Evolution
Pharyngula
Category archives for Evolution
Oh, no, not the Aquatic Ape Hypothesis again!
Posted by PZ Myers on April 28, 2013 I think BAHFest — the festival of Bad Ad Hoc Hypotheses — has been made entirely redundant. It’s an event to mock the absurdly adaptationist hypotheses put forward by some scientists, and it’s intended to be extravagantly ridiculous. But then, you look at some ideas that are inexplicably popular among scientists, and you realize…it’s a…
Musings from the mind of a mouse
Posted by PZ Myers on April 27, 2013 Casey Luskin is such a great gift to the scientific community. The public spokesman for the Discovery Institute has a law degree and a Masters degree (in Science! Earth Science, that is) and thinks he is qualified to analyze papers in genetics and molecular biology, fields in which he hasn’t the slightest smattering of background,…
Coelacanths are unexceptional products of evolution
Posted by PZ Myers on April 20, 2013 The coelacanth genome has been sequenced, which is good news all around…except that I found a few of the comments in the article announcing it disconcerting. They keep calling it a “living fossil” — and you know what I think of that term — and they keep referring to it as evolving slowly The slowly…
What I taught today: O Cruel Taskmaster!
Posted by PZ Myers on March 29, 2013 My students are also blogging here: My undergrad encounters Developmental Biology Miles’ Devo Blog Tavis Grorud’s Blog for Developmental Biology Thang’s Blog Heidi’s blog for Developmental Biology Chelsae blog Stacy’s Strange World of Developmental Biology Thoughts of Developmental Biology Biology~ I’m out of town! Class is canceled today! But still, my cold grip extends across…
What I taught today: molecular biology of bat wings
Posted by PZ Myers on March 13, 2013 My students are also blogging here: My undergrad encounters Developmental Biology Miles’ Devo Blog Tavis Grorud’s Blog for Developmental Biology Thang’s Blog Heidi’s blog for Developmental Biology Chelsae blog Stacy’s Strange World of Developmental Biology Thoughts of Developmental Biology Biology~ Hard to believe, I know, but this class actually hangs together and has a plan.…
What’s Jimmie Walker’s favorite arthropod?
Posted by PZ Myers on March 6, 2013 “TRI-LO-BIIITE!” Oh, no, that was a terrible opening. You’ll only know what the heck I’m talking about if you remember JJ from the television show Good Times, and it’s such a pathetic joke it’s only going to appeal to grade schoolers. So if you’re a time-traveling 8 year old from the 1970s, you’ll appreciate the…
What I taught today: maternal effect genes
Posted by PZ Myers on February 25, 2013 My students are also blogging here: My undergrad encounters Developmental Biology Miles’ Devo Blog Tavis Grorud’s Blog for Developmental Biology Thang’s Blog Heidi’s blog for Developmental Biology Chelsae blog Stacy’s Strange World of Developmental Biology Thoughts of Developmental Biology Biology~ You know I teach the 8am courses every term, right? Every semester for years I…
ENCODE gets a public reaming
Posted by PZ Myers on February 22, 2013 I rarely laugh out loud when reading science papers, but sometimes one comes along that triggers the response automatically. Although, in this case, it wasn’t so much a belly laugh as an evil chortle, and an occasional grim snicker. Dan Graur and his colleagues have written a rebuttal to the claims of the ENCODE research…
Show your work, @JoseCanseco!
Posted by PZ Myers on February 19, 2013 The baseball player Jose Canseco made a remarkable series of tweets yesterday. I may not be 100% right but think about it. How else could 30 foot leather birds fly?The land was farther away from the core and had much less gravity so bigness could develop and dominateMy theory is the core of the planet…
Mother’s Curse
Posted by PZ Myers on February 6, 2013 It’s a harsh world for us men. Oh, sure, we’ve got all the political and economic power, and we’ve got most of the guns, but step into a senior citizens’ center and you’ll notice the preponderance of elderly women. Men die younger, on average. I’m also acutely aware of the growing disparity as we get…