New Scientist reports from a survey from Pennsylvania State University that around 12% say they teach creationism or intelligent design as a “valid, scientific alternative to Darwinian explanations for the origin of species”.

Ed Humes’ Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion and the Battle for America’s Soul is now out in paperback and californiaauthors.com is holding a drawing to celebrate. Two lucky winners will get an autographed copy of Humes’ critically acclaimed book on the Dover, PA creationism case. Visit CaliforniaAuthors.com for details. Drawing ends on Friday, February 22.

The Washington Post review called it “gripping.” From the WP:

In 2004, when the Dover, Penn., school board voted to require biology classes to use a supplemental textbook that promoted the theory of intelligent design rather than evolution, the conflict that erupted was about far more than semantics. As Edward Humes describes in this lively and thoughtful book, Dover — like Dayton, Tenn., during the 1925 Scopes “Monkey Trial” — became a proving ground for clashing beliefs about the origins of life and constitutional questions about the separation of church and state.

Learn more about Monkey Girl at edwardhumes.com or at the DYD bookstore.

Scientific American looks at the work of scientists searching for the God-spot in the brain. They’re using various imaging and stimulation devices to study how the brain generates religious experiences. My favorite: The God Helmet. From the article:

So Persinger created the “God helmet,” which generates weak electromagnetic fields and focuses them on particular regions of the brain’s surface. In a series of studies conducted over the past several decades, Persinger and his team have trained their device on the temporal lobes of hundreds of people. In doing so, the researchers induced in most of them the experience of a sensed presence—a feeling that someone (or a spirit) is in the room when no one, in fact, is—or of a profound state of cosmic bliss that reveals a universal truth. During the three-minute bursts of stimulation, the affected subjects translated this perception of the divine into their own cultural and religious language—terming it God, Buddha, a benevolent presence or the wonder of the universe.

That’s quite a hat. Read more here. [thanks Val]

In a speech last week on the Sputnik anniversary, Hillary Clinton vowed — if elected — to end President Bush’s war on science, rescind his restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research and make sure government researchers “no longer place ideology ahead of evidence.” [Washington Times]. Scientists applaud and post picture galleries.