This is just ridiculous. This is an article about science education in Arkansas. I have been very slow to accept the idea that biblical history carries so much weight in the American educational system. Thinking back, I don’t remember being explicitly taught evolution, but all but one science teacher I ever had felt quite comfortable saying, “millions of years.” Apparently that is taboo in some parts of our country.
Its easy to write off anti-evolution as an outspoken, but backwater movement.(Fun too) But this article shows that this is not the case. Arkansas has been independently ranked 37th in the nation for education. OK so their kids aren’t all Ivy League bound, but they aren’t dead last. (Hey Arizona, I guess you guys are better off going to school on Martin Luther King Day. Maybe it might help you guys catch up.)
This passage is just shocking.
According to his survey, about 20 percent are trying to teach evolution and think they are doing a good job; 10 percent are teaching creationism, even though during the workshop he discusses the legally shaky ground on which they stand. Another 20 percent attempt to teach something but feel they just do not understand evolution. The remaining 50 percent avoid it because of community pressure. On an e-mail to members of a list he keeps of people interested in evolution, Randy reported that the latter 50 percent do not cover evolution because they felt intimidated, saw no need to teach it, or might lose their jobs.
By their own description of their classroom practices, 80 percent of the teachers surveyed are not adequately teaching evolutionary science. Remember that these are just the teachers who are in a professional development workshop in science education! What is more disturbing is what Randy went on to say about the aftermath of these workshops. “After one of my workshops at a [state] education cooperative, it was asked that I not come back because I spent too much time on evolution. One of the teachers sent a letter to the governor stating that I was mandating that teachers had to teach evolution, and that I have to be an atheist, and would he do something.”
So basicly the Arkansas educational system has been bullied into mandating ignorance. Yikes! No wonder the Clintons abandoned that state for New York.
Maybe this awesome Doonesbury will cheer you up.
posted by futureBen at 1:15 pm
Scientists are on the verge of breaking the carbon barrier — creating artificial life and changing forever what it means to be human. And we’re not ready.
I just read this article on Salon. Its a little inflammatory but OK. I agree that we aren’t ready for a nanobiotech revolution, fortunately, it won’t be happening for quite a while. Our fear of the paradigm shifting technology will stave off a Neal Stephenson Diamond Age future through legislation and litigation.
Lets set aside the artifical life/inteligence “Matrix” stuff for a moment. What scares the status quo so much is the potential for bionanotech to be completely decentralized our economy to the point where governments and corporations will lose control. When they comes, new technologies will be user derived, open source and made by small design houses, or worse, individuals. How will that be regulated, bought or sold? When in home fabrication becomes routine. Economies will shift from delivering products to delivering commodities and generating content. If manufacturing turns into simply delivering raw materials, billions of first world dollars will have gone to waste on creating an obsolete infrastructure. Millions of skilled workers will have no future once their jobs have been replaced by an in home appliance. Of course, advertising and fashion will be as important as ever.
OK now the far future issues. Yes, we will start to let go of our definition of life and sentience, and there will be a backlash and conflict with fundamentalism. But there will be communities that are brave enough to face the dilution of our humanity and conciousness. This is likely to be an urban movement, but given that we will cease to be reliant on a centralized supply chain, there is every reason for nanobiotech friendly colonies to fluorish away from a culture less bold.
There is a lot to be afraid of from either end of the spectrum, from giant killer robots to torch bearing not-so-smart mobs. We have plenty to be afraid of right now, like AIDS cancer and ethnic religious violence. While we fear new technology, historically the greatest threats to our society have come from ignorance, hatred, prejudice and corruption. Should we be afraid of a potentially dagerous new technolgy or the ignorant and self rightous hand which would use it? What we shouldn’t fear is the future, or at least not specificly.
posted by futureBen at 4:36 pm
Wow, imagine that. In the future, when you set your watch 7 minutes fast because you are always late, you know that you’re exactly 7 minutes fast. We’re saved.
Some things are in need of innovation. Better phone reception, faster data trasfer, cures for cancer and aging. Pocket watch accuracy is pretty far down my list of pressing technological needs. It’s true, we could always use a better method of measuring the speed of light. But who needs to pay 6,500$ to have that capability on their wrist. Maybe Jack Abramoff.
posted by futureBen at 3:36 pm
Yep, cyborg sharks. DARPA blah blah blah. Just like that movie blah blah. There, I mentioned the cyborg sharks. Oh yeah. Blah blah Joke about not feeling comfortable swimming in the ocean. Of course, the latest thing is that Homeland Security is replacing the Air Marshals with cyborg Snakes on a Plane!
Do you know what sharks spend their time doing? Looking for food! How long can you get a shark to follow a boat without eating before it gets tired or better yet gets frustrated and learns to ignore the stimulus? Cyborg sharks… Just domesticate sea lions and use them like dogs. Or, better yet, spend the money on public education.
posted by futureBen at 5:27 pm
The J Craig Venter Institute is one of the most modern innovative research centers in the world today. Dr. Venter has stirred his share of controversy with his “shotgun” approach to sequencing. In the late 90’s there was a concern in the scientific community that there was too much data to be meaningful. This notion seems laughable today as Information Technology has caught up to the flood of data, yielding some incredible advances.
Already Dr. Venter has moved past Genomics into what is now called Metagenomics. His recent expedition on the Sorcerer II consisted of sampling seawater every 200 miles in an around the world sailing trip. A common reaction to this is rejection of the idea that anything meaningful could be gained from Venter’s around the world boondogle. But there is a genius behind the Sorcerer expedition. Venter’s thesis is that the ocean can be considered a single living organism with specialized genetics to handle environmental differences. In this view determining species is unimportant. What maters is the genome of the environment. The Metagenome.
What does this mean to the rest of the world? One of the major efforts of the Venter intitute is Synthetic Biology. Why? With a collection of environmental metagenomes a clever Biologist can determine just what genes are necesary to thrive and construct or modify organisms accordingly. Another application is biosynthesis or biogeneration. The Venter instute is working on generating Hydrogen as a fuel source.
This type of forward thinking will lead to biotech’s next great expansion. Data is the key. For this reason The Venter Institute has partnered with UCSD to start CAMMERA: Cyberinfrastructure for Advanced Marine Microbial Ecology Research and Analysis. Once completed this optical network will allow researcher from all over the world to datamine the ever growing sequence information being generated. What discoveries and innovations this will lead to is anyone’s guess.
posted by futureBen at 5:03 pm
