2.10: Surveying Evolution with Amanda Glaze
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This week on the podcast we survey the science of science communication with Amanda Glaze. Amanda is a population geneticist turned science educator who studies why people accept or reject science-related topics including evolution, stem cells, and global warming. In our conversation we discuss how her interest in criminal justice prepared her for a career in science, the variety of clever backronyms involved in studying evolution, and the immense value of empathy and perspective taking.
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The cover art for this episode is “Swans” by Gwen Raverat, famed wood engraver and granddaughter of Charles Darwin. As a child George Darwin, noted astronomer and Raverat’s father, famously doodled all over the first manuscript of “On the Origins of Species”.
The details of the vignette in this week’s introduction are drawn from actual events that took place in a Philosophy of Science course taught by Patrick Derr at Clark University in 2008.
The Monty Hall problem has been a source of confusion and passionate argument for decades. For an accessible explanation of the problem and its solution, check out these videos from Numberphile.
In its most basic form, the Duhem-Quine thesis states that it is impossible to test a single scientific hypothesis in isolation because ant empirical test of that hypothesis requires one or more background assumptions.
The most comprehensive statistics about religion, science, and acceptance of evolution in the United States come from Pew Research. Of particular relevance to the conversation in this episode are statistics related to the conflict between religion and science and how scientists and the public perceive science.
In science communication circles, the notion that skepticism towards science arises primarily from a lack of information or understanding is known as the information deficit model. Though the model has been widely criticized since it was codified in 1985, it remains quite prevalent.
Gale Sinatra is a professor of psychology and education at USC Rossier where she studies science education and knowledge formation. Her study investigating how understanding and beliefs affects acceptance of controversial and non-controversial scientific constructs can be found here.
There are a ton of survey instruments used to examine how people perceive and/or accept science and evolution via natural selection. Quite a few have awesome backronyms.
MATE - Measure of Acceptance of the Theory of Evolution
VNOS - Views on Nature and Science
ACORNS - Assessment of COntextual Reasoning about Natural Selection
EALS - Evolutionary Attitudes and Literacy Survey
I-SEA - Inventory of Student Evolution Acceptance
MUM - Measure of Understanding of Macroevolution
CINS - Conceptual Inventory of Natural Selection
For a thorough review of research into the teaching and learning of evolution, see these two papers by Mike Smith.
Defined very broadly, scientism refers to excessive deference to statements made by scientists or an uncritical eagerness to accept any result described as scientific. Scientism (tinged with hubris) is a criticism frequently leveled at authors like Steven Pinker and Sam Harris.
Because evangelical Christianity is so heterogeneous, it is difficult to give precise definitions for terms like “witness” and “testimony”. However, in the context of this discussion, they refer to sharing personal experiences with faith.
George Carlin discusses his education in the “I Used to be Irish Catholic” bit on his seminal “Class Clown” album.
For more about Amanda’s background, her work, and the influence of Ada Lovelace, check out her guest post at Errant Science. While you’re at it, check out the two posts that bookended her curation of the @RealScientists Twitter account.
Alabama updated it’s decades old science standards with language explicitly requiring that students “analyze scientific evidence (e.g., DNA, fossil records, cladograms, biogeography) to support hypotheses of common ancestry and biological evolution” in 2015. However, biology textbooks in the state still carry a four paragraph disclaimer.
This week’s Bold Signals Book Club selection is the landmark work of Cuban science fiction A Legend of the Future by Agustín de Rojas. Though published in Cuba in 1985, it was only translated and published more widely in 2014. Often superficially compared to Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Legend of the Future’s psychological density and hallucinatory tone make it comparable to works like Ubik or A Scanner Darkly. As of this writing, the only other major work of Cuban science fiction that is widely available is A Planet for Rent by Yoss.
If you’d like to purchase any of the books discussed in the book club and support the podcast at the same time, take a gander at our Amazon store. The podcast also has an Amazon wishlist if you’d like to donate a book. The full list of book club books is here.
”Enterprise 1“ by Languis
“Limelight” (Instrumental) by Michael Howard
“Skylight” (Instrumental) by Rubin Allender
“Love Me Too” by The Losers
DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.3124036
Special thanks this week to Chris Madan for passing along the Numberphile videos about the Monty Hall problem. Follow Chris on Twitter and peruse his research via Google Scholar.
Special thanks also to the hardworking crew behind the scenes at @RealScientists. Real Scientists is a rotational curation Twitter account that features a different scientist, science educator, or science writer each week. We first got in touch with Amanda’s after her second stint curating the account.
