OKLAHOMA EVOLUTION/CLIMATE NEWS–AUGUST 2020

1.  Pro-science education legislation in other states

2.  Water beetles can live on after being eaten and excreted by a frog

3.  U.S. Teachers Evolving on Science of Evolution

4.  Highest temperature on Earth’ as Death Valley hits 130F.

5.  Fabulous fossil preserves eyes of 429-million-year-old trilobite

6.  July 2020: Another scorching month in a scorching year

7.  August videos

PRO-SCIENCE EDUCATION LEGISLATION IN OTHER STATES
Pennsylvania’s House Bill 2795, introduced and referred to the House Education Committee on August 13, 2020, would, if enacted, require the state’s public schools to provide instruction on climate change aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards. The department of education would also be required to develop a model climate change science curriculum to be freely available to public and non-profit private schools.  More at NCSE.

WATER BEETLES CAN LIVE ON AFTER BEING EATEN AND EXCRETED BY A FROG
For most insects, the sticky, slingshot ride straight into a frog’s mouth spells the end. But not for one stubborn water beetle.
Instead of succumbing to the frog’s digestive juices, an eaten Regimbartia attenuata traverses the amphibian’s throat, swims through the stomach, slides along the intestines and climbs out the frog’s butt, alive and well.  
The research published August 3 in Current Biology is the first to document prey actively escaping through the backside of a predator.  More at Science News, andWired.  Original paper at Current Biology.
U.S. TEACHERS EVOLVING ON SCIENCE OF EVOLUTION
The results of the recent NCSE/Penn State national survey of public high school biology teachers were described by THE Journal, a magazine focusing on education technology, on August 3, 2020. “The researchers found ‘substantial reductions’ in creationist instruction and a ‘substantial increase’ in the time that high school teachers devote to human evolution and the evolutionary process in general.”  More at NCSE,  BMC On Society blog, National Science Teaching Association blog, ASCB blog, and Nature.  Survey published in Evolution: Education and Outreach.  

HIGHEST TEMPERATURE ON EARTH AS DEATH VALLEY HITS 130F.
Amid a sweltering heat wave across the western United States, a remote spot in Death Valley, Calif., may have just earned the title of hottest place on Earth in nearly a century.
On August 16, the Death Valley spot — appropriately named Furnace Creek, with a population of 24 — logged a temperature of 130° Fahrenheit (54.4° Celsius). If verified by the World Meteorological Organization, or WMO, that temperature will be the hottest recorded since 1931, and the third hottest since record keeping began. More at BBC, Science News,  Slashdot, and News9.
FABULOUS FOSSIL PRESERVES EYES OF 429-MILLION-YEAR-OLD TRILOBITE
Darwin has a shortwave radioAmong fossils, trilobites are rock stars. They are adorable (as stony arthropods go), with a segmented shape distinctive enough to be a common logo. But they’re also fascinating because there are so many examples in the fossil record over such a long period of time, given that they thrived for over 250 million years. Studying their evolution is enlightening in part because odds are good for finding excellent specimens.
The University of Cologne’s Brigitte Schoenemann and the University of Edinburgh’s Euan Clarkson took a look into the eyes of one exquisitely preserved trilobite specimen, and they learned plenty about how the creature’s eyes developed and what that says about evolution. And, as a bonus, they conclude that this particular trilobite species was probably translucent.  More at Ars Technica, and Scientific American.  Original paper in Scientific reports.

JULY 2020:  ANOTHER SCORCHING MONTH IN A SCORCHING YEAR
The relentless global heat continued as average surface temperature on Earth in July 2020 was the second warmest on record. These monthly posts might be beginning to sound as repetitive as a broken record. But then again, global temperature records continue to be broken, so repetitiveness is probably apropos. Either way, the second half of 2020 started the same way the first half of the year ended: with another month of near-record-hot global temperatures. It is very likely that 2020 will finish as one of the five hottest years on record, with around a 75% chance of being number one or two. More at Climate.gov.

AUGUST VIDEOS
Darwin has a shortwave radio
DR. KEELING’S CURVE