Etiket science

Tunc KaracaySerdar Cevher The father of the evolution theory, 19th Century British scientist, Charles Darwin sparked an all out political fight in Turkey on the 200th anniversary of his birth. Darwin hit the headlines when, Prof. Omer Cebeci, the vice-chairman of Turkey’s Scientific and Technological Research Council (TUBITAK) stopped the printing of the March issue of the council’s monthly magazine Bilim ve Teknik (Science and Technology) at the very last moment and ordered the change of the cover story which was dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the British scientist. United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has declared 2009 as the year marking the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth and 150th anniversary of the publication of his famous work “On the Origin of Species.” While the opponents of the government pointed out to the move as yet another evidence of the onslaught of political Islam, which is not comfortable with Darwin’s theory that homo sapiens evolved from other forms of life, the administration of TUBITAK argued that the change of the cover story was simply due to editor’s failure to get proper authorization for its publication. TUBITAK was founded in 1963 as self-governing body to promote scientific and technical research. Its magazine has been in publication more than 40 years with a very wide readership. The magazine has been publishing articles on various subjects such as progresses about human health, life in space, travel in time, solar energy and even Darwin’s evolution theory. “Bilim ve Teknik” came out in March with a cover story on global warming and climate change. According to press reports Dr. Cigdem Atakuman was fired from her job as the director of the magazine because she failed to get authorization from the council for the cover story on Darwin. TUBITAK which was founded as […]