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John Wilkins is an eternal student, who thinks philosophy of biology is at least as interesting as politics or sport and twice as important. He has a PhD from the University of Melbourne and worked at the University of Queensland, in Australia, before taking up a research fellowship at the University of Sydney. After a varied career, involving factories, gardening, civil service, publishing, graphics, public relations but not, unfortunately for the CV, driving a truck, John finally completed his thesis on species concepts in 2004, which he has worked into two books.

This blog ~~is designed~~ evolved to host any random thoughts that happen to be passing through my forebrain at a given moment. So there will be errors...

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« A VT hero | Main | Basic concepts: Ancestors »

Basic Concepts in Science: A list

Category: Basic Concepts
Posted on: April 18, 2007 5:25 AM, by John S. Wilkins

This is a list of the Basic Concepts posts being put up by Science Bloggers and others. It will be updated and put to the top when new entries are published. If you are not a Scienceblogger, email me (see below) and let me know of your post, or someone else's. If you want suggestions for a topic to write on, just ask.

Sorry for the delay updating - technical difficulties have now been resolved.

Recent additions: Paleomagnetism by Chris Rowan at Highly Allochthonous; The Pharyngula Stage by PZ Myers at Pharyngula

Anyone can add to this series, even if you don't blog on Science Blogs. Email me!

Physics and Astronomy

Energy by Chad Orzel at Uncertain Principles
Fields by Chad Orzel at Uncertain Principles
Force by Chad Orzel at Uncertain Principles
Measurement by Chad Orzel at Uncertain Principles
Entropy by Rob Knop at Galactic Interactions
Redshift by Rob Knop at Galactic Interactions
Understanding Electricity by Scott Aaronson at Shtetl-Optimized
Ohm's Law by Chad Orzel at Uncertain Principles

A shopping list of sought Basics for physics is given here by physics is fundamental at Cocktail Party Physics.

Geology

The Composition of the Earth by Chris Rowan at Highly Allochthonous
Chronology and Stratigraphy by Chris Rowan at Highly Allochthonous
Paleomagnetism by Chris Rowan at Highly Allochthonous

Chemistry

pH by Cat at Lab Cat
Strong and Weak Acids by Cat at Lab Cat
Acids and Bases by Cat at Lab Cat
What is Food Science? by Cat at Lab Cat
Food Chemistry by Cat at Lab Cat
Elements by Janet Stemwedel at Adventures in Ethics and Science
Polar and Non-polar Molecules by Janet Stemwedel at Adventures in Ethics and Science
Intermolecular Forces by Janet Stemwedel at Adventures in Ethics and Science

Biology

Ecology and Environment
What is Ecology? by Jeremy Bruno at The Voltage Gate
Biomes I by Jeremy Bruno at The Voltage Gate
Biomes: Tropical Rain Forest by Jeremy Bruno at The Voltage Gate
Biomes III: Tropical Dry Forest by Jeremy Bruno at The Voltage Gate
Biomes IV: Tropical Savannah by Jeremy Bruno at The Voltage Gate
Biomes V: Deserts by Jeremy Bruno at The Voltage Gate
Biomes VI: Temperate Grassland by Jeremy Bruno at The Voltage Gate
Conservation versus Preservation by Joshua Rosenau at Thoughts from Kansas

Developmental biology

The Pharyngula Stage by PZ Myers at Pharyngula
Gastrulation in Vertebrates by PZ Myers at Pharyngula
Gastrulation in Invertebrates by PZ Myers at Pharyngula
Neurulation by PZ Myers at Pharyngula

Other or multiple topics
Artifacts and Vectors by Ask Dr Science at Discovering Biology in a Digital World
8th Grade Math (Hardy Weinberg, Genetic Variance, Molecules and Phylogenies, Kin) by Razib at Gene Expression
Biological Clock by Bora Zivkovic at A Blog Around the Clock
Anisogamy by Matt, at Behavioral Ecology Blog
Cell migration by Dan, at Migrations
Hearing by Shelley at Retrospectacle
How do we smell? by Sunil at balancing life.
Prions by Shelley at Retrospectacle
Cell Theory by Dan at Migrations
Blood Clotting by Larry Moran at Sandwalk

