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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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« 148 years ago today | Main | Rudd, religion, and the body politic in Australia »

Basic Concepts in Science: A list

Category: Basic Concepts
Posted on: November 24, 2007 2:11 PM, 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.

Recent additions:

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

Physics and Astronomy

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

Geology

Skepchick has a series of articles on the origins of the earth:

Chemistry

Biology

Genes and Genomes

Evolution and Phylogenetics

Ecology and Environment

Developmental biology

Other or multiple topics

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

Mathematics, Philosophy, Logic and Computer Science

Statistics

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

Logic and Computability

Philosophy, Philosophy of Science

Medicine and Psychiatry

Learning Science

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

#1

Larry Moran (Sandwalk)- Evolution?

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

#2

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

#3

My mistake. Thanks

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

#4

Larry also had one on the Central Dogma of Molecular Biology

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

#5

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

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

#6

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

Posted by: coturnix | January 22, 2007 9:27 AM

#7

Sorry - sequencing the genome....

Posted by: coturnix | January 22, 2007 9:29 AM

#8

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

Posted by: KeithB | January 23, 2007 6:45 PM

#9

That's no nit! Thanks!

Posted by: John Wilkins | January 23, 2007 7:15 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 8:44 AM

#11

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

Posted by: John Wilkins | January 25, 2007 8:58 AM

#12

A basic concept: Anisogamy

Posted by: Matt | January 26, 2007 4:49 PM

#13

Basics: Biological Clock

Posted by: coturnix | January 28, 2007 4:04 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 9:40 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 3:44 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 1:41 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 1:49 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 1:19 AM

#23

Yes it is, thanks.

Posted by: John Wilkins | February 2, 2007 7:33 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 2:43 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 4:31 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 6:06 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 1:23 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 8:44 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 4:41 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 5:01 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 8:48 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 9:34 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 9:37 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 2:17 PM

#42

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

Posted by: Bonnie | March 5, 2007 3:15 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 2:26 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 5:56 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 5:31 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 5:40 PM

#48

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

Posted by: Enigman | March 10, 2007 5:17 AM

#49

Fixed now.

Posted by: John Wilkins | March 10, 2007 6:16 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 4:26 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 4:54 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 4:33 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 6:08 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 3:56 PM

#56

Well, you could compile them in a Sciencebloggers wikimedia site, a sort of Citizendium or Scholarpedia, but written by scientists who a.) know how to write expressively and eloquently and b.) know how to express ideas over t'internet.

A Basic Ideas in Science Wiki wouldn't need excessive nonsense articles about Knuckles the Echidna and soforth, nor would it need to go beyond basic ideas, but it might require some bloggers to contribute some extra articles to really flesh the idea out and give it breadth.

Or is this idea one of diabolical psychoticism? I know a good shrink, if you think it might help...

Posted by: Magpie | May 12, 2007 8:02 PM

#57

Here's my crack at the scientific method:
http://www.computernewbie.info/wheatdogg/2007/03/08/in-which-i-take-up-a-challenge/

Posted by: wheatdogg | May 26, 2007 12:31 AM

#58

I honestly think carrying capacity should be up there somewhere. I'm just not qualified to write about it!

Posted by: linzel | June 2, 2007 7:19 AM

#59

I have added an entry to my blog to bring people to this list, but I am curious about the status of a more permanent place for bloggers to link to. Has there been any update on the location of a permanent site for this collection?

Also, I notice a dearth of sociology and psychology postings here (or even social psychology) and I am curious if there are any articles on basic concepts of developmental psychology, symbolic interactionism, evolutionary psychology, or topics along those lines?

Posted by: Mike Haubrich | June 12, 2007 8:30 AM

#60

Somebody needs to cover the concept of "emergence". Yeah, it may not be scientific a term, but very important in interpreting what science tells us about the world.

Posted by: zcer | June 29, 2007 5:34 AM

#61

Not me - I don't think it is real...

Posted by: John Wilkins | July 4, 2007 2:21 AM

#62

Hi,

I thought you might like to add my homepage to your list of links.

http://www.geocities.com/jefferywinkler

Jeffery Winkler

Posted by: Jeffery Winkler | September 6, 2007 4:16 PM

#63

Visit my homepage.

http://www.geocities.com/jefferywinkler

Jeffery Winkler

Posted by: Jeffery Winkler | September 6, 2007 4:23 PM

#64

Jeffrey: any posts you particularly think should be included?

Posted by: John Wilkins | September 7, 2007 12:21 AM

#65

Do sheep think? Does animal decision making exist?
this was my original thinking level...
Better (more elaborate) reading: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~campe/ her name: Elisabeth Camp,
enjoy.

Posted by: Odile | September 23, 2007 2:48 PM

#66

linzel (comment #58) mentions carrying capacity as a good topic. John Feeney has a great introductory post on it over at his Growth is Madness! blog. I suppose it would go in the "Ecology and Environment" subcateogry under Biology.

Posted by: Trinifar | November 2, 2007 3:02 AM

#67

John, There is a link in the mathematics section relating to modular arithmetic, which leads directly to http://libro.uca.edu/vcode/visigoths.htm , a site about visigoth jurisprudence. You are such a trickster.

Posted by: grasshopper | November 17, 2007 12:50 AM

#68

I fixed the link. Don't know how that happened...

Posted by: John S. Wilkins | November 18, 2007 8:14 AM

#69

Thanks for incorporating into the list my post on carrying capacity. Nice to know, this way, it will get a little more milage!

Posted by: John Feeney | November 25, 2007 3:21 PM

#70

No problem, John. I know enough about ecology to know a gem when I see one. Thank you.

Posted by: John S. Wilkins | November 25, 2007 7:37 PM

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