NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2018/09/07
Submitted by Peter Burns on Fri, 2018-09-07 21:31.
National Center for Science Education
(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)
Dear friends of NCSE, Kudos for Michael E. Mann, and sad news of the death of Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza.
CONGRATULATIONS TO MICHAEL E. MANN NCSE is delighted to congratulate Michael E. Mann on his selection to receive the 2018 Climate Communication Prize from the American Geological Union. The prize is conferred annually in recognition for communication of climate science. Previous recipients include Stefan Rahmstorf, Richard B. Alley, Richard C. J. Somerville, Katharine Hayhoe, Kevin E. Trenberth, Jeffrey T. Kiehl, and Gavin A. Schmidt. Mann is Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science at Penn State University, with joint appointments in the Department of Geosciences and the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute. He is also director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center. His latest book, coauthored with Tom Toles, is The Madhouse Effect (Columbia University Press, 2016). A member of NCSE's Advisory Council, he received NCSE's Friend of the Planet Award in 2014. For Eos's story about the prize, visit: https://eos.org/agu-news/2018-agu-union-medal-award-and-prize-recipients-announced LUIGI LUCA CAVALLI-SFORZA DIES The distinguished geneticist Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza died on August 31, 2018, at the age of 96, according to La Repubblica (September 1, 2018). "More than any other human geneticist, Cavalli-Sforza believed in the potential of genes and culture together to trace humanity's origins," wrote the anthropologist John Hawks in his obituary (September 2, 2018). "In the course of his work, he pioneered new ideas and models that brought together these two distinct areas of science. Like most scientists, many of his ideas would turn out to be wrong in the details. But his work helped form the foundation of our current knowledge of human genome variation across the world." Unsurprisingly for a scientist famous for analyzing the genes of contemporary human populations to obtain insight into their history, Cavalli-Sforza regarded evolution as established science. In "Why It Is Useful to Know the Modern Theory of Evolution" (2009, coauthored with Francesco Cavalli-Sforza), he wrote, "Today evolution is no more a hypothesis and there are ample proofs that it is motored by natural selection. Knowledge of the sources of inherited variation and of the mechanisms that maintain it, at the same time favoring the transformation and differentiation of species, has greatly enriched a well-organized theory. The succession of evolutionary steps leading to the great variety of living organisms is being traced with astonishing precision thanks to the detailed analysis of whole genomes. That species change is no more a hypothesis or a debatable theory, and how and why they do so is becoming a matter of detailed proofs." In the same article, he deplored the existence of religious obstacles to the acceptance of evolution, especially in the United States, and suggested that "differences of importance between religious and scientific views in the interpretation of the mechanisms of evolution ... can be removed simply by more precise explanations." Cavalli-Sforza was born in Genoa, Italy, on January 25, 1922. He received a M.D. degree from the University of Pavia in 1944. After stints at Cambridge University, where he worked with R. A. Fisher on bacterial genetics, and a series of Italian universities, he was a professor at Stanford University from 1970 to 1992. Among his books were The Genetics of Human Populations (1971, coauthored with Walter Bodmer), The History and Geography of Human Genes (1994, coauthored with Paolo Menozzi and Alberto Piazza), and The Great Human Diasporas (1995, coauthored with Francesco Cavalli-Sforza). His honors included membership in the National Academy of Sciences and the Balzan Prize for 1999. For the obituaries in La Repubblica and from John Hawks, visit: http://www.repubblica.it/scienze/2018/09/01/news/e_morto_luigi_luca_cavalli-sforza-205385204 https://medium.com/@johnhawks/the-man-who-tried-to-catalog-humanity-b433c3f31872 Thanks for reading. And don't forget to visit NCSE's website -- https://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 https://ncse.com Check out NCSE's blog: https://ncse.com/blog Subscribe to NCSE's free weekly e-newsletter: https://groups.google.com/group/ncse-news NCSE is on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter: https://www.facebook.com/evolution.ncse https://www.youtube.com/NatCen4ScienceEd https://twitter.com/ncse NCSE's work is supported by its members. Join today! https://ncse.com/join
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