Darwin display by Michael Gilmore. Photo by David Patton.
27 Ways to Honor Charles Darwin
As we celebrate the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birthday and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species, the Skeptics Society put together a list of 27 items from our catalogue to help you honor the Sage of Down with books, DVDs, CDs, and back issues of Skeptic magazine devoted to Darwin and evolution. We have DVD/CD Lectures at Caltech by Richard Dawkins, Stephen Jay Gould, Steven Pinker, Donald Prothero, Michael Shermer, Eugenie Scott, Robert Pennock, and Craig Stanford. We’ve got books by Jared Diamond, Dawkins, Prothero, and Shermer. And don’t miss our classic back issue of Skeptic on punctuated equilibrium v. Darwinian gradualism, and especially our How to Debate a Creationist.
Order these items for your library, and give them away as gifts.
The Best Evolution Book. Period.
- Evolution: What the Fossils Say
& Why it Matters - This is it! Geologist and paleontologist Donald Prothero’s magisterial masterpiece on what evolution is, how we know it happened, and why creationists and Intelligent Design theorists are wrong. A great introduction to the field or to get up to speed on the latest discoveries in the incredibly rich fossil record, with an emphasis on transitional forms. This book is produced on the highest quality paper with professional quality photographs, making it a bargain at only $30. A beautiful book.
8 Hour PBS Special
narrated by Liam Neeson
- Evolution
- This DVD interweaves Darwin’s life with current research and explains why evolution is more important today than in Darwin’s time; consider important evolutionary changes that triggered the earth’s incredible diversity: the development of the four-limbed body plan; the journey of animal life from water to land; the emergence of humans; Why Sex?; The Mind’s Big Bang; What About God?, and MUCH more packed into this 8 hour special…
Read more and order the DVD >
How to Debate a Creationist
- 25 Answers to Creationist Arguments
- Covers such topics as: What is Evolution?; The Relationship of Science and Religion; Debating a Creationist: An Evening With Duane T. Gish; Old and New Creationism: 25 Creationist Arguments and 25 Evolutionist Answers; The New New Creationism: Intelligent Design Theory and its Discontents; What is Science?; U.S. Supreme Court Ends the New Creationism; The Rise of Intelligent Design Theory…
Revolution in Evolution
- A Classic! Punctuated Equilibrium
versus Darwinian Gradualism - Includes: The Mismeasure of History: Darwin, Gould, and the Nature of Change by Michael Shermer; Punctuated Equilibrium at Twenty: A Paleontological Perspective by Donald Prothero; Punctuated Equilibrium in Fact and Theory by Stephen Jay Gould; Historic 1842 Sketch on Evolution by Charles Darwin; Darwin, Darwinism, and the Darwinian Culture by James Rogers, and more…
A Darwin Day
200th Birthday Celebration
- with Michael Shermer,
Joel Smith & Donald Prothero - A special celebration of the life and science of one of the greatest scientists in history. Historian of science Dr. Michael Shermer reviews the remarkable life of Darwin and explains how he arrived at his theory of evolution. Paleontologist and geologist Dr. Donald Prothero gives a brief overview of how evolutionary theory has changed since Darwin’s time. Biologist Dr. Joel Smith explains systems biology which allows us to construct detailed logic maps of the “circuitry” of living organisms known as Regulatory Networks…
For the other 22 ways to honor Darwin
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Monty Hall Problem Put to the Test
In a recent Scientific American column, Michael Shermer discussed the now-infamous (and infuriatingly counter-intuitive) probability problem called the Monty Hall Problem, or the Three Door Problem, in which a contestant chooses one of three doors, behind one of which is a car and the other two goats. A correspondent took it upon himself to test the game with his own computer program. Here are his very interesting results, which also nicely show the scientific method at work.
While you’re there be sure to read the blog posts of the other Skepticbloggers: Brian Dunning, Kirsten Sanford, Mark Edward, Phil Plait, Ryan Johnson, Steven Novella, and Yau-Man Chan.