Teaching resources for biology
Bora Zivkovic at A Blog Around the Clock has a series of lectures as posts that teachers may find useful, his BIO101 speed-course lecture (and lab) notes. Almost none of them cover a very narrow term or concept (some come close):

Historical and social sciences

Pottery in Archeology by CFeagans at Hot Cup of Joe
Cause, Manner and Mechanism of Death [Forensic science] by William the Coroner at Dr Zeus's Forensic Files

Mathematics, Philosophy, Logic and Computer Science

Statistics
Normal Distribution by Mark Chu-Carroll at Good Math, Bad Math
Mean, Median and Mode by Mark Chu-Carroll at Good Math, Bad Math
Standard Deviation by Mark Chu-Carroll at Good Math, Bad Math
Margin of Error by Mark Chu-Carroll at Good Math, Bad Math
Correlation (and Causation, and Random Variables) by Mark Chu-Carroll at Good Math, Bad Math
Binary Search by Mark Chu-Carroll at Good Math, Bad Math

Innumeracy by Mark Chu-Carroll at Good Math, Bad Math

Percentage and percentage points by Kristjan Wager at Pro-Science

Statistics Primer, Part 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 by Echidne of the Snakes
[Unfortunately, each post does not open in a separate window, but the whole thing is accessible from here]

General Mathematics

Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
The Feminist Theory of Science by Zuska, at Thus Spake Zuska
Falsifiable Claims by Janet Stemwedel at Adventures in Ethics and Science
Epistemology by Benjamin Cohen at The Worlds Fair
Theory by John Wilkins at Evolving Thoughts
Introductory texts for philosophy of biology by John Wilkins at Evolving Thoughts
Scientific Method by Rob Knop at Galactic Interactions
Laws and theories by Rob Knop at Galactic Interactions
Likelihood Theory by Mike the Mad Biologist

Medicine and Psychiatry

Introduction to Microbiology and Infectious Disease by Tara C. Smith at Aetiology
Normal flora, Normal Flora 2 by Tara C. Smith at Aetiology
Determining the Cause of Disease (Koch's Postulates) by Sandra Porter at Discovering Biology in a Digital World
Seasonal Affective Disorder by Bora Zivkovic at A Blog Around the Clock
Selection of Antidepressants, Part I, Part 2 Part 3 by Corpus Callosum
Balloons, Stents and Arteries by Burt Humburg at The Panda's Thumb

Learning Science

Learning Styles and Science Labs by Sandra Porter at Discovering Biology in a Digital World

In each case, read the comments too.

I've decided to list these by field and topic and author, respectively (this allows multiple authors to cover one topic, as in Gene).

We don't want this to be a competitor to Wikipedia, but a chatty and useful resource for folk to get into whatever they need to at the start of learning a topic. If you know of older posts of this kind, do let me know by email. My address is john-dot-s-dot-wilkins-at-gmail-dot-com (make the obvious amendments by removing dashes and dots and replacing them with . or @), or leave a comment.

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Comments

Larry Moran (Sandwalk)- Evolution?

Posted by: paul | January 18, 2007 10:41 PM

Actually that was harder to find than I thought. Here is the link:

http://sandwalk.blogspot.com/2007/01/what-is-evolution.html

Posted by: paul | January 18, 2007 10:58 PM

My mistake. Thanks

Posted by: John Wilkins | January 18, 2007 11:11 PM

Larry also had one on the Central Dogma of Molecular Biology

Posted by: coturnix | January 19, 2007 12:53 AM

Thanks for doing this, John. It really makes the whole exercise that much more effective.

Posted by: AndyS | January 21, 2007 12:48 PM

Add Sandra Porter's stuff from yesterday (Gene) and today (DNA Cloning).

