PZ Myers

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PZ Myers
PZ Myers
Born	March 9, 1957 (1957-03-09) (age 51)
Residence	United States
Fields	Evolutionary developmental biology
Institutions	University of Minnesota

Paul Zachary "PZ" Myers (born March 9, 1957) is an American biology professor at the University of Minnesota Morris (UMM) and the author of the science blog Pharyngula. He is currently an associate professor of biology at UMM,^[1] works with zebrafish in the field of evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo), and also cultivates an interest in cephalopods. He is a public critic of intelligent design (ID) and of the creationist movement in general, and is an activist in the American creation-evolution controversy.

1 Early life
2 Education and activitism
3 Post-graduate career
4 Internet involvement
- 4.1 Pharyngula
5 Interview and screening of Expelled
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Early life

Myers was born March 9, 1957, the eldest of six children in Kent, Washington. He was named "Paul Zachary", after his grandfather, but preferred the initials PZ to being called "Little Paul." He claims to have been a "science geek" from an early age, gaining an interest in zoology and marine biology from studying the insides of fish while on fishing trips with his father.

Myers was raised as a Christian. Prior to his confirmation, Myers experienced a change of heart, "I started thinking, you know, I don't believe a word of this".^[2] Now an atheist, Myers comments widely on his blog about science, education, atheism and religion.^[3]

[edit] Education and activitism

In 1975, Myers set off to DePauw University in Indiana on a full scholarship. However, he returned the next year after his father suffered a heart attack. He then attended University of Washington in 1979 to receive a Bachelor of Science in zoology. He drifted away from this field toward evolutionary developmental biology and obtained a PhD in Biology from the University of Oregon.

A self-avowed "godless liberal"^[4] and outspoken atheist, he is a vocal skeptic of all forms of religion, superstition, spirituality and pseudoscience. He is quoted as having "nothing but contempt for ID" arguing that it is "fundamentally dishonest."^[2]

Asteroid 153298 Paulmyers is named in his honor.^[5]

[edit] Post-graduate career

Myers has taught and researched at the University of Oregon, the University of Utah and Temple University. He is currently an associate professor of biology at the University of Minnesota's Morris campus. He is a member of the group Minnesota Citizens for Science Education.

[edit] Internet involvement

Myers was an early user of internet technology. On USENET user groups, forums, and web sites such as talk.origins, he became involved in scientific debates, particularly those surrounding the growing creationist movement in the United States. He was a founding member of The Panda's Thumb, and in June 2002 he created his own Web site and blog, Pharyngula.org. Since late 2005 he has been a contributor to Ask A Biologist, a science education website.

[edit] Pharyngula

Main article: Pharyngula (blog)

Pharyngula is Myers' personal weblog, promoted as "Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal"^[4]. The topics Myers covers are eclectic, delving into the non-scientific as well as scientific. It has become particularly well-known for criticism of intelligent design and has been ranked as the third-most-read blog maintained by a Minnesotan. Pharyngula won the 2005 Koufax Award for Best Expert Blog. The science journal Nature listed Pharyngula as the top-ranked blog written by a scientist.^[6]

According to Alexa.com, Pharyngula.org was started on June 19, 2002.^[7] It started out as an experiment in writing instruction for a class. Students were required to submit mini-essays to be published online. After the project was finished, Myers still had the web-publishing software, and started to use it himself. The blog is named after his favourite stage in embryonic development, the pharyngula stage. Pharyngula moved to hosting at ScienceBlogs, a project of Seed Magazine, in 2005.

On Pharyngula, Myers has often criticized the Discovery Institute, Answers in Genesis, and other creationist websites, as well as offering criticisms of Intelligent Design, asserting that its claims are pseudoscientific. Other posts on Pharyngula cover a broad variety of topics that interest Myers. These include cephalopods; science; religion; local, national and international politics, particularly those involving science and/or education; superstition; and evolutionary developmental biology.

On his blog in 2007, Myers reviewed Stuart Pivar's book Lifecode, which argues that self-organization at the embryonic and fetal determines the development and final structure of organisms.^[8]^[9]^[10] Myers reviewed the book negatively, stating that the diagrams and ideas in the book arose from Pivar's imagination and had no basis in actual evidence. After some discussion in the comments threads of Pharyngula, Pivar sued Myers for libel.^[8]^[10] Within a week Pivar withdrew the lawsuit, stating that "the real issue got sidelined" and that his problem was more with Seed Media Group.^[11]

[edit] Interview and screening of Expelled

In April 2007 Myers was interviewed for a documentary titled "Crossroads," purportedly about science and religion.^[12] However in Fall 2007, executive producer Mark Mathis announced that the movie was Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed about "censorship" of intelligent design supporters.^[13] Regarding the discrepancy of focus Myers wrote, "I mean, seriously, not telling one of the sides in a debate about what the subject might be and then leading him around randomly to various topics, with the intent of later editing it down to the parts that just make the points you want, is the video version of quote-mining and is fundamentally dishonest."^[14]

On March 20, 2008, Myers was denied entry into a screening of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed at the Mall of America in Minneapolis. He was waiting with his family and guests to attend a private screening after having reserved seats for himself and guests under his own name using the freely available online procedure set up by the film's promoters. Shortly before the film started, a security guard told him that the producer Mark Mathis had instructed that Myers be removed from the premises. After telling his family of this, Myers went to a nearby Apple store and blogged about his amusement that they had expelled him, but allowed his guest that evening, British biologist and high-profile critic of creationism Richard Dawkins, in to see the film.^[15] In a question and answer session at the end of the film Dawkins asked why Myers had been excluded, and later said that "if anyone had a right to see the film, it was [Myers]. The incompetence, on a public relations level, is beyond belief."^[16] The saga has been described by Dawkins as "an incredible piece of inept public relations" by the film's producers.^[17]