John Kwok has called my attention to the appearance of a special “Darwin” issue of the journal Evolution: Education and Outreach. It’s free, and you can find it here. Lots of interesting stuff, including an article by the late Mike Majerus on industrial melanism in the peppered moth (as you may know, Mike died–way too young–about two weeks ago).

Eugenie Scott and Glenn Branch from The National Center for Science Education also have a piece called “Don’t call it Darwinism,” which I must say makes some strong arguments for replacing the term with “evolutionary biology.” They give examples of how creationists have used “Darwinism” as a perjorative for the field, includng replacing “evolutionary biologist” with “Darwinist” in their writings. Good points, but I’m still not convinced. I doubt that creationism would retreat an inch if we all started saying “evolutionary biology” instead. I think it’s far more important to teach people what “Darwinism” is than to quibble endlessly about the term (Olivia Judson also argued against “Darwinism” in the NYT last year). Still, do read Genie and Glenn’s article and see what you think.