Evolution
Pharyngula
Category archives for Evolution
Give that fish a hand!
Posted by PZ Myers on February 5, 2013 I have a bit of a peeve with a common analogy for the human genome: that it is the blueprint of the body, and that we can find a mapping of genes to details of our morphological organization. It’s annoying because even respectable institutions, like the National Human Genome Research Institute, use it as a…
Only a bird
Posted by PZ Myers on February 4, 2013 Another feathered dinosaur has been found in China, prompting Ken Ham to dig in his heels and issue denials. Yet another supposed “feathered dinosaur” fossil has come to light, again in China. (Dr. Elizabeth Mitchell, AiG–U.S., reported on another Chinese fossil of a supposed feathered dinosaur in April 2012) Now, one headline described the fossil…
The present is the past, the past is the present
Posted by PZ Myers on January 25, 2013 Ken Ham is preaching about what science is again. He’s accusing the secular activist Zack Kopplin of being “brainwashed” by evolutionist propaganda, and to support this claim, he once again drags out the tired proposition that there are two kinds of science, historical and observational, and that only the observational kind is valid; well, unless…
Methinks it is like a sauropsid
Posted by PZ Myers on January 22, 2013 Eugene McCarthy, the author of that crackpot stabilization theory, has discovered my review and is now making a noise on twitter. He’s gone from thanking me profusely for mentioning him, to whining that I stole his figures, to complaining that I don’t understand his theory at all, all in the last 24 hours. But here’s…
αEP: Complexity is not usually the product of selection
Posted by PZ Myers on December 11, 2012 This is another addition to my αEP series about evolutionary psychology. Here’s the first, and unfortunately there are several more to come. By the way, people are wondering about the α in the title. Don’t you people do any immunology? α is standard shorthand for “anti”. I mentioned in the last one this annoying tendency…
αEP: The fundamental failure of the evolutionary psychology premise
Posted by PZ Myers on December 10, 2012 This is another addition to my αEP series about evolutionary psychology. Here’s the first, and unfortunately there are several more to come. I have a real problem with evolutionary psychology, and it goes right to the root of the discipline: it’s built on a flawed foundation. It relies on a naïve and simplistic understanding of…
Can I add “Published Authority on the Female Orgasm” to my CV now?
Posted by PZ Myers on September 19, 2012 Our rebuttal to claims about the adaptive significance of the female orgasm has been published, as Zietsch & Santtila's study is not evidence against the by-product theory of female orgasm. I blogged about this a while back, and also dealt with some counter-arguments, and Elisabeth Lloyd thought my arguments were strong enough to be incorporated…
How the turtle got its shell
Posted by PZ Myers on August 30, 2012 In my post bashing that silly article claiming to have figured out how endoskeletons evolved from exoskeletons, there was a good question buried in the comments, and I thought I’d answer it. Are there any models pulled out of arses which explain the turtle’s unique skeleton? Yes! I mean, no, not pulled out of arses,…
Creationist FUD refuted
Posted by PZ Myers on July 21, 2012 If you’re looking for a meaty weekend read, look no further than Paul McBride’s thorough dismantling of Science and Human Origins, the new bad book from the Discovery Institute, by Gauger, Axe, and Luskin. It’s in 6 parts, taking on each chapter one by one: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, a prediction about what…
Forever disappointed
Posted by PZ Myers on July 20, 2012 I always have unwarrantedly high expectations of creationists. I know that there are some flamingly ignorant nutjobs out there, all your Hams and Hovindses and Luskins, but lurking in my mind is always this suspicion that somewhere there has to be one or two biologically competent ideologues on their side of the fence. And I…