Posted by: coturnix | January 22, 2007 09:27 AM

Sorry - sequencing the genome....

Posted by: coturnix | January 22, 2007 09:29 AM

Nitpick:
The "Fields" entry belongs under Chad, not Mark.

Posted by: KeithB | January 23, 2007 06:45 PM

That's no nit! Thanks!

Posted by: John Wilkins | January 23, 2007 07:15 PM

#10

Silly me! I read that as meaning 'The List: A Basic Concept in Science' with references to P*t*r Ny*k*s.

Posted by: Ian H Spedding FCD | January 25, 2007 08:44 AM

#11

If you do call him from the vasty deep, he's all yours.

Posted by: John Wilkins | January 25, 2007 08:58 AM

#12

A basic concept: Anisogamy

Posted by: Matt | January 26, 2007 04:49 PM

#13

Basics: Biological Clock

Posted by: coturnix | January 28, 2007 04:04 AM

#14

I can't lay hands on a post at this moment for this, but Koch's postulates. If no one has one to hand, I can write something this afternoon.

Posted by: Frederick Ross | January 28, 2007 09:40 AM

#15

Hi John,

I found this post through Bora's post on the biological clock.

These 2 posts may be good for the collection, if you want to include links more targeted to lay readers than to scientists.

What is "It" in "Use It or Lose It"?

Brain Fitness Glossary

regards

Posted by: Alvaro | January 28, 2007 03:44 PM

#16

"Current Biological Diversity" post from the series of BIO101 lecture notes has been since re-posted from the old blog to the new and the better URL is: http://scienceblogs.com/clock/2007/01/current_biological_diversity.php

Posted by: coturnix | January 29, 2007 12:40 AM

#17

I don't know if you're accepting podcast episodes for this series, but I've got an episode on the scientific method (basic enough?) here:

http://geekcounterpoint.net/files/GC004.html

Lorne

Posted by: Lorne Ipsum | January 29, 2007 01:41 PM

#18

Oh, heck -- and while I'm at it, here are some others:

The fossil record -- http://geekcounterpoint.net/files/GC014.html

Stem cells -- http://geekcounterpoint.net/files/GC018.html

Special relativity -- http://geekcounterpoint.net/files/GC022.html

General relativity -- http://geekcounterpoint.net/files/GC027.html

Quantum mechanics -- http://geekcounterpoint.net/files/GC033.html

Climate Change 101 -- http://geekcounterpoint.net/files/GC045.html

Lorne

Posted by: Lorne Ipsum | January 29, 2007 01:49 PM

#19

I have noticed that Echidne's Statistics primer can be reached more easily from her website:

http://www.echidne-of-the-snakes.com/

Click on Statistics primer at the left, and you get the whole thing.

Posted by: paul | January 30, 2007 10:22 AM

#20

I added the link, but that's a damned messy bit of formatting.

Posted by: John Wilkins | January 30, 2007 10:33 PM

#21

I can't lay hands on a post at this moment for this, but Koch's postulates. If no one has one to hand, I can write something this afternoon.

Frederick, did you do this? If not, I'd love to write one up on this...

Posted by: Tara C. Smith | February 2, 2007 12:00 AM

#22

Is this acceptable:
http://hotcupofjoe.blogspot.com/2007/01/basic-concepts-pottery-in.html

Posted by: coturnix | February 2, 2007 01:19 AM

#23

Yes it is, thanks.

Posted by: John Wilkins | February 2, 2007 07:33 AM

#24

A wiki may be the way to go. That will let people add their own posts and save you some work.

I converted your HTML to wiki (using this tool), then uploaded it to two different wikispaces

http://basicconcepts.wikispaces.com/
http://basicconcepts.pbwiki.com/

I'm not sure if they're exactly what you're looking for - they both lack some styling options and have text ads. In any case, I figured I'd upload it to both and let you guys decide. If anyone has a better recommendation for wiki hosting, it's easy to copy and paste the content over someplace new.

