Now on ScienceBlogs: And so, driven on ceaselessly toward new shores
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. - Terry Pratchett
Laelaps is the blog of Brian Switek, a freelance science writer based in New Jersey. This blog frequently features his musings on paleontology, evolution, and the history of science. Switek also blogs for Smithsonian magazine's Dinosaur Tracking.
Switek's first book, Written in Stone, will be published next year by Bellevue Literary Press.
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May 31, 2009
Category: Anthropology
I just watched the BBC's documentary on "Ida" (Darwinius masillae), "Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor", and to be honest I was not very impressed. Rather than dissect the show second-by-second, though, I will only discuss some of the main points that...
Posted by Brian Switek at 8:45 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogging
Just a quick reminder: Tomorrow I will be posting a collection of links all about "Ida", from the hype surrounding her announcement to the actual science of the PLoS One paper describing her, sometime in the early afternoon. If you...
Posted by Brian Switek at 5:35 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Mammals
A red fox (Vulpes vulpes), photographed at Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge. I just got back from Delaware a few hours ago, and overall it was a pretty good trip. I did not see the swarms of mating horseshoe...
Posted by Brian Switek at 12:54 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 29, 2009
Category: Inverts
A horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus), photographed at Cape Henlopen State Park, Delaware. This weekend I'm headed off to see the annual breeding explosion of horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus) in Delaware Bay. During late May and early June, especially during...
Posted by Brian Switek at 11:20 AM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogging
Welcome, new readers. Thanks for sticking around after all the excitement over "Ida" last week. You can expect plenty more posts on strange mammals, odd evolutionary hypotheses, and new peer-reviewed research in the near future, but if you just can't...
Posted by Brian Switek at 8:11 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Cats
An Amur leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis), photographed at the Philadelphia Zoo....
Posted by Brian Switek at 6:33 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 28, 2009
Category: Anthropology
Saartje Baartman, drawn from a wax cast made in Paris. From The Human Race. On December 31, 1816 Saartje Baartman died in Paris. She had been ill for three days, perhaps stricken with smallpox, before she and her unborn...
Posted by Brian Switek at 8:10 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Blogging
The folks at 3quarksdaily have just announced that they are going to award three prizes (called, appropriately enough, quarks) to some of the best examples of science blogging on the web. All you have to do is pick out your...
Posted by Brian Switek at 7:16 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Birds
A herring gull (Larus argentatus) takes off. Photographed at Spring Lake, New Jersey....
Posted by Brian Switek at 6:14 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
May 27, 2009
Category: Anthropology
The "Hesperopithecus" tooth discovered by Harold Cook. I could see it coming from a mile away. As soon as I heard all the hype surrounding "Ida", the exceptionally preserved specimen of Darwinius announced last week, I knew creationists would...
Posted by Brian Switek at 10:20 AM • 18 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
