NCSE Evolution Education Update for 2010/04/09

(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)

Dear Friends of NCSE,

Twofold congratulations are in order for NCSE Supporter Sean B.
Carroll. Plus more video and audio featuring NCSE staff, and a sample
from Douglas Palmer's Evolution: The Story of Life.

TWOFOLD CONGRATULATIONS FOR SEAN B. CARROLL

NCSE congratulates Sean B. Carroll for winning the 2010 Stephen Jay
Gould Prize from the Society for the Study of Evolution (to be awarded
at the SSE meeting in Portland, Oregon, in June 2010) and for becoming
the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's vice president for science
education (beginning in September 2010).

In announcing the award, the Society for the Study of Evolution cited
Carroll's "distinguished career both advancing the science of
evolution and in conveying that knowledge to the general public,"
noting that he is "a leading spokesperson in the public sphere for
evolutionary biology" and listing his numerous honors for scientific
and educational achievements.

The Stephen Jay Gould Prize is awarded annually by the Society for the
Study of Evolution to recognize individuals whose sustained and
exemplary efforts have advanced public understanding of evolutionary
science and its importance in biology, education, and everyday life in
the spirit of Stephen Jay Gould; its first recipient was NCSE's
executive director Eugenie C. Scott.

Carroll will also become the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's vice
president for science education, according to a press release issued
on April 7, 2010, which described him as "a gifted scientist who also
displays an extraordinary talent for translating complicated
scientific ideas in compelling, understandable ways to members of the
public of all ages."

In the same press release, Carroll explained, "I want to help other
people have as much fun as I have. ... We all need inspiration, but
how do we nourish curiosity and inspire an interest in science,
particularly among young people? These are crucial challenges and I
hope to promote the very positive role that science can play in our
culture."

A Supporter of NCSE, Carroll is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute
investigator and Professor of Molecular Biology, Genetics, and Medical
Genetics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is the author of,
most recently, Remarkable Creatures (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009),
and a monthly column published in The New York Times Science Times.

For the SSE's announcement, visit:
http://www.evolutionsociety.org/SSE2010/Events.html 

For the HHMI's press release, visit:
http://www.hhmi.org/news/carrollvp20100407.html 

For information about Remarkable Creatures, visit:
http://ncse.com/store/title/remarkable-creatures-epic-adventures-search-origin-species 

For Carroll's column in The New York Times, visit:
http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/news/science/columns/remarkable_creatures/index.html 

FOR YOUR WATCHING AND LISTENING PLEASURE

NCSE's executive director Eugenie C. Scott was interviewed at the
University of Notre Dame in September 2009 about ways of teaching
evolution effectively -- and now a video of the interview is available
on NCSE's YouTube channel. Plus NCSE's Steven Newton and Chris Mooney
(the author of The Republican War on Science and the coauthor of
Unscientific America) were interviewed on KPFA radio's The Sunday Show
with Philip Maldari about Texas's state science education standards on
April 4, 2010; audio of the show is available until April 16, 2010.
And NCSE's Scott discussed evolution education on the Skeptics' Guide
to the Universe podcast -- produced by the New England Skeptical
Society in association with the James Randi Educational Foundation --
on March 31, 2010 (look for podcast #246). Tune in and enjoy!

For the interview with Scott, visit:
http://www.youtube.com/NatCen4ScienceEd 

For the interview with Newton, visit:
http://kpfa.org/archive/id/59960 

For the podcast with Scott, visit:
http://www.theskepticsguide.org/ 

A PEEK AT EVOLUTION

NCSE is pleased to offer a free preview of Douglas Palmer's Evolution:
The Story of Life (University of California Press, 2009). Included are
lavishly illustrated spreads on Darwin's Origin, the pattern of life,
the variety of fossils, reconstructing the past, Snowball Earth, sea
scorpions and jawless fish, greening the land, the diversification of
marine reptiles, and synapsida. The reviewer for Natural History
comments, "If time machines were real, this would be the book to carry
on nature hikes into the distant past," and Kevin Padian writes,
"Palmer's scholarship is up to date and the text passages are highly
appropriate. He has a sense for a good story and good science as well.
This book is a prodigious effort, not least in the artwork, but also
in the assembly of photos and illustrations, and of course the text."

For the preview of Evolution (PDF), visit:
http://ncse.com/files/pub/evolution/Evolution--StoryofLife.pdf 

For information from the publisher, visit:
http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/11033.php 

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 education and threats to it.

-- 
Sincerely,

Glenn Branch
Deputy Director
National Center for Science Education, Inc.
420 40th Street, Suite 2
Oakland, CA 94609-2509
510-601-7203 x310
fax: 510-601-7204
800-290-6006
branch@ncse.com 
http://ncse.com 

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