jlynch
Posts by this author
February 6, 2006
Janet has an interesting piece on her career change (from chemistry to philosophy) and this has prompted me to think a little about the path my career has taken since I began as an undergraduate twenty-one years ago (!).
Get an undergraduate degree in zoology with a minor in biochemistry. By…
February 6, 2006
Last week's classes on Descartes went well (as usual). This week is a little more challenging ... Newton's Principia. The reading is tough but enlightening - Newton's preface, definitions, axioms (laws of motion), the first 13 propositions of Book III, and the General Scholium. Plenty here to keep…
February 5, 2006
The IDists have continually argued that they are being oppressed by some sort of Darwinist hegemony. One such case is that of Caroline Crocker, a biochemist who was released from a position as a visiting professor* by George Mason University and now claims that her academic freedom (to teach ID)…
February 5, 2006
George Deutsch wrote for the Texas A&M Batallion while in college. Over at World O'Crap we see the sorts for defenses of the administration that no doubt got George his position at NASA. For example:
The ties between al-Qaida and Iraq are clear. So clear, in fact, that there is so much…
February 4, 2006
Feb 5: Welcome Farkers! Feel free to look around.
My co-scienceblogger, Chris Mooney, has extensively documented Republican interference in science in his excellent The Republican War on Science [amaz]. George Deutsch, a presidential appointee as public affairs officer at NASA, seems to think that…
February 4, 2006
There always has been tension between advocates of Young Earth Creationism (such as Ken Ham and Henry Morris) and the ID movement. While the former believe that ID supporters should actively support Biblical principles, the latter refuse to disassociate themselves from a young earth position as…
February 3, 2006
ID's martyr complex is alive and well. Witness ...
By proclaiming it illegal to "disparage or denigrate" neo-Darwinism, Judge Jones adopted the principle of the Inquisition, and in so doing rendered both himself and that state-enforced theory ridiculous. Taking a longer view, I think Dover will…
February 2, 2006
This is Paedocrypsis, a cyprinid fish that is less than one centimeter in length. PZ has blogged on it here in the past. Unfortunately, as PZ now notes, it looks like the species has gone extinct only weeks afier being formally described.
What little we know about the species is contained in…
February 1, 2006
Some quick blasts as it's mid-week, I'm busy, and probably wont do much blogging until the weekend.
Last night Bush said: "[W]e need to encourage children to take more math and science and to make sure those courses are rigorous enough to compete with other nations." Rigorous ... as in "I think…
January 29, 2006
South Carolina is currently undergoing a dalliance with ID. WIS10, a TV station in Columbia, ran an interview with the SC Governor, Mark Sanford. Here is a choice portion wherein Sanford demonstrates that science classes were wasted on him:
Q: What do you think about the idea of teaching…
January 29, 2006
I just don't get it. Over at Uncommon Descent, Dembski posts on a course in the philosophy of biology at the University of Bern (Switzerland) that includes a single lecture (of ten) that discusses ID, and commentators are acting like this is a big deal.
