jlynch
Posts by this author
August 6, 2008
Over at Quintessence of Dust, Steve Matheson raises some good points about Behe. Steve's argument boils down to the following:
"Behe's fans say that he's a nice guy, and that the evolutionists are "crucifying" him. Both claims seem to be true, but they can't hide some serious problems with his…
August 6, 2008
August 6, 2001, is the day that George W. Bush received the Presidential Daily Brief headlined, "Bin Laden determined to strike in U.S." The PDB stated that Al Qaeda maintained a support structure in the U.S. that could aid attacks, that one idea was to hijack U.S. airplanes, and that the FBI had…
August 4, 2008
Ben Cohen over at The World's Fair has gotten me thinking about something: is there really a readership for blog posts about the history of science [HoS]?
My own experience is that there may not be such a readership, or at least may not be one that engages in commentary. Admittedly, my evidence is…
August 3, 2008
PZ has a post up discussing some abject stupidity over at WorldNetDaily. Sign #1 of stupidity is that the WND columnist (a lawyer, no less) refers to "Origins [sic] of Species" as being Darwin's 1859 work which legitimized "a pagan, anti-God worldview rooted in fascism, socialism and eugenics and…
August 3, 2008
The preliminary program for the History of Science Society's annual meeting (November in Pittsburgh) has been placed online and it looks like the best series of sessions in a long while with the organizers managing to avoid scheduling sessions on similar themes at the same time. It's a three-day…
August 3, 2008
(This review was supposed to appear in Isis in 2001 but for some reason never did. It appears here for the first time.)
Most students of the history of science are familiar with the effect that Lysenko's application of his political beliefs to scientific research had on genetic research and the…
August 3, 2008
Eno, a four month old American river otter (Lontra canadensis) at the North Carolina Aquarium (source). Click for larger version.
August 2, 2008
I've been away for a few days, spending some time relaxing in southern Arizona. Two highlights are worth mentioning; a visit to Kartchner Caverns to see the various speleothems (above is 'Kubla Khan' believed to be the largest column in Arizona at 58 feet and here are some more photos that can…
July 28, 2008
This is a pen-tailed tree shrew, Ptilocercus lowii, a Malaysian critter that weighs only 47g but can drink the pound-for-pound equivalent of nine glasses of wine without any ill-effect when it sups on the alcoholic nectar of the bertam palm. While there are other species that drink the nectar -…
July 28, 2008
Your Monday Mustelid is the Patagonian weasel, Lyncodon patagonicus (de Blainville 1842). Unfortunately, I can't find a picture of the little blighter anywhere. Instead, here's a picture of a Eurasian badger (Meles meles) cub ...
July 26, 2008
(This review appeared in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology in 2005)
As human beings, we like to tell stories--we are story-telling apes. As scientists, however, we tend not to see ourselves as telling stories for, we are led to believe, stories are mere fiction. Yet when faced with…
July 26, 2008
(A review from Journal of the History of Biology 2004)
In the years following the publication of Origin of Species, George Romanes developed his theory of physiological selection in which he posited that "physiological peculiarities" lead to hybrid sterility between individuals and thus isolation…
July 24, 2008
(Another book review, this time from 2002 and the Journal of the History of Biology. Both books are still in print and worth reading)
The simplicity (and adversarial nature) of the phrase "science versus religion" belies the diversity of ways in which these two fields of knowledge can, and do,…
July 24, 2008
The ever anonymous "PhysioProf" has managed to slander the whole medical profession. Orac, Mark Hoofnagle, and PalMD (who actually know something about medicine) rightly call shennanigans.
As Mark notes:
In medicine, we take attitudes like this towards students and doctors seriously, and the only…
July 24, 2008
There's another one of those book lists circulating - a list of 100 works of which it is claimed that the average American has read only six. Whether that is true or not (and Chad doesn't believe it), the list contains the usual mixed bag of works.
Below the fold is the list; bolded works were read…
July 23, 2008
(Another review that was published a few years back, in this case in Isis in 2001. Alter's book is still in print and still worth reading.)
Charles Darwin's Origin of Species was written in a vivid style and, as such, is frequently studied as much as literature as scientific text. Particularly…
July 22, 2008
Over at Crooked Timber they are discussing a review of Steve Fuller's latest expectoration Dissent Over Descent: Intelligent Design's Challenge to Darwinism. As the review notes:
The book is an epoch-hopping parade of straw men, incompetent reasoning and outright gibberish, as when evolution is…
July 22, 2008
(The following is the text of a review I wrote that appeared in Journal of the History of Biology in 2000. As both of the books are still in print - and the Gould book is his exposition of Nonoverlapping Magesteria - I thought the review was worth posting.)
Most of us are familiar with the icons of…
July 22, 2008
I recently co-authored a paper that discussed the utility of history of science for science (Isis 99: 322-330). The abstract reads:
This essay argues that science education can gain from close engagement with the history of science both in the training of prospective vocational scientists and in…
July 20, 2008
They are captioning this over at Fark.com. I did this (obvious) caption before reading the thread.
July 20, 2008
Recently anthropologist John Hawks was granted tenure by the University of Wisconsin (congratulations to him!) and he feels that his blogging did not impede his evaluation. He has begun a four part series that "covers a different portion of the tenure process, from starting and establishing the…
July 20, 2008
I've been remiss for a while and those of you who like the Monday Mustelid haven't been getting your fix. So here is a little something to tide you over. Three video full of badgery goodness.
The world's most fearless animal - the ratel, Melivora capensis. This guy is 100kg of attitude in a 10kg…
July 20, 2008
Full sequence of leopard taking out a crocodile at Kruger NP is here. Om nom nom nom.
July 14, 2008
Like many on the blogosphere, I've had the opportunity to view Randy Olson's latest production Sizzle: A Global Warming Comedy. Billed as "an effort to understand the confusion around the global warming," the movie claims to be a "novel blend of three genres - mockumentary, documentary, and reality…
July 14, 2008
Very sad news for those of us who do physical anthropology. Charles ("Charlie") Lockwood (University College London) was killed today in a motorcycle accident in London. He is survived by his parents and sisters.
Charlie was a talented morphologist both in the sense of being a descriptive…
July 8, 2008
Leah Ceccarelli in the Seattle Times:
My own research seeks to reveal what makes today's manufactroversies work. First, I've discovered that modern-day sophists skillfully invoke values that are shared by the scientific community and the public, such as free speech, skeptical inquiry and the…