Evolution

The Prime Minister's Office has responded to an e-petition that read:

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to include the teaching of evolution by natural selection in the new national primary curriculum.

Details of Petition:

Scientists are agreed that all today’s living organisms have evolved over millions of years from simpler organisms. This evolution is best explained by Darwin’s theory of natural selection and its subsequent refinement. Natural selection is the most powerful tool for understanding living things. The current draft curriculum includes living things but omits evolution and natural selection. These ideas are needed to lay a foundation for later studies and to help children see their place in the living world and the universe.

Seed magazine’s website has a video of 4.6 billion years of the earth’s history condensed into a minute. The evolution of humankind is a barely discernible blip.

The Open University has a neat toy on its Darwin bi-centennial site. If you upload a photo of yourself, you can morph into someone who lived 37 million years ago. This is me. It’s not flattering, but a 37 million-year-old man might think I’m gorgeous.

Jerry A. Coyne, Ph.D, is a Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago and a member of both the Committee on Genetics and the Committee on Evolutionary Biology. He wrote “Why Evolution is True”, a book that many ignorant Britons ought to read. Now Jerry has a blog.