One of the biggest difficulties in understanding and acceptance of evolutionary biology is the eye.  It isn't just detractors who are trying to protect a sectarian viewpoint, it is genuinely curious people, smart people, who don't get it because it isn't easy. Science is difficult and, inside science, evolution is difficult. We've even had prominent biologists here submit the idea that perhaps, given its difficulty, evolution might be better reserved for college students, the same way quantum mechanics is reserved in physics and surgery is reserved for actual doctors even though high school students learn anatomy.

Numerical models had a tough decade to start off the 2000s.  A field that had shown itself to be both scientific and applied in areas like semiconductor physics was extrapolated out to cultural issues and economics and successfully predicted...nothing.

A new model created by an international research group claims they can now predict which European countries are more likely to become united or which are more likely to break up. It does so by not only considering demographic and economic criteria but also culture and genetics.

What?  Europe? No predicting the Arab Spring?  No riots in China?