November 13, 2007
The one on the right:
Photos by GTL. Location: Pilanesberg, South Africa
November 13, 2007
Spontaneous Generation (Live Blogging)
I did not like the verbiage ... the wording ... of the pre-show intro at all. Listening to it by itself, ID and "Darwin's Theory" sound like they are of similar import. It really is not necessary in this day and age to pretend that there is actually a debate…
November 13, 2007
Question: In science, in reference to probability, how come what you predict is not always what you get?
Answer from 12 year old:
Because experimental and theoretical probability are not the same.
Answer from Hight School student:
Because everyone has their own opinions, views,concepts, and…
November 13, 2007
For I and the Bird, send your posts to me RIGHT NOW.
(Or really soon. Technically the deadline is tonight.)
For Oekologie, send them over to Mike, here.
November 13, 2007
A team of researchers has figured out that that certain bacteria can tell the difference between light and dark, and become ten times more virulent when exposed to sunlight...
This not a really new story, but i think it might interest you.
This is the first time light has been shown to change the…
November 13, 2007
My daughter, Julia, is named after two people. One of them is Julia Child. I happen to think Julia Child has had more influence on American society than most other people, by helping to make varied and interesting cuisine part of American culture.
One day when Julia was a very young child (my…
November 13, 2007
(Santa Barbara, Calif.) - A team of political scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara, the University of New Mexico, the University of Massachusetts, and the University of Notre Dame has completed a groundbreaking survey that explores how race and gender is changing the political…
November 12, 2007
New Fossils, Ancient Candy, and Cute Owls
Md. Scientists Monitor Saw-Whet Owls from PhysOrg.com
(AP) -- The high-pitched, staccato mating call of a northern saw-whet owl pierces the night and lures birds into a gossamer net that researchers have strung along the Appalachian Trail.
[...]
Rare…
November 12, 2007
Many years ago a couple of researchers (Hatley and Kappleman) suggested omnivory, including eating of roots, to be a common theme in the adaptations we see in bears, humans, and pigs. Some years later, Richard Wrangham and I independently and for different reasons came to the idea that roots are…
November 12, 2007
I find it absolutely fascinating that scientists often bother to estimate the effects of diet by feeding controlled quantities of food, especially plant food, to rats to see what happens.
For example, there is a common substance in cooked food that, if fed in even modest quantity to rats, causes…
November 12, 2007
"Evolution is the central organizing principle of all biological science, yet teaching evolution has become controversial in many states. When the National Science Teachers Association recently surveyed its members, 30 percent said they experienced pressure to omit or downplay evolution and related…
November 12, 2007
You can now read the Krause et al (2007) paper from Current Biology regarding the FOXP2 variant found in Neanderthals in an open-access on-line form at Current Biology Online.
Here is the summary of the article:
Although many animals communicate vocally, no extant creature rivals modern humans in…
November 12, 2007
Things to notice in this video:
The scientific sounding languge.
The cool 3D graphics
The guy bloating up because he has not eaten his SKRMs yet. Then he eats the SKRMs and gets better.
November 11, 2007
It would be nice. Hey, a few years ago one of our local affiliates was bought by Fox. So one day you have Robin and Jeff doing a pretty darn good job of delivering the news, and the next day you have the same people ... Robin and Jeff ... screaming sensationalist crap into the news camera. Same…
November 11, 2007
A mural-decorated temple that may date to 4,000 years old is being reported from the coastal desert region of Northern Peru.
Some of the walls of the 27,000-square-foot site - almost half the size of a football field - were painted, and a white and red mural depicts a deer being hunted with a…
November 11, 2007
Five ships have sunk, so far, in the vicinity of the Kerch Strait, linking the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, in an incredible storm. One of the ships was a Russian tanker carrying 1,300 tons of fuel oil. Claims are being made that this is one of the worst environmental disasters ever. One of the…
November 11, 2007
... I believe it even less than I did before, and I believed it not at all, of course.
This is an actual reconstruction from the Creation Museum in Kentucky, courtesy of Right Wing Watch:
[hat tip: Pharyngula]
November 10, 2007
As you have surely heard, the Yellowstone Caldera ... the place where Old Faithful and the Geyser Basin reside ... has been undergoing increased "activity" including some earthquakes and a rising up of the land. Is this a big problem? Should the evacuate? Should those of us living only a few…
November 10, 2007
JUDGMENT DAY PRAISED IN NATURE
From the National Center for Science Education ...
Judgement Day Praised in Nature
Reviewing Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial -- the new documentary about Kitzmiller v. Dover -- for the November 8, 2007, issue of Nature (450: 170), Adam Rutherford was…
November 10, 2007
Are you aware of Kaguya (Selene)?
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency(JAXA) launched "KAGUYA (SELENE)" by the H-IIA Launch Vehicle at 10:31:01 a.m. on September 14, 2007 (JST) from Tanegashima Space Center. The major objectives of the "KAGUYA" mission are to obtain scientific data of the lunar…
November 10, 2007
Have a look at this:
Did you notice that "miracle" and chlorophyll" are rhymed? So, maybe there is no word other than "miracle" that rhymes with "chlorophyll." But I doubt it. (See below.)
One could, and many will, argue that this is an innocent use of an innocent phrase and one should not…
November 10, 2007
Kentuckians can be less embarrassed starting soon. This from the NCSE ... it's a bit old, but it had slipped past in a flurry of other emails, and I think it is really interesting.
FLETCHER LOSES KENTUCKY GOVERNORSHIP
Kentucky's incumbent governor Ernie Fletcher (R) was soundly defeated in the…
November 9, 2007
This is the question asked in a current paper from PNAS that is available to you as an Open Access article.
Peaking profiles for achieving long-term temperature targets with more likelihood at lower costs
Abstract
How can dangerous interference with the climate system be avoided? Science can…
November 9, 2007
Chinese made toys, now under recall, contain a substance that metabolizes into gamma hydroxy butyrate, the "date rape" drug. There is apparently enough of the substance to actually drug kids who ingest the toys.
A young boy in the U.S. state of Arkansas is believed to be the latest child to fall…
November 9, 2007
Hierakonpolis is a site famous for its many "firsts," so many, in fact, it is not easy to keep track of them all. So we are grateful(?) to Max Brooks for bringing to our attention that the site can also claim the title to the earliest recorded zombie attack in history
....
Recent work at…
November 9, 2007
How do you avoid having sex with your close relatives? Well, not you, specifically, but how is it done generally, or perhaps among mammals in particular?
One obvious way would be to use a part of the genome that seems to evolve rapidly, and that would be able to distinguish between even…
November 9, 2007
... well, OK, maybe that is a slight exaggeration.
You know about giardia. Giardia intestinalis. It causes a nasty gut infection, and you get it by drinking water pretty much anywhere in the US (potentially). It is very hard to get rid of.
Giardia adapt to immune system attacks (of their host…
November 9, 2007
Ever since I started to learn about brains, back in the mid 1980s, from some really brainy brain experts like Terry Deacon and Joe Marcus, I always knew that glial cells were important. But I now read in current material in Nature Neuroscience, that "A decade ago, glia were the neglected…
November 9, 2007
A child with Melanoma, a mother tossed in jail, radio talk show hosts, ranting bloggers. It's a good story.
From the Natural Solutions Foundation Web Site:
There is a developing story from California that involves a mother with a 17 year old child who HAD melanoma. The mother, chose to go against…
