{"id":2451,"date":"2016-05-02T17:48:29","date_gmt":"2016-05-02T21:48:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=2451"},"modified":"2016-05-02T17:48:29","modified_gmt":"2016-05-02T21:48:29","slug":"we-lost-a-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2451","title":{"rendered":"We lost a friend"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"kroto\"<\/a>There is some very sad news from over the weekend. Sir Harry Kroto, Nobel Prize winning chemist teaching at Florida State University, passed away Saturday. He was a great friend to us here at Florida Citizens for Science. During the big fight over evolution in the state standards back in 2008, Kroto personally helped in many different ways. It was an honor to work with him. He’ll be missed.<\/p>\n

From the National Center for Science Education’s post on his death<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Kroto was enthusiastic about evolution, writing, in a post on his website, “Darwin’s Theory of Evolution is supported by an avalanche of synergistic cross-disciplinary evidence from almost every branch of the sciences: Paleontology, geology, biology, genetics, chemistry, physics etc.” And he was correspondingly concerned about creationist assaults on the teaching of evolution, telling a New Zealand newspaper that people who insert creationism into the science curriculum “really p… me off” (bowdlerism in original). His concern was not expressed only to the media. In 2008, for example, he publicly decried legislative efforts to undermine evolution education in his adopted home of Florida, as the Sarasota Herald-Tribune (April 15, 2008) reported.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He had no problem speaking his mind about the evolution issue. He wrote an op-ed column for the St. Augustine Record in 2008 taking Florida legislators to task for trying to meddle in the state science standards debate: Evolution is a ‘Theory’ in Name Only<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It is disgracefully unethical for individuals who rail against the teaching of evolution to young people as a proven “fact” to accept, either for themselves or their families, the humanitarian benefits accruing from medical scientific research underpinned by the theory. Evolution is the backbone of biology. Many medical treatments including most drugs could not have been developed if previous generations of young biology and medical students had not been taught evolutionary concepts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is some very sad news from over the weekend. Sir Harry Kroto, Nobel Prize winning chemist teaching at Florida State University, passed away Saturday. He was a great friend to us here at Florida Citizens for Science. During the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-Dx","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":545,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=545","url_meta":{"origin":2451,"position":0},"title":"Dr. Kroto loves science","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Nobel Prize winner Sir Dr. Harold Kroto (yes, he's a sir, having been knighted) is the focus of this Herald Tribune article. TALLAHASSEE \u00e2\u20ac\u201d His mess of white hair rising with the wind, Nobel laureate Harold Kroto delivered what has become his standard speech on evolution: Humans and fruit flies\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Academic Freedom\" bills '08"","block_context":{"text":"\"Academic Freedom\" bills '08","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=23"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":161,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=161","url_meta":{"origin":2451,"position":1},"title":"Florida math-science education research","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"We here at Florida Citizens for Science have been following this fairly closely. We were actually rooting for another university to get the one year grant, but you certainly can't always win when politics are involved. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - A Nobel laureate will head a new state center that Gov.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the Classroom"","block_context":{"text":"In the Classroom","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":777,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=777","url_meta":{"origin":2451,"position":2},"title":"Math and science education getting attention","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"November 10, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This article in the Northwest Florida Daily News highlights a program to help schools teach math and science. With academic standards changing every year, it can be difficult for teachers and administrators to keep pace. Principals across Okaloosa County are joining 600 school administrators from throughout Florida in a yearlong\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the Classroom"","block_context":{"text":"In the Classroom","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":143,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=143","url_meta":{"origin":2451,"position":3},"title":"FSU working on improving science education","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 23, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida State University chemistry professor and Nobel laureate Harold Kroto is apparently working on some ideas to improve science education. If I'm reading the story correctly, he's assembling various resources into one program using modern technology. It looks like accessibility to all this information through one source is the key\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the Classroom"","block_context":{"text":"In the Classroom","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":462,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=462","url_meta":{"origin":2451,"position":4},"title":"speakers","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 19, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"didn't get name--Dissent from Darwin guy. Consensus of scientists is a barrier to science. Evolution is dogmatic and embarrasing. Gould quote mine. Other quotes. Standard DI garbage. Evolutio in state oc collapse. Kroto--Scientific theory of electromagnetism, cell phones test that theory. does Lourde heal people? Which works?","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=462#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":414,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=414","url_meta":{"origin":2451,"position":5},"title":"Darwin Day & FCS Annual Meeting","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 30, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Darwin Day is coming up! See the main Darwin Day website for background on this annual event. Here in Florida there is a full day of Darwin in store for folks around Tallahassee Feb. 9 at FSU. There will be guest lectures and panel discussions by: Sir Harry Kroto, Nobel\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alert"","block_context":{"text":"Alert","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=6"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2451"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2453,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451\/revisions\/2453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}