National Center for Science Education

Two antievolution bills died in committee in the Missouri House of Representatives on May 17, 2013, when the legislature adjourned.

NCSE's executive director Eugenie C. Scott received the honorary degree of Doctor of Science from Chapman University in recognition of her "work ... in advancing the public understanding and acceptance of evolution."

A new study of the scientific literature confirms that there is a robust consensus that humans are causing global warming.

Prompted by the announced impending retirement of NCSE's executive director Eugenie C. Scott, the journal Nature devoted its May 15, 2013, editorial column to applauding NCSE's work.

Louisiana's Senate Bill 205 would, if enacted, repeal the state's Balanced Treatment for Creation-Science and Evolution-Science Act, which was enacted in 1981 and declared to be unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court in Edwards v. Aguillard in 1987.

The physicist Mark Perakh, a notable critic of creationism, died on May 7, 2013, at the age of 88, according to The Panda's Thumb blog (May 12, 2013).

A new report discussing a poll of Muslims around the globe suggests (PDF, p. 132) that "[m]any Muslims around the world believe in evolution."

NCSE is pleased to offer a free preview (PDF) of Eugenie C. Scott's Evolution vs. Creationism: An Introduction, second edition (Greenwood Press/University of California Press, 2009) in honor of her impending retirement as NCSE's executive director.

Texas's House Bill 285 died in the House Committee on Higher Education on May 6, 2013, when the deadline for House committees to pass House bills expired.

The eminent biologist Christian de Duve died on May 4, 2013, at the age of 95, according to the de Duve Institute.

NCSE is seeking to hire a new executive director to replace Eugenie C. Scott, who is retiring after more than twenty-six years at NCSE's helm.

NCSE's executive director Eugenie C. Scott announced on May 6, 2013, that she was planning to retire by the end of the year, after more than twenty-six years at NCSE's helm.

Louisiana's Senate Bill 26 (PDF) was tabled on a 3-2 vote in the Senate Committee on Education on May 1, 2013, which effectively kills the bill in committee, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune (May 1, 2013).

NCSE is delighted to congratulate James E. Hansen on receiving the Ridenhour Courage Prize for 2013.

In a wide-ranging article, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (April 28, 2013) discussed "the ill-kept secret about public school biology classrooms nationwide — that evolution often isn't taught robustly, if at all." In Pennsylvania as around the nation, "[f]aith-based belief in creationism and intelligent design continues to be discussed and even openly taught in public school classrooms, despite state curriculum standards."

A new poll from the Pew Research Center and Smithsonian magazine offers a degree of insight into American scientific literacy on natural selection, the age of the earth, and climate change, although there were no questions directly addressing evolution in the sense of common ancestry or climate change in the sense of anthropogenic global warming.

NCSE is pleased to announce that the latest issue of Reports of the National Center for Science Education is now available on-line.

NCSE is pleased to offer a free preview (PDF) of Brian Switek's My Beloved Brontosaurus: On the Road with Old Bones, New Science, and Our Favorite Dinosaurs (Scientific American / Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2013).

Interviewed by NBC News (April 12, 2013), Louisiana's governor Bobby Jindal (R) explicitly stated that the so-called Louisiana Science Education Act permits the teaching of creationism, including "intelligent design."

Evolution: Education and Outreach — the journal promoting the accurate understanding and comprehensive teaching of evolutionary theory for a wide audience — is now open access!