2009 celebrating the bicentenary of Charles Darwin's birth (Feb. 12th, 1809). 165 bloggers participated--from the Galapagos, Catalonia, Britain, Turkey, the US, and elsewhere--including paleontologists, poets, geneticists, visual artists, biologists, members of the clergy, nanotech experts, and others. Blog for Darwin is now updated with select content about Darwin, evolution, and promoting science education.

Posted on April 12, 2011 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Darwin Day Is February 12 - The Panda's Thumb

And the Center for Inquiry provides a short list of resources for campus organizations or anyone else who wants to sponsor an event. In particular, you may contact their speakers bureau to find speakers on evolution, creationism, and intelligent-design creationism (it is a complete mystery why hardly anyone from Panda’s Thumb is on that list, but we will not go into that now). Additionally, Center for Inquiry directs you to the International Darwin Day Foundation, where you may find a list of activities near you, and, of course, the National Center for Science Education.

CFI recommends that you try to teach someone about evolution or other scientific principles and notes that the Public Broadcasting System has a wealth of material on evolution, science, and Darwin. The Understanding Evolution Web page is likewise an excellent resource.

via pandasthumb.org

Posted on January 16, 2012 in Books About Charles Darwin | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Crazy For Creationism: Legislators In Ind. And N.H. Seek To Undermine Instruction About Evolution

Kruse has been on this crusade for a number of years and has introduced versions of this bill before. They always died. But Republicans now control the state Senate, and Kruse is chairman of the Senate Education Committee. From this powerful perch, he can agitate for this misguided legislation.

via www.religiousrightwatch.com

Posted on January 06, 2012 in Promoting science education | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

We Are Made of DNA | Baba Brinkman, creator of "The Rap Guide to Evolution"

It looks like Baba Brinkman is moving things into a new arena with the content of his live show, The Rap Guide to Evolution. Below is an update from his website. And if you happened to see his show, remember, you're a African! (Not "an"!) We all are!

We Are Made of DNA

Babosted on September 21, 2011 by Baba Brinkman

The Wellcome Trust Music Video Project continues to bear fruit, if perhaps a bit behind schedule. Earlier this year we completed a Crowdfunder.co.uk drive to fund the post-production phase of the project, adding £12,588 from more than 300 funders to the original Wellcome Trust grant. For those of you in the US, Crowdfunder is the UK version of Kickstarter, and they still list our project as their main successful case study.

During the crowdfunder drive we had hoped/intended that all twelve videos would be finished and ready to distribute on DVD by now, but the intricacies of coordinating a talented and underpaid team of in-demand video editors, animators, researchers, science consultants, and administrators has slowed our progress down considerably. Still, the end is in sight! Since most of the videos are mostly done and require only small fixes or tweaks, my best call at this point is that all twelve videos will be completed by the end of the year and we’ll have the educational DVDs ready for schools and funders by January. In the meantime, we’ll keep releasing the videos on the website as they are finalized, one every few weeks until the collection is complete.

The newest addition, DNA, features amazing James Bond-inspired animation from Tommy Nagle, with sultry belly dancers Sadiyya Vahed & Emmanuelle Julien illustrating the undulations of the DNA double helix, and gorgeous vocals from Noa Bodner. Science has never looked or sounded so sexy… you know, for the kids. Enjoy!

via www.bababrinkman.com

Posted on September 21, 2011 in Charles Darwin and the Theory of Evolution, Charles Darwin in Film, TV, Radio, Art, Popular Culture | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Attention Governor Perry: Evolution is a fact

Darwin’s idea is arguably the most powerful ever to occur to a human mind. The power of a scientific theory may be measured as a ratio: the number of facts that it explains divided by the number of assumptions it needs to postulate in order to do the explaining. A theory that assumes most of what it is trying to explain is a bad theory. That is why the creationist or ‘intelligent design’ theory is such a rotten theory.

What any theory of life needs to explain is functional complexity. Complexity can be measured as statistical improbability, and living things are statistically improbable in a very particular direction: the direction of functional efficiency. The body of a bird is not just a prodigiously complicated machine, with its trillions of cells - each one in itself a marvel of miniaturized complexity - all conspiring together to make muscle or bone, kidney or brain. Its interlocking parts also conspire to make it good for something - in the case of most birds, good for flying. An aero-engineer is struck dumb with admiration for the bird as flying machine: its feathered flight-surfaces and ailerons sensitively adjusted in real time by the on-board computer which is the brain; the breast muscles, which are the engines, the ligaments, tendons and lightweight bony struts all exactly suited to the task. And the whole machine is immensely improbable in the sense that, if you randomly shook up the parts over and over again, never in a million years would they fall into the right shape to fly like a swallow, soar like a vulture, or ride the oceanic up-draughts like a wandering albatross. Any theory of life has to explain how the laws of physics can give rise to a complex flying machine like a bird or a bat or a pterosaur, a complex swimming machine like a tarpon or a dolphin, a complex burrowing machine like a mole, a complex climbing machine like a monkey, or a complex thinking machine like a person.

Darwin explained all of this with one brilliantly simple idea - natural selection, driving gradual evolution over immensities of geological time. His is a good theory because of the huge ratio of what it explains (all the complexity of life) divided by what it needs to assume (simply the nonrandom survival of hereditary information through many generations). The rival theory to explain the functional complexity of life - creationism - is about as bad a theory as has ever been proposed. What it postulates (an intelligent designer) is even more complex, even more statistically improbable than what it explains. In fact it is such a bad theory it doesn’t deserve to be called a theory at all, and it certainly doesn’t deserve to be taught alongside evolution in science classes.

