New Mexican wins "Stick Science" contest

Via Bad Astronomer.

The first place entry for the Florida Science Stick Science competition is Richard Korzekwa from Los Alamos, New Mexico.

The contest challenged people to put public misunderstanding of science into an easy-to-understand cartoon -- using only stick figures (kinda like XKCD, except for the "easy to understand" part).

And why?

Public understanding of science, especially biology/evolution, is horribly low. Folks who push antievolution efforts on local, state and national stages prey on that weakness. One such gap in knowledge is the use of the word "theory." When the general public uses the word, it means one thing; when a scientist uses the word, it usually means something completely different. We see this a lot when antievolution folks claim that "evolution is only a theory." The news media mistakenly runs intelligent design and evolution alongside as two competing theories in their stories and accompanying graphics. Lawmakers take advantage of this when proposing antievolution legislation.

Besides the misuse of the word theory, antievolution efforts rely on false arguments such as gaps in the fossil record, the ever changing nature of science, and scientists being afraid of honest critical analysis.

You can see Korzekwa's winning entry -- about evolution, of course -- here.