jlynch
Posts by this author
January 16, 2008
Births
1501 - Leonhart Fuchs, German physician and botanist
1560 - Gaspard Bauhin, Swiss botanist
1761 - James Hall, Scottish geologist
Deaths
1705 - John Ray, English naturalist
1884 - Hermann Schlegel, German ornithologist
1997 - Clyde Tombaugh, American astronomer
2005 - Albert Schatz, American…
January 16, 2008
Events
1909 - Ernest Shackleton’s expedition finds the magnetic South Pole.
2003 - Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107. It disintegrates 16 days later on re-entry.
Births
1477 - Johannes Schöner, German astronomer and cartographer (above)
1838 - Franz Brentano, German philosopher…
January 15, 2008
Events
2005 - ESA’s SMART-1 lunar orbiter discovers elements such as calcium, aluminum, silicon, iron, and other surface elements on the moon.
Births
1842 - Josef Breuer, Austrian psychologist
1885 - Lorenz Böhler, Austrian physician
1895 - Artturi Ilmari Virtanen, Finnish chemist and Nobel Prize…
January 14, 2008
African Clawless Otter, Aonyx capensis Schinz 1821
[source] [details]
January 14, 2008
Events
2005 - Landing of the Huygens probe on Saturn’s moon Titan.
Births
1684 - Johann Matthias Hase, German scientist
1806 - Matthew Fontaine Maury American oceanographer
Deaths
1742 - Edmond Halley, English scientist
1905 - Ernst Abbe, German physicist
2001 - Burkhard Heim, German physicist
January 13, 2008
Scientists have discovered how two proteins called BERT and ERNI interact in embryos to control when different organ systems start to form. Apparently BERT binds to ERNI to unblock the transcription factor Sox2. Seriously.
The paper is over at PLoS Biology.
January 13, 2008
In the comments to a previous post, "rebel scientist" Louis Savain made the following statements:
I have made a falsifiable prediction about the human cerebellum based on my interpretation of certain Biblical metaphors. If you can falsify it, do so. Otherwise, your lame attempt at ridiculing my…
January 13, 2008
Elliot Sober has a new book coming out this year, Evidence and Evolution; The Logic Behind the Science. The book is divided into four sections: The Concept of Evidence, Intelligent Design, Natural Selection, and Common Ancestry. Below are the contents of the section on ID:
Darwin and intelligent…
January 13, 2008
The semester formally starts tomorrow. As usual, I’m teaching three courses - two sections (19 students each) of The Human Event, our "great books" seminar, and one lecture course (115 students), Origins, Evolution and Creation. I’ve also got one student finishing her honors thesis.
The big…
January 13, 2008
Events
1610 - Galileo Galilei discovers Callisto, 4th moon of Jupiter.
Births
1861 - Max Nonne, German neurologist
1864 - Wilhelm Wien, German physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
1927 - Sydney Brenner, South African biologist and Nobel Prize laureate
Deaths
1796 - John H. D. Anderson, Scottish…
January 12, 2008
Just following Razib, Jake, Josh, Bora and Greg (though the latter cheated, trust me).
No surprises here, but your mileage may vary.
January 11, 2008
Events
1808 - The organizational meeting that led to the creation of the Wernerian Natural History Society is held.
2005 - Deep Impact (space mission) launches from Cape Canaveral on a Delta 2 rocket.
Births
1792 - Johan August Arfwedson, Swedish chemist
1797 - Gideon Brecher, Austrian physician…
January 11, 2008
I was on the TSA’s no-fly list up until six months back. Apparently "John Lynch" was a suspected terrorist - if so, he probably was in the Irish Republican Army in the 1980’s and thus receiving funding from a good number of patriotic Americans on the east coast during that time.
It meant I could…
January 10, 2008
Alexander Cockburn has finally walked off the cliff once and for all. As if is anthropogenic warming denialism wasn’t enough. Now - in last weeks Nation - he has described the lunatic Ron Paul as "my favorite" and "a candidate leftists can and should support". Any last shred of respect I had for…
January 10, 2008
Cornelius Hunter expectorates:
In the life sciences one’s alternatives are to be a Darwinist or to be a Darwinist. Passing grades, letters of recommendation, graduate school admission, doctorate exams, faculty hiring, and tenure promotion all require adherence to the theory of evolution. The lists…
January 10, 2008
Continuing from Monday’s mustelid ...
