I was aware of Isabella Rossellini's Green Porno on the Sundance Channel, but not having access to that channel at home, had not really seen much of the show. Imagine my delight then, upon discovering, right when I am in the midst of teaching sexual selection in my Evolution class, that videos are available on their website - and are even embeddable! What a fantastic and entertaining teaching resource for us evolutionary biologists interested in the kinkier side of animal behavior!

Since my lecture tomorrow will get to the topic of how duck penises and vaginas seem to have rather run away wildly in the battle of the sexes, what better to accompany it than Ms. Rossellini's interpretation of how it works:

Eugenie Scott and Kevin Padian of the National Center for Science Education lay down the law on what theory means in science, and why that word carries far more weight than people think when throwing around the word "theory" as it if is a mere guess or a wild idea.

In an autobiographic note Charles Robert Darwin (February 12, 1809 – 1882) remembered a childhood wish:

“It was soon after I began collecting stones, i.e., when 9 or 10, that I distinctly recollect the desire I had of being able to know something about every pebble in front of the hall door–it was my earliest and only geological aspiration at that time.“

Darwin today is mostly associated with terms like natural selection and evolution, but his first scientific achievements and publications were dealing – even against his own preconceptions – with geology.

A good history lesson for your Sunday. Well worth reading.

So I spent most of yesterday here in Mumbai putting together my very first full-length (and a bit more) lecture for Evolution delivered entirely via podcast! I imagine there are students back in Fresno bemused/frustrated/perhaps even angry that their professor has been missing from this class since the beginning of the semester. Yes, the first week was partly by choice as I had to attend 3 different conferences back-to-back - in Santa Barbara, Raleigh, and Davis - right when classes began. But then a tragic accident in my family, while I was in the middle of the third conference, brought me rushing back to Mumbai (more about it on my other blog, if you're interested). And I've since been stuck awaiting a renewal of my visa, entangled in consular red tape (perhaps a topic for a whole another blog post, but not until I have my visa and am safely back in Fresno!).

Fortunately, my extremely supportive colleagues have kept my classes going in my absence. Huge thanks to them! Now I am turning to the internet and a/v technology to reach my class and resume teaching even from my temporarily outsourced state. It took a fair while to re-tool my lecture into a suitable format and record my voice while I delivered it, only imagining the audience and unable to generate any of the discussions I so love to do in class. But, at least I can cover the content - and hopefully keep the students engaged through this medium. Its an experiment, and this first attempt has its share of glitches: poor audio due to the only crappy mic I have access to, slow internet speeds delaying uploads, etc. Maybe that is a good thing, lest I produce more perfect lectures that take on a life of their own, and I thereby talk myself out of my job! (Given the CSU's move towards virtual campuses full of online classes, a caveat is in order here: let's be clear (esp. if any admin types are watching) that this is a short-term experiment due to an emergency situation, not a trial for a future online-only class!!).

Anyway, my first lecture, on Mutations and Genetic Variation is up on the class blackboard site in various format, and this morning I finally got confirmation that it is also up on Vimeo, from where I embed it below. If you do sit through this (and if you're a student, you must!), do let me know your thoughts:

And so are you! So sing it...

(While I kick myself for having missed the opportunity to appear in the video!)

Coral might appear solid and inanimate, but surprising new footage of a mushroom coral inflating itself to escape a sandy burial has brought the organism to life.

A scientist from the University of Queensland used timelapse photography to capture the footage.

(Hat tip: Flying Trilobite")

Despite being dismissed in courtroom battles over and over again, the forces promoting creationism in this country haven't given up, and are indeed gaining ground again through legislative and school-board level actions in various states to undermine the teaching of the science of evolutionary biology in classrooms. While many science and education organizations have been engaged in this decades-long fight to keep the science in our science classrooms untainted/undiluted by religious/ideological "alternatives", we have some fresh energy on our side in the form of a spirited campaign launched by a high school student! Zack Kopplin, a Baton Rouge student has started a movement to repeal the recently passed Louisiana Science Education Act which is one of the recent "victories" for creationists. Michael Zimmerman wrote about it recently on the Huffington Post, and today he published the following call to action from the student himself:

My state is addicted to creationism!

