biology
Category archives for biology
Are we not good enough for Darwin?
Posted by Ethan on September 15, 2009 Yesterday, I read something in international news that made me so mad I needed to share it with you: That’s right; my home country, the United States, will not distribute this film. There was no problem for the movie Expelled, a poorly argued anti-evolution flop that grossed just $7,598,071 despite appearing on more than 1,000…
Weekend Diversion: Have a seat, CSI
Posted by Ethan on August 22, 2009 New technology has led to breakthroughs in practically every aspect of our lives since the dawn of the industrial revolution. In nearly every case, it’s for the betterment, in some way, of society. (And yet, I like my music best when it’s acoustic, unprocessed, and barely produced at all.) Take a listen to Song for…
Could we Garden on Mars?
Posted by Ethan on July 3, 2009 Earlier this week, the most obvious scientific news in recent memory was reported: there’s Uranium on the Moon. This has been, pretty much, a slam-dunk since Apollo 11. Why? Because we’ve brought moonrocks back to Earth, and we’ve analyzed them thoroughly. What did we find? That they’re made of the same stuff that Earth-rocks are…
Weekend Diversion: The Steps of Man
Posted by Ethan on June 21, 2009 Somewhere in my mind, I like to try and construct a timeline of all of human history. Yes, there’s the obvious stuff, like the discovery of fire, the learning of what foods will and won’t kill you, the domestication of the dog, and all the similar things that led us to become successful hunter/gatherer tribes.…
Weekend Diversion: Revisionist Natural History and HuffPo?
Posted by Ethan on June 13, 2009 We’ve got a lot going on here in America these days, with towering unemployment, a dying manufacturing industry, huge environmental problems, and the tense fight for all sorts of rights and freedoms, such as GLBT equality and abortion rights. But there are two things that I’d like to remind you of this weekend. First off,…
A Missing Link Found!
Posted by Ethan on May 19, 2009 One of the greatest challenges in all of evolutionary science is to figure out which species evolved into which over time. From our perspective, we would love to know how humans came to be, who our ancestors were, and what simpler animals gave rise to us. Well, we don’t know this right now. We know…
Chiming in on the Swine Flu
Posted by Ethan on May 1, 2009 There are plenty of great sites here on Scienceblogs that have talked about the swine flu, including Aetiology, the Scientific Activist, Greg Laden, Ethics and Science, and Effect Measure, among others. But I’ve noticed, reading comments here and elsewhere, that people are really, seriously terrified of this. And yes, it can kill you if you…
The Gliese System: Addendum
Posted by Ethan on April 21, 2009 In addition to the article I just wrote about the newly discovered planet in the Gliese system, Dynamics of Cats has a great writeup as well. They also have a picture that I didn’t include in my original post, and it’s so good that I’m including it here: Take a look at that. Two of…
Say Hello to my Little Rocky Friend!
Posted by Ethan on April 21, 2009 One of the holy grails of modern astrophysics is to find a planet orbiting another star that can support life on it. There are all sorts of missions dedicated to searching for habitable worlds. But with one star system, Gliese 581, we may have hit the jackpot. To look at Gliese 581 in the sky,…
Battle of the Beards: Darwin vs. Kelvin
Posted by Ethan on April 17, 2009 How old is the Solar System? We know now, from a variety of astronomical, geological and solar evidence that we’re looking at about 4.5 billion years. But in the 19th century, there was a huge problem. Here’s why. On one hand, you had evolutionary biology and evolutionary biologists. Charles Darwin had discovered not only that…
