jlynch
Posts by this author
February 6, 2008
Births
1744 - Pierre-Joseph Desault, French anatomist and surgeon
1853 - Ignacij KlemenÄiÄ, Slovenian physicist
1892 - William Parry Murphy, American physician and Nobel Prize laureate
1913 - Mary Leakey, British anthropologist
Deaths
1617 - Prospero Alpini, Italian scientist
1833 - Pierre AndrÃ…
February 5, 2008
Births
1795 - Wilhelm Karl Ritter von Haidinger, Austrian mineralogist
1910 - Charles Leblond, Canadian cell biologist
1914 - Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, British physiologist and Nobel Prize laureate
1915 - Robert Hofstadter, American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
Deaths
1790 - William Cullen,…
February 4, 2008
Why to not engage in scientific peer review:
We have often received feedback in the form of questions on the lines of, 'If creation is scientific, then why don't you publish in peer-reviewed secular journals?' Andrew Kulikovsky answers this common question in detail. He points out the advantage of…
February 4, 2008
Exciting news from the Science Debate 2008 camp. Sheril & Chris have just announced that the National Academies are joining the efforts to get a debate on science policy on the cards for the upcoming election. Amazing to think that this all started a mere two months ago!
February 3, 2008
Events
1936 - Radium E becomes the first radioactive element to be made synthetically.
Births
1725 - Dru Drury, English entomologist
1778 - A. P. de Candolle, Swiss botanist
1846 - Nikolay Umov, Russian physicist
1875 - Ludwig Prandtl, German physicist
1896 - Friedrich Hund, German physicist
1906…
February 2, 2008
Births
1754 - George Crabbe, English naturalist
1817 - Achille Ernest Oscar Joseph Delesse, French geologist
1821 - Elizabeth Blackwell, American physician
1912 - Jacques Soustelle, French anthropologist
1920 - Henry Heimlich, American physician
Deaths
1862 - Jean-Baptiste Biot, French physicist…
February 2, 2008
Saw my first Ferruginous hawk (Buteo regalis) yesterday. While this is not a picture of the one I saw, it is more on less identical. Interestingly, I spotted the hawk was being mobbed by some very irate birds as I was driving home from the store and was able to pull over and get a good look for…
February 2, 2008
The Beloit College Class of 2011 Mindset list has been released. It features aspects of the worldview of 18 year-olds in the fall of 2007, i.e. those born in 1989. Some things that make me feel old:
What Berlin wall?
They never "rolled down" a car window.
They have grown up with bottled water.…
February 2, 2008
Razib has posted his thoughts on Chapter 4 of Gould’s The Structure of Evolutionary Theory and ends with:
I suspect that defenders of this reputedly brilliant work will claim the long build up cashes out in a stupendous climax which will leave me aghast at its audacity. We shall see, but after 341…
February 2, 2008
The Six Nations Championship began today, with Ireland trying to recover from a disappointing World Cup showing last year. A 16-11 defeat of Italy is a win, but not a very convincing one. On the other hand, Wales defeating England 26-19 at Twickenham is always good news.
Remaining fixtures for…
February 2, 2008
Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. A yellow dressinggown, ungirdled, was sustained gently behind him by the mild morning air. He held the bowl aloft and intoned:
--INTROIBO AD ALTARE DEI.
Halted, he peered down…
February 2, 2008
Births
1695 - William Borlase, English naturalist
1802 - Jean Baptiste Boussingault, French chemist
1829 - Alfred Brehm, German zoologist
1841 - François-Alphonse Forel, Swiss hydrologist
Deaths
1712 - Martin Lister, English naturalist and physician
1907 - Dmitri Mendeleev, Russian chemist
1957…
February 1, 2008
Readers who saw my post yesterday about cat domestication may be interested to see that Greg Laden has posted on the paper. Greg’s view is that "[t]he conclusion the authors draw about cat origins is very weak ... but the information this study provides about cat breed genetics is excellent and…
February 1, 2008
Just a quick note to say how happy I am that Arizona State University and our president, Michael Crow, has endorsed the ScienceDebate2008 initiative. That is all.
