Editorial

Welcome to the second installment of Evolution: Education and Outreach! It has been a pleasure to assemble this issue as we watched Issue #1 debut to great success in both its print and electronic forms. The journal officially launched at the conference of the National Association of Biology Teachers in November, where over two thousand copies were given out in a matter of hours. Since then, there have been approximately 10,000 downloads of the free on-line version (available at www.springer.com/12052). It is wonderful to see the work of our contributing authors disseminated so widely, and we hope this journal continues to be a useful tool for educators and a meaningful contributor to the understanding of evolution worldwide.

We are planning a number of special issues of Evolution: Education and Outreach for the future. Next issue, guest-edited by Dr. T. Ryan Gregory, will be devoted to the evolution of the eye and the question of the evolution of complexity. We are also planning an issue devoted to Charles Darwin to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the naturalist’s birth. For this, we will team up with our “sister” journal Evolutionary Biology for a doubly intense exploration of Darwin, his work, and his continued relevance in the twenty-first century. To do this, we would like to hear teacher and student responses to the question “Why is Darwin relevant in the 21st Century?” We will publish a selection of the best contributions on this subject that we receive. Please upload your thoughts on our Editorial Manager site! (Instructions for authors are available at www.springer.com/12052) Potential authors should also see the advertisement in this issue discussing our plans to award prizes for contributions to Evolution: Education and Outreach.

Submissions for the journal have increased since our November launch, but we are always looking for more. Please send us your manuscripts—be they lesson plans, curricula, personal reflections, or scientific papers on aspects of evolutionary biology. We would also like to hear from our readers personally. Send us your thoughts, questions, responses to articles, or personal experiences teaching evolution for us to publish in a letters section in future issues. Whether you are a student, a teacher, or a PhD in evolutionary sciences, Evolution: Education and Outreach is quickly becoming the place to be seen and heard!

Thank you for your interest in Evolution: Education and Outreach and for promoting the teaching and understanding of the principles of science. Keep up the good work, and keep those submissions coming!

Finally, special thanks are in order for Dr. Adam Goldstein, who acted as guest editor for this issue. Dr. Goldstein’s following editorial highlights the contents of this issue and some plans for expanding our content in the future. Great job, Adam; thank you for your hard work!