Material Related to the Course

Earth, Body, and Mind: Changes in Scientific Thought

Additional Material Related to the Course

I do not know what I seem to the world, but to myself I appear to have been like a boy playing upon the seashore and diverting myself by now and then finding a smoother pebble or prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay before me all undiscovered. - Sir Isaac Newton

First learn-and then remind yourself every day-that simply because you read something in a book, magazine or newspaper, it does not automatically follow that it is true.

- Steve Allen, "Dumbth" page 300

Science, Scientific Method, Scientific/Critical Thinking

Carl Sagan: The Demon-Haunted World: Sciences as a Candle in the Dark
http://www.2think.org/dhw.shtml

Documenting the Existence of "The International Flat Earth Society"
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/flatearth.html

The Flat Earth Bible
http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/febible.htm

Plate Tectonics

This Dynamic Planet (pdf file)
http://pubs.usgs.gov/pdf/planet.html

Major Tectonic Plates of the World

Ocean Tsunami Disaster Information
http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/asl/guides/indian-ocean-disaster.html

Plate Tectonics
http://www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/msese/earthsysflr/plates1.html

Mass Extinction/K-T Impact

The Iridium Anomaly at the K-T Boundary
http://www.scn.org/~bh162/iridium.html

Terror From Space
http://neat.jpl.nasa.gov/dino.jpg

Are Asteroids History's Greatest Killers?
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/11/1120_031120_massextinctions.html

The Shiva Crater: Implications For Deccan Volcanism, India-Seychelles Rifting, Dinosaur Extinction, And Petroleum Entrapment At The Kt Boundary
http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2003AM/finalprogram/abstract_58126.htm

Catastrophism and Mass Extinction
http://www.pibburns.com/catastro/extinct.htm

The Darwinian Revolution

I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term Natural Selection.
- Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species

National Center for Science Education
http://www.natcenscied.org

Biology and Evolutionary Theory
http://www.talkorigins.org/origins/faqs-evolution.html

Evolution and Natural Selection
http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange1/current/lectures/selection/selection.html

Five Major Misconceptions about Evolution
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-misconceptions.html

Neither Intelligent Nor Designed
http://www.csicop.org/si/show/neither_intelligent_nor_designed/

The Environment

Site still under construction

Ozone Depletion, Global Warming, etc. Materials:

Tragedy of the Commons (original article)
http://www.garretthardinsociety.org/articles/art_tragedy_of_the_commons.html

Ecosystem Services: A Primer
http://www.actionbioscience.org/environment/esa.html

Global Warming (NOAA)
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/globalwarming.html

Global Warming (NRDC)
http://www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/default.asp

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
http://www.ipcc.ch/

Ozone and Human Health
http://www.ciesin.org/TG/OZ/oz-home.html

Brownlash Material:

Manipulating Public Knowledge
http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/sbeder/metascience.html

Population Material:

World Population Counter
http://www.ibiblio.org/lunarbin/worldpop

Biodiversity Materials:

Global Extinction Crisis More Serious Than Previously Thought
http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2002/may8/mammals-58.html

Future of Life Materials:

Life in the Balance - Could Tip Either Way
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0117/p15s01-bogn.html

Cognitive Science

After the Double Helix: Unraveling the Mysteries of the state of Being (about Francis Crick)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/13/science/13CRIC.html

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Free Will
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/freewill/

Artificial Intelligence (a good overview with links) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence#Overview

Alan Bot (a program to talk to) http://www.a-i.com/alan1/webface1.asp?style=Alan

From students in the class:

Utilities and General Links (things you may find useful in general):

Austin College Virtual Library (links to all types of information)
http://abell.austincollege.edu/Abell/Elinfor/virtlib.html

Online Encyclopedia
http://www.wikipedia.org/

Online Thesaurus and Dictionaries
http://www.dictionary.com/
http://www.thesaurus.com/

Famous Quotes
http://www.bartleby.com/99/index.html

Sherman, Texas Weather:
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/forecast/MapClick.php?CityName=Sherman&state=TX&site=FWD