Religion & Law

Moth Man

By John Pieret

The University of Cambridge has a "Tribute to Mike Majerus," the late evolutionary geneticist who laid to rest the "icons" of misinformation creationists have fabricated about the Peppered Moth.

You can also read the script and see the Powerpoint file from Majerus' 2007 lecture, "The Peppered Moth: The Proof of Darwinian Evolution," where he explains why he undertook to set the record straight and how he went about it, including why he went so far as to test the "proposition" that bats might be preying preferentially on moths based on their color. Majerus' makes a good point about the importance of Biston betularia to the anti-science side:

[T]he peppered moth story is easy to understand, because it involves things that we are familiar with: vision and predation and birds and moths and pollution and camouflage and lunch and death. That is why the anti-evolution lobby attacks the peppered moth story. They are frightened that too many people will be able to understand. ...

... I fear for my children, who will face escalating problems of climate change, over-population, pollution, starvation, disease and conflict. And for their children and grandchildren, I have little optimism.

We need to address global problems now, and to do so with any chance of success, we have to base our decisions on scientific facts: and that includes the fact of Darwinian evolution. If the rise and fall of the peppered moth is one of the most visually impacting and easily understood examples of Darwinian evolution in action, it should be taught. It provides after all: The Proof of Evolution.

Full post as published by Thoughts in a Haystack on February 09, 2009 (boomark / email).