Citizens for Science

June 27, 2008: The pro-"intelligent design" movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, starring Ben Stein, opened June 27, 2008 in theaters across Canada. The opening is significantly smaller than the movie's April debut in the United States, with only 36 theaters in 7 provinces showing the movie, according to Expelled's ...

June 27, 2008: Louisiana's Governor Bobby Jindal signed Senate Bill 733 (PDF) into law, 27 years after the state passed its Balance Treatment for Evolution-Science and Creation-Science Act, a law overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1987. Jindal's approval of the bill ...

June 26, 2008: The Mount Vernon City School District Board of Education unanimously voted at its June 20, 2008, meeting to begin proceedings to terminate the employment of John Freshwater, a middle school science teacher in the district. "Freshwater preached his Christian beliefs about how the world began, discredited evolution and didn't teach the require ...

June 25, 2008: Selected content from volume 27, numbers 3-4, of Reports of the National Center for Science Education is now available on NCSE's website, featuring Joe Felsenstein's "Has Natural Selection Been Refuted? The Arguments of William Dembski." Felsenstein concludes, "Dembsk ...

June 23, 2008: The New York Times, in a June 21, 2008, editorial, urged Governor Bobby Jindal to veto Louisiana's Senate Bill 733, a bill that would, if enacted, in effect open the door for creationism to be taught in public school science classes. According to the editorial, "it ...

June 20, 2008: A complaint filed in federal court on June 13, 2008, accuses John Freshwater, a Mount Vernon, Ohio, teacher, of inappropriately bringing his religion into school -- including by posting posters with the Ten Commandments and Bible verses in his classroom, branding crosses into the arms of his students with a high-voltage electrical device, and te ...

From AAAS’ Policy Alert: The Louisiana House of Representatives, by a vote of 94-3, last week passed an “academic freedom” bill that singles out evolution and other theories or fields of science and implies that they are controversial. Because of an amendment, the bill must now go back to the Senate, which previously passed it unanimously. [...]

WHY BRAINY ANIMALS NEED MORE REM SLEEP AFTER ALL Biologists have struggled to find any satisfactory explanation for the bewildering variation in how much different mammals sleep. However, new studies that take evolutionary relatedness into account promise to revolutionize the field. New Scientist, 6/19. http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14164-why-brainy-animals-need-more-rem-sleep-after-all.html

June 17, 2008: The Louisiana Coalition for Science released an open letter to Governor Bobby Jindal on June 16, 2008 calling for the Governor to veto SB 733, a creationist bill recently passed by the state legislature. The press release announcing the open lett ...

June 17, 2008: Louisiana creationism bill is on Governor's desk On June 16, 2008, the Louisiana Senate approved Senate Bill 733 as amended by the state House of Representatives. If Governor Bobby Jindal signs the bill or does not veto the bill within 20 days, it will become law. Will Sentell of The (Baton Rouge) Advocate ...

June 13, 2008: NCSE Supporter Kenneth R. Miller will appear June 13, 2008, on the second hour of the nationally broadcast NPR program Science Friday to discuss his new book, Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul, of which Michael Ruse writes, "Ken Miller's new book, Only a Theor ...

June 12, 2008: On June 11, 2008, with less than two weeks left in the legislative calendar, the Louisiana House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 733, a bill which opens the door to creationism in public school science classes. The bill, sponsored in the House by Rep. Frank ...

June 9, 2008: In the wake of the June 4, 2008, report in The New York Times on the impending struggle over the presence of "strengths and weaknesses" language in the Texas state science standards, the Times addressed the issue editorially, writing (June 7, 2008), "The Texas ...

June 6, 2008: Senate Bill 1361, introduced in the Michigan Senate on June 3, 2008, and referred to the Senate Committee on Education, is yet another "academic freedom" bill aimed at undermining the teaching of evolution. Identical to House Bill 6027, which is still in the House Committee on Educati ...

June 5, 2008: When the South Carolina legislature adjourned on June 5, 2008, Senate Bill 1386 died in committee. If enacted, the bill would have amended the state's education code to provide: "The State Board of Education, superintendents of public school districts, and public scho ...

June 5, 2008: "A battle looms in Texas over science textbooks that teach evolution," Laura Beil reports in the June 4, 2008, issue of The New York Times, "and the wrestle for control seizes on three words. None of them are 'creationism' or 'intelligent design' or even ...

June 4, 2008: Due to last-minute cancellations, there is a spot (and possibly two spots) open on NCSE's 2008 Grand Canyon excursion -- as featured in The New York Times (October 6, 2005). From July ...

May 29, 2008: NCSE congratulates the winners of Alliance for Science's second essay contest, announced on May 17, 2008. Alliance for Science -- a non-profit organization which seeks "to heighten public understanding and support for science and to preserve the distinctions between science and religion in the ...

May 29, 2008: Beginning with the molecular origins of life and culminating with the latest findings on human evolution, eighteen of the world's leading experts reported on research spanning three billion years of evolution at a two-day symposium at Rockefeller University on May 1 and 2, 2008. And now videos from the "From RNA to Humans" symposium are ...

May 23, 2008: On May 21, 2008, Senate Bill 733 (PDF), the so-called Louisiana Science Education Act, was unanimously passed by the Louisiana House Education Committee. Before passage, the bill was amended slightly from the form which passed the Senate on April 29, 2008, as pre ...