Mike Dunford is a graduate student in the Department of Zoology at the University of Hawaii, Manoa, where he studies evolution. He's also a contributer to The Pandas Thumb. As is the case with everyone else here, his opinions are his own, and do not necessarily represent those of any organization he is affiliated with.
February 29, 2008
Category: Biology
I took the picture below at Ka'ena Point, Oahu in January of 2006. In this picture, there are two Hawaiian Monk Seals. (They can be hard to spot, so I've marked the two animals in a second version of...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 9:57 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 28, 2008
Category: Biology
On Tuesday, I posted a "can you identify this animal" quiz. I put a picture of an animal up, along with some information about it. The photograph was taken with the animal in captivity, at a location that was...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 9:08 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 26, 2008
Category: Biology
Here's a picture of an animal that I took (and played around with) a few years ago. The DNA sequence that's superimposed over the picture came from that individual, so you can probably use it to figure out what...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 5:27 PM • 18 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 25, 2008
Category: Misc Science
Wilkins just tagged me with one of those blog meme things. Apparently, he thinks that I've nothing better to do with my time (and, unfortunately, he's totally correct about that). This particular meme involves historical figures. The rules are...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 4:56 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 21, 2008
Category: Medicine
A single person contracted an infectious disease in Switzerland sometime during the week before January 15th. Within 10 days, new cases of the disease had been identified in San DIego. Less than two weeks later, the disease was known...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 11:21 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 20, 2008
Category: Science and Politics
If you're looking for a better explanation of why it would be good for the presidential candidates to have a debate on science-related topics, the ScienceDebate now has a number of videos available where knowledgeable people talk about why...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 9:47 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 18, 2008
Category: Science and Politics
Suppose that you are taking a walk through the hills above a town, and you reach the foot of a dam. There's a crack in the dam, and it's getting wider. You run back down to the town, and...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 8:38 PM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 15, 2008
Category: Biology
Last Thursday, I presented some data about three populations of an insect and asked you to try and figure out how many species scientists think these populations should be grouped into. On Monday, I added data from two more...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 12:17 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 13, 2008
Category: Accidental
The Daily Mail has a picture of the massive crucifix statue in Rio getting hit by lightning. And it happened on a Sunday, no less. (ht; Shakesville)...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 4:42 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Presidential
There were three more Presidential primaries yesterday - Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC. Turnout in all three of them was high yesterday, at least on the Democratic side. The numbers for all three areas are good, but I'm most...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 1:52 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 12, 2008
Category: War and Peace
it's sometimes worth remembering that he was also a wartime Republican President. With that - and current events - in mind, here's something from a letter Lincoln wrote to a friend of his while he was a Congressman. The letter details the reasons for his opposition to the Mexican-American war:
Posted by Mike Dunford at 5:10 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Misc
On at least one occasion, Charles Darwin took the time to share some of the little details involved in conducting geological fieldwork. He was one of a number of noted scientists who contributed to a book that was edited...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 4:06 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Misc
Adam Sedgwick was one of the leading geologists of Darwin's time, and was a friend and former teacher of Darwin. After reading Origin of Species, he wrote a letter to Darwin expressing his disappointment with the book. In his...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 11:22 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Misc
It's the 199th birthday of two extraordinary people: Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin. One was extremely controversial when he was alive; the other has become more controversial since he died. In honor of the two birthdays, I'll be posting...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 1:54 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 11, 2008
Category: Public Perception of Science
I'm not sure that King and Nisbet are wrong about the "New Atheism". I'm not sure that they're right, either. What I am sure of is this: Nisbet should not have set up this panel without including at least a token "New Atheist". His decision to exclude them was not collegial, it was not respectful, and it certainly was not nice.
Posted by Mike Dunford at 8:59 PM • 18 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Biology
On Thursday, I presented a species problem taken from a post over at my old blog. I presented data from experimental matings that were carried out among three insect populations, added a little bit of information about the appearance,...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 3:16 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: "Supporting" the Troops
After listening to the NPR stories, and (more importantly) reading the documentary evidence they presented, I think that their report clearly illuminates some serious problems with the care of wounded troops. These problems are serious. They need to be addressed very quickly. But they're not necessarily the same problems that NPR decided to focus the bulk of their attention on.
Posted by Mike Dunford at 11:55 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 7, 2008
Category: Biology
One of the jobs associated with taxonomy and systematics involves trying to figure out whether or not two different populations of organisms should be considered to be part of the same species. Sometimes this is an easy job - it's pretty clear, for example, that polar bears and penguins are very different sorts of thing. Other times, it's a very hard job. The example I'm going to give you in this post is a difficult case, but a real one. I'll give you the details, and you can take your best stab at the question. On Monday, I'll tell you what the "official" view is.
Posted by Mike Dunford at 10:32 AM • 5 Comments •
February 6, 2008
Category: Moral Flexibility
We're now into the third day of the brouhaha that was sparked by Casey Luskin's misuse of the "Blogging About Peer-Reviewed Research" icon. Casey posted a few responses to criticisms in the discussion thread over at the BPR3 blog,...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 11:03 PM • 14 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Presidential
Is the party. Again. In every single state that had a primary on Super Tuesday, Democratic turnout was up from 2004. The details are below the fold, and they're pretty cool to look at. (Update 1: I've started to...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 3:18 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Misc
Tangled Bank #98 is now available at The Quintessence of Dust. Read and Enjoy....
Posted by Mike Dunford at 12:34 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 5, 2008
Category: Religion in Politics
It looks like there's definitely going to be a little bit of good political news for everyone tonight - a statement released by leading theocon James Dobson:...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 5:45 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Moral Flexibility
Yesterday, I wrote a post about Casey Luskin's misuse of the ResearchBlogging.org "Blogging about Peer-Reviewed Research" icon. Today, Casey removed the icon from his post, and provided an explanation for his actions. I'm glad that he decided to cease...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 3:33 PM • 31 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Accidental
It's Super Tuesday, but the primaries aren't the only political action in town. My kids came up with an election of their own. They created, and are both running for, the position of "President of the House." Both of...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 9:59 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
February 4, 2008
Category: Anti-Evolutionism
Casey Luskin has a post up over at the Discovery Institute's website that discusses an article that was recently published in PLoS Biology. The post itself is nothing particularly remarkable - Casey takes a paper that says that current...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 2:50 PM • 35 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Do Something
Over the weekend, ScienceBlogs was treated to a view of how at least one European views American politics. Archaeologist Martin Rundkvist looked at our spectrum of political belief and compared it to normal politics in his native Sweden. From...
Posted by Mike Dunford at 10:41 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
