Environment
pharyngula | April 7, 2006Eric Pianka is eccentric, opinionated, and outspoken; many people might disagree with specific bits and pieces of his position. But I don't think that he is a eugenicist, a hate-filled fan of the Third Reich, an advocate of planned genocide, anti-human, or a crazed scientist planning the death of humanity. Nick Matzke has compiled a list of the slander that's been aimed at Pianka. It ain't pretty.
Transcripts of his talks are beginning to emerge; he has given this same talk, "The Vanishing Book of Life", seven times now, and the only time it has received this level of vituperation is when a…
pharyngula | April 4, 2006We have a little war going on in this thread. Some people are arguing that we shouldn't assume human beings are the most important creatures bar none around, while other people are angry that Eric Pianka would have such high regard for other organisms on Earth and would urge us to make room and restrict our population.
I'm personally more sympathetic to the egalitarian view that denies humanity a privileged position, except in our own personal esteem, but OK, let's play the game. Let's assume that human beings are the most important, most precious, most essential species on the entire planet—…
grrlscientist | April 2, 2006Oxygen-starved patches found within the world's oceans and coastal regions apparently trigger the development of more male than female fishes, reveals a recently released study by Rudolf Wu and colleagues at the City University of Hong Kong. This study not only has dire implications for the future of fish populations, but it also suggests that hypoxic conditions -- water containing less than 2.8 milligrams of oxygen per liter -- may be interacting directly with the hormones of the reproductive system, experts say.
Wu and his colleagues studied a common and easily-kept freshwater fish, the…
grrlscientist | March 23, 2006Great Horned Owl nestling, Bubo virginianus.
Photo copyright by Bill Hilton Jr.
Contact Bill to purchase this and other photos, the sales of which support the
wonderful work done by Hilton Pond Center.
People Helping Birds
The chimney swifts are coming! Have you seen them yet? If so, Chimneyswifts.org would like to hear from you! This is an organization that promotes the conservation of Chimney Swifts, Chaetura pelagica (pictured), through public education, preservation of existing habitat and creation of new nesting and roosting sites. It appears that they have been doing the project for…
grrlscientist | March 20, 2006
The Good News: Not extinct -- YET!
Portrait of the Sumatran Rhinoceros, Didermoceros sumatrensis.
Photo by Alain Compost (WWF-Canon).
For those of you who like to read about endangered species that have somehow managed to survive despite our best efforts to exterminate them, I have some good news! A small but apparently viable population of the Sumatran rhinoceros subspecies, Didermoceros sumatrensis harrissoni, is now confirmed to exist in the northeast state of Sabah on the island of Borneo.
The Sumatran rhino is comprised of several subspecies that are thought to be extinct throughout…
cevans | March 19, 2006Despite the completely irrational nature of the rainstorms that have been sporadically whipping Los Angeles, we on Earth are lucky, weather-wise. We don't have to deal with rains of sulphuric acid droplets, nor infinite giant hurricanes like those which make up Jupiter's red spot or the dark spot on Venus, which, until the mid-1990's, consisted of storms larger than our entire planet. We don't have helium condensation dripping on our heads, or oceans of ethane blanketing our meteor-battered landscape. Our atmosphere isn't blisteringly hot and poisonous, nor freezing and whipped with…
grrlscientist | March 16, 2006
Carolina Parakeets, Conuropsis carolinensis, (also known as Carolina Conures)
Click image for much larger version in its own window.
Painting by John James Audubon (1785-1851).
Birds in Science
What is responsible for the brilliant coloring in birds? Kevin McGraw heads a group of researchers studying the function and evolution of bird coloration. McGraw focused his initial research on parrots, which are unusual among birds in their ability to display brilliant colors with little variation between species. Most animals appear to be incapable of synthesizing cartenoids, which make reds,…
cmooney | March 15, 2006The publishing industry is fairly well known for being afraid of nonfiction environmental books, especially on subjects like global warming. What a snooze, publishers often think. Moreover, they have data to show that a number of books on this subject have not sold particularly well in the past. (What data? Er, I don't know precisely, but trust me, they have it.)
Anyway, that's why I've been watching the fate of Tim Flannery's The Weather Makers and Elizabeth Kolbert's Field Notes From a Catastrophe quite closely. Neither has appeared on any bestseller lists yet, so far as I know. But…
grrlscientist | March 14, 2006Welcome to the 49th issue of Tangled Bank. Honestly, I was blown away by the large number of contributions that I received (if I counted correctly, there are 34 essays in this issue). This response was unexpected, and I was awake almost all night preparing this for you, so I hope you are ready to settle in with a glass of wine while you devote your time and brain space to reading and thinking about science, nature and medicine. If there are any broken links, please notify me via email and I will fix as soon as humanly possible (well, after I wake up from my nap).
Evolution
My drinking pal and…
tlambert | March 5, 2006
In her latest rant, Miranda Devine warns about the imminent threat of a take over by scientists:
It used to be men in purple robes who controlled us. Soon it will be men in white lab coats. The geeks shall inherit the earth.