Posted by: Chris Miller | February 2, 2007 02:43 PM

#25

And now appearing: What is a vector? in three different languages, too! (physics, epidemiology, & molecular biology)

http://scienceblogs.com/digitalbio/2007/02/biology_as_a_second_language_w.php

Posted by: Sandra Porter | February 2, 2007 04:31 PM

#26

Great post.

Posted by: Steven | February 3, 2007 10:27 PM

#27

I have a primer about Modular arithmetic.

Posted by: Alon Levy | February 3, 2007 11:14 PM

#28

John,

Since your list of links keeps growing and growing (and growing... and growing...), maybe it deserves a site of its own. I kind of cringe suggesting this (since deleting link spam could turn into a full time job for somebody), but maybe a wiki-style site for science tutorials wouldn't be such a bad thing all-in-all... Rather than have to host tutorials all over the place, people could just volunteer to maintain their own sections of the wiki.

Sam

Posted by: Sam Wise | February 5, 2007 10:20 PM

#29

Sam, I am aware of a move at our Masters and Overlords to set this up as a separate blog. When the legal issues (copyright permissions) and formatting have been sorted, I'll announce it here. I'll continue to be involved.

Posted by: John Wilkins | February 7, 2007 11:54 PM

#30

I've been meaning to stop by and thank you and the rest of the SciBlings for putting this together. I think it's going to be an invaluable resource -- I've already wiled away several hours perusing some of the posts -- and once there's a permanent home, I'll be placing a permanent link on my own blog.

Kudos to all, but especially John for overseeing the nuts and bolts...

Posted by: Jennifer Ouellette | February 12, 2007 06:06 PM

#31

Hmm, if you fancy a fun read, go through Bad Science and pick something out. For example, on The Prosecutor's Fallacy.

Hmmm, a bit of cross-fertilisation might be required. Back soon.

Bob

Posted by: Bob O'H | February 13, 2007 01:23 AM

#32

I'd be interested in learning how scientists are able to trace a particular protein back to its gene. In other words, once a biochemist notices that something cool is going on in a cell, how does she discover which protein is doing this interesting task. And once she's isolated the protein, how does she find it in the genome? I assume that there is a clear and simple was to explain this, but I'm not sure who's blog to direct it to.

Posted by: Matt | February 19, 2007 11:57 PM

#33

Matt, I passed your question on to some folks. If anything comes of it, I'll announce it here.

Posted by: John Wilkins | February 20, 2007 12:03 AM

#34

Matt, I have been referred to this post at Science Creative Quarterly, as a partial answer to your question.

Posted by: John Wilkins | February 20, 2007 08:44 PM

#35

'The fraud of homeopathy' by Shalini at Scientia Natura:

http://scientianatura.blogspot.com/2006/10/fraud-of-homeopathy.html

Posted by: joshua chong | February 21, 2007 04:41 AM

#36

A nice piece, but not an introduction of a basic science concept, I'm afraid. I'm being editorial and making an executive decision.

Posted by: John Wilkins | February 21, 2007 05:01 AM

#37

Thanks for the referral John, it certainly addresses part of my question. I guess my question is more broad...not just how is an unidentified protein characterized, but how is a specific action in the cell traced back to it's protein? You've already been very helpful, hopefully some other ScienceBlogger will step up to the plate ;-)

Posted by: Matt | February 21, 2007 11:31 PM

#38

Here's a more in-depth consideration of the definition of a gene:

http://evolutionlist.blogspot.com/2006/10/new-definitions-of-gene.html

Posted by: Allen MacNeill | February 27, 2007 08:48 AM

#39

Could I suggest making a little adjustment to your taxonomy? I think you're accumulating enough posts under the heading "Mathematics, Philosophy, Logic and Computer Science" to justify splitting math, philosophy and comp sci into separate headings (and logic posts could go into any of those three depending on the particular slant of the post).

Some of Mark's posts that are currently listed under General Math are probably better categorized as comp sci: Recursion, Turing Machine, The Halting Problem, and Algorithm, while his Sets post is more like General Math.

