Three Penn State professors joined more than 200 other scientists around the country in signing a statement defending the importance of teaching evolution in public schools -- and all of the signatories are named Steve, or some variation of that name.

The National Center for Science Education (NCSE), a nonprofit organization that supports the teaching of evolution, sponsored "Project Steve" as a way of counteracting recent efforts by creationists to compile lists of people who oppose the evolution theory, said Stephen Schaeffer, associate professor of biology.

Schaeffer, who has a doctorate in genetics from the University of Georgia; Stephen Beckerman, who has a doctorate in anthropology from the University of New Mexico; and Stephanie Fullerton, who has a doctorate in human population genetics from Oxford University, recently signed the statement, which was presented Sunday at the annual convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Denver.

"Creationist groups signed a statement saying that evolution is not valid, but it was mostly signed by engineers, physicists and [the like] -- mostly non-biologists," Schaeffer said. "In response, Project Steve got [mostly] biologists from outstanding universities in the country supporting the teaching of evolution in classrooms."

But what's so special about the name Steve?

"[The NCSE] thought it would be clever to pick a name that wasn't extremely common -- not John or Joe -- but was very well-known," said Beckerman, associate professor of anthropology.

According to data from the U.S. Census, approximately 1 percent of U.S. residents are named some derivative of the name Steve. By only having Steves (as well as Stevens, Stephens, Stephanies, and Stefans) endorse the statement, the NCSE made the point that all of the signatories constituted only about 1 percent of scientists who, given the opportunity, would have endorsed it.

Therefore, since 225 Steves have signed the statement so far, it essentially could mean that at least 22,500 scientists would sign it if it was open to anyone.

"It's light-hearted, but with a point," said Fullerton, post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Anthropology. "It's like saying, 'If we could come up with over 200 people just named Steve, imagine how many we would have gotten to sign [if anyone could have signed it].' "

The name Steve was also chosen to honor Stephen Jay Gould, the Harvard professor and evolutionary biologist who died last summer, Schaeffer said.

Fullerton said Project Steve shows that many credible scientists today think evolution is a valid theory that is integral to science education.

"All of us who signed on to this believe that evolution is a legitimate scientific idea that should be taught in public schools," she said.

Schaeffer said the project has allowed evolutionists to voice their beliefs.

"Most of the time we [evolutionists] lurk in the background and don't respond to scientific arguments," Schaeffer said. "Nowhere else do you see people being scrutinized as in the historical sciences."

He said that evolutionists try to reconstruct history based on assumptions about how DNA mutates, but controversy arises when anti-evolutionists, who often are not experts in fields related to the theory, argue that it is incorrect to assume DNA does mutate. This issue is highly debated, and is one about that both sides feel strongly about.

"It's not just a science, it's a religion," he said.

Beckerman said he agreed to sign the statement when he received e-mail from NCSE asking for his support against the most recent creationist "scheme" to circulate signed statements opposing the evolution theory.

"Anti-evolutionists will find some scientist somewhere who says he doesn't believe in evolution," he said. "It may be some desperate old man looking for attention. Now if one of these kooks says it, [evolutionists] can say, 'What about all those Steves?' "