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 From April 2005 Scientific American.  I hope everyone agrees that this  
is fair use.

Eric Siegel
Executive VP
    Programs and Planning
NY Hall of Science
47-01 111th Street
Queens, NY 11368
www.nyscience.org


Copyright Scientific American April 2005

SA Perspectives There’s no easy way to admit this. For years, helpful  
letter writers told us to stick to science. They  pointed out that  
science and politics don’t mix. They  said we should be more balanced  
in our presentation  of such issues as creationism, missile defense and  
  global warming. We resisted their advice and pretended not to be stung  
by the accusations that the  magazine should be renamed Unscientifi c  
American, or Scientifi c Unamerican, or even Unscientifi c  Unamerican.  
But spring is in the air, and all of nature is turning over a new   
leaf, so there’s no better  time to say: you were right,  and we were  
wrong. In retrospect, this magazine’s coverage of socalled evolution  
has been  hideously one-sided. For  decades, we published articles in  
every issue that endorsed the ideas of Charles  Darwin and his cronies.  
  True, the theory of common  descent through natural selection has been  
called the  unifying concept for all of  biology and one of the  
greatest scientifi c ideas of all  time, but that was no excuse to be  
fanatics about it.  Where were the answering articles presenting the   
powerful case for scientifi c creationism? Why were  we so unwilling to  
suggest that dinosaurs lived 6,000  years ago or that a cataclysmic fl  
ood carved the  Grand Canyon? Blame the scientists. They dazzled  us  
with their fancy fossils, their radiocarbon dating  and their tens of  
thousands of peer-reviewed journal  articles. As editors, we had no  
business being persuaded by mountains of evidence. Moreover, we  
shamefully mistreated the Intelligent Design (ID) theorists by lumping  
them in with  creationists. Creationists believe that God designed  all  
life, and that’s a somewhat religious idea. But ID  theorists think  
that at unspecifi ed times some unnamed superpowerful entity designed  
life, or maybe  just some species, or maybe just some of the stuff in   
cells. That’s what makes ID a superior scientifi c theory: it doesn’t  
get bogged down in details. Good journalism values balance above all  
else.  We owe it to our readers to present everybody’s ideas  equally  
and not to ignore or discredit theories simply  because they lack  
scientifi cally credible arguments  or facts. Nor should we succumb to  
the easy mistake  of thinking that scientists understand their fi elds   
better than, say, U.S. senators or best-selling novelists do. Indeed,  
if politicians or special-interest  groups say things that seem untrue  
or misleading,  our duty as journalists is to quote them without  
comment or contradiction. To do otherwise would be  elitist and  
therefore wrong. In that spirit, we will end  the practice of  
expressing our own views in this  space: an editorial page is no place  
for opinions. Get ready for a new Scientifi c American. No  more  
discussions of how science should inform policy. If the government  
commits blindly to building  an anti-ICBM defense system that can’t  
work as  promised, that will waste tens of billions of taxpayers’  
dollars and imperil national security, you won’t  hear about it from  
us. If studies suggest that the administration’s antipollution measures  
would actually increase the dangerous particulates that people  breathe  
during the next two decades, that’s not our  concern. No more  
discussions of how policies affect  science either—so what if the  
budget for the National Science Foundation is slashed? This magazine  
will  be dedicated purely to science, fair and balanced science, and  
not just the science that scientists say is  science. And it will start  
on April Fools’ Day. Okay, We Give Up

A T T  CO LLI NS


On Mar 28, 2005, at 2:21 PM, David Smith wrote:

> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology  
> Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related  
> institutions.
> *********************************************************************** 
> ******
>
> Oh ye of scientific(?) mind...
>
> Kindly evaluate whether the probability is higher that
>
> a) Scientific American has actually decided that creationism is science
>
> or
>
> b) The issue date (April) means that the editors were pulling on a limb
> likely descended from the rear flippers of certain bony fish
>
> I'll double check tonight (the issue is sitting on my dining room  
> table,
> but I've got my money on b).
>
> Dave
>
> David L Smith
> Director of Professional Development
> Da Vinci DiscoveryCenter of Science and Technology
> http://www.discovery-center.org
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Informal Science Education Network
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Wayne Watson
> Sent: Monday, March 28, 2005 1:17 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Scientific American Throws in the Towel
>
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology
> Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
> institutions.
> *********************************************************************** 
> *
> *****
>
> Sadly, Scientific Magazine has thrown in the towel. What a pity. See
> <http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=000E555C 
> -4387-1
> 237-81CB83414B7FFE9F&colID=2>.
> Pardon me for jumping the gun on this.
> -- 
>               Wayne T. Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City,
> CA)
>                   (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time)
>                    Obz Site:  39° 15' 7" N, 121° 2' 32" W, 2700 feet
>
>              "I know that defies the law of gravity, but, you see, I
> never
>               studied the law of gravity." -- Bugs Bunny
>
>                          Web Page: <home.earthlink.net/~mtnviews>
>
> ***********************************************************************
> More information about the Informal Science Education Network and the
> Association of Science-Technology Centers may be found at
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