By - - GUARDIAN.CO.UK
Added: Thu, 01 Dec 2011 15:13:52 UTC

A video of this was posted several days ago here and is also in the body of the article below after the "Read more" link.
Prominent female role models in science and science communication talk about evolution and its importance to science, medicine and society

"Did humans evolve from earlier species?"
Science, 2006 (doi:10.1126/science.1126746)

Ask the average person what the word evolution means, and few will say something like "the change in the genetic frequency of a population over time". This lack of understanding is underscored by figures showing that fewer than half of Americans accept that human beings developed from earlier species of animals.

A study published in Science found that public acceptance of evolution was highest in Iceland, Denmark and Sweden (over 80% of the population). But astonishingly, this study also found that acceptance of evolution is lower in the United States than in Japan or in any of the 32 European countries included in the study except Turkey (25%). Even though this study was published in 2006 (doi:10.1126/science.1126746), subsequent surveys and polls indicate that little has changed since then.

Americans' peculiarly stubborn refusal to recognise the validity of evolution almost seems de rigueur these days. But after watching the 2011 Miss USA contestants' pathetic and (mostly) poorly-(in)formed comments about evolution, something clicked into place amongst a few of my science blog colleagues. After the giggles and guffaws died down on twitter and other social media, they decided to create a video about evolution for the general public.

Read more

TAGGED: EVOLUTION