The simplicity of Darwin’s idea, then, is a virtue for three reasons. First, and most important, it is the signature of its immense power as a theory, when compared with the mass of disparate facts that it explains - everything about life including our own existence. Second, it makes it easy for children to understand (in addition to the obvious virtue of being true!), which means that it could be taught in the early years of school. And finally, it makes it extremely beautiful, one of the most beautiful ideas anyone ever had as well as arguably the most powerful. To die in ignorance of its elegance, and power to explain our own existence, is a tragic loss, comparable to dying without ever having experienced great music, great literature, or a beautiful sunset.

via www.washingtonpost.com

Image: Download the full-sized image (1191 x 1683 pixels) available here.

Posted on August 26, 2011 in Charles Darwin and the Theory of Evolution | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Doonesbury on Creationism

Doonesbury on Creationism

Hat-tip to AU on Facebook. (Click to enlarge the image; but, the whole thing's here--Doonesbury's 7/10 strip.)

via www.religiousrightwatch.com

Posted on July 12, 2011 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The Rap Guide To Evolution

The Rap Guide To Evolution

Praise for The Rap Guide to Evolution:

“…by and large, he proselytizes about evolution not by attacking its deniers, but by revealing the subject’s scope, from natural selection to the evolution of human culture and language. At the same time, he teases the audience, sends up post-modernism, mocks himself and satirizes the genre of hip-hop, all with fizzing energy and spell-binding charisma. Like I said, astonishing.” - The New York Times

“Brilliantly conceived and effervescently performed…not only is it factually correct, it’s also dazzlingly intelligent…after seeing this show, you'll never look at a hip-hop music video in the same way again!” ★★★★ - The Scotsman, Edinburgh

“One of the world’s great intelligent rappers…what Baba does is amazing - his knowledge of rap genres and styles is encyclopaedic…a flash of verbal fireworks!” ★★★★ - BroadwayBaby.com, Edinburgh

“The juxtaposition of hip-hop with Darwin is striking. By boldly making use of hip-hop in a most unusual but still provocative way, Brinkman harmoniously fuses art with evolution.” ★★★★ - Time Out Magazine, Hong Kong

“A work of genius. Never since Charles Darwin have we had a more eloquent exposition” ★★★★
Dr. Mark Pallen, author of The Rough Guide to Evolution

“With lyrics that were sometimes sly, often hilarious, and always smart and thought-provoking, Brinkman married the fast, complex, literate delivery of Eminem with the evolutionary expertise and confrontational manner of Dawkins… Anyone provided with an open mind and a hint of musical rhythm should rush out to see this show if they’re fortunate enough for it to make an appearance nearby.” - Science Magazine, Cambridge

via citizenship.typepad.com

Posted on July 11, 2011 in Charles Darwin and the Theory of Evolution, Charles Darwin in Film, TV, Radio, Art, Popular Culture | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Jay Wright, Kentucky Miner, Finds 300-Million-Year-Old Shark Fossil

A miner has found a fossil from a shark jawbone deep in a central Kentucky mine and now it is on display at the University of Kentucky.

The fossil was found in February in Webster County, Ky., where 25-year-old miner Jay Wright was working to bolt a roof 700 feet underground. The 300-million-year-old black jawbone is believed to be from a shark from the Edestus genus that once swam the seas over what is now Kentucky.

Wright said in an interview Friday with The Lexington Herald Leader that his first thought was "Gosh, what is this thing?"

Jerry Weisenfluh, associate director of the Kentucky Geological Survey in Lexington, said a fossil this large is rare. It's now on display in the lobby of UK's Mines and Minerals building.

via www.huffingtonpost.com

Posted on April 12, 2011 in Fossil find | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

WELCOME TO BLOG FOR DARWIN

165 bloggers participated in the Blog For Darwin "blog carnival" (or "blog swarm") February 12th-15th in celebration of the bicentenary of Charles Darwin's birth (February 12th, 1809). Hailing from the Galapagos, Catalonia, Britain, Turkey, the US, and elsewhere, participants included paleontologists, poets, geneticists, visual artists, biologists, members of the clergy, nanotechnology experts, historians, oceanographers, and others.

Posted on February 16, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)

Happy 200th Bday, Mr. Darwin!

Dolma33 presents Happy 200th Bday, Mr. Darwin! posted at Dolma33 ...goes to Galápagos!

Posted on February 15, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

A Chaos of Delight

M presents A Chaos of Delight posted at Curious Expeditions.

Posted on February 15, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Bir Fikrin Gücü

Aragon presents Bir Fikrin Gücü posted at Evrim Çalışkanları.

From the author of Evrim Olgusu (Turkish, "The Fact of Evolution").

Posted on February 15, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

bones murmur

Amy Fichter presents bones murmur (blog for darwin) posted at flesh & gravity.

It was when I first drew a life-size skeleton that I became mesmerized by bones--and also seriously curious about what I had always been taught about the "higher" nature of humans over animals. Since then, I have been an artist, and through my art-making, a lover of science. I am completely amazed and grateful for the work Darwin carried out and for those who found his work believable, obvious even (after he helped us see it). These photographs are of a paddlefish skeleton I found washed ashore on the banks of the Mississippi River this past summer. I am a bone collector, a bone drawer, and a bone photographer. Thanks for allowing me to participate in the celebration of Charles Darwin. Happy 200th Birthday!

Posted on February 15, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)