Author Archives: Jonathan Smith

At the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting, Berkeley’s Judy Scotchmoor introduced a new web resource called Understanding Science that’s intended to change the way that the nature and process of science are presented to students.  Scotchmoor of … Continue reading →

What happens when you find a feathered dinosaur that really isn’t meant to have feathers? That’s the question set by a spectacular new fossil that adds a confusing dimension to the origin of feathers. Previously, experts thought the first feathered … Continue reading →

Since publication of the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin 150 years ago, it has been known that one of the dynamics of evolution is natural selection.. Its results depend on environmental conditions and interactions between the species present. For … Continue reading →

Ancient footprints found at Rutgers’ Koobi Fora Field School show that some of the earliest humans walked like us and did so on anatomically modern feet 1.5 million years ago. Published as the cover story in the Feb. 27 issue … Continue reading →

Paul Cottle who has been a champion in the fight for science education in the state of Florida has a excellent editorial in the “American Physical Society Forum”  Paul points out “The shortcomings of the states’ science standards were highlighted by … Continue reading →

That icon of intellectual idiocy Ken Ham will be holding a Answers in Genesis Conference in Winter Haven on February 20Th-22ND. Ken Ham is not only stubborn, but willfully ignorant. Consider that he’s just spent an enormous amount of money … Continue reading →

If you take a look at a whale or dolphin–any whale or dolphin anywhere on Earth–it will follow certain rules. It will have a blowhole. It will not have legs. It will have horizontal tail flukes it raises and lowers … Continue reading →

It is now less than a month before Darwin Day celebrations begin. Since 2009 is the bicentennial of Darwin’s birth and the sesquicentennial of the publication of On the Origin of Species, it promises to be a particularly good time.  … Continue reading →