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thoughts on science, history, and teaching
John M. Lynch is an Honors Faculty Fellow at Barrett the Honors College at Arizona State University. He's also affiliated with ASU's Center for Biology & Society. When he's not an historian of anti-evolutionism, he's an evolutionary morphologist. Much to his surprise, in 2007 he was named the Arizona Professor of the Year. No doubt his students were surprised as well.
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July 29, 2008
Category: Mammals
This is a pen-tailed tree shrew, Ptilocercus lowii, a Malaysian critter that weighs only 47g but can drink the pound-for-pound equivalent of nine glasses of wine without any ill-effect when it sups on the alcoholic nectar of the bertam...
Posted by John Lynch at 3:15 AM • 3 Comments
July 28, 2008
Category: Monday Mustelid
Your Monday Mustelid is the Patagonian weasel, Lyncodon patagonicus (de Blainville 1842). Unfortunately, I can't find a picture of the little blighter anywhere. Instead, here's a picture of a Eurasian badger (Meles meles) cub ......
Posted by John Lynch at 2:01 PM • 0 Comments
July 27, 2008
Category: Books • Evolution • History and Philosophy (often of Science) • Human Evolution
(This review appeared in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology in 2005) As human beings, we like to tell stories--we are story-telling apes. As scientists, however, we tend not to see ourselves as telling stories for, we are led to...
Posted by John Lynch at 1:46 AM • 1 Comments
July 26, 2008
(A review from Journal of the History of Biology 2004) In the years following the publication of Origin of Species, George Romanes developed his theory of physiological selection in which he posited that "physiological peculiarities" lead to hybrid sterility between...
Posted by John Lynch at 1:58 PM • 0 Comments
July 25, 2008
Category: Books
(Another book review, this time from 2002 and the Journal of the History of Biology. Both books are still in print and worth reading) The simplicity (and adversarial nature) of the phrase "science versus religion" belies the diversity of ways...
Posted by John Lynch at 3:46 AM • 1 Comments
Category: Bits and Pieces
The ever anonymous "PhysioProf" has managed to slander the whole medical profession. Orac, Mark Hoofnagle, and PalMD (who actually know something about medicine) rightly call shennanigans. As Mark notes: In medicine, we take attitudes like this towards students and doctors...
Posted by John Lynch at 3:29 AM • 1 Comments
July 24, 2008
Category: Books
There's another one of those book lists circulating - a list of 100 works of which it is claimed that the average American has read only six. Whether that is true or not (and Chad doesn't believe it), the list...
Posted by John Lynch at 3:01 PM • 10 Comments
July 23, 2008
Category: Books • Evolution • History and Philosophy (often of Science)
(Another review that was published a few years back, in this case in Isis in 2001. Alter's book is still in print and still worth reading.) Charles Darwin's Origin of Species was written in a vivid style and, as...
Posted by John Lynch at 1:13 PM • 0 Comments
July 22, 2008
Category: Bits and Pieces
Wordle for Darwin's Origin of Species. [Clickie for biggie.]...
Posted by John Lynch at 11:58 PM • 2 Comments
Category: History and Philosophy (often of Science) • Intelligent Design
Over at Crooked Timber they are discussing a review of Steve Fuller's latest expectoration Dissent Over Descent: Intelligent Design's Challenge to Darwinism. As the review notes: The book is an epoch-hopping parade of straw men, incompetent reasoning and outright gibberish,...
Posted by John Lynch at 11:54 PM • 20 Comments
Category: Anti-evolution • Books • History and Philosophy (often of Science)
(The following is the text of a review I wrote that appeared in Journal of the History of Biology in 2000. As both of the books are still in print - and the Gould book is his exposition of Nonoverlapping...
Posted by John Lynch at 5:45 PM • 3 Comments
Category: Anti-evolution • History and Philosophy (often of Science) • Intelligent Design • Science Education • The Life Academic
I recently co-authored a paper that discussed the utility of history of science for science (Isis 99: 322-330). The abstract reads: This essay argues that science education can gain from close engagement with the history of science both in the...
Posted by John Lynch at 5:09 PM • 9 Comments
July 21, 2008
Category: Monday Mustelid
Zorilla or Striped Polecat, Ictonyx striatus Perry 1810. (source)...
Posted by John Lynch at 6:40 AM • 0 Comments
July 20, 2008
Category: Bits and Pieces • Humor
They are captioning this over at Fark.com. I did this (obvious) caption before reading the thread....
Posted by John Lynch at 9:28 PM • 2 Comments
Category: The Life Academic
Recently anthropologist John Hawks was granted tenure by the University of Wisconsin (congratulations to him!) and he feels that his blogging did not impede his evaluation. He has begun a four part series that "covers a different portion of the...
Posted by John Lynch at 5:13 PM • 4 Comments
Category: Carnivores • Monday Mustelid
I've been remiss for a while and those of you who like the Monday Mustelid haven't been getting your fix. So here is a little something to tide you over. Three video full of badgery goodness. The world's most fearless...
Posted by John Lynch at 4:28 PM • 1 Comments
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