Sarkar Lab

Texas SBOE and Evolution

A Dallas Morning News article this morning, "Education Board Opposes Intelligent Design Curricula," by Terrence Stutz reports that with only one exception the eleven members of the Texas State Board of Eduction oppose the teaching of Intelligent Design in our schools. This is true even though seven of the eleven SBOE members are clearly associated with the Relgious Far Right.

But, as usual, all this is just too good to be true. At least in Texas.

Are you ready to talk history to ecologists?

From Matt Chew, Center for Biology and Society, Arizona State University, apparently intended for members of the International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology, but obviously also relevant to the rest of us who are interested in the history of ecology:

"Are you ready to talk history to ecologists?

At the 2007 meeting of the Ecological Society of America (ESA) -- a week after the ISH meeting in Exeter -- historian Frank Egerton was awarded a distinguished service citation for his work in the history of ecology.  To my astonishment, Dr. Egerton was unaware of ISHPSSB, a situation I have
begun to remedy.

But the time seems ripe for bringing the history of ecology to ecologists. My poster presentation at the ESA meeting, "Invasion Biology's Forgotten Forerunners" was unique among several hundred entries, very popular with attendees, and resulted in an invitation from a major university press to submit a book proposal.  In addition, Dr. Egerton suggested that I organize a history session for the August 2008 ESA meeting in Milwaukee (see http://www.esa.org/milwaukee).

The ESA is a huge organization, just shy of 10,000 members.  Their meetings are organized well, and well in advance.  The deadline for submitting organized oral session proposals for the 2008 meeting is only a month away. Talks are expected to be 15 minutes long, with 5 minutes for questions. If we organize a "symposium" we get 20 minutes for talks, but there are a limited number available so it's more competitive.

Next year is an 'off year' for ISHPSSB.  There were many talks about ecology at Exeter, any of which could be reworked or improved on for ESA in 2008. If you are interested in participating in a 'history of ecology' session at ESA in August 2008, please contact me by 1 September 2007 with at least the germ of an idea, and I will let all respondents know within a day or two of that whether it looks like we have enough interest to move forward with a proposal.

Thanks"
--
Matt Chew
Arizona State University
Center for Biology and Society
PO Box 873301
Tempe, AZ 85287-3301

Dr. Don McLeroy, Chair, Texas State Board of Education

Texas Governor, Rick Perry, who supports teaching Intelligent Design in high school science classes (as I discuss in my book, Doubting Darwin?), recently appointed Don McLeroy from Bryan as Chair of the Texas State Board of Education. Now, we knew from the 2003 textbook hearings that McLeroy is a die hard supporter of pushing ID in the curriculum and we're expecting a fight on our hands as the state science standards get rewritten the Fall. We're certainly expecting a call to teach evolution--and only evolution--"critically," but we also may expect a push for creationism. Forrest Wilder from The Texas Observer (our state's best political magazine) has found a 2005 talk that McLeroy gave at his church on Intelligent Design--look at the entry. It puts creationism in the tent of ID. Here is the absolute gem from McLeroy's talk:

Why is ‘intelligent design’ the big tent? Because we’re all lined up against the fact that naturalism, that nature is all there is. Whether you’re a progressive creationist, recent creationist, young earth, old earth, it’s all in the tent of ‘intelligent design.’

Bryan should be applauded for one explicit intellectual innovation: now creationism is a form of ID and not the other way around. I find this quite plausible. Nevertheless, it will make it more difficult, especially in the courts, for ID proponents to maintain an appropriate distance from the other creationists as they attack the curriculum in Texas.

Dr. McLeroy is apparently a dentist. My advice is: avoid Bryan if you have tooth trouble. Anyone so incompetent in biological matters is not to be trusted in medicine.

The full transcript--and recording--or McLeroy's talk can be found through a page maintained by the Texas Freedom Network. Thanks are due to Ryan Valentine for alerting me to this hilarious development.

Polystoma integerrimum

I am looking for a good image of Polystoma integerrimum (Polyopisthocotylea: Polystomatidae) for a new book I'm working on. If anyone knows of a source, I'd appreciate the information. In the 1950s someone by the name of Joan B. Williams is supposed to have produced good drawings at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine but I haven't been able to locate them.

The genus is supposed to have been mistakenly so named because an early investigator (presumably in the eighteenth century) mistook the six posterior suckers which form the ophisthaptor as mouths. This seems plausible enough but I haven't yet succeeded in tracking down this story. Again, any help would be appreciated.