Search
Profile

PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
…and this is a pharyngula stage embryo.
• a longer profile of yours truly
• my calendar
• Nature Network
• RichardDawkins Network
• facebook
• MySpace
• Twitter
• Atheist Nexus
• the Pharyngula chat room
(#pharyngula on irc.synirc.net)
• Quick link to the latest endless thread
I reserve the right to publicly post, with full identifying information about the source, any email sent to me that contains threats of violence.
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty, than those attending too small a degree of it.
Thomas Jefferson (letter to Archibald Stuart, Dec. 23, 1791, on the encroachments of state governments)
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
Archives
Other Information
Evolution:
Category: Science
Last week, I described the lectures I attended at the Chicago 2009 Darwin meetings (Science Life also blogged the event). Two of the talks that were highlights of the meeting for me were the discussions of stickleback evolution by David...
Read on »
Posted by PZ Myers at 10:13 AM • 31 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science
(via RichardDawkins.net)...
Read on »
Posted by PZ Myers at 8:15 AM • 25 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: ChicagoDarwin2009
Man, philosophers sure take a long time to get to the point. OK, his outline: 1) development and differential entrenchment in evolution. 2) application of these principles to culture. 3) what new phenomena this theory can capture. Plunges into "thick,...
Read on »
Posted by PZ Myers at 4:59 PM • 174 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science
Darwin didn't know the basic mechanisms of evolutionary change. Mechanism of inheritance was a black box. Darwin's last publication before his death was "on the dispersal of bivalves". Why are freshwater bivalves so homogeneous in morphology? Describes a beetle with...
Read on »
Posted by PZ Myers at 4:14 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science
How can I resist an opportunity to see Ruse gibbering on the stage? I'm curious to see whether he annoys or enlightens. It could go either way. He's not going to talk about evo-devo! OK, I'm already annoyed. Criticizes the...
Read on »
Posted by PZ Myers at 3:00 PM • 28 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science
Shubin had a tough act to follow, coming after Kingsley's great talk. I'm sure it will be good, though — last night I got a tour of his lab, saw the original Tiktaalik specimens and some new ones, and some...
Read on »
Posted by PZ Myers at 2:18 PM • 18 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science
This talk should put me back in my comfort zone—developmental biology, evolution, and fish, with the stickleback story, one of the really cool model systems that have emerged to study those subjects. What is the molecular basis of evolutionary change...
Read on »
Posted by PZ Myers at 11:56 AM • 16 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science
Darwin had problems with the fossil record that he explained as a result of imperfections. Modern paleo has corrected some of that with the discovery of many intermediates. Jablonski is going to talk about the fossil record as a...
Read on »
Posted by PZ Myers at 11:52 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science
A phylogeny is a statement about the evolutionary history of organisms. Cladograms give branching order only, but phylograms include branch lengths as well. They inform us about diversification of lineages, patterns and rates of trait evolution, and the ages of...
Read on »
Posted by PZ Myers at 5:01 PM • 36 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Science
Lander began by saying he wasn't an evolutionist — an interestingly narrow definition of the term. He's a fan of the research, but considers himself a biomedical geneticist, as if that was something different. Having entire genomes of many species...
Read on »
Posted by PZ Myers at 4:12 PM • 22 Comments • 0 TrackBacks