Science

The discussion about creationism in school science lessons on BBC Radio Suffolk is now online.

It's on James Hazell's programme, 26th October, about 35 minutes in. You have 7 days to listen.

I was on BBC Radio Suffolk today, talking about the MORI poll that shows 54% of Britons think creationism & ID should be taught in school science lessons.

You can listen again via the website. It's on the James Hazell programme, from about 10.10am. The other contributor was Prof. Michael Reiss, who resigned from his role as the Royal Society's director of Education over the issue.

Listen to the phone-in after the interviews.

Richard Dawkins has struck a book deal with Transworld, part of the Random House group, with a title aimed at teenagers, due out in autumn 2011:

Aimed at the adult and young adult market, the book addresses big questions about the natural world, including What is a Rainbow? Why are there Seasons? and Who Was the First Man and the First Woman? Each question is answered first by myth and legend, and then by lucid scientific explanation.

The BBC’s online magazine asks “What do you get if you divide science by God?”, which is possibly one of the daftest questions imaginable. In an article about “the meaning of physics”, Mark Vernon reports:

The Templeton Prize, awarded for contributions to "affirming life's spiritual dimension", has been won by French physicist Bernard d'Espagnat, who has worked on quantum physics with some of the most famous names in modern science.

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 12th February 2009 was the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin. Our member Dan Clery has written his story:

—————-

Charles Darwin, born on the 12th February 200 years ago, came up with what is probably the most important idea in the history of science. He reasoned that plants, animals and all living things are not static and unchanging, remaining as they were made by a divine creator; instead they change subtly from one generation to the next and those that are better suited to whatever environment they find themselves in prosper and reproduce more, while those that are less well suited don’t. In this way, plants and animals gradually change, eventually developing into new species and producing the huge variety of nature that we see today. Darwin’s theory, evolution by natural selection, is at the root of our understanding about life on Earth: it explains why there is such diversity in nature, why we are here, and why we are as we are.