Florida Citizens for Science

Here’s a good story that shows the fight to defend science happens in places beside the classroom and politics.

The vast majority of scientists agree that intelligent design (ID) — the belief that the complexity of life is evidence that something intelligent must have designed it — is not a scientific theory. But the rising popularity of the belief has led museums and national parks to rethink how they present information to visitors. Both groups are working to further educate staff and volunteers, and also to present clear information about why evolution is accepted among most scientists.

“The bottom line is that intelligent design is a threat to the credibility of science in our culture,” says Kirk Johnson, chief curator at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. “Since science ought to be in a museum, we realized that as a museum, we could do a better job of educating people about what science is, and how we know what we know.”

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The mission of natural history museums is always to explain how science works so that people can understand it, “but clearly there are individuals who are tempted to conflate what science is and make it confusing,” he says. “It makes us more inspired to make it understandable.”

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… the new Thomas Condon Paleontology Center is much larger, dedicated to paleontology, and filled with text and graphic displays about the fossil record. At first, Fremd says, he worried that the new displays would be too complex, but he is now pleased by how many people spend hours reading the fine print. Prior to visiting the park’s center, Fremd says that it is easy for people to think that bones in one layer of a fossil bed could have been the result of Noah’s biblical flood. But with the rigorous explanations in the museum, visitors can begin to put the data together and understand the complexity of evolution.

Part of the problem, which can lead to nonscientific ideas such as ID, is that some museums, rangers and docents are apologizing for how complex the story is, Fremd says. “But it is the very complexity that makes it interesting. Don’t apologize for making it complex.”

It’s getting depressing to hear the same warnings and see the same declining American statistics year after year when it comes to science and mathematics.

“If we as a nation have to ask ourselves why our kids aren’t studying science and math and engineering and whether or not they ought to, a little bit of me is afraid that we’re already lost,” said Michael Griffin, NASA’s chief administrator.

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Recapturing that spirit of innovation must begin in the classroom, and recruiting and keeping quality teachers will be essential, the panelists said yesterday.

“Teachers are the magic in the classroom – it’s not the computers, it’s not anything else,” said Intel Chairman Craig Barrett. “If you don’t have good, competent teachers, then you’re never going to have a steady stream of kids coming out of the K-12 system who are interested in pursuing mathematics and science careers.”

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In elementary school, most children say they like science, but many of them have lost that interest by the seventh grade, said former astronaut Sally Ride, who now teaches at the University of California San Diego and runs a company that encourages girls to go into the sciences and engineering.

I’m nearly done with my current semester of college (accelerated Algebra course in summer is murder), and so by next week I should be able to post regularly, unveil our new logo and even get the new web site on track.

FlCfS has several irons in the fire right now. We just need to establish some organization/leadership for those various projects and I think we’ll then be right in the thick of the fight for science versus those trying to spread anti-science in our state. Once I have a firm grasp on what is going on, I’ll post a list of our projects and invite you to lend a hand where you can.

Dr. Dino is still making headlines. Nothing new there, right?

Park owner pleads not guilty to tax fraud

Pensacola evangelist Kent Hovind pleaded not guilty Monday to a 58-count federal indictment after saying he did not recognize the government’s right to try him on tax-fraud charges.

Hovind, who calls himself “Dr. Dino,” owns Dinosaur Adventure Land at 5800 N. Palafox St., Pensacola, a creationist theme park dedicated to debunking evolution.

For years, he has claimed that he is employed by God and has no income or property because everything he owns belongs to God. He believes man and dinosaurs inhabited the earth together and has offered a $250,000 reward to anyone who can offer him satisfactory proof of evolution.

Hovind’s attorney, Assistant Public Defender Kafahni Nkrumah, told U.S. Magistrate Judge Miles Davis at a hearing Monday that his client did not want to enter a plea because he does not believe the United States, the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Attorney’s Office “have jurisdiction in this matter.”

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After the hearing, Kent Hovind declined to comment, other than to say reports that Dinosaur Land, which offers children’s rides, is open.

“We had 1,000 visitors last week,” he said.

Escambia County officials closed the science building and museum earlier this year because Hovind failed to get a building permit.

