E is for Evolution

For any of you who can't watch the video (it's mildly NSFW), it shows Southpark's Mr/Mrs. Garrison attempting to explain evolution as a convoluted orgy involving mutant fish, a squirrel and a monkey. A good number of you-- even those who went to school in fairly liberal areas-- probably cringed with recognition. Part of me honestly wonders if this botched version of Darwin's theory is responsible for the high number of Americans who think it's nonsense*.

As someone with a degree in evolutionary biology, I can tell you what's portrayed in the media (and, disturbingly, in any number of classrooms) is nonsense. There are actually enough regularly repeated misconceptions to form a TVTropes category.

What's unfortunate here is that real evolutionary science is fascinating. Science shows from documentaries to crime dramas (Bones, CSI, and Numb3rs, to name a few) have been wildly successful, proving that people enjoy learning about complex science concepts when they're presented in an engaging way.

If you're curious about evolution but don't have an extensive science background, check out the excellent video series Crash Course: Biology and Crash Course: Ecology to get started. I'd also recommend the second episode of Neil deGrasse Tyson's Cosmos: A Spacetime Journey.


*In all fairness, I have met a distressingly large number of people who find out I'm Christian, then proceed to tell me they are liberal and 'believe' in evolution and also that I am stupid. Usually I let them explain some mangled version of the squirrel-frog-monkey theory, then inform them I started my science career as an evolutionary biologist.