It’s almost Darwin Day!
I just learned that Cornell is going all out: 5 days of events celebrating Darwin’s birthday, on February 9-13. That’s darned good.
The University of Minnesota Twin Cities is doing something slightly smaller in scale on Friday, 10 February, in an afternoon event sponsored by the Campus Atheists and Secular Humanists. I don’t have all the details yet, other than the rather important fact (to me, at least) that I’m one of the speakers. I’m planning to talk on “What Darwin Didn’t Know,” giving a brief overview of some examples of the kind of evidence uncovered in the last 25 years that has greatly strengthened evolutionary theory. I’ll put up a schedule here as I learn more.
We aren’t having a specific Darwin Day event here at UMM…well, other than the traditional cake and ice cream I’m planning to have with the family on that Sunday. However, the Cafe Scientifique Morris for February is going to be me, talking about evolution and creationism. That’s also imprecisely scheduled at this point—we’re going to try out a new venue, I hope, and one of the things I have to do this week is run around and work that out.
I know, I know—Darwin Day is over a week away, and you just can’t wait. If you’re in the Twin Cities, here’s something to whet your whistle: a talk tonight on creationism.
7:00 pm – James Curtsinger – Ten things to know about creationism
James Curtsinger will give a presentation on “Ten Things to Know about Creationism”.From the presentation: Creationists fall into young-earth and old-earth camps. The former include biblical literalists who believe that the geologic column was formed by a Noachian Flood. Their “scientific creationism” suffered major setbacks in the 1980’s. “Intelligent design”, conceived as a movement in the 1990’s, is smarter, better educated, old-earth creationism. I.D. has popular support, but is soundly rejected by professionals, and was embarrassed in the recent Dover trial. The important battleground for these issues is the public high school science classroom. Surveys show that 20% of MN public high school science teachers teach creationism. Evangelical atheists worsen the general problem. Universities house technical and scientific expertise, but do not generally cultivate the kind of outreach needed to address this issue.
Coffman Student Union Room 323
I’d love to attend myself, but I’m feeling that exhausted sensation that comes from the first few frantic weeks of classes, and I don’t think I can push another long drive to Minneapolis on my workload right now. If any of my readers go—send me a report! It sounds fun!
“Evangelical atheists worsen the general problem”?
“Evangelical atheists worsen the general problem”?
Uh-huh. Repent! now or non-God will strike you down and condemn you to a non-eternity in non-Hell!
Morning PZ,
will your “What Darwin Didn’t Know” transcipt be available anywhere? I’d love to read it.
I hope you’ll share with us a summary of your talk.
Wouldn’t it be fun to argue with him about that point? I think that if only there were more freethinkers around, we wouldn’t have this problem.
And yeah, I’ll probably put the powerpoint file somewhere on the web afterwards.
Paul wrote:
“I’m planning to talk on “What Darwin Didn’t Know,” giving a brief overview of some examples of the kind of evidence uncovered in the last 25 years that has greatly strengthened evolutionary theory.”
Hopefully that would include empirical evidence, either observational or experimental that supports a nexus between Darwin’s mechanism of variation ans selection and the emergence of highly organized structures, processes, systems and organisms. Perhaps you could cite some peer-reviewed papers or describe some experiments that have been done. Anything, in fact to convince us that it’s not just a story that Darwin made up that we are required to accept on (gasp!) faith.
Paul wrote:
“Wouldn’t it be fun to argue with him about that point?”
You want fun? Argue with ME!
I’m a highly intelligent freethinker and an atheist to boot. I would keep the discussion on a purely scientific level. Surely you would have no trouble engaging me on this topic and giving me my come-uppance.
But no, all I ever get is stone-walling and deafening silence. Have you nothing to say to defend your views?
I interpret it as an admission that you have nothing to offer in your defense.
Happy upcoming birthday, Darwin, wherever you may or may not be!
I know this isn’t an open thread, but this article (warning: PDF) on “molecular cryptozoology” from the February Trends in Ecology and Evolution is good for some Darwin Day fun.
Dave Coltman and Corey Davis from the University of Edmonton analyze a sample of Sasquatch hair that was retrieved in the Yukon. Their conclusion: “… as suggested from molecular analysis of hair from a suspected Yeti [1], the Sasquatch might be a highly elusive ungulate that exhibits surprising morphological convergence with primates.” Includes a maximum parsimony tree showing the relationship between yaks, bison, and sasquatch.
It’s a shame that they don’t have anything planned for Darwin Day here at UMM. I think it would be really interesting and fun to celebrate. They should also create a Campus Atheists and Secular Humanists club. I know a lot of people who would be interested in it.
Hey, if you know UMM students who’d be interested in a CASH group, get them together and organize it! I could probably connect you up with some of the group at UMTC, who could give you suggestions for doing it.
That TrEE article had me laughing. I’m going to have to run with it.
“I know this isn’t an open thread, but this article (warning: PDF) on “molecular cryptozoology” from the February Trends in Ecology and Evolution is good for some Darwin Day fun.”
Yes, it is amusing, but the joke of a supposed sample from a bigfoot-like creature turing out to be something pedestrian has been made before, and in a more amusing fashion.
Read “Molecular phylogenetic analyses indicate extensive morphological convergence between the ‘yeti’ and primates” by Michel Milinkovitch, Aldagisa Caccone and George Amato in Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 31:1-3 (2004)
“Yes, it is amusing, but the joke of a supposed sample from a bigfoot-like creature turing out to be something pedestrian has been made before, and in a more amusing fashion.”
But that’s the way science works, isn’t it? Researchers building off the work of their peers? “Standing on the shoulders of giants,” and all that? After all, Coltman and Davis listed the Milinkovitch paper as a resource. In fact, you could argue that the status of sasquatch/yeti as undiscovered bipedal ungulates has been confirmed by independent laboratories able to show reproducible results.
Just think what this means if researchers in Malaysia are able to demonstrate a clear genetic relationship between the newly discovered “Malaysian bigfoot” and B. bubalis. (We could call it Bubalus erectus.) I’d think the existence of multiple genera of bipedal ungulates would be nigh unassailable. (This may also explain persistent European accounts of so-called “Vikings,” often depicted as a type of horned primate.)
Anyway, IANA scientist, and have no easy access to professional journals. Is the Malinkovitch paper available online somewhere?
(I found the link to the Sasquatch paper on a Forteana blog, The Anomalist, which I’m guessing is not widely read by busy scientists.)
Is anyone planning to do anything special for Darwin’s Day? Have you celebrated it in the past? What did you do?
We’re holding a weeklong celebration here at IUB, as well. The Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, who are going to be hosting all sorts of events next week, called me up and asked if I could round up a few pirates to support the cause!
Street protests will ensue.
I haven’t heard anything about a Darwin day here. The local “science week” isn’t due until March.
There’s also a live webcast by Richard Dawkins next wednesday!
Ian – Thanks for mentioning about the Dawkins webcast. I’ll plan on watching!
Have a link to the Milinkovitch paper.