Poll of the Week - Chicken vs. Egg

This has always been a fascinating question to me:

(In regards to evolution)
Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Now I have several thoughts on this but I will introduce the poll first and comment on what I think it is and why next week. Please make comments and discussion below.

Poll of the Week - Evolution

I was recently reading an article (Fichter et al., 2010) which stated that when you see the word evolution the majority of people immediately think about biological evolution (Darwinian) and they don't think of the evolution of other things like the evolution of the Earth or the evolution of various systems. In general, evolution just means "change over time". It is commonly referred to the natural selection routine of Darwin but most geologists wouldn't bat an eye at using the term in other contexts like how the surface of the Earth has evolved through time.

So the poll of the week is this, when you see the word evolution, what do you think of initially? I honestly only think of biological evolution but I'm curious to see what other people think of.

Please make any comments or discussion in the comments section.



Fichter, L.S., Pyle, E.J., and Whitmeyer, S.J., 2010, Expanding evolutionary theory beyond Darwinism with elaborating, self-organizing, and fractionating complex evolutionary systems: Journal of Geoscience Education, v. 58, p. 58-64.

Poll of the Week - Global Warming

I was having a conversation with my friend the other day where when I stated "Global Warming" and he promptly corrected me to be "Global Climate Change".

So I was wondering what term do people prefer. I think that Global Warming is a more than accurate term for what is going on in our climate today. I feel that in general we are responsible for increased CO2 in the atmosphere causing a warming effect on the planet raising our global temperature. Yes the overall climate is changing, but that term was more made up for the fact that people whined that it was still cold in the winter. Also, Global Warming has been around for a while. It is catchy (dare I say Buzz Word), and people understand (more or less) the general connotations of it. Whereas Global Climate Change is not as well known and it has an air of mystery about it, where the lay-person probably would not understand its meaning.

Therefore I wanted to instigate a poll of geologists to see what you prefer. Please click on the term you best feel should be used. This is the first of my "Poll of the Week" segment, and we will see how well this is taken to see if I do anymore.

Please use the comment section to discuss/debate anything your selection.