Charles Darwin
Tag archives for Charles Darwin
Sunday Darwin Talk Radio Podcast
Posted by Greg Laden on February 8, 2009 The podcast of this morning’s radio show with Stephanie Zvan, Lynne Felman, Don Luce and Yours Truly is now up, here: “Celebrating Darwin and Evolution at the Bell Museum” Atheists Talk #56 February 8, 2008 Lynne and Don read a book on the radio (that was cool) and Lynne asked me a bunch of good…
Blogospherics: Scanning the Intertubes so you don’t have to.
Posted by Greg Laden on February 7, 2009 Internet Theory and Philosophy: Nanny Goat Gruff and the Internet Trolls From the Lest We Forget Department: The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer It seems like it should be true, even if it isn’t exactly true: The bigger the car, the more the tickets? I ask myself a question of this general form almost every…
Blogospherics: Recommended reads
Posted by Greg Laden on February 7, 2009 There is an interesting discussion going on among some of my fellow Sblings and others on the intertubes about so called “honorifics” … I suggest this post as a starting point: Honorifics, credentials, and respect, at Adventures in Ethics and Science. Fight Fight!!!! Over diversity in science and how to talk about it on the…
I Don’t Want To Miss This Radio Show on Sunday!
Posted by Greg Laden on February 7, 2009 This press release was sent to me from Minnesota Atheists: 2009 is the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth and 150th year of this book On the Origin of Species. We’re celebrating by talking with Dr. Greg Laden, biological anthropologist, U of M. If you haven’t met Dr. Laden, you can get to know him through…
Evolution vs. Creationism by Eugenie Scott, Second Edition
Posted by Greg Laden on February 6, 2009 It’s out! Evolution vs. Creationism: An Introduction Second Edition is now available on line and in bookstores (or at least it is being shipped out as we speak). This is the newly revamped edition of Genie Scott’s essential reference supporting the Evolutionist Perspective in the so called “debate” over creationism vs. evolution. The original version…
Programming Notes and Blogospherics
Posted by Greg Laden on February 6, 2009 This afternoon, I will be busy meeting with colleagues about the upcoming Darwin Day Celebration at the Bell Museum, and preparing for this Sunday Morning’s radio show (Am 950, Air America, Atheist Talk Radio). Then, I’ll be on Q Transmissions at 6PM Mountain Time, today. Details are here. I’m looking forward to finally getting to…
Carnivals
Posted by Greg Laden on February 6, 2009 I am hosting The Giant’s Shoulders this month. Please get me your submissions by the 15th. Hint: Darwin’s birthday is this month. Hint: Darwin was a giant. Do Darwin! Send submissions via the blog carnival submission thingie. Berry Go Round #13: Winter-Tough is here, at Watching The World Wake Up. The Carnival of the Blue…
South America on Five Dollars a Day
Posted by Greg Laden on February 6, 2009 What do you eat when you are traveling the world in search of truth about the natural world? Most of the time Darwin ate pretty well…
Announcing Quiche Moraine
Posted by Greg Laden on February 6, 2009 The three of us imagine Quiche Moraine as a glare of ice on the Antarctic Continent thinly strew with odd rocks. The rocks are odd because many of them are meteorites that landed on the glacier some time during the last several tens of thousands of years. We imagine that among these meteorites a small…
Darwin Gets his Wellies Wet
Posted by Greg Laden on February 5, 2009 I became acquainted with an Englishman who was going to visit his estate … more than a hundred miles [north] of Cape Frio. As I was quite unused to travelling, I gladly accepted his kind offer of allowing me to accompany him. And so was the case with a number of Darwin’s excursions into the…
Charles Darwin and the Rain Forest
Posted by Greg Laden on February 5, 2009 The first time I read the following passage from The Voyage, I was reminded of my own first experience in a rain forest (in Zaire, not Congo). Evident in this passage is at least a glimmering of Darwin’s appreciation for the complexity of ecosystems. Darwin could be considered the first scientific ecologist. But enough of…
Darwin Crossing The Atlantic
Posted by Greg Laden on February 5, 2009 Behold this humble passage by Darwin, which is what immediately follows his discussion of the octopus. This passage is a touchstone to several important aspects of what Darwin was doing and thinking, and is a poignant link to what Darwin did not know:
The Voyage of the Beagle
Posted by Greg Laden on February 4, 2009 Of his time on the Beagle (1832 – 1836), Darwin wrote, “The voyage of the Beagle has been by far the most important event in my life and has determined my whole career.” Of the manuscript describing that voyage, he wrote, “The success of this my first literary child always tickles my vanity more than…
Neanderthal Genome Will Be Released
Posted by Greg Laden on February 4, 2009 The complete genome of a Neanderthal dating to about 38,000 years ago has been sequenced by the team lead by Svante Paabo. The genome will be announced on Darwin’s Birthay, Feb 12. “We are working like crazy at the moment,” says Pääbo, adding that his Max Planck colleague, computational biologist Richard Green, is coordinating the…
Stay Tuned ….
