Latest Challenges to the Teaching of Evolution

Sorry, that was redundant.

Kansas teachers aren't anti-evolution
(By John Richard Schrock, Opinion Essay, The Wichita Eagle, October 6, 2009)

A new survey shows Kansas secondary biology teachers have the lowest rates of creationist belief of teachers in any of the states surveyed. The survey results " presented at a September conference of the Kansas Association of Biology Teachers and due to be published in an upcoming Kansas Biology Teacher journal " verify that the general press image of Kansas being backward on evolution is completely opposite of the facts.

The percentage of biology teachers from different states who thought that creation has a valid scientific foundation were: Kentucky teachers, 69 percent; Oklahoma, 48 percent; South Dakota, 39 percent; Ohio, 38 percent; Illinois, 30 percent; Georgia, 30 percent; Louisiana, 29 percent; and Kansas, 24 percent.

Creationist belief that contradicts science may actually be substantially lower than these percentages suggest. In a 1991 survey, 85 percent of Kansas biology teachers said they thought "the modern theory of evolution has a valid scientific foundation." But 25 percent also indicated that they thought "creationism has a valid scientific foundation."

After that survey, I chatted with teachers in the field. Some explained that they marked both answers because they were not literalist and saw 3.5 billion years of evolution as no problem. But they did believe in a supernatural creation of the universe in the beginning and, in some cases, a supernatural instilling of the soul on the evolutionary route from ape-men to humans. In neither case would their beliefs interfere with teaching modern evolutionary biology.

The 2009 study showed similar overlap. Of those who believe creationism has a valid scientific foundation, half do not think creationism should be taught in public schools.

A big divide remains between small rural schools and larger Kansas schools. Today, 36 percent of biology teachers at small rural schools (fewer than 100 students) are creationist, while this drops to 15 percent in schools with 100 to 399 students. Rural teachers are more likely to be trained in biology as a "second field" and are less likely to pursue an advanced degree, as they have to teach across many disciplines. Other research finds that small rural Kansas schools are more subject to influence from a few local personalities, while larger schools can pay more attention to state and national standards.

Some media perpetuate the perception that science and religion are not compatible. But most Christian denominations have no difficulty with evolution. In 1998, Molleen Matsumura in the National Center for Science Education Reports found that "of Americans in the 12 largest Christian denominations, 89.6 percent belong to churches that support evolution education."

Hard-core opposition to evolution among Kansas biology teachers is probably about 6 percent, dramatically lower than for any other state surveyed.

Sadly, that will not stop late-night talk shows from portraying Kansans as anti-evolution hayseeds.

I however, fell asleep at the last half hour and did not have the VDR on.

Evolutionary Struggle With Cancer is Focus of Public Lecture at UC Riverside
(UC Riverside Press Release, October 8, 2009)

RIVERSIDE, Calif. " Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide. Our evolutionary struggle with this disease is the focus of a free, public lecture at UC Riverside.

Population geneticist Leonard Nunney will give the hour-long lecture, titled “The Battle Within: Our Evolutionary Struggle With Cancer,” at 7 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 15, in the University Theatre. Doors open at 6 p.m. Seating is open.

“Cancer is unlike other diseases,” said Nunney, a professor of biology at the University of California, Riverside, whose research focuses on the experimental and theoretical basis of evolution, including the evolution of protection against cancer. “The damaging effects of cancer are not caused by the typical disease-causing organisms that attack our bodies. Instead they are caused by renegade cells from our own body. But these cells are part of us. How then can cancer happen?

“The problem is that our bodies are large complex societies of many billions of cells, and it only takes the programming of a single cell to go wrong to initiate cancer. We usually survive these daunting odds because we have evolved mechanisms to suppress such errors. To answer why natural selection has not gotten rid of cancer, we first need to understand both the power and the limitations of evolution by natural selection.”

Nunney’s talk is being hosted by the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences and the Science Circle, a group of university and community members committed to advancing science at UCR and in Inland Southern California.

Nunney obtained his Ph.D. in genetics from the University of Nottingham, the United Kingdom. He joined UCR’s Department of Biology in 1980 after teaching at the University of Edinburgh and completing a postdoctoral appointment at Princeton University. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

He has published many research papers in international peer-reviewed scientific journals on evolution and its application to real life problems. These applications include the conservation of endangered species, the control of agricultural pests and pathogens, and understanding the origins of cancer.

Currently, Nunney is working on a genomic study of Xylella fastidiosa, a plant pathogen causing Pierce’s disease of grape, the disease that severely threatened winegrowing in Temecula, Calif. He also is involved in several studies in conservation genetics, including a study of the extent to which major roads split healthy populations into small vulnerable units that lack the genetic variability to adapt to new challenges such as disease and climate change.

Nunney’s lecture is the first of three lectures in the series “The Science of Evolution II: Applying Evolutionary Ideas.” The remaining two lectures, “Born to Run: Evolution of Hyperactivity in Mice” and “The Silent Majority: How Symbiotic Bacteria Evolve to Help and Hurt,” are scheduled for Oct. 29 and Nov. 12, respectively.

The lecture series, which aims to boost the public’s awareness and understanding of how science works and break down some of the misunderstandings about what scientists do, follows an earlier series of lectures on evolution held this year at UCR.