{"id":545,"date":"2008-04-15T06:29:49","date_gmt":"2008-04-15T10:29:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=545"},"modified":"2008-08-31T16:26:02","modified_gmt":"2008-08-31T20:26:02","slug":"dr-kroto-loves-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=545","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Kroto loves science"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nobel Prize winner Sir Dr. Harold Kroto (yes, he’s a sir, having been knighted) is the focus of this Herald Tribune article<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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:<\/p>\n

Humans and fruit flies share the same genes.<\/p>\n

“You may not like that but it’s not my fault,” Kroto, 68, said in front of the state Capitol on Monday.<\/p>\n

“It’s the way it actually is.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

It is the most absurd thing Kroto has heard since moving to Florida in 2004 to teach at Florida State University. His friends back home in England, where he was a professor in Sussex, have been sending him e-mails asking why he stays, he said.<\/p>\n

“We’re the laughingstock of the enlightened world,” Kroto said.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

To Kroto, and mainstream scientists like him, the idea that humans evolved from the world’s earliest life forms is as obvious as the laws of gravity.<\/p>\n

“The bedrock of all biology,” Kroto calls it. “It’s beautiful.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

He fears the recent debate over evolution is a sign science is becoming irrelevant.<\/p>\n

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s an abuse of position not to teach science correctly to children,” Kroto said. “Today they don’t need to know how anything works. The technology is so good if something breaks they get it fixed. There’s a large number of kids probably prepared to accept something without being too careful.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Also see articles in the Tallahassee Democrat<\/a> and WWSB<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","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":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-8N","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1334,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1334","url_meta":{"origin":545,"position":0},"title":"Louisiana repeal efforts fail","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 26, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"There has been a big push in Louisiana to repeal a law that essentially invites the teaching of creationism in that state's public schools. Unfortunately, despite an admirable campaign mounted by high school student Zack Kopplin, the repeal effort failed. Several Nobel Prize-winning scientists joined Kopplin, including Florida's own Harold\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":161,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=161","url_meta":{"origin":545,"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":2451,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2451","url_meta":{"origin":545,"position":2},"title":"We lost a friend","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=2451#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":143,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=143","url_meta":{"origin":545,"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":1412,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1412","url_meta":{"origin":545,"position":4},"title":"Scott cancels Tallahassee appearance","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"August 28, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Eugenie Scott will not be at today's screening of No Dinosaurs in Heaven in Tallahassee due to the hurricane. She will be replaced by Nobel Prize winner Harold Kroto, Florida State University professor. However, Scott said on her Facebook page that she will possibly \"attend\" via remote audio\/video.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":457,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=457","url_meta":{"origin":545,"position":5},"title":"speakers","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 19, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Pro-science speakers are expected to be: Cottle, Dr. Paul Chaired Professor of Physics, FSU; Framer Kroto, Sir Harold Chaired Prof. of Chemistry, FSU;\u00c2\u00a0 Nobel Laureate and Academy of Sciences member Walker, Debra School Board member, Framer Hainline, T.R. Lawyer Travis, Joe Dean of Arts and Science and Evolutionary Biologist Parrott,\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=457#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545"}],"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=545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}