February 1, 2008
PZ has noted that the boyos over at Uncommon Descent have deep-sixed a comment thread that (rightly) pointed out that he bested DI-fellow Geoffrey Simmons in their debate yesterday (it will be interesting to see how the DI spins this one). Happily, After The Bar Closes has the comments archived.…
January 31, 2008
Births
1635 - Marquard Gude, German archaeologist
1761 - Christian Hendrik Persoon, South African mycologist
1844 - G. Stanley Hall, American psychologist
Deaths
1897 - Constantin von Ettingshausen, Austrian geologist
1903 - George Gabriel Stokes, Irish physicist
1958 - Clinton Davisson, American…
January 31, 2008
The Story of Isaac
The door it opened slowly,My father he came in,was nine years old.And he stood so tall above me,His blue eyes they were shiningAnd his voice was very cold.He said, Ive had a visionAnd you know Im strong and holy,I must do what Ive been told.So he started up the mountain,I was…
January 31, 2008
A recently published study has used microsatelite markers to discover that domesticated cats originated in the Middle East, a finding that reinforces earlier archeological research. The abstract reads:
The diaspora of the modern cat was traced with microsatellite markers from the presumed site of…
January 31, 2008
Unlike Razib, my reading of Gould’s The Structure of Evolutionary Theory isn’t progressing. This is for a number of reasons but primary among them is a busy week service-wise coupled with other reading that must take priority if I’m going to be coherent in class. Looking at the beast in question, I…
January 31, 2008
This is a grey-faced sengi, Rhynchocyon udzungwensis, a new species of giant elephant shrew that has been described in the February issue of Journal of Zoology (Lond.) (on whose editorial board I sit). It's a 700g beastie, so it is hefty for an elephant shrew.
Photo by AFP & California Academy…
January 30, 2008
Just a brief notice that my ASU colleague Quentin Wheeler has named a species of whirligig beetle after Roy Orbison. Orectochilus orbisonorum, which resides in India "is unique among Indian Gyrinidae and Orectochilus lacordaire, in general, since the ventral surfaces are white as the result of…
January 30, 2008
Events
1958 - Explorer program: Explorer I - The first successful launch of an American satellite into orbit.
1958 - James Van Allen discovers the Van Allen radiation belt.
1961 - Project Mercury: Mercury-Redstone 2 - Ham the Chimp becomes the first hominid in outer space.
Births
1868 - Theodore…
January 30, 2008
DESIGNING DARWIN - Prize competition Organized by the British Society for the History of Science Outreach & Education Committee
The year 2009 sees both the bicentenary of Charles Darwin’s birth (on 12th February) and the 150th birthday of his most famous work, On the Origin of Species. In…
January 30, 2008
Apparently there are some questions you just can’t ask. The cdesign proponentsists maintain that the truth is being stifled by their not being allowed ask "difficult" questions of evolutionary biology. Yet we need to remember that supporters of intelligent design have questions that they avoid,…
January 30, 2008
Razib notes "I’m sure you know that Marx was a keen follower of Darwin’s theory." Eh, no. Not so much.
While Marx in 1860 described Origin as containing "the natural-historical basis of our outlook," by 1861 he was noting that "[i]t is remarkable how Darwin recognises among beasts and plants his…
January 29, 2008
Events
1996 - Comet Hyakutake is discovered by Japanese amateur astronomer Yuji Hyakutake.
Births
1720 - Charles De Geer, Swedish industrialist and entomologist
1822 - Franz Ritter von Hauer, Austrian geologist
1899 - Max Theiler, South African virologist and Nobel Prize laureate
1949 - Peter…
January 28, 2008
Births
1688 - Emanuel Swedenborg, Swedish scientist and philosopher
1846 - Karol Olszewski, Polish scientist
1901 - Allen B. DuMont, American scientist and inventor
1926 - Abdus Salam, Pakistani physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
1947 - Linda B. Buck, American scientist and Nobel Prize laureate…
January 28, 2008
Razib is reading Stephen Jay Gould’s monumental The Structure of Evolutionary Theory. I have to admit that I bought it when it appeared nearly six years ago and, as yet, have not managed to get beyond the first ninety-odd pages. What I liked about Gould when I was an undergraduate over twenty…