Afarensis: Alliance For Science: 2009 High School Essay Contest

Search

Profile

Afarensis is a 3.5-2.8 million year old hominin from the Kada Hadar member of the Hadar formation in the Middle Awash, Ethiopia. He is approximately 41 inches tall, weighs approximately 60 pounds and has a cranial capacity of a whopping 410 cc (approximately). Afarensis is currently considered to be transitional between apes and humans and displays some traits of both. Since he spends a lot of time on the couch watching monster movies, some observers question whether he is an obligate biped (although no one has observed him climbing a tree). He also has a blog called Transitions:The Evolution of Life His previous blog can be found here.
My blog banners were designed by pough - frequent commenter and Photoshop wizard, Bill Clark, and Chris Whitehouse. Thanks, you all do excellent Photoshop work!

My Amazon Wishlist

Other Information

Order the Book!

Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

Moonbat courtesy of Creek Running North

View My Openlab Entry

View My Openlab Entry

Aphorisms

"Loyalty to petrified opinion never broke a chain or freed a human soul..."
Mark Twain

"Ideology is a poor substitute for rational thought..."
Afarensis

"It isn't faith that makes good science...it's curiosity"
Prof. Jacob Barnhardt, The Day the Earth Stood Still

"This man wishes to be accorded the same privilege as a sponge. He wishes to think!"
Clarence Darrow, Inherit the Wind

"...I become fearful when I see people substituting fear for reason..."
Klaatu, The Day the Earth Stood Still

"I want you to grab life by its little bunny ears and get in its face..."
The Simpsons

"This is between me and the vegetable..."
Seymour Krelborn, The Little Shop of Horrors

"There are bad laws and cruel laws and the people who enforce them are both bad and cruel..."
Thea, Isle of the Dead

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." Jean- Luc Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation

"But the limit of tolerance for these human foibles is obtained when the proponent of a questionable scientific doctrine endeavors to maintain it against all possible odds by misrepresentation, misinformation and suppression of contradictory data, and by insinuating unfairness in opponents of his views."
Franz Weidenreich, Morphology of Solo Man

"Man stands alone in the universe, a unique product of a long, unconcious, impersonal material process with unique understanding and potentialities. These he owes to no one but himself, and it is to himself that he is responsible. He is not the creature of uncontrollable and undeterminable forces, but his own master. He can and must decide and manage his own destiny."
George Gaylord Simpson, Life of the Past

Yeah he's the Dick to the Dawk to the phd, he's smarter than you he's got a science degree! Yeah he's the Dick to the Dawk to the phd, he's smarter than you he's got a science degree!
Unknown

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you.
Frederich Nietzsche

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
The Declaration of Independence

View My Stats

« Biden In Saint Clair Shores, MI: "The Sequel Is Always Worse Than The Original" | Main | Obama on the Financial Crisis »

Alliance For Science: 2009 High School Essay Contest

Category: Administrative • Blogs of Note • Darwin
Posted on: September 16, 2008 8:13 PM, by afarensis, FCD

The 2009 high school essay contest has been announced by the Alliance For Science. This year's theme is a good one. The theme is In Darwin's Footsteps! You can find contest rules, directions for entering, and a detailed description of the theme at the above link. I would like to quote a bit from their description:

But this year's Alliance for Science essay contest is not about the past. Today, evolutionary biology is an exciting, vibrant area where scientists continually expand and deepen our understanding of nature in ways Darwin could never have imagined. We want you to focus on today, and the scientists who carry on Darwin's legacy of scientific excellence in our lifetime. Your task will be to identify and write about a single scientist, a group of scientists, or a scientific organization that best exemplifies the character and quality of work that sustained Darwin throughout his career.

They go on to point out six qualities that helped Darwin. These are patience, perseverance, originality, courage, humility, and compassion.

The point of the contest, however, is not to write about Darwin, or scientists from the past:

Write about a person or group who is expanding the horizons of knowledge today, and show how their work reflects the values and principles Darwin demonstrated during his life.

So, if you are a high school student get to writing, and if you are a blogger spread the word.

Find more posts in: Humanities & Social Science