Guys, there are courses all over this…
January 29, 2006
Once again, ID supporters are being a little economical with the truth. Over at Uncommon Descent, Dembski posts an op-ed by Stephen Meyer in the Daily Telegraph (28/1/06). Meyer sets the scene with:
In 2004, the distinguished philosopher Antony Flew of the University of Reading made worldwide news…
January 29, 2006
Last week was the first real week of teaching in that it was the first week when we had content-driven classes. So Tuesday saw me walking into class for a three-hour seminar on Galileo (to be repeated again on Thursday). The reading was relatively easy - Drake's translations of Starry Messenger (…
January 29, 2006
Yet another poll, or rather this time a nascent one being run by the boyos at TelicThoughts who mailed myself and more than a few other science bloggers to see what our answer to the question "On which points are intelligent design and creationism identical?" given the following definitions:
"…
January 28, 2006
Over at Adventures in Ethics and Science, Janet has a nice post on the riff she gave to students this semester on plagiarism. I have to say, I too take plagiarism personally in that I cant imagine the students think I am that dumb not to be able to detect it -particularly in this day of Google and…
January 28, 2006
Over at DailyKOS, Wes Elsberry (of NCSE) gets interviewed. Wes graciously gives props to Ed Brayton, Troy Britain, Reed Cartwright, Mike Dunford, Pim van Meurs, and myself (among many many others) for our help on the Dover case, but frankly it all pales into significance compared to the work Wes,…
January 28, 2006
If only to contextualize the Harris Poll I mention below, it is worth pointing out that science literacy in this country is fairly appaling. Witness the bi-annual NSF Science & Engineering Indicators (2004), which found that forty percent believe that astrology is either "very" or "sort of"…
January 28, 2006
Over at Uncommon Descent, both Dembski and Dave Springer are highlighting this Harris poll from July of last year (you got to hand it to the ID supporters, they keep up with the literature). Dembski merely makes a number of observations (belief in ID increases with education and is more common in…
January 27, 2006
Do you agree that "[o]ne of the great strengths of the Endangered Species Act is its
foundation in sound scientific principles and its reliance on the best
available science"? As this letter notes, "[u]nfortunately, recent legislative proposals would critically weaken this foundation. For species…
January 27, 2006
Not for the easily offended - so PZ will enjoy it ! - is the BEAST Most Loathsome People in America 2005. And who do we see at #46? Why, none other than Bruce Chapman of the DI!
46. Bruce Chapman
Charges: Founder of the misnamed "Discovery Institute." Despite its pioneering title, Chapman's…
January 27, 2006
On January 28th 1986, the shuttle Challenger broke up 73 seconds into its tenth mission. Here James Oberg demolishes seven myths about the Challenger tragedy - including the idea that millions of people saw the "explosion" (and the reason for quotes will become obvious if you read the article) live…
January 26, 2006
My experience of Europe in the 1980's was that creationism was a particularly American phenomenon - and frankly, I still think it is. However, the following poll from the UK gives one pause for thought:
Over 2000 participants were asked what best described their view of the origin and development…
January 23, 2006
Philip Skell - whom I've dealt with before - is once again shilling for the Discovery Institute. Witness:
"I am writing -- as a member of the National Academy of Sciences -- to voice my strong support for the idea that students should be able to study scientific criticisms of the evidence for…
January 22, 2006
Over at Pharyngula PZ has a nice post on sexual selection in Swordtails (Xiphophorus helleri). By a strange coincidence, I bought a couple of male neon swordtails yesterday for my tank and was reminded why the staff in many pet stores know nothing about their stock. Male swordtails have an…
January 21, 2006
Scienceblogs got a mention on BoingBoing - which if you don't know, is well worth checking out daily - and I'm seeing a spike in visits from that site. So, welcome one and all!
January 21, 2006
Over at Dispatches, Ed makes two interesting points about the Buttars bill I mention below. Firstly, the bill is in danger of being destroyed should it be challenged in court as the religious intent expressed by its supporters would clearly fail the Lemon test. Secondly,
We don't allow people to…
January 21, 2006
Things have been quiet here - primarily because it was the first week of the semester and everything that entails. But it's over now and hopefully I can get back to blogging.
While I was away, Buttars' bill in Utah apparently advanced on to the next stage of Senate consideration. Buttars states "I…
January 15, 2006
Over at Evolgen, RPM has posted the seventh installment of his series on detecting natural selection, a piece on nucleotide polymorphism and selection. As always, it is worth checking out. For those that missed the earlier pieces, here is RPM's summary with links:
The introduction can be found here…
January 14, 2006
Last night's talk on the Cambrian explosion went really well - managed to nicely weave a narrative of fossils, genetic analysis, and evo-devo over the two hours (questions were spread throughout the talk). Over at Pharyngula, PZ has linked to some nice scanning electron micrographs of Cambrian…
January 14, 2006
The next big thing for the ID movement will be the publication of Darwin's Nemesis: Philip Johnson and the Intelligent Design Movement in April. I have previously discussed this festschrift for Johnson here and here. Over at Uncommon Descent, Dembski - whose "retirement" from blogging doesn't seem…