Louisiana doesn't remember the lesson it was taught back in 1987 when the U.S. Supreme Court, in Edwards vs. Aguillard, invalidated a Louisiana law requiring creationism be taught alongside evolution and ruled that it was unconstitutional to teach creationism in public school science classes.

In 2008, the Louisiana Legislature passed a new creationism law, making us second-time offenders. We are the only state with a creationism law on the books.

Named the Louisiana Science Education Act (LSEA), the law pretends to promote critical thinking. In reality, though, it is stealth legislation designed to sneak the unconstitutional and unscientific teaching of creationism or its offshoot, intelligent design, into public school science classes.

Because the Edwards decision established that creationists cannot legally foist their religious views on public school students directly, the creationist zealots are now trying misdirection. Their new legislation employs code language like "critical thinking" and "teaching the alternatives" in order to pretend to be promoting something noble. But creative language doesn't change the fact that they are simply pushing their religious agenda into the science classroom.

And LSEA doesn't change educational and scientific realities.

• Teachers are already supposed to teach critical thinking.
• There are no scientific alternatives to evolution.

The sole purpose for the Louisiana Science Education Act is to insert creationism into a public school science classroom.

Even as the bill's proponents toss around their education-friendly phrases like "critical thinking," they have on numerous occasions openly identified the true aim of the law: to teach creationism as science.

Senator Ben Nevers, the sponsor of the Senate version of the LSEA said,

The Louisiana Family Forum suggested the bill ... They believe that scientific data related to creationism should be discussed when dealing with Darwin's theory.

Jan Benton, the Livingston Parish School Board Director of Curriculum, also openly admitted to her board that the law's purpose was to allow "critical thinking and creationism" in science classes.

If these so-called "leaders" were serious about academic freedom, they would not have scrapped the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education's original rules about implementing the LSEA which expressly prohibited the teaching of creationism because it lacks scientific merit.

The true intent of this law, rather than the rhetoric associated with it, is clear; sneaking unconstitutional and unscientific creationism into public school science classrooms.

This hurts Louisiana kids. We want jobs, but if we are taught creationism, we will not get them. There are no creationist jobs. Check any major job finding sites like Monster or CareerBuilder, and they will tell you, sorry, there are zero creationist jobs. On the other hand, if you search those sites for biology, you will find over a thousand jobs. Louisiana students need to be taught evolution, not creationism, to get jobs.

This law is also hurting Louisiana tourism, which is one of Louisiana's most important industries. Louisiana's anti-science reputation is scaring away major science conventions which bring thousands of people and millions of dollars to our state. One organization, the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology actually pulled a convention that was scheduled for 2011 as a protest. Others are simply looking elsewhere when they're considering locations.

Louisiana wants to develop a 21st century biomedical industry through the New Orleans Bio District and the Shreveport Biomedical Research Foundation. But Louisiana's reputation has created a negative business environment that is chasing away scientists and entrepreneurs. Louisiana won't be able take a place at the forefront of the biomedical industry if we don't repeal this law.

Louisiana's creationism law must go. It is killing Louisiana jobs and hurting Louisiana kids.

I'm a senior at Baton Rouge Magnet High and I'm leading an effort to repeal the Louisiana Science Education Act. I encourage everyone who cares about education to help out by joining the repeal's Facebook page and by going towww.repealcreationism.com to get involved. Invite your friends to join us.

If enough of us care, we can help Louisiana kick its addiction and join the modern world.

Join the fight, won't you?! Because if you don't, you just might find this battle over science education coming to your own state and local school district! As, Zimmerman concludes - it is madness, and we have to be eternally vigilant to keep it from spreading!