Teaching about evolution in a biomedical context

Three of America's best known voices in the debate about evolution in the teaching of science will meet to discuss the issue on Sunday, April 29, 2007 in Washington, DC.

The symposium, entitled Teaching About Evolution in a Biomedical Context, is part of the 120th annual meeting of the American Physiological Society (APS; http://www.the-APS.org). The APS, founded in 1887, is one of the nation's oldest scholarly societies for scientists. The Society, with 10,500 members, publishes 11 peer-reviewed scientific journals each month.

The panel is comprised of the following:

Lawrence M. Krauss, Ph.D.: Dr. Krauss is Professor of Astronomy and Director of the Center for Education and Research in Cosmology and Astrophysics at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH. He is the author of more than 200 scientific publications and an internationally known theoretical physicist with wide research interests, including the interface between elementary particle physics and cosmology. His studies include the early universe, the nature of dark matter, general relativity and neutrino astrophysics. He has investigated questions ranging from the nature of exploding stars to the origin of all mass in the universe.

Eugenie C. Scott, Ph.D.: Dr. Scott is the Executive Director of the National Center for Science Education, Inc. (NCSE), a non-profit organization located in Oakland, CA, and affiliated with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Dr. Scott has been both a researcher and an activist in the creationism/evolution debate for more than 20 years. Her organization opposes the teaching of religious views in science classes in America's public schools and defends the teaching of evolutionary biology.

Randolph M. Nesse, MD: Dr. Nesse is a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and professor of psychiatry at the University of Michigan Medical School. He is noted for his work on evolutionary psychology and Darwinian medicine. Darwinian medicine seeks to find evolutionary explanations for vulnerabilities to disease.

Jon F. Harrison, Ph.D.: Dr. Harrison, a Professor and Associate Director in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University's School of Life Sciences, will moderate the panel. Dr. Harrison's research centers on the mechanisms and evolution of physiological responses of insects to environmental change.

The goal of this symposium is to help educators, parents, and lawmakers to understand the importance of the study of evolution to biomedical research, and to enhance the integration of evolution and biomedical science in the classroom.

Physiology is the study of how molecules, cells, tissues and organs function to create health or diseaseThe American Physiological Society (APS) has been an integral part of the scientific discovery process since it was established in 1887.