Nyctibius griseus

By Matt Young
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Photography Contest.

John Harshman, Third Place.

Common potoo, a bird with protective coloration hiding on a branch.
Nyctibius griseus – common potoo. Dr. Harshman notes that the potoo, from Ecuador, is "in his common daytime position of pretending to be the end of a broken branch." Just for the record, it is a bird.

Two decades ago, Dover showed how to win elections in conservative towns. They're still fighting

By Lauri Lebo
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Photograph of the author

Lauri Lebo is an advocacy coordinator and organizer for the Pennsylvania State Education Association. As a reporter, she covered the Kitzmiller v. Dover trial and wrote a book about her coverage, The Devil in Dover. She is a recipient of NCSE’s Friend of Darwin award in 2026. We asked her to write a few paragraphs linking to her recent article in the Reviews of the National Center for Science Education. – Matt Young

It’s been 21 years since the First Amendment test case of Kitzmiller v. Dover, in which U.S. District Court judge John E. Jones III ruled that “intelligent design,” a form of revamped creationism, is unconstitutional to teach in the public schools.

While the parents who sued and science teachers celebrated, the school board members and their legal team had little to say. Looking back, most people involved in the trial said that few minds were changed. Many were just glad the national spotlight was no longer shining on Dover.

But roots run deep in south-central Pennsylvania, and history repeats itself. Some on the religious right quietly started preparing for the next opportunity.

I still get asked about comparisons between Kitzmiller v. Dover and attacks today on our public schools. Particularly, what did we learn about defeating school boards pushing a religious agenda? In this article in the Reviews of the National Center for Science Education, I delve into what worked then and what works today.

Zeugomantispa minuta

By Matt Young
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Photography Contest.

Al Denelsbeck, Runner-up.

Northern green mantidfly with 2 views, one of which shows an unusual pattern in the eye.
Zeugomantispa minuta – northern green mantidfly. Mr. Denelsbeck writes, "I was delighted to find a northern green mantidfly having only spotted one over a decade previously, and captured this one for a studio session. However, two different lenses captured two different effects from the compound eyes under near-identical conditions and lighting. The left version is with a reversed 28-105 lens at approximately F/16 with a custom softbox on the flash, from a very short distance, while the right is with a 180 mm macro, also at F/16 and the same softbox, but significantly greater working distance. I have not yet determined if the different effects were from the working distance and perhaps diffusion of the lighting (the left version being more diffuse because the softbox was more above the subject and broader in 'source,') or it was a product of the optics of the two lenses - the 28-105 lens was never intended to be used in reverse, and might have suffered from the methods used to reduce chromatic aberration. The right version is much more stunning, but also a bit distracting. My subject was released back where found after the session. Overall body length just 12 mm.


Another optics problem! The submission was by design relatively low in resolution, so I asked for the original and cropped it so as to reveal more information. More below the fold.

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An unhappy birthday: Lamarck is misrepresented

By Joe Felsenstein
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[Leon Fagel statue of Lamarck]
1909 Statue of Lamarck by Léon Fagel in the Jardin des Plantes, Paris.
Image by or Cedricguppy - Loury Cédric. Wikimedia Creative Commons license v4.0.

 

Today (August 1) is the 282nd birthday of Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, the Chevalier de Lamarck. He died in 1829, so we do not have him here to answer questions about his thought. To me he was the first evolutionary biologist, even if his mechanism for adaptation was mistaken.

Sadly, his work has often been misunderstood, and is still being described incorrectly today. He invoked two mechanisms of evolutionary change. One was a general tendency for organisms to get more complex. This must have seemed like a possibility back in 1800, at the height of the Romantic era, when grand trends of nature were in fashion.

The other is his mechanism of Use and Disuse. Organisms that made more use of particular organs or features thereby influenced their hereditary substances to have those be bigger and stronger in their offspring. Note that this is not the same as having the effects of the environment influence the hereditary substances. It is the will of the organism that does the job, not just the direct effect of the environment.

There are increasing numbers of misunderstandings of Lamarck’s theories.

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Despite the Failure to Meet Attendance Projections, the Kentucky GOP Loves Ark Encounter

By Daniel Phelps
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Bow end of Ark Encounter
Noah's Ark, evidently in drydock. Photograph by Cimerondagert, Bow end of Ark Encounter. CC BY-SA 4.0.

Reprinted with permission from the blog Righting America.

Recently, Answers in Genesis CEO Ken Ham has produced a lot of propaganda celebrating the fact that the Ark has been open for 10 years in July. Propaganda that fails to acknowledge that the Ark has never come close to the 1.2 to 2.2 million annual visitors projected by Answers in Genesis.

But in early July, an Ark representative gave questionable testimony about Ark attendance to the Kentucky Legislature Committee on Tourism. A few days later the Kentucky House GOP posted this video to YouTube. Apparently, Representative Kim King once counted 15 out of state license plates in the Ark parking lot!

Wowie!

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