Safeguarding Sound Science from the National Center for Science Education combats misinformation, disinformation, and misconceptions with actual science. The second season of Safeguarding Sound Science examines the everyday impacts of evolution, the grand theory that informs our understanding of all life on this planet. Host Mat Kaplan talks with scientists, researchers, and other experts as they dispel common misconceptions about evolution, discuss its sometimes invisible importance in our day-to-day lives, and marvel at the wonders of ongoing scientific discovery that help us piece together more of the evolutionary puzzle.
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Safeguarding Sound Science from the National Center for Science Education combats misinformation, disinformation, and misconceptions with actual science. The second season of Safeguarding Sound Science examines the everyday impacts of evolution, the grand theory that informs our understanding of all life on this planet. Host Mat Kaplan talks with scientists, researchers, and other experts as they dispel common misconceptions about evolution, discuss its sometimes invisible importance in our day-to-day lives, and marvel at the wonders of ongoing scientific discovery that help us piece together more of the evolutionary puzzle.
Baked, Steamed, and Frozen: Human Body Evolution in Changing Environments
Safeguarding Sound Science
49 minutes
2 weeks ago
Baked, Steamed, and Frozen: Human Body Evolution in Changing Environments
In the flop of a movie, Waterworld, Kevin Costner's character (spoiler alert!) develops gills as an adaptation to a flooded planet altered by climate change. This plays into the all-too-prevalent misconception that as the Earth warms, we humans don't need to worry — we'll simply evolve and adapt. In this episode of Safeguarding Sound Science, host Mat Kaplan talks with Libby Cowgill, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Missouri, Columbia, and NCSE Executive Director Amanda L. Townley about human evolution in response to climate. Cowgill's broad areas of study include Late Pleistocene human evolution, human growth and development, and human adaptation to climate. Cowgill discusses her current research in which she and her team test underlying assumptions about human body form in relation to different environments. To that end, she's "baking, steaming, and freezing people" and collecting a trove of data as a result. Both Cowgill and Townley help us understand the science behind adaptation and natural selection and why we humans will not evolve gills, or any other incredibly complex adaptation, as a rapid response to climate change. All the more reason to act now to mitigate global warming.
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Safeguarding Sound Science
Safeguarding Sound Science from the National Center for Science Education combats misinformation, disinformation, and misconceptions with actual science. The second season of Safeguarding Sound Science examines the everyday impacts of evolution, the grand theory that informs our understanding of all life on this planet. Host Mat Kaplan talks with scientists, researchers, and other experts as they dispel common misconceptions about evolution, discuss its sometimes invisible importance in our day-to-day lives, and marvel at the wonders of ongoing scientific discovery that help us piece together more of the evolutionary puzzle.
