ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
*****************************************************************************

Jonah;

	I particularly liked:

  "It's not just a coincidence that there is life on earth and that we
can observe eclipses," Gonzalez says. "Those two are actually intimately
linked."

But seriously the whole tone of the movie seems bizarre. Rather than 
focusing on evolution it seems to be a movie about the conditions on 
Earth that supported the origin of life though I have not seen the 
book (anyone?).

As far as I am aware Darwin said little if anything about the origin 
of life on Earth. For those who are interested in Darwin and theories 
of the origin of life  (see 
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/abioprob/spontaneous-generation.html). 
The theory of evolution speaks to what happened after life originated 
and it seems that the origin of life is not what ID folks have been 
talking about (see 
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/050530fa_fact).

The questions that arose as a result of the Smithsonian's 
co-sponsorship are however worthy of discussion. (eg. see Museum-L).


Martin
>
>Matthew White forwarded an article about the Smithsonian/ID debacle, where
>one of the creators of the film, "The Privileged Planet", had this to say:
>
>============
>       For example, the transparency of the atmosphere that allows people to
>see distant stars and galaxies is a result of the high oxygen content of the
>atmosphere, a condition that also is needed for complex life.
>=============
>
>Say what? Am I out to lunch here? Is nitrogen opaque?
>
>Jonah Cohen
>Outreach & Public Programs Manager
>Science Center of Connecticut
>
>***********************************************************************
>More information about the Informal Science Education Network and the
>Association of Science-Technology Centers may be found at http://www.astc.org.
>To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
>message  SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to
>[log in to unmask]

-- 
Martin Weiss, Ph.D
Vice President, Science
New York Hall of Science
47-01 111 th Street
Corona, New York 11368
718 699 0005 x 356

***********************************************************************
More information about the Informal Science Education Network and the
Association of Science-Technology Centers may be found at http://www.astc.org.
To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
message  SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to
[log in to unmask]