I suppose you are wondering how they are going to take over. Could it be giant robots? Or tiny tiny robots? Or genetically engineered cephalopods? Nope. Devine reckons they're going to use Kyoto to take over the world:
Environmentalism is the powerful new secular religion and politically correct scientists are its high priests, rescuing the planet from the…
stcynic | February 27, 2006Mark Creech, the head of a group called the Christian Action League of North Carolina, has a pretty typical creationist response to the Clergy Letter Project. In the process, he manages to completely mangle how science operates and misrepresent the relationship between observation and proof. And of course, he trots out a couple of tried and true out of context quotes along the way. What would a creationist tract be without them?
It is most unfortunate so many Christian leaders have concluded that evolution is scientific, whereas creationism and intelligent design are simply religious -- when…
illconsidered | February 25, 2006This is just one of dozens of responses to common climate change denial arguments, which can all be found at How to Talk to a Climate Sceptic.
Objection:
Global Warming is just a hoax perpetrated by environmental extremists and liberals who want an excuse for more big government.
Answer:
Here is a list of "enviro-Nazis" and "left-wing loonies" who believe that Anthropogenic Global Warming is real and well supported by sound science:
NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS) - http://www.giss.nasa.gov/edu/gwdebate/
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) - http://www.…
illconsidered | February 25, 2006This is just one of dozens of responses to common climate change denial arguments, which can all be found at How to Talk to a Climate Sceptic.
Objection:
Climate is complicated and there are lots of competing theories and unsolved mysteries. Until this is all worked out one can't claim there is consensus on Global Warming Theory and until there is we should not take any actions.
Answer:
Sure there are plenty of unsolved problems and active debates in climate science. But if you look at the research papers coming out these days, the debates are about things like why model predictions of…
grrlscientist | February 23, 2006Note: On 4 March, Birds in the News will be one year old!
The newest Archaeopteryx fossil.
Click image for a slightly larger view in its own window.
Birds in Science
A mutant chick, called Talpid, that died before hatching 50 years ago, was found to have a full set of crocodile-like chompers, as well as severe limb defects. But because no one ever looked inside the chickâs mouth, its teeth remained undiscovered until recently. Researchers recently created more Talpids by tweaking the genes of normal chickens to grow teeth. "What we discovered were teeth similar to those of crocodiles -- not…
tsmith | February 23, 2006Good morning! Welcome to your semimonthly dose of wholesome microbial goodness.
Lots on your plate this morning.
To whet your appetite, check out a study described over at Biology News examining the genomics of bacteria that cause ehrlichiosis. While you're there, you might want to do some jaw exercises by repeating the names of the bacteria examined: Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Ehrlichia chaffeensis, and Neorickettsia sennetsu. Talk about a mouthful.
Speaking of mouthful, PharmaBawd's all about the herpes viruses, including chicken pox (varicella) and HHV-8: the cause of Kaposi's…
grrlscientist | February 1, 2006tags: Environment, tsunami, earthquake, Indonesia, Mangrove, Shrimp Farming
Note: Originally published on 2 January 2005. Nominated for the 2005 Koufax Award for "Best Individual Post".
Indonesian Mangrove.
All the survivors agreed that 26 December 2004 was an idyllic morning, indeed, it was a perfect morning, in spite of the earthquake. This earthquake was triggered within an interval of a few seconds when the Indian tectonic plate suddenly plunged 20 meters (60 feet) under the Burmese tectonic plate along the Sunda Trench. This submarine jolt caused the Burmese plate and the lands…
tlambert | January 27, 2006It's long been public knowledge that Steve Milloy's junkscience site was funded by tobacco companies to attack the science linking cigarette smoke with lung cancer. Last year Mother Jones reported:
Industry defenders shelled [Arctic Climate Assessment] study, and, with a dearth of science to marshal to their side, used opinion pieces and press releases instead. "Polar Bear Scare on Thin Ice," blared FoxNews.com columnist Steven Milloy, an adjunct scholar at the libertarian Cato Institute ($75,000 from ExxonMobil) who also publishes the website JunkScience.com. Two days later the conservative…
grrlscientist | January 26, 2006
Female Snowy Owl, Bubo scandiacus.
By Bill Ferensen, Seattle.
(click image for Bill's site).
People Hurting Birds
Deceived by all the bird flu sensationalism, an Egyptian farmer abandoned 10,000 newly hatched chicks to their fate on a desert road east of Cairo fearing they might be infected with the deadly bird flu virus, a police official said on Wednesday. Shocked motorists travelling on the road about 130 km (80 miles) east of Cairo contacted police after seeing the chicks running loose on the tarmac on Tuesday, the official added. Health officials gathered the chicks and confirmed…
evolgen | January 22, 2006Are There Disagreements Between the Fossil Record and Molecular Data?
Molecular biologists have a tradition of reworking a lot of the evolutionary relationships and timescales that morphologists and paleontologists worked so hard to figure out. This can really piss off the non-molecular folks, but I prefer to think of it as a cooperative relationship. The molecular clock, for example, would not be possible without calibration from the fossil record. It is important to note that molecular and morphological data tell two different stories, which I outline below the fold . . .
When I wrote…
tsmith | January 5, 2006Microbial ecology, and its relation to the development of infectious disease, is an ever-growing field of study. Of course, there are a vast number of bacterial species living amongst us, most of which do not cause us any harm. Others may infect us only when, so to speak, the stars align in a certain manner: when a number of factors collide that result in the development of a diseased state. For instance, we may already be immunocompromised due to the presence of another infection--something minor, such as a rhinovirus, or something more serious, such as HIV--and this chink in our armor…