NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2016/11/04

(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)

Dear friends of NCSE,

The Steveometer passes the 1400 mark. And a preview of Donald R.
Prothero's Giants of the Lost World.

PROJECT STEVE: N > 1400

With the addition of Steven G. Allen on October 18, 2016, NCSE's
Project Steve attained its 1400th signatory. A tongue-in-cheek parody
of the long-standing creationist tradition of amassing lists of
"scientists who doubt evolution" or "scientists who dissent from
Darwinism," Project Steve mocks such lists by restricting its
signatories to scientists with PhDs whose first name is Steve.
(Cognates are also accepted, such as Stephanie, Esteban, Istvan,
Stefano, or even Tapani -- the Finnish equivalent.) About 1% of the
United States population possesses such a first name, so each
signatory represents about 100 potential signatories. ("Steve" was
selected in honor of the late Stephen Jay Gould, a Supporter of NCSE
and a dauntless defender of evolution education.)

Although the idea of Project Steve is frivolous, the statement is
serious. It reads, "Evolution is a vital, well-supported, unifying
principle of the biological sciences, and the scientific evidence is
overwhelmingly in favor of the idea that all living things share a
common ancestry. Although there are legitimate debates about the
patterns and processes of evolution, there is no serious scientific
doubt that evolution occurred or that natural selection is a major
mechanism in its occurrence. It is scientifically inappropriate and
pedagogically irresponsible for creationist pseudoscience, including
but not limited to 'intelligent design,' to be introduced into the
science curricula of our nation's public schools."

Among the 1401 current signatories to Project Steve are 100% of
eligible Nobel laureates (Steven Weinberg and Steven Chu), at least
ten members of the National Academy of Sciences, the authors of
popular science books such as A Brief History of Time, How the Mind
Works, and Darwin's Archipelago, a brother-and-sister pair (Steve G.
Belovich and Stephanie J. Belovich), and a father-and-son pair (Steven
Piantadosi and Steven T. Piantadosi). When last counted, by David H.
Bailey in April 2012, almost 60% of the signatories were found to have
a Ph.D. degree and/or professional position in a core field closely
related to evolution.

For information about Project Steve, visit:
http://ncse.com/taking-action/project-steve 

A PREVIEW OF DONALD R. PROTHERO'S GIANTS OF THE LOST WORLD

NCSE is pleased to offer a free preview of Donald R. Prothero's Giants
of the Lost World: Dinosaurs and Other Extinct Monsters of South
America (Smithsonian Books, 2016). The preview consists of chapter 4,
"Demise of the Dinosaurs." "Why did the dinosaurs vanish?" Prothero
writes. "One popular account is a simplistic story of a colliding
object from space as the only cause of extinction. The true story is
much more complicated and much more interesting."

Kirkus Reviews praised Giants of the Lost World as delivering "amusing
anecdotes, a lucid history of evolutionary ideas, stories of the great
fossil discoveries, and an entertaining description of animal
evolution on an isolated continent." Prothero, a winner of NCSE's
Friend of Darwin award, is the author of a number of books, including
Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters (Columbia
University Press, 2007) and The Story of Life in 25 Fossils (Columbia
University Press, 2015).

For the preview of  Giants of the Lost World (PDF), visit:
https://ncse.com/files/pub/evolution/excerpt--giants.pdf 

For information about the book from its publisher, visit:
http://www.smithsonianbooks.com/store/science-nature/giants-lost-world-dinosaurs-and-other-extinct-mons/ 

WHAT'S NEW AT NCSE'S BLOG?

Have you been visiting NCSE's blog recently? If not, then you've missed:

* Claire Adrian-Tucci describing a success from NCSE's Scientist in
the Classroom program:
https://ncse.com/blog/2016/11/scientist-classroom-spotlight-0018400 

For NCSE's blog, visit:
http://ncse.com/blog 

Thanks for reading. And don't forget to visit NCSE's website --
http://ncse.com -- where you can always find the latest news on 
evolution and climate education and threats to them.

--
Sincerely,

Glenn Branch
Deputy Director
National Center for Science Education, Inc.
1904 Franklin Street, Suite 600
Oakland CA 94612-2922
510-601-7203
fax 510-788-7971
branch@ncse.com 
http://ncse.com 

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