Posted by Greg Laden on February 3, 2009 Two or three items of interest that are scheduled and that you may want to know about. In order: 1) This evening, at 8:00 Eastern Time (US), the embargo lifts on an amazing new find. Tune in to your favorite science blog to read all about it. It is very cool if you are into…
Science News Tidbits
Posted by Greg Laden on January 31, 2009 Paleontologist reflects on Darwinian connections (PhysOrg.com) — As the former director and chief executive of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in England, Sir Peter Crane often walked in the footsteps of Charles Darwin. Peanuts tainted with metal fragments (AP) — The government acknowledged Friday that a shipment of peanuts from the plant linked to a…
Bell Museum Events
Posted by Greg Laden on January 31, 2009 from The Bell … This February the Bell Museum of Natural History will be celebrating the opening of the internationally acclaimed exhibit LIFE: A Journey Through Time; Photograpy by Frans Lanting. We hope you will join us on the evening of February 12th for a special exhibit opening event that will combine University of Minnesota…
Dumb Fugitives
Posted by Greg Laden on January 31, 2009 And this week’s Darwin Award Honorable Mention goes to these two prison escapees in New Zealand: hat Tip: Geekology
Graham Lawton Sells Out Darwin, Science, and Teh Blogosphere
Posted by Greg Laden on January 26, 2009 New Scientist Cover Controversy Continues with Coturnix. Details here.
Blogging the Origin: New Sb Blog
Posted by Greg Laden on January 13, 2009 A new blog called Blogging the Origin launched Monday. It’s a Seedmagazine.com-sponsored blog, written by London-based freelance science writer John Whitfield, who has the particular qualification–for this project, at least–of having never read Darwin’s The Origin of Species. As he now begins to read it for the first time, he will cover each of the…
I’ve been memed …. Again!
Posted by Greg Laden on January 11, 2009 OK, let’s get this over with. One: Link to the person who tagged you. Here. Go look, this person has some really strange quirks, you’ll want to read all of them!!!!! Two: Post the rules. That’s this right here. Three: Write six random things about yourself. See below. Four. Tag six people. See below below.…
Teachers Be Warned
Posted by Greg Laden on January 11, 2009 And Public School Administrators, too. There is a message being sent out, by the Discovery Institute (a non profit creationist ‘think’ tank) encouraging creationist students and teachers to “Suit Up, Sign Up, Show UP, Act Up and Start Up” (whatever that all means) on February 12, which of course, is Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday.
Brownout
Posted by Greg Laden on January 9, 2009 By the time you read this, Scienceblogs.com will be either down for an upgrade or about to be down for an upgrade. (Starting Friday at 1:00 PM Eastern.) During this time there will be no new posts by us bloggers and commenting will be turned off. During this time, I recommend the following activities: You…
Pink Iguanas and Disappearing Islands
Posted by Greg Laden on January 6, 2009 It turns out that a recently discovered population of land iguanas on the Galapagos is probably a new species that represents the basal (original) form of Galapagos land iguana. Moreover, this iguana is found in an unexpected place, according to a paper just coming out in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).…
Linnaeus’ Legacy No. 15: Sorting it all out
Posted by Greg Laden on January 5, 2009 This is my favorite web carnival, and this is the best version of it yet, owing to the outstanding submission we have this month! Welcome to the 15th Monthly edition of the blog carnival Linnaeus’ Legacy. I thought about being cute and fancy for this edition of the carnival, but instead, I decided to be…
May the Beagle Soar … And other matters
Posted by Greg Laden on January 4, 2009 Go to the window … Go to the window … Of the Beagle Project Blog Shop and buy yourself some naturally selected Darwin Gear, and help the Beagle get off the ground. Or out of the port, as it were. Details here. Where else to get info on the Yellowstone Volcanoes that the Volcanism Blog?…
Nature’s Evolutionary Gems
Posted by Greg Laden on January 4, 2009 The following announcement is from Nature. About a year ago, an Editorial in these pages urged scientists and their institutions to ‘spread the word’ and highlight reasons why scientists can treat evolution by natural selection as, in effect, an established fact (see Nature 451, 108; 2008). This week we are following our own prescription. Readers…
The natural basis for gender inequality
Posted by Greg Laden on December 31, 2008 Naturalism is a potential source of guidance for our behavior, morals, ethics, and other more mundane decisions such as how to build an airplane and what to eat for breakfast.1 When it comes to airplanes, you’d better be a servant to the rules of nature or the airplane will go splat. When it comes to…
Mrs. Charles Darwin’s Recipe Book Revived
Posted by Greg Laden on December 25, 2008 Did you get a gift card for a bookstore from Santa? Consider this new item (Thanks Virgil Samms for the tip!): Mrs. Charles Darwin’s Recipe Book: Revived and Illustrated A cookbook based on notes by Charles Darwin’s wife is to be published. Mrs Charles Darwin’s Recipe Book features more than 40 dishes from her personal…
The Origin of the Chicken
Posted by Greg Laden on December 24, 2008 From whence the humble chicken? Gallus gallus is a domesticated chicken-like bird (thus, the name “chicken”) that originates in southeast Asia. Ever since Darwin we’ve known that the chicken originated in southeast Asia, although the exact details of which one or more of several possible jungle fowls is the primal form has been debated. The…
, which is now available for the 