River-MatesI’ll be an otter, and I’ll let you swim
A mate beside me; we will venture down
A deep, dark river, when the sky above
Is shut of the sun; spoilers are we,
Thick-coated; no dog’s tooth can bite at our veins,
With eyes and ears of poachers; deep-…
January 10, 2008
Events
1787 - William Herschel discovers Titania and Oberon, two moons of Uranus.
1922 - First use of insulin to treat diabetes in a human patient.
Births
1788 - William Thomas Brande, English chemist
1800 - Anyos Jedlik, Hungarian physicist
1842 - William James, American psychologist and…
January 9, 2008
I wouldn’t have believed it had I not seen it with my own eyes, but ASU beat Arizona 64-59 in overtime. That after being behind by 12 points and seven at the half. That after scoring only six points (and shooting 15%) in the first ten minutes. To put this in perspective, Arizona had won 24 of the…
January 9, 2008
Births
1573 - Simon Marius, German astronomer
1638 - Nicolas Steno, Danish geologist
1729 - Lazzaro Spallanzani, Italian biologist
1890 - Grigory Landsberg, Russian physicist
1916 - Sune Bergström, Swedish biochemist and Nobel Prize laureate
1936 - Robert Woodrow Wilson, American physicist and…
January 9, 2008
Just discovered that the Arizona Natural History Museum (in Mesa) will be featuring the "Feathered Dinosaurs and the Origin of Flight" exhibit come March 1st. Sweet!
Some photos of a previous installation in San Diego are here (pdf) and just for giggles, here’s a review of the Royal Ontario Museum…
January 9, 2008
Over at the Pandas Thumb, "ThisIsPerfection" accuses me of using an argument from authority when I posted the composition of the 300 signatories of the DI’s "Dissent from Darwinism" list. I beg to differ. It is the DI itself that is engaging in such an argument. Witness:
More than 700 Ph.D.…
January 8, 2008
Births
1823 - Johannes Friedrich August von Esmarch, German surgeon
1868 - S. P. L. Sørensen, Danish chemist
1879 - John Broadus Watson, American psychologist
1922 - Har Gobind Khorana, Indian physiologist and Nobel Prize laureate
Deaths
1757 - Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle, French scientist…
January 8, 2008
Progressive Boink has a nice rundown of 25 great Calvin & Hobbes strips, including my favorite commentary on hunting. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry. Check it out.
January 7, 2008
Most readers are probably aware of the Discovery Institute’s "Dissent from Darwinism" statement which now has 700 signatories willing to claim
"We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the…
January 7, 2008
The final AP Poll standings have been released and unsurprisingly, LSU finds itself in the #1 slot, followed by Georgia, USC, Missouri, and Ohio State. ASU find themselves at 16 and two other Pac-10 teams are ranked (Oregon @ 23 and Oregon State @ 25). Predictably, Hawai’i slid to #19 and Illinois…
January 7, 2008
Births
1823 - Alfred Russel Wallace, British naturalist and biologist
1891 - Walther Bothe, German physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
1902 - Carl Rogers, American psychologist
1903 - Igor Kurchatov, Russian physicist
1942 - Stephen Hawking, English theoretical physicist
Deaths
1642 - Galileo…
January 7, 2008
A study in Heath Affairs ranks the US worst among 19 industrialized nations in preventable deaths in 2002-’03. Rankings are:
France (64.8 preventable deaths per 100,000 people)
Japan (71.2)
Australia (71.3)
Spain
Italy
Canada
Norway
Netherlands
Sweden
Greece
Austria
Germany
Finland
New Zealand…
January 7, 2008
I’m not a college hoops fan, but this is surely a sign of something. While neither team is ranked in the AP Top 25, Arizona State got more votes (53) that the University of Arizona (26). ASU are 12-2 (2-0 in the Pac10) and face Arizona on Wednesday.
January 7, 2008
There are fifty-five species of Mustelid in 24 genera. Each Monday for the next year, I will presenting you with a photo of one of the members of this fascinating Carnivore family.
Oriental Small-clawed Otter, Aonyx cinerea Illiger 1815.
Click for big version. Bonus image below the fold.