This list includes a rather wide range of topics, but they generally involve the importance of understanding the use of evidence, the need to reach rational conclusions from the evidence, and the dire need to form rational long-term goals and policy. Ignorance and self-delusion can lead to gross misunderstandings of the world around us, irrational social policy, a crippled educational system, and world war.
Web sites (others in course web pages)
- National Center for Science Education. A national organization promoting the teaching of evolution science in the classroom, and working to keep sectarian religious content out of science classes.
- Talk Origins. One of the premiere sites on evolution science. Includes huge amounts of background on a wide range of science topics, many of which are unrelated to biological evolution (e.g., astronomy) but end up in the frey anyway. The lion's share of the content illustrates how "creation science", "intelligent design", and so on have nothing to do with science.
- Panda's Thumb. An excellent semi-real-time commentary on biological evolution and related science issues.
- Realclimate. Up-to-date commentary on modern issues in climate science, including political misuse of and misinformation on climate science. Explanations are very accessible, considering the complexity of the subject.
- Astronomy Picture of the Day Archive. Fabulous astronomical photos of all different varieties, with explanatory captions.
Books and articles
- Cadillac Desert. Marc Reisner, Penguin Books, 1986.
- The demon-haunted world: science as a candle in the dark. Carl Sagan, Random House, 1995.
- Science, Evolution, and Creationism: summary brochure for book of the same name. National Academy of Sciences, National Academy Press, 2008.
- The two-mile time machine : ice cores, abrupt climate change, and our future. Richard B. Alley, Princeton University Press, 2000.
- Mapping the Deep: the extraordinary story of ocean science. Robert Kunzig, W.W. Norton Co., 2000.
- The Map that changed the world: William Smith and the birth of modern geology. Simon Winchester, Harper-Collins, 2001.
- The schools we need and why we don't have them. E.D. Hirsch, Doubleday, 1996.
- The rise and fall of the Third Reich; a history of Nazi Germany. William L.Shirer, Simon and Schuster, 1960.
- Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. Al Franken, E.P. Dutton Publishers, 2003.
- The Coming Generational Storm. Laurence Kotlikoff and Scott Burns, The MIT Press, 2004.
- The Great Unraveling. Paul Krugman, W.W. Norton & Company, 2003.
- Hubbert's Peak. Kenneth S. Deffeyes, Princeton University Press, 2005.
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