A sign outside Dinosaur Adventure Land states that three grown children and “30 other dedicated people” serve with Hovind “in this unusual ministry.” The park is closed Sundays and Mondays.

An employee in a golf cart greeted a visitor Monday morning. He said employees were not allowed to speak about the case and “really don’t understand” the issues surrounding the case.

Evangelist arrested on federal charges 

A Pensacola evangelist who owns the defunct Dinosaur Adventure Land in Pensacola was arrested Thursday on 58 federal charges, including failing to pay $473,818 in employee-related taxes and making threats against investigators.

Of the 58 charges, 44 were filed against Kent Hovind and his wife, Jo, for evading bank reporting requirements as they withdrew $430,500 from AmSouth Bank between July 20, 2001, and Aug. 9, 2002.

The movie Armageddon was a melodramatic popcorn flick, but maybe it wouldn’t hurt to start recruiting an asteroid killing crew of misfits now for the real thing. And naming an asteroid Apophis doesn’t exactly set a person’s mind at ease, ya know.

Just wanted to say to all you moms out there: you were right about some things.

And on an unrelated note, take a moment to check out this informative comment left here recently.  Anti-science tripe was dumped on a receptive audience. No questions permitted … or even conceived for that matter, it seems.

I bet they look like prunes after all that

Who knew that a crazy person could be so patient? Divers exploring Florida underwater caves spend hours upon hours decompressing once they’re done exploring the depths. It’s amazing to read about all the effort that goes into this adventure.

 

You’re such a whistle whistle click whistle

Maybe one day we will find out that Flipper was just trying to pick up babes once scientists dechiper all the hoots and whistles that dolphins use to communicate. Thanks for all the fish!

Cruising the Florida newspapers for interesting science articles turned up some fun ones:

FSU researchers explain possible method of producing new species

Everybody knows that dogs can’t mate with cats and produce a litter of pittens. Or kuppies.

For that matter, nature won’t allow the eggs of a queen conch to be fertilized by a sea urchin.

One of the bright lines that separates species is the compatibility of their sperm and eggs, an event that’s decided by something called gamete recognition proteins. A Florida State University-based study published in the journal Science Friday offers one explanation — at least for the red sea urchin — of how and why mutations in this protein can lead to new species.

It’s an undersea story of boy meets girl, but with a surprise ending.

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Such gamete recognition proteins are important to many different species — possibly even humans, and may be a key driver of something called speciation, the divergence of new species.

FSU’s sea urchin paper may have implications for evolutionary biology, conservation efforts and even human infertility studies, scientists said.

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More Tales from the Treetops

As a young single mother working to support her children and a scientist struggling to pioneer the new field of canopy biology, Lowman often had to take her kids to work.

Work wasn’t just in the office, but in the canopies of tropical trees scattered from Australia to Samoa, from Africa to Peru.

Rock-a-bye, baby, in the treetop was, as a result, pretty close to the real experience.

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James noticed another difference between North America and Peru: ”In some American cities, it is hard to trust people and find kindness, but in the jungle everyone is kind and generous.”

Eddie, who has developed a deep spiritual vein, has a humorous take on his scientist-mother’s eccentricities, which have ”left her clueless about some of the finer points of teenage socialization.” When he had a girl over for dinner, ”my mom did not quite comprehend the inappropriateness of making bifurcated snake penises the topic of discussion.”

Anyone have some notes they would like to share about the debate in Orlando? Send them my way and I’ll post them here. Don’t be shy!

I’m at bee_kay (at) yahoo (dot) com

Here’s a press release announcing State Board of Education nominations, fyi:

Governor Bush Appoints Three to The State Board of Education
TALLAHASSEE - Governor Jeb Bush today announced the following appointment and reappointments:
State Board of Education (Senate confirmation required)
– Donna Calloway, 65, of Tallahassee, retired, reappointed for a term beginning January 9, 2006 and ending December 31, 2009.
– Linda Taylor, 61, of Ft. Myers, community volunteer, reappointed for a term beginning January 9, 2006 and ending December 31, 2009.
– Kathleen Shanahan, 46, of Tampa, CEO of WRS Infrastructure & Environ, appointed for a term beginning January 9, 2006 and ending December 31, 2009.