jlynch

Events 1858 - The joint reading of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace’s papers on evolution to the Linnean Society. Births 1742 - Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, German physicist 1915 - Joseph Ransohoff, American neurosurgeon 1929 - Gerald Edelman, American biologist, Nobel laureate 1941 -…

Events 1905 - Albert Einstein publishes the article "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies," where he introduces special relativity. Births 1817 - Joseph Dalton Hooker, British botanist and confidant of Charles Darwin. 1926 - Paul Berg, Nobel Prize laureate Deaths 1709 - Edward Lhuyd, Welsh…

Births 1868 - George Ellery Hale, American astronomer Deaths 2004 - Bernard Babior, American biochemist

In January, Michael Shermer reviewed Dawkins’ The God Delusion (TGD) for Science (see here). This weeks edition features a letter by Martinez Hewlett (Molecular & Cellular Biology, University of Arizona) which argues two points: firstly, that Dawkins' book is not a work of science, and secondly…

One of a set of red ruffed lemur (Varecia rubra) triplets born at Palm Beach Zoo last month. The species is critically endangered with approximately 1000 remaining on Madagascar. Kind of screams for a LOLlemur caption, now doesn’t it?

Births 1824 - Paul Broca, French physician 1873 - Alexis Carrel, French surgeon and biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1906 - Maria Goeppert-Mayer, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate 1912 - Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, German physicist and philosopher 1914…

The negative reviews of Behe’s Edge of Evolution continue. Kenneth Miller has a review in this week’s Nature and Richard Dawkins will have one in next New York Times Sunday Book Review (available here for NYTimes Select customers). From the former: Behe, incredibly, thinks he has determined the…

Births 1717 - Louis Guillaume Lemonnier, French botanist 1869 - Hans Spemann, German embryologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1931 - Martinus J. G. Veltman, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

Events 1948 - William Shockley filed the original patent for the grown junction transistor, the first bipolar junction transistor. Births 1694 - Georg Brandt, Swedish chemist and minerologist 1824 - Lord Kelvin, Irish-born physicist 1904 - Frank Scott Hogg, Canadian astronomer 1937 - Robert…

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Apparently, five-foot tall penguins (Icadyptes salasi) with seven inch beaks (top) roamed a warm South America 40 million years ago. Details will appear in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week. Opus is impressed.

Births 1814 - Gabriel Auguste Daubrée, French geologist 1864 - Walther Nernst, German chemist, Nobel laureate 1894 - Hermann Oberth, German physicist 1907 - J. Hans D. Jensen, German physicist, Nobel laureate 1911 - William Howard Stein, American chemist, Nobel laureate 1928 - Alexei Alexeyevich…

Births 1795 - Ernst Heinrich Weber, German anatomist and physiologist 1883 - Victor Franz Hess, Austrian-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate 1915 - Fred Hoyle, British astronomer 1927 - Martin Lewis Perl, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate Deaths 1637 - Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc,…

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Births 1750 - Déodat Gratet de Dolomieu, French geologist 1894 - Alfred Kinsey, American entomologist and sexologist 1912 - Alan Turing, English mathematician Deaths 1806 - Mathurin Jacques Brisson, French naturalist 1832 - James Hall, Scottish geologist 1891 - Wilhelm Eduard Weber, German…

Events 1633 - The Holy Office in Rome forces Galileo Galilei to recant his heliocentrism. 1978 - Charon, a satellite of the dwarf planet Pluto, is discovered. Births 1871 - William McDougall, British psychologist and polymath 1887 - Julian Huxley, British biologist Deaths 1429 - Ghiyath al-Kashi…

Yoga owl demands a caption.

Births 1646 (O.S.) - Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, German philosopher and scientist 1781 - Siméon-Denis Poisson, French mathematician and physicist 1791 - Robert Napier, British engineer 1805 - Charles Thomas Jackson, American scientist, polymath 1811 - Carlo Matteucci, Italian physicist 1823 -…

In 2002 William Brookfield (our favorite "pleasurian" and "ID scientist") published his paper "In Search of a Cosmic Super-Law: The Supreme "Second Law" of Devolution" in Dembski’s vanity journal PSCID. Mark over at Good Math, Bad Math takes on Brookfield’s "science" here and here. When Mark took…

Births 1861 - Frederick Hopkins, English biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine 1889 - John S. Paraskevopoulos, Greek-South African astronomer 1941 - Ulf Merbold, German physicist and astronaut Deaths 1925 - Josef Breuer, Austrian psychologist 1958 - Kurt Alder,…

Births 1623 - Blaise Pascal, French mathematician and philosopher 1846 - Antonio Abetti, Italian astronomer 1897 - Cyril Norman Hinshelwood, English chemist, Nobel laureate 1906 - Ernst Boris Chain, German-born biochemist, Nobel laureate 1910 - Paul Flory, American chemist, Nobel laureate 1922…

Afarenis has mentioned the birth of a manta ray (Manta birostris) at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in Japan - notable because this is the first captive birth for the species. Below the fold is video of the birth.

This image released by the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing shows front views of a new fossil panda skull, Ailuropoda microta, from Jinyin Cave, Guangxi, China, left, and a living giant panda skull, Ailuropoda melanoleuca, right. The first skull of the earliest…

I haven’t spoken of Michael Egnor is a long time. If you remember, he’s the DI’s pet neurosurgeon who, as many have documented, has a penchant for silly arguments. Attacking Egnor is a little like harvesting low-hanging fruit, but I couldn’t let this (lack of) logic go unnoticed ... think of it as…

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Events 1178 - Five Canterbury monks see what was possibly the Giordano Bruno crater being formed. 1858 - Charles Darwin receives from Alfred Russel Wallace a paper that included nearly identical conclusions about evolution as Darwin’s own. This prompts Darwin to publish his theory. 1983 - STS-7…

Births 1714 - César-François Cassini de Thury, French astronomer 1832 - Sir William Crookes, English physicist and chemist 1898 - Carl Hermann, German physicist 1920 - François Jacob, French biologist, Nobel laureate Deaths 1940 - Arthur Harden, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate 1996 -…

Over at Uncommon Descent, Dembski wonders how the NCSE will deal with "the growing number of non-religious ID proponents" and links to this blog which is something called ICON-RIDS "an international coalition of non-religious ID scientists & scholars." Let’s take a look at this "international…

I finally got to watch the final two Sopranos episodes. For the record, I thought the ending was perfect. I do realize that people seem to be complaining, but I can’t see why. What were they expecting to happen? Tony get killed? Or he flips? Let me know if I’m wrong. Best moments in the last…