Not that I would want try to micromanage your great work here. I can feel my hair getting pointy already.

Posted by: Kurt | February 28, 2007 09:34 AM

#40

Yes, it is getting unmanageable, isn't it? I don't quite know how to set it all out. And it's only going to get worse. I think I may split the post into one for each science, and just link to them from the Basic Concepts main post.

Go all pointy haired. I can take it. I have worked for worse managers in my time...

Posted by: John Wilkins | February 28, 2007 09:37 AM

#41

I don't know if this is too basic, but I just wrote a post on the difference between percentage and percentage points.

Posted by: Kristjan Wager | March 5, 2007 02:17 PM

#42

Where is a guide to Plate Tectonics? and lots of other earth science concepts?

Posted by: Bonnie | March 5, 2007 03:15 PM

#43

One minor correction - it's Wager as in the English word, not Wagner was the German surname. Common mistake.

Posted by: Kristjan Wager | March 6, 2007 12:48 AM

#44

Duly corrected. I was being so careful to spell your first name right...

Posted by: John Wilkins | March 6, 2007 02:26 AM

#45

And don't think I don't appreciate that. Once I renewed my passport, they had spelled my first name wrong *sigh*

Posted by: Kristjan Wager | March 6, 2007 05:56 AM

#46

How big do you think this list will eventually? And in some sense is this project asymptotically converging on the same end result as (a subset of) wikipedia?

I guess these little blurbs are single-authored and presumed to be authored by professionals or expert amateurs in the subject, which is different. But the user experience is pretty close.

Maybe this collection is sufficiently different to be separate from wikipedia, but it could still stand to have its own wiki-like organization, so that, for instance, a not-so-basic concept like anisogamy could point to the more-basic concepts like "sexual reproduction" and "evolutionary stable strategy".

Posted by: mtraven | March 8, 2007 05:31 PM

#47

It is reaching critical mass, and we are going to have to do something about organisation soon. I think it will need to be a separate site, with main entries for each subject topic, linking to the relevant posts, all linked from a "sticky" post at the top.

It will take some time to set up properly, so I'll have to ruminate upon it. Any suggestions are welcomed here, particularly if they are on how to arrange the material.

Posted by: John Wilkins | March 8, 2007 05:40 PM

#48

Via "Primitive" (under Evolution and Phylogenetics) I just get to "Page Not Found"

Posted by: Enigman | March 10, 2007 05:17 AM

#49

Fixed now.

Posted by: John Wilkins | March 10, 2007 06:16 AM

#50

Just a small note about my entry - I thought it was too basic to be relevant, but I have noticed that I get a few visits per day through google searches, so it must have hit a needed niche.

In other words, I would warn against staying away from a topic, just because it might appear too basic - it might be relevant to someone out there.

Posted by: Kristjan Wager | March 11, 2007 04:26 PM

#51

You know you've been reading Scienceblogs too much when...

on seeing "Basics: Guidelines for Using a Cellphone Abroad" as most e-mailed in the New York Times site, you think "John Wilkins is stretching it a bit, isn't he?"

Posted by: jim | March 20, 2007 04:54 AM

#52

John,
Thanks for the mention (Metric System under General Math). For the record though, I wrote it (not Doc Bushwell). The confusion is understandable as ours is a three-way blog.

Posted by: Jim | March 22, 2007 12:35 PM

#53

Some ideas for subjects

1. Occam's Razor.
2. Symmetry and Laws of conservation.
3. Computability
4. Godel's theorem

Nick

Posted by: Nick | March 30, 2007 04:33 AM

#54

Topic Proposal

The Unavoidability of Heirarchy in a Social Group
or, The Fallacy of Perfect Equality

Posted by: Alan Kellogg | April 7, 2007 06:08 AM

#55

Question: Have you (the Sciencebloggers) considered compiling these into a series of books? I say series, because these are aimed at different education levels.

Posted by: Craig Helfgott | April 20, 2007 03:56 PM

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